Saturday’s Blakely Rock Race is most assuredly for the books. Conditions were about as close to perfect as you can get. True, they didn’t match any of the models but that’s why we sail the race.
If you take the data from West Point from 1000hrs to 1600hrs you get a picture that is almost unheard of with remarkably stable conditions which turned this into a true boat speed race and even if the fleets split there was almost no wrong way to go. Wind speed varied from a high of 14 knots to a low of 9 knots, which was very close to what we recorded on the boat. Even more interesting was the wind direction which only varied from 010° to 020° again from 1000hrs to 1600hrs. On the boat, we recorded the wind going from 040° to 350°. Interesting just because the wind stayed so far to the East of North.
Then there was all that sunshine, NICE!.
In a general analysis of the race, it seemed that if you managed to get a clear air start on starboard off the line, you just held starboard until you could almost lay the top mark. Every once and a while there would be a hint of a port tack lift but it never really materialized. It also seemed that if you tacked to port too early and came in really low of the top mark, the wind got lighter and you lost to the boats who stayed out in the Sound.
The run to Blakely Rock had the fleet spread all across the Sound with some boats going to the west and then a single gybe to take them into the Rock. The boats that went east, like the sprit boats that had to sail wider angles and the boats with poles that could sail deeper all seemed to be in the same relative position at Blakely Rock, no big gains or losses from going one way or the other.
Perhaps the most interesting leg was the one from Blakely Rock to the finish. That route is pretty much cast in concrete, in that you sail to Magnolia and tack at FourMile Rock beat to West Point and then tack when you can lay the entrance to the Ship Canal. It was just so strange to see boats on port tack aimed into Elliott Bay low of Elliott Bay Marina, while some boats that tacked to starboard just after the Rock were sailing right up the Sound. When the West group converged with the Elliott Bay group, they were pretty much in the same places. For a while, the west group appeared to have gotten into a bit of a lefty as the wind went back to 350°and were lifted almost to the finish while on port tack. The problem was that the finish line was still in a NNE and with the flood finally starting to show up, the West group having gained for a while got pushed down to the Elliott Bay group.
The results show just how even things were on the course With the top four boats overall all within 2.4 minutes. And they weren’t all from one class with the top four boats being the J-122 Grace(Class 7), 2nd boat the J-125 Hamachi (Class 8), 3rd boat Pell Mell (Class 2), and the TP 52 Smoke (Class 9).
The J-105 Fleet was also remarkably close with the top eight boats being within 5.18 minutes. Class 6 the top four boats were within 4.37 minutes.
How close was the crystal ball? Not very when it came to the big boats but not surprising considering that we had just over half the wind we were expecting. Zvi was 33 minutes slower, Glory was 25 minutes slower, and Jam was 26 minutes slower.
In the middle fleets it got closer, The J-111’s were within 7 minutes, The J-109 was within 6 minutes, the J-35 was within 12 minutes, and the J-105’s were within 10 minutes. The Sierra 26 just didn’t have enough wind to break loose on the downwind leg so they 11 minutes slower.
All in all a great day to be out on the water.
Photos by Jan Anderson, check ’em all out here. Results here.
Ed. Note: Have some fun with the name “Bruce’s Debriefs.”
