Center Sound Series

Scatchet Head was Way Better than Expected! Plus a Conversation with Bill Buchan

Kurt Hoehne Racing , 0 Comment
Scatchet Head was Way Better than Expected! Plus a Conversation with Bill Buchan

On Friday everyone was contemplating what a Scatchet Head Race in no wind would look like, swirling around with the currents at the south end of Whidbey Island. While Bruce Hedrick got the sunny part right, and he joined the chorus of computer models predicting a drifty sort of day for the middle race of the Center Sound Series. For those of you curious about just why the wind decided to make an appearance, Bruce explained “there was an over 2MB gradient from Bellingham to Seattle which was enough to drive a northerly and the gradient didn’t start to flatten until late on Saturday. The high simply didn’t set up as forecast.”

When the day produced a beautiful 8-12 knot northerly, Corinthian YC PRO Charley Rathkopf still wanted to make sure that if the wind shut off, there’d still be a quality race in the books, so he hedged his bets with what amounted to an extended windward-leeward, two times around. The result was a race with a lot of turns, keeping crews on their toes. It wasn’t your usual Scatchet Head Race, but it was entertaining for sure. Here’s Charley’s explanation:

The forecast early was really bad, and, although it was better Saturday morning, the forecast was still for it to drop, and I needed some marks to shorten at, as well as the finish line gate between laps.

It turns out that many sailor let me know that they preferred the strategy and tactics of the course to the standard SH race.  I’ve passed this on to the club bridge.  

Not surprisingly, in a race like this with steady breeze and lots of mark roundings, the usual suspects were atop the classes. The stage is set for the March  24 Three Tree Point Race for the overalls in the close classes to be decided. Two of the classes to watch are class 2 where Cherokee and Kowloon are a point apart and Class 5 where Different Drummer and Dos have traded firsts and seconds. Results.

Photos by Jan Anderson. Check out all the pictures at her Smugmug site.

And, as usual, that name Buchan appeared atop to the results. But in this race it wasn’t once or twice, but three times! Bill Buchan won Class 6 in Sachem, his son Carl won Class 7 in Madrona and John (Bill’s brother) won the ORC class with Glory.

Bill Buchan during his Hall of Fame induction.

I had the great pleasure of catching up with Bill Buchan after the race. For those who don’t know, Bill’s won the Star Worlds, an Olympic Gold Medal, and just about every Pacific Northwest race there’s ever been. He was a boatbuilder for a long time and built the highly successful Buchan 37* and designed and built several Star hulls. Buchan was inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2013. We’re extremely fortunate to have his quiet, professional and skilled presence on the waterfront.

For this year’s Scatchet Head Race he had Mark Brink on the helm most of the time, and the corrected time win was a solid four minutes. After Blakely Rock when he found the crew a little light, he put out the word for more crew. There ended up being 14 for Scatchet Head! The win gives Sachem two class firsts for the series. There are no secrets to the classic Peterson 44. The newest sail on the boat is a main from the local Ballard Sails loft. “We had to work a little bit with mast blocks and shroud tension. Now it looks gorgeous,” Buchan says. Interestingly, he keeps a “practice chute,” for a pre-race hoist rehearsal.

One gets a real perspective when speaking with Bill. He remembers when sailing had popular press coverage all the way down to what boat passed what boat on the final leg of a race. He thought back to getting advice on fiberglass boatbuilding from the Don Clark (San Juan boats) before moving from wooden Star boat construction to fiberglass. Currently, top-of-the-line Stars are from the Folli shop, but he remembers when they bought one of his boats in their early days as they were starting building Stars.

Intrepid in 1970

And finally, we chatted about the 1974 America’s Cup. As a 14-year-old boy I immersed myself in that edition and was aghast that Intrepid, the “People’s Boat,” with a largely Seattle crew, Gerry Driscoll a driving force and Bill Buchan at the helm, was cheated the opportunity to defend the Cup by the NYYC selection committee.

“We thought we had it wrapped up in the second to last race,” Bill said. “We came to the dock and wondered where the selection committee was.” Alas, the trials went one more day. “Then we gave them the excuse to eliminate us by losing that last race.” Ultimately, of course, the Cup was defended by Ted Hood at the helm of Courageous.

Bill looks back philosophically at that episode, “Who knows, if we were selected we might have lost the America’s Cup. You wouldn’t want to be the first to lose the Cup!”

* Bill Buchan did not, as was written in a previous version of this article, design the Buchan 37. Bill explains: “I had absolutely nothing to do with the design of the Buchan 37. If anyone other than my father did, it was John who was told to take the wooden “jig” of the Buchan 40 and make it shorter and beamier to rate better. He was told to have the job done before mom and dad got home from their summer cruise. When dad saw what John had done, he couldn’t believe it would be a success. Oh how wrong he was. From the first boat, a wooden boat named Thunder,  the mold was then made. The next boat, Warrior, was completed and raced quite successfully by John.”

Bruce’s Brief: Wx for 9, 10, 11 March. Sunscreen and 6 knots for CYC Scatchet Head Race

Bruce Hedrick Bruce's Briefs, Racing, Weather , 0 Comment
Bruce’s Brief: Wx for 9, 10, 11 March. Sunscreen and 6 knots for CYC Scatchet Head Race

The good news? Break out the sunblock and put away the woolies! The bad news? Let’s hope the RC sets an alternative course as it is going to be light. All the models are somewhat in agreement on that with some even showing up to six knots of wind from the due north at the start. Most, however, show less than five knots. I currently have Crossfire around the course in just over six hours, the J-35 around in just over nine hours. Remember that in four knots of wind Crossfire can sail at six knots and the rest of us are not nearly that fast. The other problem will be that the boats with tallest masts will greatly benefit as there will be more wind above 45-50 feet off the water.

Kissing the Scatchet Head mark. Remember the current.

The surface analysis for today shows yesterdays front over eastern Washington with another front poised menacingly off the coast. The problem is that front is moving almost due north and is not headed towards us. This will cause the onshore flow to ease through midday. By this afternoon, high pressure(1010MB to the north and 1017MB off the coast) will join forces and move to the east which will spread the gradient and drop the breeze. High pressure will move east of the Cascades over the weekend giving increasing offshore flow, beautiful weather and the highest temperatures so far this year. Don’t get too worried that this is the start of our summer heat wave, a cold front will move into the coastal waters on Tuesday bringing us cooler temps, mountain snow, and valley rain. Even though it’s about a month early I think we’ve had our last freezing temp the Seattle area. I base this on the fact that while we are still north of the jet stream, it is moving inexorably northward as the days get longer and the air in the northern hemisphere warms. The air flowing into the NW is also coming from the SW and is no longer coming out of the Canadian interior.

 

Tides at West Point

0718      Flood     .4 knots

1054      Slack

1236      Ebb          .21 knots

1512      Slack

2036      Flood     .78 knots

Tidal Current Foulweather Bluff

1048      Slack

1448      Ebb          1.78 knots

1906      Slack

 

Tides won’t be much of an issue unless you really can get up to Scatchet Head by noon as at that time there will still be about a knot of tide running to the west at the buoy. In this weather pattern, the northerly wind will lighten significantly and the velocity of the current will increase as you approach the mark. Plan accordingly.

The worst part of this is that there may be enough wind to start and get you up to at Kingston. After that, the breeze will continue to ease off and die in the center of the Sound. Classic Puget Sound sucker punch. Then as it dies off, watch for the Swihart effect to kick in. This is where that in the absence of a pressure gradient over the Salish Sea, the flood tide will bring a northerly down the Sound. Watch for more northerly in the very late afternoon and becoming around 10 knots by early evening. Well after dark and long after scurvy has started to set in on the crew.

Haven’t been much help on where to go in this race because of the lack of wind. There are still some general principles. With ebb tide and light air, get to the west side of the Sound. What breeze there is will be there. On the trip home, the northerly will build on the west side first and the flood will start down the west shore first.

Good Luck, have fun!

Blakely Rock Race 2018 – A Beautiful Start to the Season and a Revised Podium

Kurt Hoehne Racing , 0 Comment
Blakely Rock Race 2018 – A Beautiful Start to the Season and a Revised Podium

The Blakely Rock Race is almost always something. It’s seems to be either a wake-up gear-buster or a very chilly reminder that we get to race when a lot of the continent doesn’t, as long as we can bear the cold. And it usually points out pretty clearly who has a jump on the fleet – the perpetual winners or someone new on the scene. While the results on Saturday indicated that Firefly had won overall, it turns it was sailing with the wrong rating, and it has retired from the race. See below. This makes Ballistic the overall winner and Sachem the class 7 winner. And Crossfire, which led on the water the whole way around the course, also retired. Again, see below.

And this year, it was something really nice. Bright sunshine, plenty (but not too much) wind and an excellent gauge on boatspeed and crew work. Non sailors texted me, “There were a lot of boats out there. Looked great. What was going on? Was it a race?” I love it when non-sailors feel they’re missing out.

The perpetuals were still atop their classes. Glory won the ORC fleet. Cherokee, Here & Now, Last Tango, Dos, Sachem, Selchie and Freda Mae won their respective classes. Brad Cole’s Ballistic had an impressive showing winning Class 7 and overall. The growing (now 4-boat) casual class was won by the Beneteau Oceanis 45 Le Reve. Results.

Following are four tales from nearly every part of the fleet, from the very front to the very back. It’s a little different than the “usual” race report, and I think a much fuller look at the race. Thanks to all who contributed. If anyone wants to chime in for other CS or other races, please do!

First a word from photographer Jan Anderson, who pays tribute to Kelly O’Neil, friend to many of us and one who captured many a Blakely Rock Race before digital cameras! Tossing daffodils while rounding the Rock is a ritual that should never end. Jan took all the photos except for the one of Firefly.

Jan Anderson – Celebrating Kelly

At long last, it was a GORGEOUS day for sailing, and the action on the water reflected that. But great weather alone doesn’t come close to describing what this sport is really about … it’s more about the people with whom we share our experiences, and the relationships we’ll cherish for all time. Each year, this day, this race, this moment rounding Blakely Rock, is about celebrating the life of Kelly O’Neil, the photographer that impacted all of PNW sailing, forever. Neither I nor my Boat Boy Skip had ever met Kelly, but fate would have it that Skip and I met the same year she passed. To this day, literally this day, Skip and I are both deeply moved with the fleet’s expression of love for Kelly, by casting daffodils into the water. Above all others, this is a day where everyone wins. From the bottoms of our hearts, we thank you, Kelly.

Melissa Davies, Miss Mayhem – Third to the Bar

Miss Mayhem

This is the viewpoint from the smallest/slowest/least experienced skipper in the fleet. Miss Mayhem is a San Juan 24 and is starting her sophomore year in racing. I have been sailing/racing for a little over 18 months – having jumped in with both feet. (Ed. Note – she’s also the event coordinator for CYC)

I was relieved to arrive at the club to find the weatherI ordered had arrived as requested. (Sometimes being the weather witch doesn’t always get you great sailing weather). Sunny skies and 6-12 knots of wind from the north, forecasting to increase throughout the day.

We started the race with our #1 and after watching all the other boats (we had the very last start) we decided not to fly our spinnaker due to being short crew. There were 4 boats in our class (casual) ranging from a Beneteau 45 to us. The start was favored at the pin and we were in the right place at the perfect time to cross the line first and get away from the class into good wind. Headed west to keep the wind and utilize the current (70% of the fleet did the same thing). We had a couple of tacks to get better air but mostly were able to point right at the mark. As we rounded the N mark we headed back west (again about 60% of the fleet did the same thing) in 2nd place in our class. We hit 8.1 knots on the way back to West Point with just our #1 and main, unfortunately, that didn’t work as well for us as we hoped the other two boats in our class took a more inside track and caught up to us (might have also been they had 12 feet of water line on us). We rounded the mark just as the BIG BIG Boats were coming in from Blakely rock (Glory, Crossfire, etc) – it was a straight beat back to the finish line. although we did have some wind shadow challenges, that caused us to take the boat end of the finish line (good news is they were able to get to great picture of us). Miss Mayhem corrected out in 2nd place in our class and was the 3rd boat back at the bar.

The highlight of the race was being in the back seeing all spinnakers flying and heading to Blakely Rock. Sometimes its good to be the smallest/slowest boat. The second best part was getting to cross the finish line with/before boats like Ballistic, Bravo Zulu, the other Top 25 race boats.

Doug Frazer, Oxomoxo – Man Down

Oxomoxo

I can report from the DFL position. We had a blast with a short handed crew, four souls on board and my son Bob sleeping down below in the master’s cabin under a down comforter. After a slow start in about 11 kts, just rounding the committee boat we had a great ride up to the windward mark using our 135 and full main, at this pace we were able to maintain our position in the fleet. After a successful rounding somewhere in the middle of our fleet we started to successfully take up our usual position at the back of the fleet with our trademark pink and gray spinnaker full and proud. What a great spinnaker run to Blakely Rock with three perfectly timed gybes and only one spin sheet temporarily stuck under the boat. Bob woke up in time to be the squirrel down below for the douse which we orchestrated using our newbie (Amy, former professional water polo player from Spain). By the time we turned at Blakely Rock the wind had piped up to the low teens and we realized we were doomed to be overpowered and unable to make much forward motion upwind. Making our way to West Point we were on our ear the whole time. By this time Bob had moved from the down comforter in the master’s cabin to the warm cozy folds of the pink and gray spin in the main cabin.  To keep from sliding off the bunk when we were tacking, he moved to the floor and wedged himself between the dinette and the base of the settee. It was difficult to make it across the finish line as the wind direction required us to finish right at the committee boat and the resulting lay line was nearly parallel to the direction of the port tack.  When we tied up at the slip, Bob woke up and we made a cameo at the yacht club and then headed home where an exhausted Bob had a big dinner and headed off to bed early.

Ed. Note: Hopefully Bob’s on deck for Scatchet Head!

Nigel Barron, Crossfire – Hatch Down, Retired

Crossfire

First, kudos to Bruce Hedrick. Nailed the forecast. What a lovely day of sailing! On Crossfire, we started on a J2, and a had a great sail to the weather mark. We favored the middle/left side of the course, and that seemed to work for us. Smoke and Mist went inside, while Glory mostly stayed outside with us. The fun part of the reverse start is seeing your friends as you sail through the fleet on the fast boats. The timing worked out nicely for us, as we had a relatively clean weather mark rounding with not a lot of traffic. It was a fantastic sail down to Blakely Rock.  Glory and Smoke were right behind most of the way down. We, along with Glory favored the middle most of the way, while Smoke went across to the west shore. We had changed headsails to the J3 on the sail down, as it looked like more pressure for the trip to the finish. Unfortunately, while sailing back towards 4 mile rock, the jib inhauler got under the sliding companionway. As we went to point mode, with the clew being cut higher on the J3, it popped the hatch off. We of course had to go back and get it; it made a nice MOB drill. Hatch was retrieved and we set off to the finish and continued racing.

As we were approaching the finish it became apparent that the Race Committee hadn’t reconciled the Notice of Race and the Sailing Instructions, as  finish pin was on the wrong side of the boat according to the NOR!  

Regardless, a beautiful day on the water.

Ed. Note: The race committee queried Crossfire by phone if they were going to retire – it seems that in the process of retrieving the hatchcover the engine was started – in reverse – and ran for a few seconds that way. It didn’t occur to anybody onboard that it would indicate retirement, as it represented no forward progress on the course. But skipper Lou Bianco decided it best to withdraw regardless, hence a RET (retired) in the results. As Paul Evlstrom said, “You haven’t won the race, if in winning the race you have lost the respect of your competitors.” 

Nigel Barron is the Sales and Marketing Manager at CSR Marine. 

 

Brad Baker: Firefly – Wolf in a Sheep’s Rating

Firefly

(Note: Firefly has retired from the race when Baker realized a completely unintentional gross error in the PHRF rating. The proper rating would have put them in another class entirely. It does not, however, take away from the story of a well-sailed race.) 

Firefly is a Chuck Paine designed Morris 45 performance cruiser. It is lighter than your typical Morris and has a carbon rig.  

I signed on with owner Bob Strong to do this year’s Vic-Maui Race. The boat is currently definitely in full preparation mode with that final goal in mind. Bob has done quite a lot already including a new inventory of North 3DI upwind sails and a suite of downwind sails in preparation for the race. We have been out on three practices with Andrew Kerr who is a world class sailor and sailing coach. The practice sessions definitely showed in our performance.

Saturday exceeded my wildest expectations. That said, the conditions were perfect for that boat. The wind speed was just in to the #3, and we were able to use waterline. How we managed such a good finish really had to do with, as it often does, luck. We had a front row start and stayed in clear air, we duked it out with the J-120 with Grace and Beneteau 40.7 Bravo Zulu, managed to round just in first place with Bravo Zulu not far behind, we bore away and set the spinnaker on starboard. BZ did a jibe relatively soon after the mark rounding.  We waited a bit, but were getting ready for a covering jibe as well when we noticed significant pressure making its way toward us more out in the middle so, instead of jibing, we held.  Bottom line is we sailed in more pressure and a header while the majority if not all, of our fleet made a jibe to the east side initially. This turned out to be the reason we did so well. We sailed low and fast pretty much at the mark, caught a lift at about ½ through the run, jibed and again pointed more or less at the mark in very good pressure. Wind speeds stayed in the mid to high teens. It looked to me that the rest of our fleet and many of the entire fleet as a whole, sailed in lighter wind with some extra distance. I’m the first to point out that this was a bit of a flyer, not covering the fleet well, and more often than not flyers don’t work out. Like I said we got a bit lucky, both tactically and having conditions that were very well suited for the boat. The beat home was straightforward. We had clear air and, sailing on port, one tacked it all the way to the bluff. Went to starboard up under West Point then a long port tack to the layline for the finish. We sailed the entire race in clear air. The crew did a great job getting the sails up and down and side to side, the drivers (we changed between 4 of us) did a good job. I’m sure the next race we will have to eat humble pie, but it was nice to get this win, and on such a beautiful/comfortable boat!

Ed. Note: Thanks, Brad. I’d like to point out that Brad’s idea of playing the PHRF game is not to gain an unfair advantage, but have a fair rating. If everyone did that, PHRF would be a different game altogether. Bringing a wolf in sheep’s clothing is fine, as long as you call it a wolf. And sorry, but it’s not luck when you put that kind of effort and practices in, no matter what the rating. Brad is an owner at Swiftsure Yachts.

Bruce’s Briefs: March 2, 3, & 4. CYC Blakely Rock Race

Bruce Hedrick Bruce's Briefs, Racing, Weather , , 0 Comment
Bruce’s Briefs: March 2, 3, & 4. CYC Blakely Rock Race

It’s the first week of March so it must be time for CYC’s Center Sound Series, one of our favorites. True, it’s not like the days of having 500 boats out there but with around 80 there will still be some great racing. Earlier this week it was looking a bit grim as in Crossfire taking 12 hours to complete the course. As they do in the Pacific Northwest, things change. Now it appears things might not be so bad. Some forecasts are calling for 15-18 from the NNW while others are saying 5-10 from the NNW. We’ll just see who shows up.

One thing we do know is that the tides will for sure be in play however even they won’t be too bad. There will be varying amounts of ebb from 0630 until slack at noon. I’ve included a chart to explain this oddity.

Odd Ebbs

Tidal Current at West Point

0630      Ebb          .32 knts

0912      Ebb          .10 knts

1054      Ebb          .15 knts

1206      Slack

1448      Flood     .93 knts

1718      Slack

1900      Ebb          .46 the knts

Looking at the charts, you’ll see a 996 MB low off the Oregon coast which will remain nearly stationary as it slowly weakens becoming a 1006MB by tomorrow morning. This low will dissipate late Sunday. Meanwhile, high pressure (1040MB) over British Columbia will drift slowly SSE resulting in weak offshore flow over the area through Saturday. This flow will become nearly flat on Sunday. How fast this moves our way will determine just how much wind we’ll have over the course. The best way to check this is to note barometric pressure at Bellingham(currently 1006.7), Portland(1006.6), and Astoria (1004.4). Then check the gradient tomorrow morning on VHF when you get to the boat and see how much this has changed. Generally speaking, if you take the difference in MB’s and between Bellingham and Portland and multiply times 5 that will give you the windspeed in knots. This is more accurate when the pressure is higher in the south. When it’s higher in the north it is less so.

Assuming it’s a northerly, the key to success tomorrow will be getting a clean start off the line and then watch your COG and SOG to make sure you are in the strongest ebb. You’ll hold starboard off the line staying in clear air, there should be slightly more wind in the center Sound. You’ll want to tack when you can lay the mark however you may want to tack early as there may be a lift on port as you work up the Sound. Tacking early will also give you time once you tack back to starboard to get the pole and gear setup which ideally you would have done at the dock. It should be a starboard tack set.

You’ll want to hold the starboard tack on the run. As you get over near the Bainbridge shore you’ll watch the true wind speed, when it starts to drop, that’s the time to gybe. You are better off to come into the Rock on starboard, just know where all the rocks are! You’ll have to do the drop and gybe immediately, then get set-up to drop the daffodils for Kelly.

On the beat back to West Point, it will be hold port tack from the Rock to Four Mile Rock under Magnolia. The flood may have started however there may still be some ebb along the shore from Four Mile to West Point, just don’t get into too close. At least in the flood, you shouldn’t be on for long.

From West Point to the finish, you’ll want to hold starboard off of West Point until you can tack and make the entrance buoys. Really pay attention to where the finish line is and don’t tack too many times but really maintain a clear air lane to the finish.

Good luck, be safe and have a great time.

 

Ed. Note: Thanks again, Bruce, for the insights. There are going to be some interesting tales to tell, from this, and all the other, Center Sound races. I’ll be looking for details from every part of the fleet – if you send me your insights I’ll work them into the race wrap. I’ll also be looking for video to include on the Wet Wednesday post. I’m not looking for the crew to drop the halyard to get some footage, but if you have some video, share it with me and I’ll share it with the sailish.com readers (even those not on Facebook….) Have a great time tomorrow!

 

 

 

 

Center Sound Ends with Epic Conditions

Kurt Hoehne Racing , 0 Comment
Center Sound Ends with Epic Conditions
Sachem heading into the mark.

CYC’s Center Sound Series wrapped up with a gorgeous Three Tree Point Race on Saturday. The course, however, didn’t ever get near Three Tree Point as it was shortened to Shilshole-Alki-Meadowpoint-finish. The southerly stayed in the 12-16 knot range for the most part and was actually a bit higher for the beat to Alki. Just as Bruce Hedrick predicted. (sorry, had to mention it)

So it was a fast race with plenty of time to party afterward, and no real surprises in the results. Sachem is still a force upwind, and with waterline conditions downwind she held on for a 2-second overall win ahead of Bravo Zulu and 46 seconds ahead of Finale. In fact it was an all around good day for the “furniture” boats of the fleet, with most of the classes won by medium weight boats with real interiors.

Check out these photos from Jan Anderson and see the all of them on her site. 

 

Crossfire’s Track

In the ORC class laden with carbon rockets, furniture didn’t fare quite as well. Glory chased Crossfire closely around the course the entire way, taking the victory from the mighty 55-footer on corrected time. the Farr 395 Eye Candy, a bone fide cruiser-racer, did manage third on corrected time for her best race of the series.

Different Drummer

Among the cruiser racers that deserve special mention is the Wauquez 40 Different Drummer. Designed by Berret/Racoupeau Yacht Design, it is a great example of what a modern cruiser racer can be. Owner Charles Hill explains the wins didn’t come right away. “It’s taken us a while. We’ve been at this for nine years.” But with being named 48 North’s top boat for 2016, and another Center Sound class win under her belt, it’s clear Different Drummer has found her stride. Hill, who is originally from the U.K., credits a stable, skilled crew for the uptick the last couple of years. A new bottom last year didn’t hurt.

Hill, whose previous racing was on the Irish Sea in events like the Fastnet, says the conditions there aren’t dissimilar to here. And, funny enough, he didn’t buy the boat for racing originally. “We were sucked into the racing,” he explained. Drummer of course has heat and and a fridge, among many other comforts.

For Three Tree, Different Drummer had a single mission, stay in touch with and hopefully ahead of the Sierra 26 Dos. “We figure below eight knots they’re going to beat us, and above 18 knots it doesn’t matter what we do upwind, they’ll just fly by us downwind,” Hill says. “Ten to 16 knots is our sweet spot.” With a 2,1,1 series in a variety conditions, I’d say the sweet spot is sweet indeed.

Oh yeah, and why the shortened course? I’ll let Matt Wood, Race Fleet Captain for CYC, explain:

All the wind models the PRO and I looked at that morning were calling for the wind dying quickly around 1 PM. As many boats DNF’d due to lack of wind in the Blakely Rock race, if the same thing were to happen in the 3Tree Point race, we could have had a 1 race ” series” . 

As the only mark in the non “alternative course” description was the 3 Tree Point turning mark, we face a logistics challenge to attempt to get on station down there and finish, but also maintain a finish line off Shilshole. The whalers are less than ideal for this purpose, and YC5 cannot be in 2 places at once, nor can it move that fast.

As such, we decided to run a race in what wind we did have, and , of course, the breeze held all afternoon. That said, the breeze did eventually go light and variable in the middle of the afternoon off Alki, and was pretty much done off Shilshole by 5 or so, which would have been when the majority of the fleet would have made it to the original finish line. We did not please everyone, but we did get a 3 race series in for most people, and pulled off a good social event at the YC in the afternoon. As a note, the RC did not get off the water until 3 PM notwithstanding, as there were several stragglers.

Up next, Sloop Tavern’s Blakely Rock Benefit Race. This year it will benefit The Sailing Foundation, so pony up and get out there. The Sailing Foundation does great things for young sailors around here. And, as always, we’ll be tapping Hedrick to prognosticate the weather on Friday.

Remember, you can sign up for the sailish.com newsletter.  I’m also trying to get some local discussion going on forums. Just look for the “Forums: Have Your Say” menu item and pull down. You’ll have to register over in the sidebar. Let me know if anything isn’t working, or if you have some topics you’d like to get going.

Bruce’s Brief for March 25-26 and Three Tree Point Race

Bruce Hedrick Bruce's Briefs, Weather , 0 Comment
Bruce’s Brief for March 25-26 and Three Tree Point Race

It’s the last race of the Center Sound Series and only a week to go before the Sloop Tavern Blakely Rock Benefit Race. Not only is the weather warming up, so is the racing and so is the cruising. For the first time in a long time, there were boats headed across the Sound to Blake Island this morning. Those folks are the smart ones as they are testing their boats before they go on the longer cruises later this spring or summer. This will give them plenty of time to make arrangements with their boatyard, boat maintenance facility or sailmaker to get any problems taken care of before the late spring/summer rush puts you way down the list. Just a thought….

(Ed. Note: We’re trying something new to us, a forum! If you want to discuss Bruce’s brief, the race or the series, try going here. You’ll have to create a login in the sidebar at the right. Of course, keep it civil and productive. Also, please help spread the word about this weather brief and the forum.)

While we’ve had yet another fairly wet week, tomorrow actually looks fairly decent with minimal rain and a nice breeze for racing even though we are going south of Alki. However, don’t get all excited and break out the lawn chairs and BBQ quite yet. Be sure to look at the 28 March Surface Forecast Chart and note that fairly nasty 973MB Low-Pressure system in the mid-Pacific with the label Hurricane Force. Yes, it will slightly degrade as it comes across the Pacific however it’s on track to get to the Pacific Northwest by next weekend. We’ll be watching that one.

Tidal Current at Sewage Point, whoops, I mean West Point.

0918      Slack

1224      Max Flood            .85 knots

1512      Slack

1718      Max Ebb                 .43 knots

2006      Slack

Since the tides are fairly minimal and mostly favorable we’ll focus on the wind and the course. The front on today’s chart rolled through our area between 0600 and 0700 this morning and we are now in a post-frontal situation which will hold through Saturday and see the offshore wind go from due southerly now to southwesterly and then westerly tomorrow before backing to the south-southeast on Sunday. The good news is that when the wind finally does force its way down the Straits into Admiralty Inlet, we should be finished. Keep your fingers crossed. The models are currently in agreement that we should have consistently south-southwesterly breeze over the entire course. Look for 8 to 15 in the starting area, which should build as you go across Elliott Bay to 10 to 20 and then ease to 10 to 15 from Alki to Three Tree Point. You’ll be sailing primarily on starboard tack and remember that the shortest course is right down the east side of the Sound so start with the headsail in the starboard groove so you can take a short hitch to port, hoist the new jib, and then tack back to the favored starboard tack to drop the old headsail.

Once again, since you’ll be sailing through the slower boats in front of you, find the clear air and don’t spend time sailing in dirty air.

At Three Tree Point, give the Point plenty of clearance. If you go aground here, your friends will never let you forget it. You’ll want to have all your spin gear set up for a port pole, port tack hoist and get this done before you leave the dock so you can keep everyone hiking all the way to the mark.

The run back to the finish should be fairly straight forward with no need to gybe. As you sail up the Sound be sure to watch the boats in front to see if the breeze goes forward near the top end of Vashon and Blake Island before coming aft again north of Alki. Have a headsail tee’d up just in case. This is also a leg where a staysail will pay dividends so talk about that in the morning before you leave the dock. Also, once everything is set and working, send the navigator below to check the wind reports on the VHF to make sure the northerly isn’t coming down the Sound ahead of schedule.

On the run back after about 1400 hours look for the breeze to start to drop from 10-15 to 6-10 knots. It will pay to be an early finisher in your fleet.

Sunday look for a strong pre-frontal southeasterly to develop in the eastern Straits while the breeze will stay less than 10 knots over the central and south Sound and oh yeah, the rain will return on Sunday as well.

Be safe and have a great day on the water.

So how fast will Crossfire go around the course tomorrow? Based upon a course of 30 nm and Crossfire sailing 31.78 miles they should finish in 2 hrs 53 min and 40 secs. WOW!

 

Scatchet Head Race – A Place for Cold Men

Kurt Hoehne Racing , 0 Comment
Scatchet Head Race – A Place for Cold Men

With the results now final, we get to talk about last Saturday’s Scatchet Head race, middle race of CYC’s Center Sound Series.

I don’t know about anybody else who was on the rail on Saturday’s beat back from Scatchet Head, but I was COLD. And WET. And HAPPY. Hey, it’s March and the East Coast is having a blizzard. I know the boys and girls in the Midwest are still many weeks away from launching.

Scatchet Head has tossed up some gnarly races the last few years, but this year things were a lot tamer. There was plenty of wind for a quick race.

A lot of theatrics occurred before the race. A J/105 split its chute while practicing before the start. Tahlequah was sorting out some new crew positions and was late to the start. On Grace we shrimped a chute while practicing, then started in the wrong start when there seemed to be a hiccup by the race committee, and barely made it back for our start when our jib stuck in the track. And, wouldn’t you know it, we ended up nailing our start just about perfectly. Yeah, we meant to do that.

The Race Committee also had some issues causing a fair amount of consternation in the fleet. Eventually, everyone got off, spinnakers flying, toward Whidbey Island. It’s not clear what happened in the starting sequence, but it had a lot of tacticians scratching their fuzzy hats. CYC race fleet captain Matt Wood reports the unspecified results issues have all been resolved.

Photos by Jan Anderson. Check them all out (yes, and buy some) at Jan’s Smugmug site.

Right off the start there were great puffs coming off Crown Hill all the way up to Edmonds. Those who braved going out of that great breeze on the east were rewarded late in the leg. Bill Buchan and Sachem seemed to be furthest west on the approach to the Scatchet Head Buoy. By the time the bulk of the fleet arrived at the mark, the flood was in full swing keeping helmsmen (and women!) on their toes during the rounding.

The beat home was a bit surreal. The misty rain was so thick at times land was virtually invisible. Those aft (or down below) with a chartplotter to play with could dial in, but on the rail it seemed we could have well been headed for the Arctic Circle. There were a couple big windshifts, and as long as you took advantage it was tactically a fairly straightforward leg. Perhaps the most surreal thing was the dead aircraft carrier USS Independence being eerily towed out of the Sound to her ultimate breakup, somewhere, sometime.

In the ORC class, Crossfire, Glory, Neptune’s Car and Smoke were all powered up downwind and just walked away upwind. Their elapsed times were just three hours and a bit, and it would be difficult to figure out how Crossfire could have sailed any better for the win. The J/160 Jam squeaked in on corrected time for a third behind Crossfire and Glory.

In the PHRF division, the small/slower boats had their day. John Cahill’s Gaucho was lights-out with the overall win. More Jubilee was second overall, leading the fleet of eight J/105s in the only one-design class. Here & Now was third. Elusive put in a strong performance in fourth overall and first in class, but the old IOR designs Sachem and Finale sure turned heads powering on the beat home.

In Bruce’s Brief before the race, he and his Expedition software dared predict elapsed times for several boats. Here’s how he did. Never quite satisfied, he went back to his computer and did some more number crunching to further confuse us frozen rail-sitters:

“If I take the recorded elapsed times and figure the speed around the course at 26.1 miles  which I figured at 25.5 miles and then if add the time it would take to sail  the extra .6 miles, my error for predicting elapsed time comes out pretty close. My error for Crossfire was 12.6 seconds or .1128% which would win just about every predicted log race in the universe.”

Bruce, you and Expedition should just go get a room. 

Crossfire‘s Race

Lou Bianco’s Reichel/Pugh 55 may not quite be the biggest, but it’s certainly the “baddest,” racer in town. Step onboard, and you know it takes a lot of skill to point it in the right direction and keep it from hurting itself. Guys like Fritz Lanzinger, Nigel Barron and Brad Baker lead that effort.

Brad Baker, Crossfire‘s navigator these days, offers some insight into the race. And Rick Donahue passed along the winning GPS track. Here’s Brad:

“It was an interesting race from the perspective that it was very direct.  For Crossfire the tides worked out very well.  We were able to get down to the mark just after the tide changed to the flood, but other than that we had reasonably favorable currents for most the race up and back.  The “direct” part has to do with shifts and timing of the shifts.  Going down there was a large easterly component.  We spent the majority off the time on starboard going at or very close to the mark, with maybe 15 minutes max on port. Coming back there ended up being a big shift to the west, so after maybe 10 or 15 minutes on port after rounding we tacked and did one big long starboard tack up the Sound.

Click to enlarge

You can see on the graphic what the boat speed was over the course. Pretty cool.  Wind speed was about 10 knots at the start.  The range in wind was 6 knots to 16 knots.  We saw the max wind on the run near Edmonds and the least amount of wind right at the end of the race. 

 Yes, Crossfire is a scary fast boat and the crew does a very nice job of keeping her going.  Lou Bianco and John Stanley did a nice job on the driving and Fritz deserves a lot of credit for his guru-like work.”

 

 

 

Grace

It was my first chance to sail with Andy and Jaimie Mack onboard their J/122 Grace, and it was a great experience. Despite our trials before the start, everyone on board kept their poise and we came away with a well earned class win. But it is the non-racing aspects of the program that are special to me.what was special to me.

Grace rounding the Scatchet Head buoy

Jaimie explained that a big part of buying Grace was that it was a great way to connect with all their Seattle area friends. They live on the Columbia River Gorge, but recognize the value of our sailing community. The second aspect is how they used the boat after the race. The dodger came back on the boat, the wet racing sails went off the boat, and they cruised the boat with their eight year old daughter to Port Madison to rendezvous with other boats. Race AND cruise, that’s cool.

Ace

Ace’s Scatchet Head track.

Fellow Laser sailor Mike Johnson was onboard the Farr 395 Ace in our class, a boat we kept a very close eye on. He was kind enough to send his track along and share it with all of us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hedrick’s Predictions

Kurt Hoehne Racing , 0 Comment
Hedrick’s Predictions

While CYC tends to some Scatchet Head results discrepancies, let’s take a look at how Bruce did with his weather outlook for the race. For those of us out there it was darn accurate. And check this out, through the magic of a VPP (not sure which one) and his knowledge of weather and the Sound, (assuming the elapsed times are accurate) he came up with a predicted elapsed time of 3:01 for Crossfire (their elapsed time was actually 3:06) and 4:50 (elapsed time actually 4:58 for Madrugador). Pretty good, but room for improvement……

Here are some of Jan Anderson’s photos. More coming, including a report from onboard Crossfire, when we do the full race report.

 

 

 

Blakely Rock Race, Wind Shuts Down after the Rock

Kurt Hoehne Racing , 0 Comment
Blakely Rock Race, Wind Shuts Down after the Rock

Saturday’s Blakely Rock Race, which kicked off CYC’s Center Sound Series, started off great but ended up with a lot of drifting and a shortened course course for the PHRFers (ORC boats managed the full course). Class winners needed two things, light air skills and persistence, with probably the greater emphasis on the latter.

As Bruce Hedrick predicted here on sailish.com, conditions were OK at the start (in fact better than the models suggested) with winds dropping the remainder of the day. The possibility of snow never materialized and much of the race was sailed in bright sunshine. (If you want to receive notification of this week’s Bruce’s Brief (and future weather posts), click here.

Kelly O’Neil’s former boat reQuest, was loaded with daffodils for the Blakely Rock rounding.

As the fleet rounded the Rock, daffodils were in ample supply as photographer and oh-so-loved sailing figure Kelly O’Neil was honored 13 years after her death.

A large percentage of the boats that started, finished. Class 1 (one cruising boat) Class 2 had no finishers, but every other class had at least three finishers. Results here. The biggest anomalies were Crossfire’s utter destruction of the ORC class (size matters when it comes to rig height on Puget Sound) and the corrected-time tie between Absolutely and Hamachi in Class 8.

The boat with the longest elapsed time for the day, Al Johnson’s Quest 30 Charlotte, is worth a mention. About 15 months ago Johnson brought the boat in from Victoria, where she sailed as Koru. She replaced Johnson’s well loved Soverel 33 Pegasus with an eye toward an easier handled boat (hence safer) for he and his wife Jane. “I just retired and was 63 years old, and the Quest was a boat I could see sailing comfortably for the next 20 years.” In addition to an easier handled rig, the Quest has a more comfortable interior than the Soverel with headroom and a massive aft berth.

Al Johnson’s Quest 30 Charlotte was, like all other Quests, modfied from a twin to single-rudder configuration.

Johnson clearly loves his new boat and his retirement. And the Blakely Rock race was going well up until the Rock. “The Soverel was a light air rocket. Charlotte seems to go well in all condition.” Johnson’s been spending some time around Sail Sand Point helping initiate kids in the the ways of E Scow sailing, among other things, and is much appreciated around there.

Enjoy these photos from Jan Anderson. The rest of them can be seen and purchased here.

 

 

He’s an Animal. I mean, For Real.

Kurt Hoehne Racing , , 0 Comment
He’s an Animal. I mean, For Real.

One of the impossible things to explain to non-sailors is that floating around waiting for a race to happen (that never does happen) can actually be a fine way to spend a day. Such was the case with Saturday’s Three Tree What’s the Point Race.

The point was it was a lot of fun to catch up with mates. And while the crews all cheered when CYC called it off (after valiant attempt to get a shortened course race off), my guess is for nearly everyone it was a welcome, enforced, time off from their daily lives. There weren’t even too many cell phones out.

Thank goodness some cell phones were out, because we caught some shenanigans on Double Take. Thanks to Brian Ferris and Dave Ferguson for the footage.

First, there was that seal. We’re not sure what particular kind of salmon she was smoking, but she went crazy, porpoising and clearing the water over and over again for what seemed like an hour and a half, but was probably only about 15 minutes. There was something about Elusive that kept her there most of the time, so close the crew could have easily touched her on some of her jumps. (Maybe somebody from Elusive can share the video that surely took)

Then there is Malcolm’s Jump, perhaps inspired by the seal. Nobody has embraced sailboat racing more quickly or with more enthusiasm than Malcolm MacNeil. And he’s got the fun part down better than most.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have our friend the seal visit for every race delay? Or maybe Malcolm can just swim around from boat to boat and jump of spreaders. Regardless, it was a fine day for animals.

So, the results from the first two races stand and all those rivalries will have to wait for another day before they’re settled.