Well, this will be a short report. The rain is backing off, the jet stream will stay south which will keep the systems going into California. This will also keep temperatures a little cooler than normal. At least for the tomorrow the high will finally be in the low 60’s.
The problem for the Islands Race will be that the breeze is going to be light and variable over the Salish Sea for most of the day tomorrow. As you look at the surface charts, the gap in the isobars is fairly wide, so no pressure gradient. So pretty much you can expect 0-5 knots of wind, at least it won’t be raining and the temp will be in the 60’s.
Enjoy the weekend.
(Ed. Note: Racers might be interested in checking out the ORC article posted earlier today.)
Bruce has raced and cruised the Pacific Northwest his entire life. He earned a Bachelor’s of Science from the University of Washington in Biological Oceanography and learned meteorology “to keep from getting kicked around on the race course.” Bruce spent nearly two decades as Associate Publisher for Northwest Yachting Magazine, retiring in mid-2015, and was the chairman of the board of trustees for the Northwest Marine Trade Association in 2014. (photo of Bruce driving Playstation is a bit dated, but cool)
Gig Harbor YC’s Islands Race wasn’t looking to promising in the wind department, and indeed Bruce’s Brief pretty much nailed it for the day. But a little northerly did roll through Colvos passage and gave the fleet a nice current-aided push down Colvos Passage.
The course was shortened, making it 4 for 4 for South Sound races being shortened this season. There weren’t many complaints as the northerly was expected to die off. The breeze did stick around long enough to give some boats a gentle spinnaker run back south.
This marked the end of the 2018-19 South Sound Series. First overall went to Dos, Best in Fleet to Crossfire and the team of Bodacious, Redline and McSwoosh won the team trophy. Koosah won all four races in the non-flying sails class and Blue Max won the Flying Sails Commodore Class.
Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.
Tantivy’s pink chute gave the slow moving start a bit of color! Photo by Sheila Schultz Mordue.
By Tom Gray, Sail Chair Gig Harbor YC
The GHYC Islands Race on March 17th, was a fitting end to the Southern Sound Series with all four races completed. The Islands Race weather was a welcome change from the Toliva Shoal Race’s gale and carnage. The Islands Race was run with no rain and generally steady 10 to 12 Kt. winds as predicted from the Southwest. At the Gig Harbor downwind start, light winds and a strong ebb current across the line created some challenges.
The Commodore- FS and Cruising NFS class was first to start and current dragged a few boats quickly over the line early that struggled to beat upwind against current back to the line. In the subsequent PHRF Class start, boats positioned well south of the line to avoid being early. Shortly after the start, the SW wind picked up making for a quick spinnaker run up Colvos passage to the turn mark set North of Blake Island. The first boat around the turn mark was the J-120 Felicita in the Commodore- FS Class. She covered the first 14.5 miles or about half the course in only in about 2 Hrs. 15 minutes. (Ed. Note: an earlier version of this story had String Theory as a member of the winning team – she wasn’t. Just second overall….)
These photos are by Jan Anderson. See the full gallery, with lots of smiling faces, here.
Mark Harang’s mighty Nimbus needed no luck to win the race, overall title and team title for this year’s Southern Sound Series.
Bob King’s String Theory ghosted along the shore. She won her class in the Islands race was second overall for the series.
Shortly after the start.
Shortly after the start
It may not look right, but hey, it’s flying!
The turn mark was in the wind shadow of Blake Island where the wind dropped to a few knots. Challenged to maneuver around the mark, boats jammed up at this point and some played bumper cars. After clearing the Island mark and wind shadow, boats were able to make a fast beat back to Gig Harbor. The Islands race results are still provisional and can been seen on the series website at: http://www.ssssclub.com/ssseries/. On corrected time Mark Harang’s Evelyn 26 Nimbuswas first overall, Bill Fox’s J/160 Jamwas second overall and Christine Nelson’s J/29 Slickwas third. Each of these boats also took first in their respective classes PHRF-8, PHRF-7 and PHRF-3. First over the line was Ralph Vendelend’s J/120 Felicita.
Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.
All in all, it looks like a pretty nice stretch of great weather coming up. Even though the charts don’t really show much, it does suggest that with that area of weak high-pressure centered off of San Francisco and weak low-pressure inland, there will be some onshore flow over this evening, strengthening tomorrow afternoon. This will then weaken late Saturday and into Sunday. What is really interesting is the Tuesday chart which shows a well-developed low-pressure system poised to sweep into California. Sure they can always use the rain but maybe not so much so quickly.
March 16 Surface Analysis
March 17 Surface Forecast
March 18 Surface Forecast
March 20 Surface Forecast
What does this mean for the GHYC Islands Race? It should be, as always, a pretty great event. Even if there’s no wind it’s always a pretty great time down there. That yacht club does know how to do it right. This year with a weak onshore flow coming in through the Chehalis Gap it’s liable to be a bit of a light southerly for the start. As the morning goes on and the onshore flow builds this should result in a 5-10 knot southwesterly over most of the central and south Sound for most of the rest of the day. With a constant ebb tide in Colvos, you’ll have flat water plus with abundant sunshine it should be pretty pleasant. Don’t forget the sunblock.
For tactics it will be pretty straight forward. After the start, find a clear lane to the strongest current going north in Colvos. Once you find the axis of the current, keep your air clear and gybe aggressively to stay in the current and clear air. Once you round the top mark it will be better to stay to the west in Colvos as the wind will stay out of the SW which will mean the puffs will be lifts on starboard tack. The starboard tacks will be long tacks so when you put the jib up, have it in the port groove of the headstay. The other fact about upwind in a SW in Colvos, is that puffs roll off the hill and down to the water and then flatten out. This means you don’t want to get too close to the beach (lighter air) and your drivers and trimmers are going to be working very hard sailing south. Hard work will be rewarded. Also, don’t underestimate how far bad air can effect you as you go upwind in 6-10 knots. As a rough rule of thumb figure 15-20 times mast height of the boat in front of you is how far back it will slow you down.
While on Saturday it could be cranking in the Straits from the west, Sunday looks very light over the entire Northwest.
Have a great weekend and Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all.
Bruce has raced and cruised the Pacific Northwest his entire life. He earned a Bachelor’s of Science from the University of Washington in Biological Oceanography and learned meteorology “to keep from getting kicked around on the race course.” Bruce spent nearly two decades as Associate Publisher for Northwest Yachting Magazine, retiring in mid-2015, and was the chairman of the board of trustees for the Northwest Marine Trade Association in 2014. (photo of Bruce driving Playstation is a bit dated, but cool)
The South Sound Series came to warm, happy end over the weekend as the fleet sailed in good breeze the whole day and finished the race on a sunny note. Champion for the day was Paul LeMarche’s mighty SC70 Neptune’s Car, elapsed time, class and overall winner. Results here.
A rainy start to the day sent the fleet on its way along Colvos Passage on a fairly square run. After rounding the mark on the north side of Blake Island, it was back the way they came, but time fighting the permanent current. As the sun came out the wind clocked, giving the fleet a long starboard tack on the way home. Jan Anderson, whose photographs are presented here, reported
“Most of the spinnakers were fairly well organized (not a lot of calamity but a whole lotta color!), yet wet – wet – wet, making it tough to get a reasonable shot without rain on Jan’s lens. Shoot – wipe – shoot – wipe – repeat – ad infinitum. Passing the turning mark, though, where only momentarily the wind shut down in the lee of Blake Island, someone somewhere flipped a switch … the sky slowly cleared, the breeze kicked it up several notches, and for most of the fleet, the beat back to the finish off Gig Harbor was exactly that, a BEAT.”
Fighting at the start.
Coyote reaching into Colvos.
Close up on Coyote.
Neptune’s Car.
Bodacious wrapping up a winning series
Stay Gold, a Morgan One Ton
Another winner, Les Chevaux Blancs.
Cherokee and Equus
Slick, Nimbus and Gardyloo in last year’s race. Jan Anderson photo.
Onboard “The Car” 10 very busy bodies kept the sails going up and down in fine fashion and, according to Ballard Sails‘ Alex Simanis, they were clicking on pretty much all the oscillating shifts including about 10 gybes down Colvos. Upwind without much rail weight they opted for the #4 headsail instead of the #3. The Car isn’t your average SC70. She has about six more feet of rig plus a bigger J (foretriangle) and E (main foot) that other SCs, plus a lot more interior.
A look at the Car’s #4.
Simanis reports that Ballard Sails is selling a lot of sails these days. Some sails are built right here in Ballard while they also have a Sri Lanka loft build a lot of other sails to their own design. The tragic passing of sail designer Doug Christie a year and half ago left a void, which has since been filled by John Fries, who works with lot of high-powered East Coast racing programs. “We’re really happy with his designs,” Simanis reports.
Simanis has great plans for next year. He’s going to sail his own boat Poke ‘n Destroy to Hawaii in the Pacific Cup.
Winning Team: Three Tree Point Yacht Club Nimbus, EQUUS, Les Chevaux Blancs
First Overall (on lowest cumulative class finishes): Bodacious
Best in Fleet (lowest fleet position scores: Kahuna
Congratulations all, and congrats to South Sound Sailing Society and all the host clubs, for once again putting on a fine series.
Don’t forget, Bruce Hedrick will be looking into his crystal weather ball on Friday before CYC’s Three Tree Point Race. To receive the sailish.com newsletter sign up here. You can also get notifications when the weather reports are online by checking the Weather Notifications box when you sign up.
Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.
For a while this week it looked like we would get two consecutive weekends of great sailing. Then again it is the Pacific Northwest. The models were converging for a while however by this morning the topography of the Northwest was wreaking havoc on consistency. But the weekend is here, as is the Gig Harbor YC Islands Race, so let’s take a look.
Tidal Current taken from the North end of the Narrows, Center Stream.
0948 Slack
1330 Max Ebb 3.01 knots
1700 Slack
1924 Max Flood 2.61 knots
Since the current always flows north in Colvos Passage, the real key is to watch your COG and SOG and when you’re going north, find the axis of the current. When going south, avoid the axis when you can.
The reason why this weekend will be so challenging for forecasters is that once again a few miles difference in how the low interacts with the coast will make a big difference in the wind over the Sound. As you can see from the charts for today there are two lows off our coast, both with attached frontal systems and both moving to the northeast. The low currently off of northern California will have it’s front over us early tomorrow morning. If it tracks further offshore because of our coastal buffer zone then the post frontal onshore flow will travel further down the Sound creating a northerly scenario in Colvos. If it holds its current path the northerly will be delayed and Colvos will end up being a dead zone between the post frontal southwesterly breeze coming through the Chehalis Gap and the northerly filling down the Straits and then down Admiralty Inlet. If it passes closer to the coast and is slowed we could have a stronger onshore flow through the Chehalis Gap that would keep a southwesterly flow over the race course until late afternoon.
March 17 Surface Chart
March 17 500MB
March 18 Surface Forecast
March 18 PM Surface Forecast
March 19 500MB
March 21 500MB
March 21 Surface Forecast
Regardless of which hand we are dealt it’s going to be an interesting race and because the GHYC always puts on a great event, especially before and after the race, it’s bound to be a lot of fun.
Almost regardless, the start will be downwind in a southwesterly of 5-12 knots. As you work your way up Colvos, the breeze will tend to back and probably back off to the 3-5 knot range. It’s as you get closer to the north end of Colvos that it could get very interesting as a convergent zone develops from Blake Island south to somewhere between View Park and Anderson Point. The transition may even have the breeze backing around to the east before becoming northeasterly and then northerly. Foredeck crews, navigators and trimmers are going to be busy but at least it will be raining.
When dealing with these transition zones it will be important for the foredeck crews to remember to keep putting the headsail up in the port groove because once you get back into the southwesterly in Colvos, it will start out light and then slowly build. You’ll have long starboard tacks and short port tacks as you keep working to the west side of Colvos to stay out of the ebb tide. That way if you have to do a change you’ll have more time to set it up on the starboard tack. In Colvos the puffs will be lifts on starboard tack so main trimmers and drivers will be working especially hard.
I had some fun last week with predicting elapsed times (and the final tally here) for some of the boats so I’ll roll the dice again, however, I have a much lower confidence level for this forecast because of the changing parameters. This week I’ll use one of my favorite boats, the J-160 Jam which is currently predicted to go around the course in 4 hrs and 2 min. So we’ll see….. Have a great race.
Bruce has raced and cruised the Pacific Northwest his entire life. He earned a Bachelor’s of Science from the University of Washington in Biological Oceanography and learned meteorology “to keep from getting kicked around on the race course.” Bruce spent nearly two decades as Associate Publisher for Northwest Yachting Magazine, retiring in mid-2015, and was the chairman of the board of trustees for the Northwest Marine Trade Association in 2014. (photo of Bruce driving Playstation is a bit dated, but cool)
