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.”
See the rest of Jan’s photos here.
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.
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.
The South Sound Final Tally
As the Southern Sound Series comes to a conclusion, here are the winners:
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.