Scatchet Head Race

Bruce’s Briefs: Wx for 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 March. Center Sound Race #2  Scatchet Head Race. Looks breezy for yet another weekend!

Bruce Hedrick Bruce's Briefs , 1 Comment
Bruce’s Briefs: Wx for 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 March. Center Sound Race #2  Scatchet Head Race. Looks breezy for yet another weekend!

Hard as it may be to believe, we will have wind once again for the weekend and for the upcoming week as several systems will march right on through the Pacific NW. Also interesting is that all five models are pretty much in agreement. The differences are about how much wind we’ll have and when the cold front will pass over us tomorrow. We are still about .5” of rain behind for the month however tomorrow and this week could change that and help the snowpack in our mountains which is still behind. Dress warmly and stay dry.

Today’s surface analysis charts show an unrelenting group of lows with attached frontal systems off our coast and headed our way. California will still get most of the rain and snow however we will begin to get close to our seasonal norm which is all good, unless you live in California. The Pacific High, because it remains weak, has been pushed off to the south while the slightly stronger High east of the Cascades will push systems into BC and SE Alaska. The Upper-Level charts show a meridional flow off the coast for today with the jet stream coming ashore mid-Oregon. As the week goes on, this flow will become more zonal with the jet stream drifting to the south and coming ashore mid-California. This will keep temps cool in the PacNW and help preserve what snowpack we have.

March 8 500MB
March 8 Surface Analysis
March 9 Surface Forecast
March 10 500MB
March 10 Surface Forecast
March 11 Surface Forecast
March 12 500MB
March 12 Surface Forecast

The consistent feature in the Surface charts is the bunching of isobars over the Pacific NW and this pressure gradient won’t ease until Wednesday. That’s why we can expect 12-25 knots of SSE for the start tomorrow and that will build to 20-30 knots midday with higher gusts. The question is when will the cold front go through because that is when the breeze will start to clock from SSE to SSW to SW. By late afternoon the gradient should start to ease, however I think the fleet will have finished by then.

Tides should not be an issue as slack at Scatchet Head should be around 1100 hrs however with the consistent southerly flow over the Sound and freshwater coming out of the Snohomish River, flowing out of Possession Sound, and across Scatchet Head, the ebb at Scatchet Head may last another 45-60 minutes. Remember also that the current and wind will build as you approach the mark so figure that into your rounding strategy.

March 8 Satellite Pic
March 8 PNW Satellite Pic

After the mark, if the ebb is still flowing at the mark it will pay to hold port tack to get south and away from the ebb before you tack to starboard. This will get you towards the Edmonds shore and the remainder of the ebb flowing south towards the Edmonds Ferry Dock. The water will also be flatter along that shore. Remember also how shallow it gets from Edwards Point to the oil docks.

The question with frontal passage and the start of the flood tide is whether it would be worthwhile to hold port tack at the mark and go across to the west side of the Sound. The flood does start first on that shore, however I think everyone will be around the mark and well on the way to the finish before the flood gets that far south. So, it would be extra miles to sail to get over there and if the wind doesn’t come around to the SW until later, it could be painful coming back across the Sound from Jeff Head. Something to watch.

As you get beat south of Richmond Beach you will want to watch if boats that hold out to the west start gaining as the breeze starts to clock from the S to the SSW and the SW. Plan your approach to the finish accordingly. This may change depending upon how close the committee boat is to Meadow Point because there could still be southeasterly, port tack lifts along the shore north of Meadow Point.  

I have the TP-52’s around in three hours. The J-105’s and J-35’s in 4.25 hours and the J-30 around in 4.75 hrs.

So for tomorrow, safety first, life jackets and safety harnesses before you leave the dock, and maybe a discussion about your person overboard procedures.

Have a safe, fun, and fast race. Also, don’t forget to Spring Forward Saturday night. 😊

Bruce’s Briefs: Wx for 18, 19, 20, and 21 March. CYC Scatchet Head Race

Bruce Hedrick Bruce's Briefs , 0 Comment
Bruce’s Briefs: Wx for 18, 19, 20, and 21 March. CYC Scatchet Head Race

With CYC’s Scatchet Head course being up to the race committee, this is bound to be interesting. From two out of the three models, there will be more consistent wind on a North Course, so that is the one we’ll use.

Today’s surface analysis and sat pic give a nice representation of what’s coming towards us for tomorrow. A well-defined cold front, with cool, unstable, air behind the front and plenty of cold rain. After the front passes, which should be near dawn, onshore flow will develop down the Strait of JdF with the possibility of SCA or gale warnings in the eastern Strait. As the flow offshore changes from NW to W flow will develop through the Chehalis Gap late in the afternoon on Saturday. This is what will make things interesting on the North Course, as the pressure gradient will ease and conditions will go light in the central Sound.

It will be the speed of the front that will be interesting to watch since that will determine how much wind we have after about mid-afternoon. Before that, the North Sound will have more consistently more N-NE breeze(12-20 knots) while the South Sound, (south of Alki) will have a light(4-8 knots), of drainage easterly.

Marh 18 500MB
March 18 Surface Analysis
March 19 Surface Forecast
March 20 500 MB
March 20 Surface Forecast
March 21 Surface Forecast
March 22 500MB
March 22 Surface Forecast

Presuming a north course, you’ll start in a NNE-NE breeze of 10-12 knots on starboard and if you don’t have a lane of clear air you’ll need to take a short clearing tack and then get back on to starboard as that will be the favored tack up the Sound until about the line from Edmonds to Kingston. You’ll be sailing in an ebb tide which will be consistently stronger to the west of the rhumb line. As you get closer to the north part of the course, the breeze should build to 15-18 knots and back to the N-NNW. At which point you’ll tack and be aimed roughly at Scatchet Head. Even if you’re low of the mark the breeze should continue to back, lifting you to the mark. The ebb will also be setting you to the mark which is fine just watch your set as you get closer to the mark because the breeze will tend to ease the closer you get to the mark while the ebb will build slightly.

For the run back to the finish it will pretty much be a reverse of the course you sailed up to the mark with more breeze from N-NW until you get back to near Kingston where you’ll be lifted so you can gybe to port and be aimed at the finish. The key will be to finish before about mid-afternoon when the breeze will start to clock back to the east and begin to ease.

Tidal Currents

Scatchet Head

1012                 Max Ebb           1.3 knots

1324                 Slack

1620                 Max Flood        1.0 knot

Edmonds

1018                 Max Ebb           .44 knots

1300                 Slack

1612                 Max Flood        .66 knots

So what does the crystal ball show for tomorrow? Zvi first around and finishing at 1315 hrs, Glory next at 1323hrs, Jam in at 1414hrs. the J-111’s finishing at 1435, the Sierra 26 in at 1455, the C&C 115 in at 1507, the J-109’s at 1509, the J-35’s in at 1517, and the J-105’s in around 1522.

We are still ahead of rain for the year even compared with last year and with another front coming in late Sunday or early Monday. This will add a little more snow to the mountains which is good. The other good news is that by the end of next week the jet stream will become meridional and move more to the north which will bring in some slightly warmer temperatures.

Have a great race, stay warm, stay dry, and stay safe.

Bruce’s Briefs: Wx for 12, 13, 14, and the Ides of March. CYC Scatchet Head Race, Don’t forget to Spring Forward.

Bruce Hedrick Bruce's Briefs , 0 Comment
Bruce’s Briefs: Wx for 12, 13, 14, and the Ides of March. CYC Scatchet Head Race, Don’t forget to Spring Forward.

Plenty of wind last weekend, not so much this weekend. That, however, is racing in Puget Sound. Today’s surface analysis chart shows a weak ridge of high pressure over the Salish Sea extending southwesterly from southern BC out to a high-pressure system (1030MB) off of San Francisco. By tomorrow this will have been pushed slightly to the east as the next system approaches the coast. The gradient will somewhat tighten as the next front gets closer.

The satellite picture shows the sunny conditions we have now as well as the next cloud cover coming onshore. While we may have calm conditions on the Sound now, this will give way to a more southerly flow over the racecourse tomorrow, just not a strong flow. The other point of interest is that the NDBC primary processing servers were shut off on 9 March are not yet back up with no ETR as of this afternoon. This means we probably won’t have our graph of conditions (baro, gust, wind speed) at West Point or any other NDBC sites. This will make the Western Washington current conditions chart even more important.   https://atmos.washington.edu/cgi-bin/latest.cgi?sfcplots-wwa

  • March 12 current conditions
  • March 12 Surface Analysis
  • March 13 Surface Forecast
  • March 14 500 MB
  • March 14 Surface Forecast
  • March 15 Surface Forecast
  • March 16 500 MB
  • March 16 Surface Forecast

Tidal currents are always important on this race and you’ll want to look at two different stations. West Point for the start-finish line and Foulweather Bluff for an estimate of conditions at Scatchet Head. The actual speed at Scatchet Head will be about .5 to .75 of the values at FWB.

West Point

0800       Slack

1412       Max Flood           .72 knots

1636       Slack

1806       Max Ebb               .42 knots

Foulweather Bluff

0906       Max Ebb               1.93 knots

1200      Slack

1436       Max Flood           1.75 knots

1730       Slack

Generally speaking,  winds will be in the 5-12 knot range with lighter winds on the southern part of the course. At the start, depending on where the start line is set, the wind will probably be from SSE so a starboard tack start should work you just don’t want to hold starboard very long because there will tend to be more wind to the west. As you sail north, it will tend to build on the west side of the Sound first, just watch the TWD and TWS, and don’t get too far to the west of the rhumbline. Since it will be light, you’ll need to keep your head out of the boat and watch what’s going on around you. The other thing to remember is that the flood tide starts first on the west side of the Sound. So after you round the mark you’ll probably want to hold port tack, head to the west, and beat down that shore watching COG and SOG until Jeff Head before heading to the finish. As you get south the breeze will tend to lighten from Kingston south.

As of this afternoon, it looks like the TP-52’s will be around the course in about 5.2 to 5.5 hours, the J-111’s abound in 6 hours, the J-35’s, J-109’s around in 7.5 hours and the J-105’s around in about 7.8 to 8 hours. It will probably be tough for the slower boats to finish within the time limit. While it will be a long day on the water, at least it will be relatively warm.

Don’t forget the sunblock!

Scatchet Head Race – Gorgeous, Tactical

Kurt Hoehne Racing , 0 Comment

After last week’s windy Blakely Rock Race, CYC’s Scatchet Head (the second of three Center Sound races), the fleet was looking forward to another sunny day but maybe a hair less excitement. Puget Sound delivered last Saturday.

The fleet spread across the Sound on the 10-knot beat to the Scatchet Head buoy. West was clearly bestfor some, east worked for others. Puget Sound can confound. For everyone, the run home was delightful, especially for those who stayed west. The wind was a little lighter until the northerly started to roll down the Sound later.

In the IRC it was again Glory winning. It was TP 52 conditions (are there any conditions really NOT for a TP52?) Smoke was second and Crossfire third. Our friends on Crossfire found it tough to hang with the TPs in the light conditions. “We made some time up on the downwind leg, but once it got back in to the 4-6 knot range downwind, we really couldn’t real them in,” Nigel Barron board Crossfire reported.

Photos courtesy of Jan Anderson. See the rest here.

  • Darkside looking good on the beat to Scatchet Head
  • Anarchy on the way to and overall win.
  • The starts were in relatively light air.
  • Smoke.
  • No, not the race committee or handicapper’s meeting.
  • Traffic to avoid.
  • More traffic to avoid. Seriously.

Results

If last week’s crew overboard incident aboard the Flying Tiger 10 Anarchy was exciting in one way, the Scatchet Head Race was about as exciting in different way as they slid home for an overall PHRF fleet win. Owner/skipper Tom Ward reported:

It was ideal conditions for the light boats.  On the beat we stayed the west side going up with Bat Out Of Hell (BOOH), Sachem and Izakaya (another FT10) working our way through the fleet. I believe we were around 9th PHRF boat to round with BOOH leading our class. After rounding we stayed hot, working west. We did a couple of gybes out to the east and back as Sachem continued on working west and closed the gap on us and Izakaya.  We saw BOOH had gone way east and fell well behind. Sachem was keeping pace but at that point not closing the gap.

We keep trading jibes with Izakaya reeling them in slowly by trying to stay a few degrees hotter than them. It was a great battle and forced both boats to sail at their best. I believe we finally jibed inside them and then back to get in front of them about 20 minutes from the finish. They tried going further out before gybing to the finish for a hotter angle and did close the gap as we soaked down to stay between them and the finish crossing just 30 seconds ahead.

Elsewhere in the fleet, Ace and Absolutely had an epic battle right to the finish, with Ace barely taking the class gun and winning by 10 minutes on corrected time. The entire J/105 fleet finished within 15 minutes and head into the final race with threeway tie for first place between Jaded, More Jubilee, and the Racers Formerly Known as Here & Now. Gaucho and Kiwi Express enjoyed a match race in Scatchet Head and are tied going into the last race.

  • Sachem, with Brian Ledbetter and Mark Brink at the controls.
  • Sachem, just ’cause she’s a knockout at any age.

Brad Greene’s Nordic 44 Kinetics enjoyed a very good race in PHRF 5, finishing third. Of course Dos ran away with the class with Different Drummer second. Considering Greene lives aboard the Perry design (no doubt a few extra pots and pans aboard), his fourth in class is pretty remarkable. Greene reports:

The start for our class 5 was light but we still got a decent start considering what it takes to get our 24,000 pound beast moving. Most of the fleet headed west as expected likely hoping Bruce’s weather brief would hold with more wind on the west side. We ended up tacking back out into the middle and then decided to go east on a flyer in part to avoid some north and south bound commercial traffic and to avoid getting pinned on the west side tacking up the beach. For a while it looked like we were doing well. Then the wind went light and we just didn’t have the power to keep the Nordic 44 moving.

We finally rounded Scatchet Head buoy and had a wonderful run home. We made up some time on a few boats in part I think because the wind started to fill in from the north again getting to us first. The only complaint on board Kinetics was the windchill upwind was a bit icy even with the sun trying its best to heat things up. Big thanks CYC for making it a great #2 for this CYC CSS.

From CYC’s standpoint, the only hitch for this race came in the form of a reminder that we all share the water with commercial ships. Fleet Captain Matt Wood reports, “The only remarkable aspect was the amount of attention the fleet garnered from deep draft pilots and Washington State ferry masters. It is critical that competitors monitor both the race channel (in this regatta, that is  VHF 69 ) and Seattle Traffic VHF 14. On the RC boat we were reaching out to the fleet to ensure Colreg Rule 10 compliance, as well as transitioning vessels were on 14. Everyone needs to be diligent in this regard.”

With two good races in the books, it’s on to the penultimate Three Tree Point Race in two weeks. Could it be three gorgeous races in a row? Check in the day before for Bruce’s Brief.

Center Sound So Far, from Different Drummer

Kurt Hoehne Racing , , 3 Comments
Center Sound So Far, from Different Drummer

Few Puget Sound boats have been sailed so consistently well over the past few seasons as Different Drummer. The nearly 17K pound Wauquiez C40S is pretty much the prototypical modern cruiser-racer. Comfortable, solidly built and well behaved, she sails to her 81 PHRF rating and is one of the few boats in that rating band to regularly give fits to the 1000 lb. Sierra 26s Uno and Dos. Race post-mortems are a great idea, and skipper Charles Hill has allowed us to reprint his review of the first two races of Center Sound, in which they’re now tied with Uno going into the last race.

By Charles Hill (borrowed with permission from the Different Drummer Facebook page)

I have been meaning to write up a race report for Blakely Rocks but never found the time, and now I have two race reports to write up and still not much time, so I’ll make this quick. After two of the three races in the Center Sound Series we are tied for first in our class (out of 12) with Dos (a not unfamiliar position). We are also standing 8th overall (out of 70 something boats). How did we get there?

Different Drummer shortly after the Blakely Rocks start, with her bigger cousin Red Sky ahead to leeward. Photos by the Awesome Jan Anderson.

Blakely Rock: We started really well in a decent north breeze. We were first around the upwind mark, closely followed by Dos, Elusive and Red Sky (a Wauquiez C45s, which is basically a scaled-up version of Drummer). After setting the spinnaker, we sailed toward the center of the Sound. Most of our class, and indeed most of the fleet, gybed and headed towards the eastern side of the Sound. I’m not sure why they did that, because we could see building breeze coming up behind us and it certainly seemed softer off to the left. It soon became clear that we were in better pressure and it sure looked as if we were opening up a lead over our class. For reference, we had Firefly in front of us, and Sachem behind us. For the first 2/3rds of the run to the Rocks it seemed that we would round well ahead of our class, then we made the mistake of drifting too far to the right and found ourselves in softer pressure. We should have gybed early, but we were pinned by one of the smaller boats we were passing, and we made the mistake of trying to tough it out and get ahead of them to leeward, which took way too long. In the event, this allowed Dos, Elusive and Red Sky to haul us in as they crossed over the Sound into better breeze. Dos must have been on the plane in what was now a solid 15 knots of breeze, because they rounded the rocks some distance ahead of us. Elusive and Red Sky rounded with us.

On the beat back to West Point Elusive pulled slowly ahead of us, Red Sky fell back a little, and we were hauling Dos in, but not fast enough. Once we past West Point we tacked in towards the breakwater. Elusive did not, and they fell back. I was really surprised at how quickly we opened a significant lead over them on the water. Interesting how the right tactical call can make such a big difference. In the end we passed Dos, but not by enough to save our time and they won, we were second, Red Sky third, and Elusive dropped to fourth.

Focus on Different Drummer in the Scatchet Head Race. Click to enlarge.

Scatchet Head: With soft breeze in the forecast, the race committee elected to run two laps on a 12 mile windward/leeward course. We had to pass through the finish line at the end of the first lap so that they could shorten the race if the wind dropped as per the forecast. The wind didn’t drop. Instead we had two laps in a solid 8-12 knots of breeze with beautiful sunshine and stunning views of snowclad peaks. This was a way more interesting and fun race than the annual slog up to Scatchet Head and back. Note to the race committee: please throw one of these into the mix every year.

The only mistake we made on this race was the start, where I was a little too slow and let Helios and Red Sky get to windward and blanket Drummer with dirty air. They actually had an excellent start, we did not. We tacked onto port as soon as we could to get clear air, and after that it was off to the races. I think we had clear air for the rest of the race. After the first lap my guess is that we were in third place, close behind Dos and Elusive. The rest of our class had already dropped back. However, we had an excellent remainder of the race, driving the boat as fast as we ever have in those conditions. We slowly hauled Elusive in, while putting distance between ourselves and Dos. I suspect that Dos was very close to us on corrected time at the last turn mark, but we stretch-out our lead on the final beat to the finish and crossed 55 seconds ahead on corrected time. Elusive was third some 1 min and 25 seconds behind Dos on corrected time. We were also 6th overall, which was the 2nd highest fleet position we have achieved in a Center Sound Series race. Good times.

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!

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.

 

 

 

Tantivy MOB Recovery, Planning and Preparation Were Key

Kurt Hoehne Racing, Seamanship , 3 Comments
Tantivy MOB Recovery, Planning and Preparation Were Key

During last Saturday’s Scatchet Head Race, Gina Layton fell overboard during a tack. It could happen to anyone. Luckily, it happened on Stuart Burnell’s Tantivy. Burnell not only has practiced man overboard drills, he’s had real life experience with them. Stuart has taken the time to write this tale up in the hopes that the rest of us can take something from it as well.

Gina looked perfectly dry, warm and not very traumatized at all back at the dock. – KMH

By Stuart Burnell

In the 10+ years I have owned Tantivy, we have had two people go overboard, one in 2014 and now one in 2016. Of the nine crew on Tantivy this weekend, five have fallen overboard from some boat at some point. I slipped and went overboard off a T-bird in 1996.

The point is that in every case we all found ourselves going overboard so fast there was nothing to done except to enjoy the ride. It can, and does, happen.

On this race the wind was in the low teens before we left the dock for this CYC Seattle race. Crew members Paul, Meg and I were discussing which head sail we were going to use and the rest of the crew were busy rigging the boat.

We started without a headsail, hoisted the kite and took off. Jan Anderson took a few very good photos of Tantivy right after the start and you can clearly see we did not have the Lifeslings in place.

After 15 to 30 minutes we gybed to port and crossed Balance and Sachem. Right after that, crew member Suzette noticed the two Lifeslings usually mounted on the stern rail were not in place. She immediately took care of that.

If the Slings had not been in place it would have taken a lot longer to get Gina out of the water.

Everyone had life jackets on.

Steps as executed:

Crew hollers man overboard!

We have a designated spotter, who in this case was Suzette who moved to the back of the boat and deployed a Lifesling.

Trimmers and foredeck stayed at their posts to complete our tack as did the foredeck crew. We dropped the headsail (our #3 does not furl). The trimmers went forward to help secure it.

Tantivy, seen here smoking along downwind, was missing its Lifeslings on the stern rail. Fortunately, the mistake was caught soon after this picture was taken.
Tantivy, seen here smoking along downwind, was missing its Lifeslings on the stern rail. Fortunately, the mistake was caught soon after Jan Anderson took this photo.

Once the jib was secured, the main trimmer and driver maneuvered the boat back to Gina. We did the standard figure eight maneuver and rounded down wind and stopped the 20 feet from her. Paul and Suzette pulled Gina to the stern where we deployed the swim ladder and pulled her to and over the transom.

The system worked well for us. We do have the block and tackle to bring some one over the side rather than the transom. Both man overboard retrievals (2014 and 2016) have been in 20 plus knots of wind and in 3+ foot waves. Over the transom always seems safest for us.

We soon found ourselves aground and unable to get off the bottom by sailing. So, our race ended when we had to use the engine to get back into deep water.

Grounding

I think getting blown down on to a weather beach could have been avoided. After Gina grabbed the Lifesling, I was more concerned with stopping the boat than positioning the it. We could have possibly pointed the bow away from the beach, which would have allowed a little more time to hoist the jib and get control of the boat once she was completely recovered.

While we have done a number of man overboard practices, we have never tried to get the boat going again without using the engine.

This summer you will see Tantivy doing that as a drill.

Practice Practice Practice

Having done two real live man overboard maneuvers I can say doing the drills is so very important. We trained with Bill Walton before the Vic Maui in 1994, 1996, 2000, and we did it before the Van Isle 360 in 2011 and 2013. In 2013 we had everyone on board drive the boat and run though the various other positions: spotter, driver, main trim and sail handling, plus who went for the block and tackle.

Now we will work on getting the sails back up and racing again. While I feel really bad about having someone fall overboard, I feel very good about how well the crew performed under very stressful conditions. To my knowledge, three of the crew we had on Saturday had never done a man overboard drill.

Links: The Sailing Foundation Lifesling Page, a video of the Lifesling in use.