Seattle Yacht Club Grand Prix

Seattle YC’s Grand Prix marks the unofficial end to the year’s Puget Sound racing, and this year did it with a big blow. (We’re counting Winter Vashon as part of 2019…) And while this event has lost some of its luster as the numbers participating has declined – 35 boats this year–, it’s still a great opportunity for boats that qualified to lock horns. For some, locking horns with with the breezy conditions was the biggest challenge. There was one race in big winds on Friday, sailed to various courses for the different classes. On Saturday, between the big blows, there wasn’t enough wind to even get a race off. On Sunday two races were sailed, again in big breeze.

SYC Sailing Director Brian Ledbetter called the racing “epic,” citing battles between Wicked Wahine and Absolutely in Class 2, and Different Drummer and Poke & Destroy in Class 3. Then there’s the three-way amongst the J/105s, ultimately won by Jaded. In the ORC class, John Buchan’s Glory once again proved that she’s in charge around the buoys. There were a number of DNFs and DNSs dotted around the fleet.

ORC Results. PHRF Results.

We have  a gallery of photos by Catie Plourde (her B&W gallery is here).

We also have a story by Ed Snyders, who with his wife Julie Renick race Overtime. Snyders also manages the  crew list for SYC race committee.

The 42nd Annual SYC Grand Prix lived up to it’s reputation as as the finest test of seamanship, sailing and race management in the northwest.  The three day format allowed for two great days of sailing with Saturday being flat calm and frankly a better day for fishing.

Friday afternoon gave us blustery conditions and for the crew of Overtime a test on how to react to breakdowns under pressure, the gear in question being the boom vang.  As we settled in for the pre-start for the race the lashing for one of the blocks parted making the mainsail almost uncontrollable while reaching.  A brief period of mayhem ensued as the problem was diagnosed and a solution found. Fortunately, we had a small piece of line near at hand and were able to lash the block back onto the boom and resume our pre-start maneuvers.  I’d love to blame our poor start on this disruption but the sad fact is that I missed an easterly shift at the start and ended up late to the western end of the start line, mistake #1.  Mistake #2, came as we approached Eagle Harbor and decided to tack back in the middle where it was windier rather than shake our reef and continue to the western shore of the sound with the rest of our fleet.  This choice send us to the back of the pack in short order but we did get great views of the fleet rounding Blakely Rock ahead of us.  In the failing breeze the rich would get richer in this race but it was a lovely day for the run back to Meadow Point.  In the waves and breeze the temporary lashing failed on the vang sending the boat into another brief period of mayhem. Somehow we didn’t broach and once order was somewhat restored we took advantage of a very open main to sail low and stay clear of a freighter turning into Elliot bay.  With some stronger line found we pieced the vang back together and enjoyed a much more controlled run north.  In a fleet that includes the finest sailors in the northwest this sort of drama keeps you well off the podium.

Sunday and another breezy day.  Race 2 of the regatta found us in the middle of the fleet at the first leeward mark but headed up wind into rapidly freshening conditions with far too much sail up.  After putting in a reef and continuing under our largest jib we managed to beat back to the weather mark and stay within striking distance of the fleet.  With very fresh conditions we elected to play it safe and not hoist a spinnaker but rather change jibs to something smaller and more appropriate for the conditions.  Sadly this choice led to another breakdown and a lesson on the cost of deferred maintenance.  The jib halyard in use was tied to the deck with a pad-eye I have been meaning to replace for about a year. It parted, costing us any sort of a reasonable finish as going bare headed upwind is very slow.

Race 3 found the crew feeling gun shy but after a quick safely meeting we decided to continue but to play it safe.  again with the quality of competition this sent us to the back of the pack but we finished the race and regatta without any further breakdowns.  I’m happy with that result and with the weekend.

The awards dinner Sunday night in the SYC Fireside Room was a beautiful event. The historic perpetual trophies, the beautiful flowers, enthusiastic skippers and crews made for a full room of energy. The SYC staff was outstanding,  delivering great service, the dinner was delicious and we were honored to have Commodore Van Duzor present to help congratulate each winning team.

Hat’s off to the race committee who braved winds into the 30’s while at anchor in a nasty wave state in order to provide us with a great weekend for sailing.  Thank you so very munch on behalf of the Overtime crew and the fleet as a whole.  We have no sport without you.  You are the very best!

–Ed Snyders, SYC Race Committee Chair and skipper of Overtime

Rick Donohue of Crossfire kindly sent along Crossfire’s track, and I found a couple of photos on Facebook you might not have seen.

Finally, here’s a video taken from Glory of Crossfire desperately seeking a passing lane on Friday, courtesy of Patrick Doran.

Kurt Hoehne

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.

There was breeze yesterday for the Seattle Yacht Club Grand Prix regatta. Here’s a video from Patrick Doran taken from Glory as Crossfire looked for a passing lane. Eventually they found one and took the ORC class on corrected time. Borrowed from Patrick’s Facebook page. Racing continues tomorrow.

Kurt Hoehne

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.

As Bruce Hedrick predicted, the best (and nearly only) Grand Prix races were on Friday. The Seattle Yacht Club race committee got off two good races, but didn’t find enough wind for racing Saturday and only one light affair on Sunday.

That said, the racers enjoyed a dock postponement which was a chance for nap or catching up with old friends and foes. Some sailors just went around and enjoyed the fall sunshine while others enjoyed it on the water.

In the final ORC results, Glory corrected on Crossfire by a bit over a minute in the final race to get the victory. In the one design and PHRF classes, Moose Unknown bested the usual suspects in the J/105 class and the Uno added another walkaway class win in Class 4.

The J/80s finished with a three-way tie for first, which was broken in Jolly Green‘s favor. And Charlie Macaulay won the “big” PHRF class 2 with Absolutely. More on that in a minute.

Jarred Swalwell of the Aphrodite 101 Elixir wasn’t sure what to expect in Class 4 before the series began. As he explained it beforehand, “The SYC Grand Prix Class 4 is a real curiosity. Lined up by size, each boat is about half the displacement of the next including: a modern cruiser racer, the family man’s meter boat circa 1978, the very first ultralight, a sport boat, and a dinghy which I think weighs in at 948 lbs. Yikes.” Uno certainly answered those expectations, as she usually does. She won Sunday’s race by 42 minutes. That all said, Swalwell had a great time throughout the weekend, even when the race was cancelled:

Well, unfortunately Bruce was nearly spot on with the forecast this weekend. Friday turned out to be a bit more wind than predicted I think, maybe closer to the high end of 10 knots. We had two great races and given what happened with the rest of the weekend maybe should have gotten off a third. Saturday was a series of postponements with the RC making the calls from the CYC dock (or bar?). The wind picked up just a tiny bit after noon so we shoved off the dock to enjoy a spectacular day on the water, particularly for the end of October. We coasted out to the middle of the sound, then up past Meadow Point, and as the evening breeze filled in we sailed Elixir back into her guest slip at around 5:30. There were a few boats out there with us, but it seemed that the bulk of the GP participants missed out on an excellent, if a bit relaxing, day on the water despite there being no races. Sunday was definitely a trying day on the water with several tests of patience. After floating in the fog for a bit on postponement, the northerly seemed to start to fill and the RC called a distance race, which for most of us was up to Meadow Point then down around Blakely Rock and back. Classes 1-3 started on a fairly decent breeze that slowly eased as the rest of us started. If there were a few more tenths of a knot of current I don’t know that we would have made the Meadow Point Buoy. After that it felt like we were chasing the edges of puffs all the way down and back up until it completely shut down for a spell in front of a fog bank sitting just to the North of Shilshole.  Boats that had made it to the eastern shore early seemed to ride a shore breeze back up and did quite well… we were not among them. We got the gun as the last across (several other boats retired), but as consolation received compliments from the RC for the show we put on with spinnaker against the Olympics and a beautiful late fall PNW sunset. BTW, did the delivery back home to Edmonds this morning in perfect 7-12 knots of northerly breeze… of course.

Jarred’s wife and Elixir’s co-owner Megan Kogut echoed the positive vibes from the weekend. “I thought the Grand Prix weekend was great.” She also added that she wished the Race Committee would have given it a try later in the day on Saturday or at least come when there was enough wind to be play around in. She said “We got to the CYC clubhouse at sunset and no one who was racing that day was still there. I think the RC could have done more to create a sense of enjoyment of the day and community rather than encourage people to go to the bar at 2 pm. It was fun on Sunday in the fog with all of the boats waiting for the wind to kick up, and I would have liked more of that on Saturday.”

(Those of us who bolt home at the moment we can should maybe take note!)

Jarred and Kogut ended up with one notable feather in their caps, a third place, winning the tie-breaker with Vela Volta.

And then there was Charlie Macaulay and the smooth running Absolutely. Since acquiring the Farr 39, Macaulay has been racing a lot, and winning nearly as much. His happy crew notched another victory, this time over Ace and Wicked Wahine, which were only a point apart in second and third. Here’s Charlie:

It was a great weekend and we sailed pretty well (except for a few light air frustration calls by me on Sunday that, luckily, didn’t hurt us too bad).

I certainly have no great insight on what happened on the water. All I can do is restate that obvious that Friday afternoon was one of the great sailing days of the year.  Sun, breeze, relatively warm, and great competition.  What more could anyone ask for?

The great work the folks at SYC do to put this regatta together should be emphasized. The regatta chair, Regan Edwards, did a fabulous job putting everything together – even cooking pizzas at CYC on Saturday.  SYC really does this one right – and all those skippers and crew who didn’t come out missed a fabulous event! Hopefully, they’ll reconsider next year and enter the regatta and make it even better.

And if I hear anyone complain again about the high entry fee, I’m gonna lose it. There’s no better way to thank your crew for a great season of sailing than by sailing in this regatta and which also buys them all dinner and beer for two nights!

Now there’s a skipper who’s thinking about his crew! Congratulations to Charlie, Jarred and Megan, SYC and everyone who raced on Puget Sound through the summer and fall seasons.

And to those of you wondering where the survey results are, they’re coming this week. 250 of you sailors took the survey and about half of you came up with original comments and ideas. They’re so fun to read and they show just how much we love racing. I’m going to go through them, clean them up and post them along with the survey results. I’m confident that this will be a springboard for discussion and ideas, hopefully increasing participation and making the sport better for everyone.

Kurt Hoehne

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.

What a difference a week makes. As sailors were freaking a week ago Friday about potential winds of 60 knots, this past weekend turned out to be a whole lot more docile than was wished for, at least for the SYC Grand Prix organizers.

Jan Anderson was only on hand for Saturday’s drifter, but got some good shots. (Jan’s photo site.)

As usual, Grand Prix kicked off on Friday for those of us who could get away for the afternoon. Only about 30 boats participated, and there was more than a little head scratching on how to improve that in the future. SYC’s Sailing Director Brian Ledbetter, for instance, would have been much happier getting his father in law Bill Buchan’s Sachem on the racecourse than being on the committee boat Portage Bay.

Friday’s racing was excellent, with steady mid-teens winds across the course for the two round the buoys races that sent grinders  home with some sore muscles. After Friday several of the classes were tight including the ORC 1 class where Smoke and Glory were tied, and PHRF class 3 which had a three-way tie for first. Onboard Tango, I got to witness that one firsthand.

The second race for that class was particularly close, with Tango edging out Joy Ride by just three seconds and five boats correcting to within a minute!

Saturday and Sunday’s conditions were nothing to write home about, but a race was sailed each day and of course there is no intensity quite like light air intensity. In addition to Jan Anderson’s shots, some enterprising members of the race committee were able to get some good shots here.

At this SYC web page, scroll to the bottom and then click on the appropriate class for results!

Kurt Hoehne

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.