Smith Island Race

Bruce’s Briefs: Wx for Apr 29 & 30, May1-3. Smith Island and Double Bluff Race

Bruce Hedrick Bruce's Briefs 0 Comment

Our weird and wonderful weather continues even as NOAA forecasts a third straight year of La Niña, so cooler and wetter than normal. Let’s hope, as the rest of the country will not be so lucky this summer. On to sailboat racing this weekend!

Just as the NWS divides the Salish into different areas; Puget Sound, Admiralty Inlet, Eastern Strait of JdF, etc etc, it turns out there’s a very good reason for this and we will all be witnesses to these divisions this weekend. The models do not agree on what we’ll have and that is because it’s springtime in Putrid Sound.

Unfortunately, what we can agree on is tidal currents so let’s look at Admiralty Inlet, Bush Point.

Tidal Currents

0824 Max Ebb 2.85 knts

1124 Slack

1500 Max Flood 3.41 knts

1824 Slack

2100 Max Ebb 1.75 knts

2330 Slack

Sunday

0254 Max Flood 2.36 knts

0530 Slack

0854 Max Ebb 3.89 knts

The bad news is that the time of the strongest tide in Admiralty (!500hrs, 3.41 knts) will roughly coincide with the time of the least amount of wind. When was the last time you practiced anchoring?

April 29 500MB
April 29 Surface Analysis
April 30 Surface Forecast
May 1 500MB
May 1 Surface Forecast
May 2 Surface Forecast
May 3 500MB
May 3 Surface Forecast

The surface analysis charts and sat pic provide a great overview of the dilemma headed our way. We have a very weak frontal system attached to a very weak low-pressure system just off the coast that will move through the area late tonight and into early Saturday. This will bring a strong SE pre-frontal breeze to the coast and the Eastern end of the Strait of JdF. There just won’t be much in the inland waters. One of the problems is that the weak low will remain stalled off of Cape Flattery keeping a SE breeze in the Strait and a weak onshore flow through the Chehalis Gap which will keep the southerly light in the Sound.

As the front begins to dissipate over the Sound around 0900 hours (start time) the breeze will also begin to drop from 5-8 in the area from Shilshole to PNP. The breeze will not be consistent in strength with Puget Sound potentially looking a little like swiss cheese. By about midday, the breeze will become light and variable over the racecourse. If you’re on the long course, and you can get around Pt No Pt and Foulweather Bluff before the tide starts cranking against you, you will probably want to aim for the bottom end of Marrowstone, where you can work the beach and be in position for the westerly which will eventually come down the Strait.

If you’re on the Short Course, you will probably work the back eddy below Pt No Pt and then do your best to get across the Sound to Useless Bay so you can work that back eddy up to Double Bluff. It’s also easier to anchor in Useless Bay.

By 1700 there should be a NW breeze of 5-10 from Pt No Pt(PNP) to Smith Island and this should hold through the evening hours until around midnight. From PNP south to Shilshole NW of 10-15 holding until about 2100 hours when the ENE of 5-8 knots will hold through the early morning hours before it drops to less than 5 knots.

This race will drive tacticians and trimmers crazy. The very hazy crystal ball has ZVI around the course finishing at 0615 hours Sunday. On the short course, I have the Legendary Boomerang finishing at 0145 hours Sunday.

Temps won’t be bone-chilling but it will be wet Saturday morning. Sunday will be a much nicer day, just perfect for drying out sails and the boat.

Be safe and have a great race.

While some may be practicing anchoring, our intrepid weather prognosticator shall be sitting here.

Smith Island – Yes, There Were Finishers

Kurt Hoehne Racing 0 Comment
Smith Island – Yes, There Were Finishers

It wasn’t looking good for the Smith Island Race last Saturday. After an 0900 start the long and short course fleets (with a couple of exceptions) were bunched up, stuck south of Point No Point with 0-1 knots of wind, facing a flood. None of this was a surprise to Bruce Hedrick, who’d suggest lunch in Kingston would be a good option (it was). A few boats, starting ironically with the fastest boats, had already withdrawn. Nor’wester had somehow managed to drop an anchor in about 400 feet of water.

It was the first race in Seattle Yacht Club’s annual Tri-island Series, complete with separate long, short and cruiser/racer courses. The Long Course takes boats all the way north to Smith Island and return.

Many more boats withdrew before a mild but steady northerly filled. But fill it did and gave those that stuck it out a good, albeit light air, race.

The fleet was now down to a handful of boats, none of which had the speed to break too far into the lead. The ORC “O” class had abandoned completely, but ORC “1” still had two stalwarts, Jim Marta’s Eye Candy and Justin Beals’ Sadie Mae. On the PHRF side, Grace, with Grace, Bravo Zulu, Freja, Lodos and DarkSide were closely bunched going around Point No Point.

In the mix were the short course boats, except for the Flying Tiger 10M Izakaya which was clear ahead. Izakaya was the lone starter in the Sportboat class. Skipper Iain Christenson solidified his lead by heading to the Whidbey side early, rounding the Double Bluff buoy well ahead of her class. In the end, she won overall by just five seconds over Thomas Andrewes’ Davidson 29 Madame Pele. Pele had worked hard throughout the drifting conditions, taking advantage of every zephyr using an effective drifter.

In the cruiser/racer division, the Beneteau 345 Lightfoot ran away with the victory. This fleet continues to gain momentum, and there are now two classes.

Back on the Long Course, it became an entertaining battle. Onboard Grace, we went for the Whidbey side of Admiralty Inlet, and for a while it looked to us like the defining winning move, but when we came back wiht the rest of our fleet, we’d actually lost ground. As night fell, the northerly held, turning to a westerly as the fleet close reached to Smith Island. Eye Candy, Freja and Bravo Zulu were around first followed by Grace and with Grace (yes, a bit weird on the names) rounding overlapped at the east end of Minor Island. The persistent J/109 Lodos wasn’t far behind. It was a beautiful moonlit reach back to Admiralty Inlet where the wind lightened once again, but did not die completely. 

The Long Course boats all finished the next morning, led by Grace but with Lodos and Bravo Zulu correcting to firsts in class and overall.

It was a hard but good race in that Pacific Northwest kind of way, with maddening light winds much of the time, adverse currents and a relentless cold. All that said, it was a beautiful sail with opportunities to get ahead, great competitors and some of the most challenging waters to figure out anywhere. For those interested, I’ve philosophized a bit about this kind of sailing in a separate post.

Results here. The full photo albums here and here thanks to Alex Kimball, who also provided the photos here.

 

Bruce’s Brief’s Wx for 27, 28, & 29 April. For Smith Island Race, the ebb’s the good news

Bruce Hedrick Bruce's Briefs, Racing , 1 Comment
Bruce’s Brief’s Wx for 27, 28, & 29 April. For Smith Island Race, the ebb’s the good news

Infrared satellite image. Click to enlarge.

I’m not sure where the mainstream doom and gloom forecasters are getting the breezy part of the forecast for tomorrow. It simply isn’t going to happen. The breeze is definitely on for the Straits, it’s already 31 knots from the west at Race Rocks as part of the onshore flow that will continue to develop through today and then ease after midnight. Unfortunately, this weekend will look much like last weekend with the onshore flow coming down the Straits and through the Chehalis Gap creating a convergence zone that will extend roughly from Pt. No Pt. to the San Juan Islands, right over the race course. That’s the bad news. The good news is that we’ll have an ebb to get us out of the starting area and up to the zone. Lunch in Kingston anyone?

Tidal Currents in Admiralty Inlet.

0818    3.32 knots Ebb

1142    Slack

1430    2.37 knots Flood

1724    Slack

2030    2.42 knots Ebb

2336    Slack

Click to enlarge any image:

The deal is that there probably isn’t any good news. No wind or very light air over Admiralty Inlet with the tide turning against us around noon. We are, in fact, paying for the very nice weather we’ve had the last couple of days. Record High temps, no rain, etc etc. It’s all going to change with the temperatures dropping, and rain coming on shore with a weak cold front you can plainly see in the Satellite Pics. It is already showing up on the Doppler from Langley Hill.

The charts show not much gradient over the Pacific Northwest for the next couple of days with nice weather returning by about mid-week.

Enjoy the weekend.

 

 

 

Bruce’s Brief for the Smith Island Race

Kurt Hoehne Navigation, Racing , , , 0 Comment
Bruce’s Brief for the Smith Island Race

This is the start of SYC’s Tri-Island Series and it is once again going to be interesting. As you can see from the Saturday morning chart we have a weak ridge of high pressure that developed over the area today after a weak front passed through this morning. The rule for the Pacific Northwest is that the first day that ridge builds is going to be the best day for wind and sure enough, we’ll have small craft advisories in the Straits with the wind backing off after midnight. Since this isn’t a very strong high pressure system and it’s not very round you can expect it to be pushed around by the next low pressure system which shows up on the Sat PM chart. As the high shifts to the other side of the Cascades you can expect the northwesterly in the Sound become more northerly and northeasterly. This will cause that down slope compressional heating which brought us those record high temps earlier in the month.

What does this mean for the race? The tides really aren’t that bad as we’ll be starting in the weak flood of the day (.24knts in Admiralty) with the slack occurring at 1042 and going to the big ebb of the day which will help us get up the Sound, out of Admiralty and into the Straits.

TIDAL CURRENT for Admiralty Inlet

0942      .24           Flood

1042      Slack

1512      2.13        Ebb

1854      Slack

2200      1.8           Flood

0112      Slack

0442      2.23        Ebb

0854      Slack

1036      .56           Flood

 

The problem will be the light and variable winds in the morning which will persist until early afternoon with a northerly showing up at Pt. Townsend about noon and then working its way down the Sound by 1300-1400hrs. The key will be to make the most of the wind you have and then find the river of current that is running the strongest in the direction you want to go. When you can start to smell the pulp mill at Port Townsend, work to the west where there will be more wind and as you work up Marrowstone Island the port tack puffs will be lifts. You should still be in the ebb and from the Marrowstone Light it could be one long port tack all the way to Minor Island. If you find yourself on a course for the Pt. Partridge Light, or you find the true windspeed starting to drop, take a short hitch to the west to get back into what should be a building westerly, 15-20 knots by 1700 hrs which is the when the big boats should be at Smith Island.

Click on any image to enlarge.

The nice thing about running this race in spring is that the kelp hasn’t had time to reach any kind of length or become that keel grabbing forest that occurs in the late summer and early fall. Just remember, it can grow at a rate of 18” per day in ideal conditions. Regardless, give the west side of Smith plenty of room as there is a monster rock out there which is well marked on the charts and it is shallow with 3 and 4 fathom patches that are dotted with rocks.

The slack in Admiralty is at around 1900 hours which means you should have both flood tide and wind (8-12 knots) to take you back down the Sound. The reach from Smith Island back to Admiralty might include some two wheel reaching in 15-20 so make sure everyone is hiking hard and clipped in. If you can’t carry the kite, move the lead out to the rail and if you have a genoa staysail, get that up.

The run from Pt. Partridge back down Admiralty will probably be in a more northerly than northwesterly which will transition to a north-northeasterly as you get past Pt No Pt. The key on this leg will be to stay in the max flood and don’t get too far into corners. The breeze will probably stay out of the east-northest from Pt. No Pt back to the finish however you’ll want to have all eyes out of the boat and watching for holes as you get closer to Shilshole.

The big boats are projects to finish 0030 to 0200 hrs Sunday morning.

Ed. Note: Racers, be appreciative! Bruce can’t be on the race course this weekend and wrote this up anyway!