Doug Wardrop is a yacht broker and has been around the big boat racing game a while. For this event he got behind the lens and took a slew of pre-start and finish shots. Here’s a sampling, giving a pretty good idea of the light air at the start and finish. Click on any to enlarge.
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.
A few more photos and a great juicy detail have come out from last weekend’s Southern Straits Race we already reported on. The juicy detail was that the PHRF overall long course winner Blue sailed the entire race with a clump of sorbent oil boom on the sail drive. While that surely slowed them down, it wasn’t enough of a handicap considering the outstanding crew they had on board. Joe Bersch provides a little insight:
Jonathan McKee and I joined the Blue crew, along with Kris Bundy and Dalton Bergan. We had a great race in spite of carrying the remains of some sorbent oil boom on the sail dive propeller. We ran it over while motoring to the start directly in the direction of the low rising sun. Thought we had it all off before the start but upon finishing the race had a difficult time motoring.
It was a fantastic race with the full moon so bright you didn’t need a torch for sail trim or deck work. A bit cold by the time we rounded Ballenas the second time, but generally solid breeze until that point. A tricky final run to the finish in light and patchy breeze made it super tactical and hard to leave the deck for any rest. Jonathan was so focused on the puzzle he only got below about an hour or two the whole race.
Straits at it’s finest. West Van YC hospitality is always top notch. Blue is a great all around design, not just a downwind rocket waiting for the Pac Cup.
And now for the photos. Credits in captions.
Blue chasing Jam. Photo by Russell Berg, www.seeingberg.com. Additional photos at http://seeingberg.com/southern-straits-race
Lead long course boats approaching finish. Doug Wardrop photo.
The Shadow II, Doug Wardrop photo.
Blue finishing, Doug Wardrop photo.
Photo by www.seeingberg.com.
Poke and Destroy, borrowed from Facebook.
Dalton Bergan driving Blue. From Blue 1717’s Facebook page.
From Blue 1717’s Facebook page.
From Blue 1717’s Facebook page.
A big bowman. Credit to Neil of hitecimages.
hitecimages
hitecimages.
Once an Admiral’s Cupper, Amazing Grace. Photo by hitecimages.
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.
By Peter Salusbury, owner and skipper of Longboard.
This was the 50th anniversary of the Southern Straits Race classic and weather cooperated for what most will admit was a very pleasant and enjoyable race. Bruce’s pre-race forecast was mostly spot on though the NW wind stayed on a little longer than forecast into Saturday morning and then re-built closer to Vancouver to get most boats home early Saturday evening.
Peter Salusbury’s Longboard near the finish line.
After a brief postponement waiting for the westerly winds to build into English Bay, all the fleets started in a light westerly which built fairly quickly as we passed Point Atkinson and hit the Bowen Island shore. On the long course, most boats left the Bowen Island shore after reaching Cowan Point and started the long starboard tack over to the Nanaimo harbor area. The now NW wind built to between 12 to 16 knots all afternoon. The Shadow, Blue, Ha a’Koa, and Jam really legged out with their long waterlines on the smaller long course boats (Longboard and Poke & Destroy) but we stayed in touch enough that after rounding Ballenas Island (the first time), we could start to gain back some of those upwind losses. The long and fast downwind sail to T10 was beautiful with a huge full moon all night long and clear skies. On Longboard, we seemed to notice an unusual amount of wood in the water and twice ran smack into substantial logs doing 10+ knots!
On the downwind leg, it seemed to pay dividends to keep tacking to port offshore every time the wind went light while on starboard tack. We always found bigger breeze offshore and made big gains on our fleet by approaching T10 from the north.
After rounding T10, we had a solid beat upwind to Ballenas (second time) with winds peaking out over 20+ knots at time, but lightening substantially after Nanaimo harbor. Going upwind, it seemed advantageous to be a little closer to the Valdez/Gabriola Island shores as we picked up a nice port tack lift which definitely helped us on those competitors who were more offshore.
The start was delayed. Photo by Alex Anglin
After rounding Ballenas, the NW backed to more of a westerly and softened to less than 5 knots. On Longboard, we favoured the north side of the course home, found a very nice 4 to 7 knot northerly which seldom hit the water but we were able to keep the boat moving at 3 to 5 knots and sneak by Boondoggle and Hamachi. Eventually the NE wind disappeared, and after a short period of calms (good time for hot oatmeal and cinnamon buns), a very light westerly started to build which continued to build all the way to the finish. The smaller, slower boats on the Long Course were a little less fortunate with the westerly dying off not long after we finished on Longboard with many finishing late into Saturday evening – well done to them for persevering and getting a result. Overall, a very pleasant but somewhat ‘longer’ Long Course race compared to more recent years – but no rain, no clouds, full moon, lots of sun – none of us were complaining!
Peter McCarthy’s recently acquired TP-52 The Shadow was first boat home on the Long Course with Michael Schoendorf’s very well sailed Riptide 41 Blue finishing not far behind to take the PHRF Overall win. The boat that really impressed us on the Long Course was Bill Fox’s J/160 Jam who took the ORC Overall win by a wide margin – they appeared to sail a flawless race – super fast up wind, and really managed the light air on the last leg to get the win – kudos to their team.
On the Medium Course, Ross and Marcia Macdonald’s recently acquired X-41 DAIA took the line honors win (they were so fast upwind) but the experienced and always well sailed Shock 35 Excalibur skippered by Jason Vandergaag took the overall win in a very large 42 boat fleet. J/109’s seemed to love the conditions as they took 3rd to 5th overall with a double handed J/120 called Shearwater skippered by Justin Wolfe taking an impressive 6th place overall beating some very talented fully crewed boats. Great job to you both!
On the Short course, a perennial winner,William Phillips CY 8.0 Incisortook line honours, but the irrepressible C&C 30 Silik skippered by Wade Harrogate prevailed once again to take the Short Course overall corrected time win.
Once again, the race organizing committee deserve so much credit for making the 50th anniversary race so successful. On behalf of all participants, I’d like to thank first time Race Chairman, Mike Seper, and his army of volunteers at West Vancouver Yacht Club for making the race possible – great job, Mike! And lastly, thanks so much to all the participants who travelled from afar from home bases like Seattle and Victoria for the race – we appreciate the commitment you make to deliver your boats up and back at this time of the year and hope to see you all back next year.
Ed. Note: I’m hoping for some more photography. If more is forthcoming, I’ll put the photos in a separate post.
We don’t have the full Southern Straits story, but here’s what we know about Southern Straits 2018. On the long course, the TP 52 The Shadow II (ex Kinetic) Was first to finish, followed shortly by Blue, the Bieker 41. Blue also won the PHRF long course on corrected time, followed by Longboard and Poke and Destroy. Jam won the ORC division on corrected time followed by The Shadow II and Ha a’ Koa (ex Flash). There were 13 finishers on the long course.
The Medium course had a healthy entry list of 42 boats, but 10 retirements. First to finish was Ross MacDonald’s X41 Daia, which also won PHRF-2 followed by a trio of J/109s. The Schock 35 Excalibur won PHRF 3 (and medium course overall) and the J/92 Zaff took PHRF 4.
In the short course the CY 8.0 Incisor took a 6 minute victory over the Dufour 365 Flyaway.
We don’t have lot of details on the race. In the videos, the start was delayed and looked painfully light. But then the wind picked up for a rigorous beat. It’s clear that The Shadow II finished in some light air.
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 you can see from the charts, we are between a series of relatively weak weather systems. Today we have a weak warm front stalled along the US/Canadian border. A weak cold front will shift inland on Friday. The models are NOT in agreement about how fast or when this will move in. Weak high-pressure (1027MB) off the Oregon and Washington Coast will maintain a weak onshore flow this weekend. In the satellite picture you’ll see some weak cloud structure but very little to define any weather systems.
Click to enlarge images.
March 29 Surface Analysis
March 30 500MB
March 30 Surface Forecast
March 31 Surface Forecast
April 2 Surface Forecast Chart
The UW model is perhaps the most optimistic forecasting winds of 15 knots from the west for the start and then building into the 15-20 knot range from the NW as you work your way towards Ballenas. This should start to ease as the gradient weakens over the area by about mid-afternoon.
This will continue to ease through the evening dropping to around 10 knots from the West by mid evening 2100 hrs. Around midnight there will be patches of breeze with another blast of NW 15 filling down the Straits until about 0300 Saturday when it will start to die off.
After 0300 a conflict will develop between the remnants of the low to NE of the race area and the onshore flow bringing light air to the mainland side of the course and spotty NW breeze to the Vancouver Island side of the course. Expect drainage winds out of Howe Sound and spotty breeze over the Straits.
Running the polars for the TP-52’s, I have them around the course in 36 hours.
Sorry about that.
One of the keys to the race will be how and when this weak frontal system passes over the race course. The best way is to chart the barometric pressure readings as provided by Environment Canada on the VHF Wx . Note particularly Halibut Bank, Sentry Shoal, South Brooks, La Perouse Bank, and Buoy JA at the mouth of the Straits of JdF. When the pressure finally bottoms out and starts to rise that will signal the onshore flow starting to build.
When the pressure quits building, start looking for the windseeker.
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 Southern Straits Race is celebrating its 50th anniversary with Saturday’s start! Many happy returns to our brethren north of the border. We’re giddy to have Peter Salusbury, owner of the Bieker Riptide 35 II Longboard, give us a little history primer, and of course Bruce Hedrick is going to looking into his magic weather crystal ball tomorrow with a Bruce’s Brief right here on sailish.com.
By Peter Salusbury
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Southern Straits of Georgia Race this year, Sandy Huntingford and I were asked if we’d put together an historical retrospective of the race for one of our club’s regular pub nights. We gave our presentation this past Friday at the club to a packed house and we had a lot of fun over the course of the evening. In preparing our presentation, we dug into the club archives, documented our own personal experiences (combined we’ve done 89 races), and then reached out to a few notable Straits race veterans particularly those who were regulars in the 1970’s.
One of those contacted was Bruce Hedrick, an old friend I got to know in the 1976 SORC, who with his father, Lang, campaigned both their Columbia 50 Six Pack and Chance 50 Warrior to line honors, divisional, and overall wins in the early days of the race. Bruce has always spoken fondly of his memories of the races and the club volunteers who organized the race and helped them out in times of need. Bruce kindly responded to my request for his sea stories from his Straits Race days with some wonderful stories that we incorporated into our pub night presentation to a warm reception from the participants.
I’ve included excerpts from Bruce’s stories below to illustrate how attached and committed the Hedrick family was to this great PNW race and to highlight key themes we included in our presentation. One of the key themes we wanted to celebrate was the incredible commitment of our US sailing community to make the difficult and long delivery up to West Vancouver and return during the early spring to attend the race. Here’s an excerpt from Bruce on his memory of delivering the boat north in 1970……
As they say, you never forget your first…..Straits Race and the 1970 one is still indelibly printed in my mind. We were getting ready to do the Vic-Maui Race and wanted some more overnight racing experience besides Swiftsure. Besides, it perfectly coincided with spring break at the University of Washington which meant I could take the entire week to get the boat up to West Van YC from Seattle. Why go south to California when you could sail and fish for salmon the first part of the day, find an anchorage and then go scuba diving for scallops and abalone for appetizers followed by salmon, rockfish or ling cod for dinner. Those were the days.
And here’s Bruce’s story of an epic delivery home in 1975 after the race…..one of the points we made last Friday evening is that frequently the delivery legs are much harder than the race itself……
In 1975, the real story was the delivery back to Seattle. The forecast in the Strait of Georgia was for 25-40 from the NW which should have been perfect for a downhill run to Seattle. We decided to use the storm jib and no main. The problem was that once we got out there, there was a lot more wind than that. The anemometer was the analog B&G which only went to 60 and it was spending a lot of time pegged.
We made great time past Pt. Grey and about ½ way to Sand Heads, when we realized we were being set onto Sturgeon Bank and we weren’t going to clear Sand Heads. We couldn’t go back so we decided to hoist the storm trysail to see if that would help drive the bow up. In addition, we dropped the storm jib, unhanked it and moved it aft to the staysail stay. That combination worked and we were able to sail up enough to clear Sand Heads.
Back then, Six Pack had an ingenious way to get a flat main using roller reefing…..from the 1970 Straits Race….
By the time we went by Pt. Roberts, it was cranking and we decided to get the 150% down and go with a short hoist 110% with a reef in the main. This wasn’t easy as those were the days we had hanks on the headsails and used roller reefing for the main. We did, however, have the secret weapon for reefing and ending up with a reasonably shaped mainsail: we took the cushions off the berths and placed them in the foot of the main so they would flatten the main as you rolled the reef into the sail. It was really cold and since we almost never used the small headsail the hanks were tough to open, especially with gloves on. Then there was the problem of keeping the wind from blowing the cushions out of the foot of the main while slowly rolling the reef in. And all it did from there was get colder and colder and windier and windier.
Click to enlarge.
And one more gem found in the club archives was this handwritten letter from Lang Hedrick to race chairman, Jim Page, at the height of the 1973/1974 OPEC oil embargo asking if the club could provide 50 gallons of #2 diesel to get the boat home after the race. What a commitment to bring Six Pack all the way up to Vancouver given the diesel shortages at the time.
As for the racing itself, one of the funny parts of our evening was reading Fred Russell’s log on Solquest (multiple overall race winner) during the 1972 race when Six Pack roared up from astern off Merry Island under full canvas with marginal helm control (it seems)…..
1749 – Six Pack abeam – much shouting – appears to be slightly out of control – Six Pack crew warn about her broaching tendencies – then proceeds to demonstrate – very thrilling!
And then Sandy discovered a series of black and white photos he snapped from the cockpit of Solquest with his Kodak Instamatic, which captured perfectly a fully pressed Six Pack and the seconds before they gloriously broached out of control! Epic!
The Hedrick family’s Columbia 50 Six Pack, pressing hard in Southern Straits. Photos by Sandy Huntingford. Click to enlarge.
And then there was their perfect race on Warrior in 1977 where the clean sweep was performed…..one of our themes was how much different coastal navigation was back in the 1970’s and this describes it perfectly……
This was one of my favorite South Straits Races. The start was once again downwind in moderate breeze which was just perfect for us plus it was a long run up to Sisters which put Warrior right into her favorite conditions. We got steadily away from Weatherly and the rest of fleet, rounding Sisters right around sunset in 20-30 knots of southeasterly breeze, choppy and lumpy seas.
This was where my dad was really in his element. Keeping a running DR plot going on the chart table, navigating with the hand-held compass, repeatedly asking for bearings to different lights. Then he would set the RDF shrouded in a plastic bag on top of the companionway hatch, get a bearing and then disappear below to do the plot. He kept us off the rocks and took us inside of the Ballenas, Gerald, and Amelia Islands. It was when we tacked to go inside the Winchelsea Islands that things got interesting; we were introduced to Whiskey Gulf. All of sudden there were flashing lights, flares, big spotlights, horns, and guys in rubber boats with big outboards, guns, and bullhorns telling us to exit the area immediately.
We crossed the finish line just after 1:00 am Saturday morning which I think may still be the fastest elapsed time ever for a Straits Race. In the end, it had been a clean sweep for Warrior: First to finish, First in Class, First Overall and a course record. We flew the broom for a week.
All of these stories from Bruce illustrate so perfectly the dedication of Bruce, Lang, and their crews to repeatedly make the trek north each year to participate in Straits Race, a commitment we highlighted last Friday that all US entries do each and every year. All of us at West Vancouver Yacht Club truly appreciate and are thankful for that commitment and look forward to welcoming those US crews who are entered this year on Thursday evening at the club. And thanks, Bruce, for sharing your personal history of the race – you added a lot of color to our presentation last Friday!
Southern Straits is often a great race, and by the sounds of it it was this year. We’re lucky to have Peter Salusbury report on the race soon after finishing a strong second with his amazing Longboard. Enjoy the photos Peter and crew supplied, plus more photos courtesy of race chair Sonia Telford. If anyone has tales/pix/video to add, send them along and I’ll incorporate them into this post. Here’s Peter:
Southern Straits Race 2017 started with a packed clubhouse at the race host, West Vancouver Yacht Club, for a pre-race dinner and weather briefing. Bruce Hedrick had been watching the weather models all week and while he couldn’t make it the evening to present it himself, you could have heard a pin drop in the room as his detailed weather forecast was shared with the 200+ people in the room.
The Start with the big Seattle Spinnakers of Neptune’s Car, Jam and Joy Ride
Longboard leading the way.
Class 1 winner Kinetic
Steve Travis’ Smoke
A fine reach
The Olson 30 Double D was in Division 6 on the 98-mile Medium Course
Thankfully, the overnight rain let up first thing in the morning and start off Dundarave Pier featured a slowly oscillating NE to SE wind of around 5 knots. The long course boats started first with the NE wind prevailing initially with Longboard leading the pack on the rhumb line while the the two TP52’s, Smoke and Kinetic, gybed south to take advantage of better ebb current looking for the SE which eventually would settle in. As the morning went on, the southeasterly built to 10 to 15 knots as the fleet took the long port tack gybe to Sister’s Islet. The wind eventually built to a steady 20 knots with the big division 1 boats rounding Sister’s in the middle of the afternoon.
Leg two back south to the TA mark started in the 15 knot SE which slowly lifted to an easterly so you could parallel the Vancouver Island shore until about the Wincheslea Islands. From there to Entrance Island was a slow transitional zone with light airs, shifting breeze from NE to SW to no breeze at all. As always, there were winners and losers through this stretch but the boats that stayed offshore a little seemed to benefit from the post frontal southwesterly that eventually asserted itself south of Entrance Island.
Entrance Island to the TA was a starboard tack fetch in 15 knots of breeze – very fast sailing conditions. After rounding TA, the next leg to Halibut bank was too tight for many boats to carry a kite in the 15 to 20 knots of breeze but if you could carry one, it paid big time to sail low with a reaching kite and benefit from a slow lift and lightening breeze on the approach to Halibut Bank. From Halibut Bank to the finish line was a one tack fetch again in the 15 know southwesterly which lasted all the way to Bowen Island where there was one final massive transition zone. The boats that did the best led their fleets south on a port tack to stay in the dying SW and eventually were rewarded with a solid easterly coming out of English Bay.
So overall, a very fast and mostly dry race – much drier than anticipated interrupted by two to three significant transition zones that if you were good and a little lucky, really paid off in the results. (Race results here.) It was a classic Pacific NW race where the faster the boat, the better you did on the Long course for sure, and the standings suggest that applied to the Medium and Short courses as well. Kinetic and Smoke had a good battle going on all race with Kinetic eventually prevailing to take line honors just before 3 am on Saturday and the overall course win in both PHRF and ORC. It was David Sutcliffe’s first win in Straits race either as crew or skipper and good primer as he gets ready to take Kinetic south this summer to take on the Transpac Race. Stu Dahlgren’s Westerly from Royal Vic Yacht Club did a nice job staying ahead of Paul Lamarche’s always well sailed Neptune’s Car from the first leg onwards to finish third. Another well sailed Vancouver Island boat, Colin Jackson’s Jackrabbit, had a great battle with our very own Longboard, eventually correcting out 3 minutes to win Division 2 on the Long course in PHRF.
Longboard
Longboard
Longboard
Longboard
The Medium course was from the start to Sister’s and back to the finish line with the perennial favourite, Jim Prentice’s Diva taking line honors and another Vancouver Island boat, Beats per Minute skippered by Eldin Miller-Stead winning overall. The short course boats had a very quick race to Ballenas Island and return with the almost unbeatable Incisor skippered by William Phelps once again taking the overall win finishing just after midnight right behind the line honors winner Hurricane sailed by Matt Lane.
As always, a big shout out to the Race Chair, Sonia Telford, and her 90 volunteers who made this race a huge success. It was great to see so many boats from Seattle and Vancouver Island making the trek north and the race did create some great sailing memories. Hope to see everyone back for next year which is the 50th anniversary of Southern Straits Race. And finally, a huge thank-you to Bruce Hedrick for the pre-race weather forecast posted on sailish.com.
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.
Yet another interesting week of weather in the Pacific Northwest will wrap up with what could be the nicest weekend so far this year, especially on Easter Sunday.
The race tracker shows the fleet making its way west at about 1315 to Ballenas Islands, with Kinetic in the lead doing 12.8 knots.
The racers up in Vancouver for the South Straits got started this morning in what will probably turn out to be a bit of a slow race as the pressure gradient is widening over the area. Tracker Link.
After all the rain yesterday, punctuated with squalls that brought some rain, hail, and wind, a high-pressure ridge is starting to build over the area. Having said that, when you look at the Langley Doppler Radar you will see some significant rain still headed our way this afternoon. However, once that blows through, there won’t be much more for the rest of the weekend.
April 14 500MB
April 14 Current Surface
April 15 Surface Forecast
April 16 Surface Forecast
April 18 Surface Forecast
The strange part, but then again it is spring in the Pacific Northwest so expect anything, will be that while it will be generally light wind over most of the area, expect some breeze in the Straits on Saturday which will come down the Sound later on Saturday. The strange part is that the central sound will have breeze while it remains light in the North, South, and Eastern Straits. By breeze, we could see 15-20 knots from the north pretty much all day on Sunday.
Langley Doppler April 14
As you can see from the 500MB charts, the jet stream is still well south of us which will keep temperatures lower than normal over the area and keep the door open for more rain to wander in over the course of the coming week.
Enjoy the weekend!
Ed. Note: Bruce pulled double duty this week, doing a special Brief for the South Straits racers and today’s look at the weather for the rest of us. We’ll have a wrap on South Straits as soon as we can pull it together and get some reports from our Canadian friends.
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 good news is that the forecast models are actually starting to converge and looks like this could be a relatively pleasant race. What a difference a week or a day can make! If we had started last Friday by Friday night some boats might have been seeking shelter from 40+ knots. If we had started this morning we would now be in 30+ knots at Sisters.
As you can see from the surface charts we do have another front that will be passing over us tomorrow probably sometime between 1200 and 1400 hrs. This is a cold front so make sure you are going to be prepared for some wet and cold especially tomorrow night. Not below freezing but with the wind chill you might be just above freezing, 5⁰-8⁰ C.
April 13 500MB
April 13 Surface Chart
April 14 Surface Forecast
April 15 Surface Forecast
April 15 500MB
For the start, expect 5-15 knots from the SSE. As you work your way west out of English Bay and towards Halibut Bank the wind will begin to back very slightly and there will be some topographical compression resulting in higher wind speeds, not excessive but in the 12-18 knot range as you approach Sangster and Lasqueti Island. This will not last long as the gradient will begin to ease with frontal passage. Since the low-pressure system will be slowly curving away from the coast, the wind won’t completely evaporate but it will ease.
As the post-frontal wind comes down the Straits of Juan de Fuca it will curve up into the race course bringing slightly more wind to the west side of the course from Entrance Island south. North of Entrance, the mountains on Vancouver Island will begin to act a block keeping the breeze lighter near the Island. As the sun goes down know where your competitors and mark them with the handbearing compass to see who goes light where.
Friday 1100
Friday 1400
Friday 1700
Friday 2000
Friday 2300
Saturday 0200
Saturday 0500
Saturday 0800
Saturday 1100
Saturday 1400
Saturday 1700
Saturday 2000
Saturday 2300
By 2200 to 0400 the breeze will tend to be from the SSW to SW in the 8-12 knot range. After around 0400 the breeze will drop consistently over the course down to the 5-10 knot range. After 0900 on Saturday, the breeze may drop even more, just in time to coincide with the building ebb near the finish line. YUK! By late the morning, we will start to see the breeze back to the SE and become a little spotty, especially from Halibut back to the finish. From about 1300 until about 1500 there will be a slight increase in the breeze but dropping again and then severely glassing off around 1700. Watch for the drainage breeze as you get closer to the finish.
Above all else try to finish before 1700 hrs on Saturday.
Editor’s Note: I’ll do a wrapup after the race, and would love to include some first-hand tales as I won’t be making the trip. Please send stories (long or short), snapshots and video links to kurt@meadowpointpub.com. Thanks! Good luck 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)
Certainly another interesting day out there and real fun for the weather geeks. As we said yesterday, this looked like just another winter weather storm, slightly elevated wind speeds but not as strong as the TV and radio folks would like to have us believe. As I write, the barometer here as well as in the Straits, and along the coast has started to go up which should indicate that this low-pressure system has started to arc away from the coast. In some cases rising rapidly which can be as bad as falling rapidly so we’ll watch those stations. The coastal buffer zone once again is helping to diminish wind speeds over the interior of Western Washington. Note the chart for Cape Elizabeth, which I will try to update before sending this out. I’ve also included the Langley Hill Doppler radar image because you can really see where the low-pressure is centered off our coast, especially if you run the “Reflectivity Loop.” It is clearly moving away from the coast.
As you can see from the surface charts everything is pointing towards a post frontal kind of weekend. I think given the option I probably wouldn’t head out this afternoon and instead just get the boat ready to go tomorrow, late morning. For the north, central, and south Sound expect 15-25 knots for south-southwesterly until mid to late afternoon. Before going anywhere, check the station reports on your VHF. Remember that the definition of heavy weather is the point at which you don’t feel comfortable with you, your crew or your vessel being able to handle the conditions. No harm in just spending a comfortable weekend at the dock getting caught up on boat chores or reading those owner’s manuals.
April 7 Surface Chart
April 7 Cape Elizabeth Wind Speed/Air Pressure
April 8 Surface Forecast
April 9 500MB
April 9 Surface Forecast Chart
April 10 Surface Forecast Chart
April 11 500MB
April 11 Surface Forecast
April 14 Surface Forecast Chart
April 15 Surface Forecast Chart
By Sunday things will ease off in the Sound however along the coast we’ll start to feel the effects of yet another low-pressure system headed our way. Check the 48 hour surface chart. More lows are out there however they are starting to weaken and as we saw this week, the closer they get to our coastal buffer zone, the weaker they become. There is some hope for better weather after all. The downside is in the 500MB charts which have the jet stream well to the south of us which is actually going to allow more moisture into California and keep us cooler and wetter than normal.
For PSSR at Shilshole, the boats and crews that like breezy conditions are going to love Saturday. The challenge will be where CYC sets the start-finish line. That’s because even though the conditions are post-frontal, in other words, a southwesterly flow over the Sound, you will still have a very localized southeasterly coming out of the Ship Canal. This challenge will be compounded by stronger shifts to the southwest as the day goes on and the breeze starts to ease. Very tactical and challenging racing for sure.
I had a request from my friend Peter Salusbury up in Vancouver to gaze deeply into the crystal ball to see what conditions we may have for the best long distance race in the Pacific Northwest, South Straits of Georgia which will be starting on Friday, the 14th of April. Needless to say, if it had started today it would have been quite a thrash but then again we’ve come to expect this of that race. While the 11 April chart continues to show what appears to be an unrelenting string of low-pressure systems out there, they are really starting to weaken, except for that monster 972MB low on the International Dateline. It, however, is not moving our way so at this point conditions are looking relatively benign. Doesn’t mean you can slack off in your safety preparation, however. I’ve included the Navy charts for Friday and Saturday next weekend. I’ll have a special South Straits forecast on Thursday with a weekend post on Friday.
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)
