It may have looked like it was going to be a light air race but now, at least for the start, there will be breeze. From the start at Clover Point to Race Rocks expect 20-25 knts of SW breeze, as you get closer to Race Rocks expect 25-30 knots and that will hold until about 10-15 miles past the Race where it will back off to 20-25 knots of westerly to WNW breeze. This will hold until about mid to late afternoon when the breeze will back to WSW and ease to 10-15 knts. The breeze will continue to ease to 5-15 knots as it backs to the SW from Slip Point out to Swiftsure Bank. From Slip Point in to the finish the breeze will stay out of the W at 10-15 with more wind near Race Rocks becoming lighter as you approach the finish. After midnight you would really like to finish before 0200 or at least be North of 48 15N and East of 124W as the breeze will ease significantly. Then there’s the tides…..
The really rough part of the race will be for the bigger and faster boats that start early and ride the ebb to Race Passage. In the Race the ebb will meet the breezy westerly and it will be like sailing in the Waring Blender. In those seas and that much wind there will be gear failures. Just make sure everyone is wearing life jackets with harnesses and tethers before you leave the Inner Harbour.
The next challenge will be for the boats that haven’t made it back through Race Passage before about 0300 to 0530 hrs on Sunday morning.
What does the crystal ball say? For the Long Course, Mach 2 should round the Bank around 2000hrs and finish about 0500 hrs Sunday. For Cape Flattery Zvi should finish around 2245 hrs, the TP52’s about 2330 hrs. On the Clallam Bay course the J-35 should be in around 2315 hrs.
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)
Countless stories will be told, retold and no doubt embellished about this year’s Swiftsure race, sailed last month. It was one for the record books, literally. There were dismastings and DNFs, shortened sail heading out the Strait and serious surfing coming back to Victoria.
The biggest story has to be the Terramoto dismasting, which was not enough to stop her from winning the Cape Flattery course and in the process also setting an elapsed time record. The Paul Bieker designed, Bill Weinstein skippered 35-footer has been wreaking havoc in PNW for more than a decade and appears to not be slowing down one bit.
Curious about the race details, I called Alyosha Strum-Palerm who was onboard. He and a crew largely made up of Tasar sailors had Terramoto dialed in, sailing a strong beat to Cape Flattery and then lighting it up after they made the turn for the finish. Coming out of Neah Bay close to Tachyon and Hamachi, Terramoto planed in a building breeze leaving those 40-footers in her wake. They played it conservatively, dropping the chute before Race Passage, then hoisting the A 2.5 masthead asymmetrical in the flat water east of the Rocks anticipating lighter winds.
Instead of the wind dropping, the wind piped up to 33-38 knots and then one last big gust hit while Tim Scanlon was forward pulling the lazy sheet around for a letter-box drop. The backstay crane peeled off the top of the carbon mast and the mast buckled at about the middle point between the spreaders. After pulling the spinnaker aboard, Herb Cole pointed out they were still going six knots toward the finish line. With the main still half up on the broken mast, and a storm trysail rigged forward, Terramoto crossed the finish line amid some humor about an unreadable sail number,
Terramoto ending it downwindStill racingGetting creativeThe happy crew
The biggest challenge was probably getting the main down after the finish, which required breaking the spreaders.
Were they thinking about the record? “No,” Strum-Palerm said, “I wasn’t even aware of it until my mom texted me about it later in the morning.”
Strum-Palerm pointed out another dismasting story that played out behind them involving some “heroics” from Annapurna. The Terramoto crew had heard about Hamachi‘s dismasting west of Race Passage, so when the Canadian Coast Guard came roaring by and assumed it was Terramoto that needed help, they quickly pointed out that there situation was under control but there was another boat that might need help. It turns out that Hamachi broke her rig in heavy seas west of Race Passage, and Annapurna dropped out of the race, managed to get a tow line over to Hamachi, and then towed her through Race Passage. The Canadian Coast Guard took over from there, and Annapurna went on to the finish where she was given redress and finished third.
These stories aren’t really in much need of embellishment….. The question is, will Van Isle or Round the County top them?
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 happy crew, a record and a broken mast. Photo by Bruce Hedrick.
There will be stories (and maybe even songs) about the 2023 Swiftsure Lightship Race(s), and our intrepid weather prognosticator will share some soon. In the meantime, we do know that Terramoto broke her rig and the Flattery course record. And, by the looks of things, the corrected time win as well. Results.
By the way – I’d love it if any of you have stories or photos to share. Send them!
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.
If you’ve been watching the models this week, it has been a very interesting roller coaster ride with conditions going from extensive areas of calm to gale-force winds. Right now it looks like it could be a very nice race with wind around the course and enough breeze to make it exhilarating for the run through the Race to the finish. Particularly if you’re going through around the time of max ebb early on Sunday morning when we could have 20-30 knots of westerly. It will be like sailing in the Waring Blender.
Today’s surface analysis chart shows a weak trough of low-pressure running up the interiors of California, Oregon, and Washington with a building high-pressure system (1031MB) offshore. This will keep the pattern we have seen in the Straits for the last couple of days holding over the weekend and into next week. That pattern is one of light breeze in the morning but building in the Straits in the afternoon and into the overnight hours.
What we do know is what the tidal current will be in Race Passage for this weekend.
Saturday
0801 Max Ebb .5 knts
1251 Max Ebb 2.7 knts
1601 Slack
2018 Max Fld 3.6 knts
2259 Slack
Sunday
0315 Max Ebb 3.9 knts
0758 Slack
0858 Max Fld .4 knts
1014 Slack
1408 Max Ebb 2.3 knts
1701 Slack
2102 Max Fld 3.3 knts
The surface forecast chart for tomorrow, while it shows an increase in the gap of the isobars over the Salish Sea, we are still going to have a nice breeze for the start and breeze all the way out the Straits. Right now it looks like 8-15 knots of WSW breeze for the start and holding until about 1100 hours when the breeze will build into the 15-22 knot range and clock to the NW. By mid-afternoon, the breeze will build into the 20-26 knot range and stay out of the NW. This will hold out to the Swiftsure Bank while it will continue to follow a traditional pattern of building from Sheringham to Hein Bank. Remember, the breeze can double from Sheringham to Race Rocks so you should prepare in advance and talk through the steps in advance of getting the spinnaker down in breezy conditions. By 1600 hours we could have 25-32 knots of NW from Sooke to Hein Bank and this will hold in this area until 0400-0700 hrs Sunday morning when it will ease to 15-20 knots.
The breeze in the Straits from Sheringham to Swiftsure Bank will hold in the 12-22 knot range until around 2200hrs when it will slowly ease to the 10-15 knot range.
By 0100 hrs breeze will be down to 8-10 knots. By 0400 hrs the breeze from Cape Flattery out to Swiftsure Bank will become light and variable and stay that way until about 1300 hrs when the westerly will fill down the Straits again.
As mentioned above, the breeze can build dramatically from Sheringham to Race Rocks, and if you’re running you better start preparing to change down and maybe just sailing through the Race with the number 3 and no spinnaker. Then resetting the kite once the wind eases and the seas flatten out.
So sunblock on first thing, foul weather gear, life jacket and harness on before you leave the dock.
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)
Nothing like a good hard run on the Straits to blow away some of the Covid “stuff” we’ve been suffering through. We have reports from two courses from Bruce and Peter, plus Jan’s photos (not really indicative of the race, but still….) A video and newspaper clip bring Longboard’s race to the front. Results here. -KH
The Hein Bank Perspective
By Peter Salusbury, skipper, Longboard
The first “post pandemic” Swiftsure race hosted by Royal Victoria Yacht Club was held this past weekend and it was great fun to see old friends pre-race on the docks and race against our U.S. and Vancouver Island friends. Bruce’s pre-race weather forecast wasn’t far off and it made for some very fast elapsed times on the Hein Bank, Cape Flattery, and Juan de Fuca courses after the late afternoon westerly filled in.
Peter Salusbury won the start in his 48th Swiftsure
The Swiftsure Classic and Hein Bank race boats started first in a drizzly rain and 6-knot easterly and by Race Rocks, those favoring the more northerly route faired much better than those of us who didn’t with Blue and Smoke setting the pace. After Race Rocks, the flood tide started to become the challenge and those of us who led across to the U.S. side of Juan de Fuca faired much better than those who chose the Canadian side of the Strait. As predicted, the southeasterly died off in the early afternoon and came in from the south earlier for those of us in the middle of the strait and we had a pretty nice rhumb line course out of the Strait. Watching the AIS tracker was critical as it was clear Smoke and Blue were doing better a few miles off the US shoreline relative to Glory and Shadow who favored the US beach.
The westerly finally filled in solidly at Clallam Bay and we changed from the J1 to J2, eventually putting in one reef as the westerly built to over 25 knots at times. We had a classic Swiftsure beat up the US shoreline to Neah Bay and rounded just before a beautiful sunset at 9:00 in the evening. Unfortunately, Mark Vangolen’s beautifully refurbished ILC40 Occams Razor had mast problems and had to retire before rounding Neah Bay – very unfortunate as they had been sailing a real strong race to that point.
The run back was fast and fun but nerve racking at times dodging freighters, cruise ships, and those sneaky Clallam Bay boats with no AIS transponders! Planing downwind in the pitch black at 15 knots was a blast though and while we extended our lead on the boats behind us, Zvi, Smoke, Blue, The Shadow, and Westerly did a nice job legging out on us.
We rounded the Hein Bank buoy at 3:30am Sunday morning and had a bone jarring one tack beat to the finish line with a J4 and two reefs in main – wave pattern was steep and square and on one notable slam off a wave, our radar reflector surrendered and decided to part the boat! We finished at 5:10 Sunday morning so taking into consideration the light air conditions we had to Pillar Point and adverse current, this turned out to be a relatively fast race for us all.
Alan Lubner’s RP/55 Zvi took elapsed time honors finishing at just after 1:00am Sunday morning with Steve Travis’ Smoke finishing less than half an hour later. The overall winner on the Hein Bank course was Michael Schoendorf’s Riptide 41 Blue with Smoke taking second place and our own Riptide 35 Longboard in third place. Both Blue and Smoke sailed very smart races, made good decisions, and clearly were pushing their boats downwind on the way home – huge congratulations to them both for sailing great races.
And as always, a huge thank-you to Race Chairman, Randy Diamond, PRO John Abel, and the massive list of volunteers at RVicYC that, once again, made Swiftsure such a fun event to attend.
Longboard flying back to Victoria. Video courtesy of the good folk on Westerly.
The Cape Flattery Course Perspective
By Bruce Hedrick, chief weather guesser, J/35 Tahlequah (“The oldest boat in the Cape Flattery fleet with clearly the oldest crew, scary.”)
It was great to finally get back to Victoria for Swiftsure and see all those folks we couldn’t see for the last two years. It wasn’t perfect with rain on Friday afternoon that put a bit of a damper on the usual dock parties. The cooler than normal temps we’ve had this spring extended into the weekend with marine weather on the VHF warning that Hurricane Ridge in the Olympics and right above the racecourse would get two more inches of snow on Saturday night.
As usual, the Royal Victoria Yacht Club and its army of volunteers did a superb job of managing the event. Events came off on time, the start sequence was nicely spelled out in the SI’s and then repeated on VHF. The big boats got started first with a combined Long Course and Hein Bank fleet, followed by multihulls, the Cape Flattery fleet, and finally the Clallam Bay group.
A low-pressure system coming ashore in Oregon and a lobe of high-pressure to the north of the Straits, combined to give us an easterly wind and more importantly a downwind start. Great for spectators on the beach at Clover Point. It was only about six knots so it was critical to find a lane of clear air so you could try to get to Race Passage before the ebb changed to the big flood of the day. Navigators were tasked with watching speed over ground as well as the handbearing compass or AIS screen to keep track of the groups that were on the other gybe.
By the time the Cape Flattery fleet got going, it quickly became apparent that we would not get through the Race before the flood started. The boats that held starboard off the line seemed to do better than the boats that gybed early and went to the SSE. As the fleet got closer to Race Passage most boats decided it was better to sail outside Race Passage and avoid the building flood which always starts first on the Vancouver Island side.
The easterly held until about Pillar Point with the fleet that went to the south of the VTS lanes doing better than those who stayed to the north. The weather models were consistent that a westerly would eventually fill down the Straits and consistent with the typical pattern of the strongest breeze occurring the first day after frontal passage. It did seem that it took longer than the models suggested for the pressure gradient to shift to higher pressure offshore. The transition zone can be tough however this year the breeze went to the north first allowing the fleet to the south to close reach aimed directly at Neah Bay.
By the time the fleet got to Clallam Bay, the westerly had filled in and most boats went directly from the J1 to the J3 and some tucked in reefs. The other problem was that the flood had ended and the ebb began to build and with winds in the 20-25 knot range the seas got steep and very close together. The boats that had stayed to the south and closer to the US shore then followed a pretty typical pattern of beating along that shore to try and get into smoother water. Starboard tack was smoother but shorter so the longer port tack into the seas was bone-jarring and tough on boats and crews.
As boats got to the mark at Cape Flattery, some decided to set the kite immediately in the breezy and lumpy conditions while others decided to just do the gybe, get around the mark, stay with jib and main only, and get pointed back towards the Vancouver Island side. All of the leaders also rounded in what was a spectacular sunset giving the boats still beating up to the mark a beautiful vista. Some boats, like the Farr 36 OD Annapurna, once they got the kite up took off in the 20-25+ knots of westerly and flew back down the Straits, finishing almost an hour ahead of the next boat and easily correcting out on the fleet.
The rest of the fleet finally got their kites up at various points and then followed the traditional route back to Race Passage, the next problem was to get back through Race Passage before the big ebb of the day started. Luckily this year there was not the usual doubling of the wind speed from Sheringham to Passage. This allowed boats to ride the last of the flood down the Vancouver Island shore and do the gybe from starboard to port right in Race Passage. The wind was down to 15-20 knots so the gybe wasn’t too scary. The biggest problem was that it was very cold on deck and hands had a tough time holding on to sheets.
Once clear of Race Passage you could still keep the kite up by not being too greedy and aiming immediately for the finish. Plus you could see the puffs coming off the Island which allowed drivers and trimmers to work together and keep the boat upright and aimed roughly for the barn. The best part of this leg was that while the wind built into the low 20s for the first part, it didn’t die as you got closer to the finish and you were still flying along.
The post-race inspection at Ship Point in Victoria Harbour was not only friendly and efficient, but they were also serving a greatly appreciated and very tasty bowl of hot potato soup. NICE!
Again, kudos to RVYC and the Swiftsure Committee, this was a great event.
ManifestZviRoad Kill on the Inshore CourseDominatrix and companyLongboard
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.
This actually looks somewhat promising for those sailing out of Victoria this weekend. The problem is that conditions are still somewhat unstable and there will be a transition zone that will make things interesting. Temperatures will be cooler than normal and there will be some rain around. The known factor will be the tides in Race Passage and if the wind is lighter than currently forecast, it will mean fighting the big flood of the day after about 1130.
The surface analysis shows that we have a very weak Pacific High well south of where it normally should be. We also have two weak low-pressure systems, one to the north of us and another fast-moving one in the Pacific which will come ashore near the Columbia River Saturday. This is what will cause an easterly to persist in the Straits giving us a downwind start. The models show this holding until late afternoon with the faster boats getting out to the westerly around Clallam Bay and getting out to Neah Bay by early evening. Then a westerly will build to 15-20 knots for a spinnaker run all the way back to the finish. More importantly, getting back through Race Passage before the big ebb of the day really gets rolling.
All of this is predicated on getting away from the starting area and past Race Passage before the flood gets rolling. If the big boats get out and away, there could be course records set. Navigators will be busy with a two-way run keeping the boat on the shortest possible course. Zvi could finish the long course by 0100hrs Sunday morning. The TP-52’s could be in by midnight on the Hein Bank Race.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed. Have a great race and be safe.
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)
There’s not a whole lot to say about Driftsure 2019. Bruce warned you. 14 finishers on the various courses needed perseverance and hopefully enough food. At this writing there were still three boats out there. The rest have “withdrawn” and a lot of them are probably back in their home slips by now.
Jan and Skip Anderson were out there shooting, but as she says “This pretty well sums up the race this weekend! 😊” She did shoot this video and promises stills (very still no doubt) soon.
As my son Gabe said when I asked him if he wanted to see a funny video, he saw it and said, “That’s not funny, it’s just sad.” That said, I’m sure the folks who stuck it out had a good time. .
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.
Ed. Note: Bruce is not doing his live show in Victoria this year, and we’re not sure where this post will be shared by the Swiftsure powers to be. So, please spread the word that this post is up. Thanks, and sail safe.
Wx for RVYC Driftsure, Oops, I mean Swiftsure.
This will be a great weekend for powerboaters and tough one for sailors. Today’s surface analysis clearly illustrates the problem sailors will have with a moderate high-pressure system (1034mb) off the coast and a very weak low-pressure system (1006mb) just east of the Cascades and two weak low-pressure troughs bracketing the race area. By Saturday morning the inland low will weaken to 1007mb and drift slowly to the northwest. So while we may have some residual onshore flow coming down the Straits in the morning that will weaken as an offshore flow comes down from that low. This will bring a light north-northeasterly flow to the race course. By Sunday the pressure gradient will continue to ease even further until late Sunday afternoon when a weak onshore breeze will come down the Straits. By Monday we could see a fairly strong onshore flow in the Straits.
May 24 500MB
May 24 Surface Analysis
May 25 Surface Forecast
May 26 500MB
May 26 Surface Forecast
May 27 Surface Forecast
May 28 Surface Forecast
With this morning’s models I have Crossfire around the long course in 41 hours, Tahlequah around the Cape Flattery course in 46 hours and Glory around the Hein Bank course in 41 hours as well.
Tidal Currents in Race Passage
0716 .4 knots Min Ebb
1227 3.9 knots Max Ebb
1621 Slack
1940 4.1 knots Max Flood
2312 Slack
Sunday
0319 3.9 knots Max Ebb
0850 .2 knots Min Ebb
1335 3.2 knots Max Ebb
1718 Slack
2036 3.7 knots Max Flood
Where to go? Luckily we’ll have plenty of tide to at least
get us past Race Passage. After that, what wind there is will probably be in
the middle of the Straits. So just keep the boat aimed at the mark and get as
many of the crew as possible down below and getting some sleep because night
fighting will win this race.
I wish I had better news for you, just be safe and have fun.
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)
It looks like a
fairly benign weekend to be on the water, especially Saturday while Sunday
could be wet. We had plenty of wind today and as this weak ridge develops and
shifts inland, this breeze will ease and an offshore flow will develop as the
next system approaches the coast. Saturday morning will see a generally
southeasterly flow over the Salish Sea in the 8-12 knot range. As we move
through the day the pressure gradient will ease and the breeze will become
generally light over the area. A north-northeasterly flow will begin in the mid
to late afternoon over the San Juan and Gulf Islands bringing challenging
conditions to the Round Saltspring Race and the Round Whidbey Race.
For the Round
Bainbridge Race, conditions will start becoming light around noon and then drop
from there.
By late
Saturday, the coastal regions will begin to see some rain and this will move
inland on Sunday. Not a lot of rain but it will also bring definitely cooler
temps.
May 17, 500MB
May 17 Surface Forecast
May 18 Surface Forecast
May 19 Surface Forecast
May 20, 500MB
May 20 Surface Forecast
May 21 Surface Forecast
For those of you
doing the delivery from Puget Sound up to Victoria on Thursday for Swiftsure,
right now it looks fairly innocuous with maybe even a southerly in the morning
lasting until about noon. Tides are good with a slack tide at 0830 and a max
ebb around noon at Bush Point.
Have a great
weekend and remember there’s a great Boat Show in Anacortes this weekend.
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)
As I was watching the Swiftsure Race on a monitor from the feeling-left-out comfort of my desk chair, one thing kept leaping out at me. Among all those little boat icons littering the Strait of Juan de Fuca was an inordinate number of three-hulled icons. Of course there was Dragonfly, predictably making mincemeat of the monohulls on the Cape Flattery course. But she wasn’t the only one. Then there was an entire fleet doing the Juan de Fuca course, and they were going really fast. After getting over the fact they took up so much monitor real estate, I thought I better look into this. I put out the word to the PNW multihull faithful and some answers bounced around via email, which I’ve edited and included here.
I asked my Seattle contact Vincent DePillis what was going on and he reported “I think the additional turnout is due to John Green and Tim Knight energetically promoting the Clallam Bay race as a memorial for Ian Farrier. The shorter course attracts a lot of skippers who are not fond of flying the spinnaker at night, in log-infested waters. (Ed. Note, I guess it’s not something we leadbottomers going 6 knots don’t think about as much.) With Clallam Bay, you can at least tell yourself that you will get through race pass in the light.”
In short, the multihullers decided to roll up their sleeves and encourage skippers to get out there. A vibrant multihull fleet is a great thing, and by the sounds of it the sleeves will remain rolled up. Race organizers take note! Here’s the report from the Canadian multihullers who did the sleeve-rolling.
For more information on PNW multihull racing, check out the Northwest Multihull Association or the Vancouver Island Multihull Group.
John Green, Sauterelle, Farrier Trimaran
I am still licking my wounds and getting Sauterelle cleaned up for summer cruising, but yes, the new course to Clallam Bay is what did the trick, and remembering Ian Farrier (ed. Note: Farrier died in December) added to it all. We had 10 Farrier tris here, and they performed very well. I have to give full credit to Tim Knight for thinking of it all. I have been doing this a long time and kind of got stuck in a box of “it has always been this way” until Tim suggested change.
We had had the very short inshore course, but in 2017, not one multi registered, and in 2016, only one did. A race committee cannot support that, but with Clallam Bay, there is a chance to get home before dark and as you said, see where you are going.
I think what adds to it, and not blowing my own horn here, is the sense of camaraderie that exists within our group and the Friday gathering at the yacht club. I actually had a waiting list as we were full. There were 3 more Farrier boats that had wanted to come and had signed up for dinner, but personal and health issues caused them to drop out. This race is suitable for the smaller tris as well so maybe next year some of the F24s and more F27s will be tempted. Probably will need a bigger dining room!
I like to think of Swiftsure more as an event over 3 days than merely as a race.
Tim Knight, Slice of Life
The turnout was a concentrated effort by myself and John. I’m the behind the scenes guy and John is the guy on the phone, sending emails and generally being the best Farrier/multihull ambassador there is.
After we created the Callam Bay Race to celebrate Ian’s life and contribution to multihulls and sailing we got some blowback from some long time competitors, they thought it was underhanded and unfair to them, we explained that times change, we no longer go to the Bank, and we went from a high turnout back in the day of 20+ boats to only 5 last year. After their feedback our solution was to create two races keep the Neah Bay and carry on with the Clallam Bay race.
The rational behind the race was just as Vincent stated, avoid the wind dropping at Neah Bay and then spend the night dodging freighters and logs, sometimes at high speed. We also felt it would be fair to have the rest of the multihull fleet have a shot at getting back before last call. As our skippers and crew are aging and everyone’s expectations are changing, most folks are looking for the adventure, but comfort and fun are paramount, so the shorter race addresses this reality. In future years when the wind isn’t so good the race benefits will be really appreciated…
The rest is history. John resurrected his legendary dinner that started back when Ian Farrier agreed to come to Victoria, and if my memory is right John arranged the first multihull dinner in his honor. This year we maxed out at over 65 sailors and family and what a great dinner it was. Multihull sailors are so smart, we are the only fleet that dines together and takes advantage of RVYC’s Dining area, great food and some good deals on beer!
There still is some feelings harbored by the Neah Bay Boats, they started referring to the Clallam Bay event as the “Clown” Bay race and other derogatory terms, as a person who has tirelessly worked and spent thousands of $’s and endless hours to support and grow multihull and sailing in the NW I am a bit befuddled by this attitude especially since the Idea John and I had was such a success! It would be great if those folks could get past what ever negative feelings they have and use that energy to increase the Neah Bay Fleet for next year, as will John and I for both races.
On another note I started the NW Multihull Championship many years ago, back in 2004(?), I created it as Cow Bay was a great venue, and we were starting to attract a big fleet with a good portion coming from the US, so it seemed like a logical step to take to try and encourage more boats to get together for a really fun weekend of sailing.
Back in those days my sail loft bought a lot of advertising I used that to leverage Pacific Yachting, 48 Degrees North and Northwest Yachting to all promote Cow Bay and the NW Multihull Championships.
The one change we will make to this years event is to go back to PHRF NW’s basic philosophy of TOD instead of TOT. We have reviewed who wins at Cow Bay and as it is very balanced between all sizes of Multi’s we will stick with the one Fleet format, as in all racing you want to do better sail better!
One review needed is if a boat’s rating was generated with a crew of 3-4 then the boat should race with that number or have a rating review…
Lets keep this momentum going and get a great turnout at Cow Bay…
Dragon. All photos by Jan Anderson. Click 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.
