Round Saltspring Race

One of the more challenging races in BC is the Round Saltspring Race. This year we’re lucky to have two reports. First up there’s Alex Fox, longtime master of the BC currents and zephyrs, who was aboard Joy Ride as the J/122 sailed to victory. Pete McGovern, Race Chair, also sharea a report. Remember, we love posting about BC racing, so if you have a story, please share it on sailish.com. And don’t forget, Bruce Hedrick is generating several weather reports on sailish.com for Swiftsure, starting tomorrow. He’ll also be giving an in-person brief in Victoria on Friday! (results)

By Alex Fox

This year’s Saltspring dawned like many other past years, a light southwesterly blowing at the start and a forecast for not much more than 5-8 knots. There was a friendly favorable current flushing fleet out of Ganges Harbour though. Joy Ride was in Division 1, the seventh start and we had a nice fleet of mostly similar rated boats to race against, plus the two “Bigs,” the SC70 Westerly and TP 52 The Shadow II. It was nice to see one of our Van Isle competitors back from rudder failure in last years race the J 111, 65 Red Roses. We knew they would be tough and a good yardstick. There was also Jack Rabbit and Kairos, always tough. 

We managed a good start at the committee end of the line and got a nice jump on our immediate competition, even crossing Westerly and the TP52 a couple of times!  Before long the breeze had picked up to 8-10 knots as we headed towards Beaver Point and a clockwise rounding. As it inevitably does, the breeze lightened as the fleet made its way across the south end of Saltspring. Historically, the best strategy here is to get away from Saltspring and head over towards Portland Island, anticipating another fill from that side. This represented the first compression of the fleet and we were fortunate to be able to see where the breeze was, take advantage, and sail right through the early starters. Lucky for us, not so lucky for the smaller boats. 

Getting through this transition, we used mostly the code zero, which kept us moving and then ultimately we were able to peel to the A1, The Shadow II had punched through pretty seamlessly and we trailed only them and Westerly at that point. The breeze began to build again as we got into Cow Bay, a lovely run down to Sansum Narrows. Up ahead we could see the two leaders had stalled in fickle air and a  tide gate that had yet to open. We sailed a cautious entry into the narrows, trying to stay in the fingers of pressure, alas we slowed to couple of knots over the bottom. The fleet behind was bringing in a filling breeze, led by the Aerodyne 38 Kairos. They sailed up to within ten boat lengths of us before we finally got the fill, nice relief! 

From that point on our goal was to watch the big boats for what breeze might be coming up, while keeping a close eye on Kairos. The conditions were typical Saltspring shifty! Coming out of Maple Bay there was yet another transition between Crofton and Vesuvius. Westerly got swallowed up for a bit, while Kairos and ourselves had a much easier time skirting the edge with less down time. Code Zero again and a good fast reach to Southy Point, the north end of the Island. The beat back up Trincomali Channel was in a beautiful 8-12 knots of breeze and our strategy was simple! Joy Ride loves these upwind conditions, so it was sail fast, stay in the same water and try to extend on Kairos. That worked out for us and we probably doubled our distance on them approaching Captains Pass. Heavy sigh, we knew the wind would lighten there, with adverse current, this was going to be tough. Twenty tacks or so later, hugging the Saltspring shore we managed to work through. Kairos was not going away and they closed up in the compression again we were in a real battle again. Once through the Passage, we were able to crack sheets for the run back into Ganges and the finish. Wind was lightish but solid, and with the A1 up, we did what we could to stay in the pressure, focusing on sailing fast. Once across, we didn’t say much, all eyes were on Kairos and our watches. Three minutes, forty two seconds, That was enough! 

Fantastic race as always, put on by the members of the Saltspring Island Sailing Club. Great hospitality and by far the very best regatta prizes anywhere, with class prizes of a carry bag full of locally produced goodies, bread, cheeses, jams, smoked salmon, Beer, Cider and more! Good times. 

 

 And this from Race Chair Pete McGovern:

Round Saltspring 2018.

The visiting boats have packed up their gear; crew and skippers bleary eyed from lack of sleep or too much revelry, have headed back to their home ports and after the disappointment of last year’s race when only 10 boats finished, the 45^th Round Saltspring Race will be a race to remember.

Race Officer, Rich Ballantyne called a clockwise course around the Island, as favorable currents were expected to help all boats at some stage of the race.

With light south easterly winds the first challenge for all eight Divisions was clearing the start line and getting out of the harbour and into the fast moving southerly current down the course as quickly as possible. With slower boats starting first, the added challenge for faster boat Divisions was to pick a course that best navigated through the moving obstacle course of previously started boats.

The second challenge was navigating the light fickle breezes and negative current around the Fulford Harbour entrance, before positioning into the right place to catch a growing breeze and tide change at the south end of Saltspring. Once the big flood tide got going, boats blasted through Sansum Narrows under spinnaker with a big push from behind. Emerging from Sansum Narrows in first was The Shadow II, followed by the Multi-hull Dragon and then Westerly followed a few minutes later by Joy Ride, Jackrabbit, and Kairos. The damage had been done as these boats then kept the lead through a big wind shift off of Vesuvius before rounding the north end of Saltspring and then mostly keeping the breeze down Tricomali Channel until the Finish in front of the sailing club.

The rest of the fleet was not quite as lucky, as the wind that had propelled them down Tricomali Channel started to die as they approached Captains Passage and a week ebb tide was sufficient to set up a parking lot of 30-40 boats spread across the passage. Fingers of wind plucked boats randomly out of the pack before the current finally released the hoards for a slow clawing back to the finish line. Mayhem ensured, as an overwhelmed Race Committee had to deal with 40 boats finishing within 10 minutes, some groups crossing the line 3 or 4 abreast.

With only two boats retiring from the race, we had a full house on Sunday morning for the Lions Club pancake breakfast. This was followed by the much anticipated awards ceremony where prize bags of local produce and sponsor prizes are handed out to well deserving winners.

Peter McCarthy’s The Shadow II, a TP-52 hailing form West Van YC crossed the Finish at 6:26pm and won Lady Minto Hospital Foundation Trophy for Line Honours with an elapsed time of 7 hours, 46 minutes. Bron Miller aboard the J-122E Joy Ride from Seattle Yacht corrected out ahead of Kairos from Royal Vic and won Divison 1 and the Marshall Sharp Trophy for First Overall. Vincent Argiro’s, Velica won the No Flying Sails Division and the Doug Thomas Trophy as first boat from Saltspring Island Sailing Club. Duncan Gladman’s Dragon Dragon overcame a start-line altercation to win the Multi-hull Division.

In a remarkable story of perseverance, Tracey DeVaney and crew aboard Miss Runaway, a McGregor 26, stuck it out until after sunrise and for the first time in 11 tries completed the Round the Island course and in doing so, won the Tar and Feathers Trophy as last to finish. A full list of winners and race photographs can be found on the race website at www.roundsaltspring.ca

Thanks go to all our sponsors, the local community and the great volunteers from the Saltspring Island Sailing Club that make this event happen every year.

Pete McGovern

Race Chair Round Saltspring 2018.

Saltspring Island Sailing Club.