Winter Vashon Island Race-South Sound Series #1

We are fortunate in Puget Sound, we can race and use our boats throughout the year. Sure it can be cold and wet, but unlike the Northeast and Great Lake sailors, our waters don't freeze and our boats are left in the water.

This weekend was the Winter Vashon Island Race. This is the first race of the 4 race Southern Sound series and is a 30.7 nautical mile race from Tacoma Yacht Club around Vashon Island.

I took off Friday and delivered the boat to the Tacoma Yacht Club. I left Brownsville at 0730 and was at TYC at around 1130 before the rush of boats that fills the moorage. The day was cool in the morning and then warmed up by mid day. Very nice calm day that made for a easy delivery. That evening TYC sponsored their usual excellant pasta dinner/social event completed with a raffle by West Marine.

Sturday was the race with the starts beginning at 0900. The weather was pleasant and there was actually wind. This race has been run in light winds, very heavy winds and even snow.

We were out on the course early and after some descrepency on the starting signals, we started right behind one of the favorites in our class, an Express 37 named "Declaration of Independence" (DOI). More about the start later. We set the spinaker and ran into Colvos Pass trying to avoid the adverse currents. DOI slipped away and "Grace E"(another J35) passed us before the wind filled in well. The rest of the run up Colvis was a drag race with DOI and Grace E staying just ahead. One more boat passed us just before the mark at the north end of Vashon Is, so we rounded in 4th.

On the beat back, the wind stayed at 10-15 knots and was shiffty, so we played the shifts and got a lift on the right side of the course that took us parallel to the east shore of Vashon Is. We passed the 3rd place boat and closed up on Grace E. A hole developed at Pt Robinson and both DOI and Grace E slowed down and we closed up more. By the time we got to Pt Robinson, the hole had partially collapsed and we had wind thru it. The wind had shifted more SW turning the final leg into a beat. DOI and Grace E went to the shore on the right side. We opted to cross to the Pierce County shore. A couple miles from the finish Grace E came to our shore and passed behind us. We covered and tried to stay between them and the finish. The winds actually got lighter and shiftier and Grace E got slightly ahead for a while, but we finally passed them again in the last two tacks and finished ahead of them. DOI had already finished ahead of us.

Now as Paul Harvey used to say: "Here is the rest of the story".

When we finished, we did not get a finishing horn. Neither did a lot of the boats that finished around us. Seems that the descrepency in the starting horns actually caused most of the fleet to start early. Out of 70+ boats that started, only 12 were leagl starters and ultimatly finishers. The race commitee started one class and then took a three minute break to let the ferry leave before restarting the start process. Most people were starting on times based on the first class start without the delay. Normally a postponment is signaled by horns and a specific pennant. Does not appear that that happened. A protest hearing is going to happen and probably the proper thing would be to throw the race out. I feel bad because I am usually really good about keeping track of the starting sequence and I let the crew down. But this time, it wasn't just a few boats that were confused, nearly 80% were. Have to wait and see how this works out.

Otherwise, it was a great day for racing. We meshed well as a crew, made good decisions and had really good boat speed. We potentially got second in our class.

Since the wind had been good, we finished in daylight and it was still light for the first hour of the motor home. Was back to Brownsville by 1915.