Poulsbo Invitational WSSA#4

Saturday was the 4th race of the West Sound Sailing Association(WSSA) series. This race, sponsored by Poulsbo Yacht Club, started near Battle Point off Brownsville and since we had south winds, went south to a mark at University Point, north around navigation mark R6 northeast of Pt Bolin and then to the finish in Liberty Bay at the Poulsbo Yacht Club.

The turnout was low with only nine boats in the three classes. There was only three boats in the Division 1 class that we race in. The winds were light at about 5 knots from the south and expected to shift to the north when the convergence zone moved through.

We had a great start and on the beat to University Point, we gained on Dulcinea(J105) and lead by about three minutes at the first rounding. On the run, the winds got lighter after we rounded Battle Pt and about have way from Battle Pt to Pt Bolin, it got very light and boats from behind caught up. Egress (Hotfoot 27) who started 5 minutes behind us in Division 2 caught up even with us as did Dulcinea.

Great White, Egress and Dulcinea stayed overlapped the rest away to the the turning mark with Egress rounding just ahead of us and Dulcinea rounding just behind. From R6, Egress and us tacked toward the right shore, crossing the reef. At one point we only had 2.6 feet below the keel. Dulcinea tacked into the middle of Agate Pass but lost ground to us even though the sailed in the favorable flood current. We rounded close to Pt Bolin and about half way to Keyport were able to set the spinaker again on the reach. We followed Egress through the pass into Liberty Bay and eventually finished a few seconds behind them. Dulcinea finished about a minute behind us correcting on us for first in class. Kaze(US33) finished close enough behind us to correct on us as well. We probably got 2nd in class and 4th or 5th overall.

Steve T and his crew on Egress sailed a great race and probably finished first overall.

It was a good day and we were back to brownsville by 1500. The winds did change to te north after we finished and the weather was sunny for most of the time, but did clould up and tried to rain a little later in the day.

Results(when they are posted) can be seen on:

http://kitsapsailing.com/wssa.html

Next saturday I am on my way to Port Townsend on Sloop Tavern Yacht Club's Race to the Straits. This is a two day race from Shilshole to Pt Townsend and return on Sunday. This race is for both singlehanders(one person) and doublehanders(two people) only. I always look forward to this race each year and have only missed it one time since it's start in 2002. I had shoulder surgery in 2007 and was still recuperating.