Racing in Puget Sound is sort of unique. We race most of the year and if there is anything like a first "first race of the season", it is probably the Winter Vashon Race that is run on the first saturday of December. This is the first race of the South Sound Series. It starts at Tacoma Yacht Club and goes clockwise around Vashon Island for a distance of 30.7 nm. At this time of the year, just about any type of weather is possible from warm drifting conditions to driving rain and 40 knot winds.
I delivered the boat to from Brownsville to Tacoma Yacht Club on Friday morning. This was a four motor in calm, cold, foggy conditions. A couple of times the fog closed in to about 100 yard visibility.
I arrived at the reciprical moorage at 1130 and got a well protected spot along the dock. By evening, the moorage was filled to capacity. Tacoma Yacht Club puts on a good pre-race party with a dinner. West Marine raffled a lot of stuff.
Saturday was cold with temps in the low 30's. The forecast was for winds north at 15-25knots, but it was foggy with light SW winds at less than 5knots. The committee postponed the race for about 45minutes until the fog lifted. We were the third class to start. Our class was rather large with 16 competitors, including seven J35's. We had a OK start and entered Colvos Pass. I observed the currents the day before and played the stronger favorable currents. We passed a lot of boats and stayed in the lead group for most of the race.
Halfway up Colvos Pass, the wind filled in from the NE and increased to 15knots. We rounded the mark just behind Declaration of Independence(DOI)(Express 37) and set the spinnaker. The wind was off the beam and we has a fast run down Vashon Island to Pt Robinson. We ran just passed mid channel before jibing to a course to the finish. There were four of us in close proximity. DOI went low, Liberte'(C&C115) stayed high and Absolutly(One tonner) and us stayed on the rhumb line. The wind was puffy with gusts to 20knots and mainly off the beam. We hit 9knots once and stayed in the mid 8's most of the time. Absolutly stayed ahead. We were able to stay even with DOI until at the end, they reached up to the mark finishing just behind Absolutly. We stayed low until a half mile from the finish and then reached up. We almost beat Liberte', finishing 3 seconds and about 15 feet after them! Zorra(another C&C 115) was the first to finish in our class, we ended up 5th and the first of six J35's to finish(one was DNF). I was happy with the results and with the crew work. The crew worked well together and helped us to sail fast.
We went into the yacht club and cleaned up the boat so I could head for home. One of the crew started feeling bad shortly after we rounded the north end of Vashon Island and spent most of the run below. He felt nauseous and had a headache. He did not look well enough to drive, but did and another crew followed him home.
I started home at about 1730. It was really windy by then. And the temp had fallen into the mid 30's. Colvos pass was really rough and the boat pounded really hard. At time there were snow flurries. I arrived home at 2130, cold tired but happy!
I delivered the boat to from Brownsville to Tacoma Yacht Club on Friday morning. This was a four motor in calm, cold, foggy conditions. A couple of times the fog closed in to about 100 yard visibility.
I arrived at the reciprical moorage at 1130 and got a well protected spot along the dock. By evening, the moorage was filled to capacity. Tacoma Yacht Club puts on a good pre-race party with a dinner. West Marine raffled a lot of stuff.
Saturday was cold with temps in the low 30's. The forecast was for winds north at 15-25knots, but it was foggy with light SW winds at less than 5knots. The committee postponed the race for about 45minutes until the fog lifted. We were the third class to start. Our class was rather large with 16 competitors, including seven J35's. We had a OK start and entered Colvos Pass. I observed the currents the day before and played the stronger favorable currents. We passed a lot of boats and stayed in the lead group for most of the race.
Halfway up Colvos Pass, the wind filled in from the NE and increased to 15knots. We rounded the mark just behind Declaration of Independence(DOI)(Express 37) and set the spinnaker. The wind was off the beam and we has a fast run down Vashon Island to Pt Robinson. We ran just passed mid channel before jibing to a course to the finish. There were four of us in close proximity. DOI went low, Liberte'(C&C115) stayed high and Absolutly(One tonner) and us stayed on the rhumb line. The wind was puffy with gusts to 20knots and mainly off the beam. We hit 9knots once and stayed in the mid 8's most of the time. Absolutly stayed ahead. We were able to stay even with DOI until at the end, they reached up to the mark finishing just behind Absolutly. We stayed low until a half mile from the finish and then reached up. We almost beat Liberte', finishing 3 seconds and about 15 feet after them! Zorra(another C&C 115) was the first to finish in our class, we ended up 5th and the first of six J35's to finish(one was DNF). I was happy with the results and with the crew work. The crew worked well together and helped us to sail fast.
We went into the yacht club and cleaned up the boat so I could head for home. One of the crew started feeling bad shortly after we rounded the north end of Vashon Island and spent most of the run below. He felt nauseous and had a headache. He did not look well enough to drive, but did and another crew followed him home.
I started home at about 1730. It was really windy by then. And the temp had fallen into the mid 30's. Colvos pass was really rough and the boat pounded really hard. At time there were snow flurries. I arrived home at 2130, cold tired but happy!
Total distance for the weekend: 86.8nm
Results can be found here: http://tacomayachtclub.org/site/Home.html
Results can be found here: http://tacomayachtclub.org/site/Home.html
Our track for the day.
Reaching fast down the eastern side of Vashon Island.
Part of the fleet behind us.
Chasing DOI. We stayed this close or closer during most of the spinaker run. And at times we were ahead of them.
2 comments:
Better race than last year when they messed up the start. From your track appears that other than working the current it was a pretty straight forward drag race.
Some of the legs could look like a drag race, but there were subtle differances in how those legs were sailed that resulted in big gains for us.
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