Port Orchard Yacht club Spring Shakedown Regatta-WSSA No.2

Today was the second race of the West Sound Sailing Association(WSSA) series. This was the Spring Shakedown Regatta sponsored by Port Orchard. It is a two lap, 11.7 NM race in Sinclair Inlet and Port Orchard.

What could be better conditions for a race? Sure, the wind was predicted to be light, but with high pressure setting over Puget Sound, the day was warm and sunny. I sailed all day in a tee shirt and shorts. Some people might not care for the light winds, but how could they turn down the great weather? And since it did not start until 1100, I did not have to get underway early. And since the race was in Port Orchard, the delivery was short, unlike the multiple day delivery to the South Sound races. And the competition was tough.

The race was started toward the north in very light winds. Dulcinea(J105) got a good start on the outboard end and headed toward the shipyard. Tantalus(Express37) port tacked across the line and tacked near us, lost there momentum and stalled. We were farther back, but got going on port tack toward the boat docks. Dulcinea saw what was going on and fell in behind us. We continued to gain on Dulcinea, Tantrum and Dulcinea as the wind increased to about 5 knots. We short tacked along the east shore for current relief.

We rounded the first mark about six minutes ahead of Tantrum with Dulcinea farther back. We set the spinnaker and headed toward the leeward mark. We rode the now favorable current toward Bremerton. Near the shipyard, the wind lightened and Dulcinea and Tantalus closed some. But near the mark the wind stayed light and we got around and shut the door behind us. We had a building breeze near the start/finish line and started pulling ahead again. The wind shifted more northwest which allowed us to make it in one tack from the Port Orchard marina to the next mark at the Retsil radar target.

We set the spinnaker and had a good reach toward the leeward mark. Near the mark the wind shifted toward the southwest and we had to take the spinnaker down to make it to the mark with the jib. We rounded the mark and continued to the finish in lightning winds. Once again we shut the door on the boats behind finishing about 12minutes ahead of Tantrum and Dulcinea.

We were first to finish and save out time on all the other boats, giving us a first. It was a great day to be on the water and a good day for a race with good competition, even if the winds were light. Thanks to my crew of Jim . We work together well as a team and with just the two of us on the boat we worked hard to stay competitive.

Results will be posted here when they are available: http://www.wscyc.net/new%20site/WSSA/index.htm

Total distance traveled today: 30.2 NM

Here we are in the lead. Not much wind, but moving well. Photo by Steve N., on board Tantrum II.

Tantrum II, Tantalus and Dulcinea(left to right) heading toward the leeward mark while we are heading toward the finish. We are at least a half mile ahead at this point.

Tantrum II leading Dulcinea as they near the finish. AuVent is in the background approaching the end of the first lap.

This is the course for the day. We started near the docks at the bottom and northeast toward the radar target at Waterman. Than south west to a turning mark at Ross Point. From there back to the start finish and onto a radar target north of Retsil, back to the mark at Ross point and finish. Our beat to Waterman does not look much different than our run. We were sailing hot angles downwind to keep our speed up. We stayed on the east shore on the beat to try to escape the flooding current and worked toward the Bremerton side on the run to try to take advantage of the flood.