Rich Passage Ramble-WSSA No. 3- 4-03-2010

Today was Rich Passage Ramble race. This race starts at Port Orchard, out Rich Passage, leaving Blake Island to port, Bainbridge Reef buoy R4 to port and return to the finish at Port Orchard. Total distance for the race is 20 NM. This is the third race of the West Sound Sailing Association(WSSA) series. After a week of strange weather culminating in gale force winds on Friday, the forecast for today was a bit unsettled.

The winds at the start were SW at 15-20 knots. I elected to start with the No. 3 jib. I got a good start at the pin end. Dulcinea(J105) and Tantrum II(Shock 35) started to weather. Dulcinea set a spinnaker and was gone, Tantrum took a while to catch me. Reign Maker(C&C37XL) did not get a good start, but caught me after a couple of miles. As we entered the pass, Tantalus(Express37) passed me. The trick here is to get good current rivers without falling into the back eddies. Also the wind tends to get light here. Tantrum and Reign Maker went too far left to the edge of the favorable current and slowed down. I passed them. Tantalus stopped in front of me, so I headed up and got by them without getting too close to Pt Glover. I also gained some on Dulcinea.

The rest of the beat out of Rich Passage was pretty straight forward. As I approached Blake Island, I stayed close to the south shore and got current relief from the current that flows down the Blake Island shore. I rounded the east end of Blake Island and jibed straight toward the NE corner of Blake Island and then toward buoy R4. Dulcinea and Reign Maker went at least a mile east of Blake Island and gave up lots of distance. Also they ended up on a much tighter reach to R4.

At R4, I headed toward the south shore of Rich Passage for current relief. The winds got light and Tantalus, Tantrum and Reign Maker stayed out in the middle fighting the still ebbing current and passed me. I stuck to my plan and stayed close to Pt Glover in a nice back eddy. I passed Tantalus. I headed out into the current and had enough wind to get to the Bainbridge Island shore of Rich Passage. I short tacked the beach and first passed Reign Maker and then Tantrum.

Once out of the pass, I headed to the East Bremerton shore and short tacked the beach. By now, the wind was back up to 15-18knots. I was concerned that the much larger Reign Maker (40 ft long) would catch me, but I continued to gain on them. I owed them a minute for the course. I got a good current boost from the current coming out of Port Washington Narrows.

I finished second(Dulcinea was way ahead) and it looks like I corrected on all the boats behind me for second in Class 1 and second overall.

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

It was a great day for a race, good winds and only a little rain.

Total distance covered today: 42.4 NM

Oh, and now as Paul Harvey used to say on his radio show, here is the "Rest of the Story". If you noticed that I only wrote in the first person of "I", it is because I sailed this race singlehanded, alone. That is why I also did not fly a spinnaker and was passed by several boats in the early part of the race. Some of my crew had other obligations and some just did not respond to my invitation. So, rather than set at home, I went RACING and also did well.

My course for the day.