Saturday was the Port Orchard Invitational Race. It was the fifth race of the seven race West Sound Sailing Association(WSSA) series. This race starts at the Port Orchard Yacht Club, sails north up Port Orchard to a temporary buoy and back for a distance of 16.4NM.
The weather forecast was for a chance of showers. The wind was predicted to be at 7-10 Knots. At least, the direction was given as from the SW. After a couple of races that were mostly reaching, maybe this will finally give us a race with a long beat!
The weather forecast was for a chance of showers. The wind was predicted to be at 7-10 Knots. At least, the direction was given as from the SW. After a couple of races that were mostly reaching, maybe this will finally give us a race with a long beat!
We lined up for the start late and set the spinnaker without a jib flying. This created a bit of a mess with the jib on deck getting wrapped up in the spinnaker gear. After getting everything squared away, we set off toward the East Bremerton shore try to escape the small flood. We were seeing good speed and sailed really low angles. We sailed close to the south point of Illahee State Park and seemed to get the current boost we were looking for. But we soon jibed away from shore as the winds were fickle as normal. We angled slowly toward the Bainbridge Island shore and stayed away from the strange conditions around University Point. We closed with the mark at Battle Pt. and had a good spinnaker take down even though, I fell backwards into the cockpit and almost ran over the boat ahead!
On the beat back, the wind velocity was up and down from 7-15 knots. We sailed with the heavy No. 1 jib that was a good choice although we were a little underpowered in the lulls. The wind oscillated back and forth making many chances for gains and losses. We short tacked up the East Bremerton shore looking for current relief from the now ebbing current. We finished second and one well sailed boat from division II corrected on us giving us 2nd in class and 3rd overhaul. This placing once again pushed us back into first place for the series. Results can be found here: Port Orchard Invitational
It was a good day for a race. The winds for us were pretty steady although they lightened after we finished. Rain was predicted but I only saw a few drops. It was actually warm during the day. Thanks to my crew of Jim and Dave for all the great help and keeping me focused.
Boats approaching the Battle Pt buoy.
Photo Credit: Steve Nelsen
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