Dan's Blog: Winter Vashon Race 2013-It's Called "Winter" Vashon For A Reason

The Winter Vashon Race is a 30.6 NM race that starts at the Tacoma Yacht Club near Pt Defiance and goes around Vashon Island. This race is the first race of the four race South Sound Series. Lots of people think that we quit racing in the winter and start racing again in the spring. This race is the beginning of my racing season.

On Friday, I delivered the boat to Tacoma Yacht Club. I got an early start at 0700 and arrived at the guest moorage around 1050. I was able to get a great spot on the dock. It was a cold delivery. The temperature was in the mid 20's when I left the house. Fortunately, the sun came out and what wind there was was from behind. Until I exited Colvos Pass. Crossing the last few miles across Dalco Pass, the wind was easterly on the beam and was blowing up to 25 knots. This made a pretty uncomfortable, wet final part of the delivery. As the day went on, more boats arrived and the docks filled up with boats. There were many tales of cold people and frozen spray on the boats. Later in the evening, Tacoma Yacht Club put on their usual prerace dinner. Much discussion centered around the weather forecast for the next day. The forecast was for winds in the low teens and decreasing through the day. One thing was certain, it was suppose to be cold! Through the night, the wind rattled the rigging of the assembled boats. I was able to stay warm in the boat with the furnace running.

Saturday morning was still cold with the temps again in the mid twenties. The wind was blowing at about 10-12 knots from the north east. As boats milled around the starting area, it was interesting to see many boats sailing with small jibs. We thought about it, but decided that the heavy No. 1 jib might be better in the variable wind strengths. We were in the third start at 0915 and got an excellent start at the pin end. The first part of the course took us on a close reach across Dalco Pass and into Colvos Pass where we sailed close hauled. I was concerned about getting too close to Vashon Island and losing the wind, but it stayed fairly constant as it rolled off the land. Since the wind was somewhat easterly, we sailed past Olalla before we were headed and had to tack. Some boats in our class did not sail as high of a course as us and made multiple tacks before we had to tack. We only made three tacks before a nice shift to the left let us lay the mark from near Fragaria on the Kitsap shore. Near the north end of Vashon Island the wind did get gusty and we saw some gusts in the low 20's and as we cleared Colvos Pass, the wind seemed to settle out around 15 knots. Also the strong ebb flowing against the NE winds made for some sloppy conditions. It remained cold and the crew told me that there was slush on the foredeck from the spray and one of my guys said that the spray was freezing on his glasses. We rounded the mark in first place in our class.

We set the spinnaker and headed downwind toward Pt Robinson. It started out as a fast reach, but as we approached the bottom of the island, the wind became more puffy and the fleet compressed. First "Absolutely" and "Tantivy" closed up some on us and then after we jibed, "Something Special" climbed up on our quarter. We luffed up "Something Special". They fell off and sailed into a light spot below us. On the final reach, "Absolutely" used there waterline and "Tantivy" reached with their asymmetrical spinnaker and sailed ahead of us with "Tantivy" finishing first and "Absolutely" second just 42 seconds ahead of us. We placed third finishing at 1407.

Results can be found here: Winter Vashon Results

And some great pictures can be found here including several of us: https://www.facebook.com/sean.trew/media_set?set=a.660005064022353.1073741863.100000385963463&type=1

Many more pictures are here, except we are not in any of them: http://janpix.smugmug.com/Boats/TYC-Winter-Vashon-2013/35233680_LWGJzj#!i=2955277832&k=9M7gf2g

It really was a great day for a race. The sun was out the whole day and the wind stayed constant enough to get us back to the finish well before dark. Mt Ranier was visible the whole day. Thanks to Tacoma Yacht Club for putting on a great race. And thanks to my crew of Walter, Rainer, David, Tim and Tom. They did a great job and I never heard them complain about the cold.

After the race, I headed home arriving back at Brownsville at 1835. It was very cold motoring into the now much lighter north winds. I drank hot fluids and bundle up, but my hands got cold and cramped making it hard to get my mittens on. It was 22 degrees when I got to the marina.

One final item. I need to apologize to the start before ours. I lost focus for a couple of minutes and bumbled into there starting area. I know better than this and feel embarrassed that it happened. I apologized to one crew and they were very forgiving.