Blake Island Race WSSA #6

Saturday was race #6 of the West Sound Sailing Association (WSSA). This was the Blake Island Race sponsored by Bremerton Yacht Club. It starts and finishes off the gazebo at the end of Trenton Avenue in East Bremerton and goes out Rich Passage, around Blake Island(either direction) and returns. The distance is 17 NM.

At the start, the wind was 10-15knots from the south. We opted for the heavy No.1 genoa while we were manuevering for the downwind start. The line was favored to the left. Sweet Spot(J35) started well on the favored end with us right behind. Reign Maker(C&C37XL) started just to weather of us and rolled over us. When we were fully up to speed, we threw some moves toward them like we wanted to go to weather of them. They responded and moved to the right of the course which allowed us to head off to the left through their lee to clearer air and better current. After a few minutes, Dulcinea(J105) went above our line behind us and encouraged Reign Maker even farther to the right, helping our cause.

Sweet Spot and us entered Rich Passage close together and after taking down the spinaker, we had a nice beat out the pass with 12-15 knot wonds and a strong ebb current. Clearing the pass, we had one long tack to the NE point of Blake Island. By this point we had passed Sweet Spot. We short tacked up the eastern shore of Blake Island to avoid the current flowing out of Colvos Pass and crossed the shoal at the SE point with 5 feet of water below the keel! The wind had shifted more SE and we had a nice run with the spinaker.

When we reentered Rich Pass, the current was still ebbing, so we held to the left for current relief. This did not appear to be the smartest move as the wind got flucky and Sweet Spot, Dulcinea and Tantalus(Express 37) moved up on us. Most of the boats went to the middle of the pass. We jibed toward the middle, but shortly jibed back and headed toward Point Glover where the pass turns left. By this time the current had changed to flood. Rounding Pt Glover, Sweet Spot was ahead of us again, but as we started the beat out of the pass, we passed Sweet Spot and put distance on them all the way to the finish. Dulcinea and Tantalus were caught in the flucky winds of the pass and we put a lot of distance on them. The final beat had good winds. On one of the last tacks, we put a hole through the jib at the upper spreader, but avoided additional damage. Anything I can do to support the sailmaker financial stimulus program! We finished first and far enough ahead of Dulcinea to correct on them for a win in class. Emerald Lady(Catalina27), a division II boat sailed a good race and corrected on us for first overall. We were second overall.

The crew did a great job and contributed to our good speed!

Going into the final race on June 27th, three boats are tied for first place in the series: Us(Great White), Emerald Lady and Falcon(Cal 9.2).

The complete results of the race and series can be found on:
http://kitsapsailing.com/wssa.html

Total log distance for the day: 38.5NM

Our track during the race.