Foulweather Bluff Race-Oct 2nd

Saturday was the Foulweather Bluff Race. This race is sponsored by Edmonds Corinthian Yacht Club. It starts north of the Edmonds Ferry Dock, rounds the government buoy at Foulweather Bluff , rounds the buoy at Schatchet Head and returns to the start/finish area. Normal length for the long course is 26 miles. There is a short course that goes to a temporary buoy at Pilot Point instead of Foulweather Bluff. This is used for the smaller boats and a short course for the larger boats if there is not much wind at the start. More on this later.

I took "Great White" to Edmonds on Friday. I arrived at the public moorage at about 1200. I was the first to arrive, but by evening the moorage was full and I had two boats rafted to me. It was a great day for a delivery and I took some time and walked up town and to the antique mall.

Saturday was suppose to have light winds and the weather forecasters were right on. We motored to the starting area and waited while a postponement was called for lack of wind. We drifted around for about a half hour before enough wind drifted in to begin starting boats. The committee also decided to send us on the shorter course to Pilot Point..

We finally got to our starting time. I had a terrible start. One boat that started five minutes after us got up to the line and got in our way. I had to slide down the line and start to leeward of the class. We opted to stay low and try to work out from underneath the other boats and their bad air, but I also wanted to get across Puget Sound first to get relief from the adverse current along the Kitsap shore. We worked forward of the windward boats, got clear air, but also got a header that helped move us ahead of some of the boats in our class. We also started getting better wind. By the time we reached the Kitsap shore, we seemed to be in the lead, but one boat("Marayui", Benetau 36.7) crossed just ahead of us. The wind increased to about 11 knots and we short tacked along the beach and made distance against other boats that went farther offshore into the adverse current.

We rounded the mark ahead of "Marayui" in the lead. The course to the next mark at Schachet Head was a close reach. Many boats went high on the course. I resisted the urge to go high especially since the current at the next mark was flowing from right to left. If we would have stayed high, we would have had to take a slower route against the current to the mark.

Again, we rounded the second mark in the lead. We set the spinnaker and headed for the finish. I concentrated on sailing hotter angles and we jibed several times. We put distance on "Marayui" and held our own on "Elusive"(C&C115) and "Uno" (Sierra 26). "Elusive" is fast downwind and "Uno" is a real downwind flyer. Fortunately they rate the same as us and all we had to do was stay between them and the finish. We owed "Marayui" a little less than two minutes.

We finished first, "Uno" was second and "Elusive" third. "Marayui" finishe far enough back that the first three finishers corrected on them. One disappointment was that the committee did not give us a gunshot for finishing first in our class. They fired the gun for "Uno". They made a mistake.

This was probably the most exciting race for me this year. Our class consisted of closely rated boats and the closeness of the rating showed that. Once the sun came up, the weather was spectacular. We had great teamwork. Thanks to the crew of Jim, Kathleen, Michael and Dave.

I left at about 1700, righ after the awards ceremony and had a nice motor home in very calm conditions. Arrived back to my moorage at about 1900.

Total distance for the weekend: 50.7 NM.

Edit: The results are posted at
http://cycedmonds.org/ and it appears that "Marayui" actually placed 2nd and "Uno" was 3rd. We corrected ahead of "Marayui" by about 30 seconds.

The harbor filled with boats Saturday morning.
Some last minute work up the mast on "Dulcinea".

Some last minute work up the mast on "Dulcinea".

Light winds before the start.

Still light winds, but a couple classes started.

Our course for the day. We went clockwise.

As we crossed Puget Sound, we had a header right after the start and then a constant lift as we approached the Kitsap Shore. We then short tacked close to the beach on the Kitasp Shore(left side) to escape the flooding current. And tacked downwind to the finish on the right to keep our speed up.