Duwamish Head Race 1-8-2011

The Duwamish Head race is often advertised as the first sailboat race of the year in Puget Sound. That may be true, but it is the second of four races in the South Sound Series.

My beginning for this race started early Friday when I got underway from Brownsville at 0700. The delivery to the starting area of the race at Des Moines takes about three hours. I was concerned about the weather. It was suppose to blow hard, but the winds stayed mild. It did get cold and rained hard a few times.

The race started Saturday morning at about 1015. The early forecast for the day was for light winds and possibly rain and snow. We actually had some wind out of the southwest at about ten knots. We had a fair start and started the chase north to Alki PT. We stayed out from the shore and lost some to the boats that went inshore. At Alki Pt, the winds were somewhat westerly, so many boats sailed a "great circle" course far north before turning toward the rounding mark at Duwamish Head.

From Duwamish Head, it is a drag race across the sound to round Blakely Rocks. After rounding Blakely Rocks, the wind lightened. We stayed near the middle of the sound hoping for favorable current. The wind filled from the east. Those that stayed to the east shore got the wind first. We finished in the dark at about 1721. The committee had trouble seeing sail numbers, so they are still trying to sort out the finishing order.

We went into the marina, folded sails and cleaned up the boat. I was back underway by 1804 and had an easy motor home, arriving back to the marina at 2115.

The race went well, we had better weather than what was predicted and the crew did well. Thanks to Peg, Tom, Jim, Peter, Ron, Cindy, Kathleen and Michael.

Picture by Jan are found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/75869001@N00/sets/72157625664288151/

And results when they are figured out can be found here: http://www.ssseries.org/

Here we are in the middle of three boats rounding the Duwamish Head mark in front of downtown Seattle. A bit early to hear any cheering coming from the Seahawks game.

Ready to go before the race.
Not as many boast spent the night in Des Moines as we have seen in the past.

Our track for the day.