Toliva Shoal Race Feb 19, 2011

The Toliva Shoal race is a 37.4 nm race from Olympia through the islands of south Puget Sound. It meanders to a navigation buoy at Toliva Shoal west of the Narrows and back to Olympia via Balch Pass. This race has a reputation for light winds and shortened courses or DNF's.

I raced this race for the first time in 1979, crewing on someone else's boat. The wind was strong and we finished the whole course before dark. My next attempt was (I believe)1984. The winds were light. There was no provision for shortening the course and the time limit was 0630 Sunday morning. We drifted around through the night and covered about 3/4 of the course before we motored in when it became impossible to finish before the time limit expired. Nobody finished that year.

I did not race again until 2000. In subsequent years, we were DNF one more time and all the other races were shortened. I missed 2006 and 2008. In 2006, the wind blew from the north and the sun was shining all day. Everyone finished the complete race that year.

This year was different.

I started this race on Thursday morning when I started the delivery of Great White to Olympia. I went as far as Gig Harbor the first night. Friday I got underway at 0600 to try to avoid most of the ebb through the Narrows and the other passes to Olympia. I arrived at Olympia at 1100 and found my reserved spot at Olympia Yacht Club. I wandered around town some and then had dinner at the pre race party at OYC.

Saturday morning dawned clear and sunny. I could hear the wind blowing at night on the boat and sure enough, the wind was blowing at about 12 knots out of the north. At the breakfast at OYC, the talk was about how strong the wind was expected to blow and how soon we would finish the WHOLE course. We collected all the crew and headed out to the start.

At the starting area it was blowing 17-20 knots. We set the full main and #3 jib and lined up for the start. I timed this one well and was first across the line with Absolutely(Kiwi 39) below us and Tantivy(J109) above us. The beat down Budd Inlet was fast with smooth water, but when we got into Dana Pass, the wind increased to 20 with gusts to 24. The current was ebbing into the wind and it was very rough. Rounding Johnson Pt is a 2 mile reach to G3. We lead Tantivy for a while, but they passed us just before G3. Absolutely was ahead of both of us.

We had a close reach to Lyle Pt on Anderson Island. The water had a strange scalloped dividing line where the brown water from the Nisqually River was on the right and blue water on the left. We stayed high in the blue water hoping for better current. Rounding Lyle Pt, we were once again in rough water. The chop was as high as 4 ft. We continued across the Nisqually Reach to the west end of Ketron Island.

At Ketron Island, first Absolutely and then Tantivy tacked away toward the north. We talked about it and then finally went through Cormorant Pass between Ketron Island and the mainland. I had always wanted to try this. The winds were still strong, but the water was smooth and we had good favorable current as can be seen on our track. After a few tacks, we set out on one long tack toward Mc Neil Island where Tantivy crossed us. They had not gained on us, nor did they lose any distance on us.

Rounding the buoy at Toliva Shoal, we set the spinnaker and headed toward Balch Pass. By now, the current was flooding helping us get through the pass. But the wind was fluky. We caught up to Tantivy, but we stayed to the right and they got some new wind on the left before us and took off. Three of the boats behind us in our class gained on us some.

We had a nice fast reach down Drayton Pass and around Devil's Head. The wind came forward again and we took the spinnaker down for the close reach around Johnson Pt.

Entering Dana Pass, we reset the spinnaker for the run to the finish. Flying Circus(Express 37) and Melange(J35) set their spinnakers earlier than us and we were in real danger of being overtaken. By now the wind had lightened quite a bit and we played the current and sailed to the optimum jibing angle to keep our speed up. The run up Budd Inlet turned into a close reach. We finished at 1552, about five minutes behind Tantivy where we were too far behind to save our time, but was good enough for third place.

We went into Olympia and had hot soup at the club. One of my acquaintances from Brownsville (Matthew with Dulcinea) wanted to return to Brownsville that night. So I agreed to run with him. We got underway at 1800 and with the favorable ebb current, got back to Brownsville by 0043 Sunday morning. That is a very fast run for a 49 mile run. It was a great night on the water. It was clear and the starts were bright. Later the full(or nearly full) moon rose making it easy to see. Was cold though!

I was happy with the results. In the last two races we gave away places late in the race. This time, everyone stayed focused in the difficult conditions when the wind was blowing and the equally difficult conditions when the wind turned light. Thanks to my crew of Jim, Walter, Kathleen, Michael and Peg.

Results can be seen at: http://www.ssseries.org/rtol.htm

And pictures by Jan: A slideshow of Jan's photos ...

And some other good pictures: SOME TOLIVA SHOALS PHOTOS

Reaching fast down Drayton Pass.
Our track for the day.