Wind, No Wind, Rain and Sun-Gig Harbor Islands Race 3-17-2012

Last weekend was the Gig Harbor Islands Race. It was the last race of the four race South Sound Series. This race starts just outside of Gig Harbor, proceeds north in Colvos Pass to a buoy at Blake Island and returns south down Colvos Pass against the "always flowing north" current to the finish at Gig Harbor.

The March weather in western Washington has been pretty nasty this year. The delivery to Gig Harbor on Friday was no exception. The wind blew as high as 25 knots and the rain poured out of the sky. But after arriving at gig Harbor, the sun came out and the day was pleasant. Throughout the afternoon, other sailors and boats arrived until the Jerisch Dock was full. Sailors kibitzed and as during the previous week, smack was being thrown about regarding who would beat who. Some boats did not show for this race. One boat in our class was setting in 3rd place prior to this race. He did not show and sacrificed his position.

Saturday morning, the rain was once again pouring down and the wind was out of the south at 8-10 knots. The forecast was for northerlies to possibly move in and maybe get us some relief from the wet weather.

We had a great start and lead our class of boats up Colvos Pass. As we passed Pt Richmond, the wind lightened some and the classed compressed. Until we passed Olalla Pt, four of us (Tantivy, Grace E, Melange and us) traded places. The wind came ahead and became a close spinnaker reach toward Blake Island. This is not usual to have a easterly wind in Colvos Pass.

The other three boats pulled ahead near Blake Island. We had a bad spinnaker takedown and lost some distance. After rounding the mark, we took a short port tack toward Blake Island before taking to starboard to get east of the island. After a short starboard tack, we tacked back to port and lined up closehauled down Colvos Pass.

By the time we reached Fragaria, the wind lightened and shifted northerly prompting us to set the spinnaker. The sun also came out warming us up and sending people off to look for their sunglasses. There seemed to be more wind toward the east, so we reached that direction. The wind filled in some all across the pass, And since we are not afraid to take chances(and we were behind anyway!) we jibed back to the West shore to find some current relief. We did find some favorable current and seemed to be gaining on our competitor on the east shore.

As we approached Olalla Pt, we could see that the boats ahead were getting into a new SW wind and were sailing close hauled. We stayed to the right and the wind changed suddenly from North to SW. Down with the spinnaker, up with the jib and away we went. The wind was puffy between 10 and 15 knots. Unfortunately, the boats on the east shore also got the wind and stayed ahead.

Grace E and Melange worked the west shore and since we had nothing to loose, we worked the east shore along Vashon Island. We seemed to have trouble pointing and after too long, we determined that the hydraulic backstay valve had gotten open and backstay tension was slack. We pumped the backstay back up and got moving again finishing at 1653. We got fourth with Tantivy, 1st, Grace E 2nd and Melange 3rd.

After looking at the previous race results, with one throwout, we are tied in 3rd place for the series with Grace E. With the tie breaking process, we should have scored better than Grace E and taken the 3rd place.

Results when they are posted can be found here: South Sound Series Results

Also there are lots of pictures by Jan here: Jans Photos Gig Harbor Islands Race 2012

We took the boat into Gig Harbor, cleaned up, folded sails and the crew went home. I had a great night delivery back to Brownsville and was in my house by 2154.

Thanks to the crew of Jim, Tom and Michael.

 The motor down to Gig Harbor was very wet. I have a small dodger(convertible top) that covers just the companionway. I can sit here with my autopilot remote control and stay dry. This is easily removed and stowed for racing. I once got in trouble for some comments about full cockpit covers that restrict visibility and the ability to sail a boat. I like the small one, it does not get in the way.

Our course for the day.