Dan's Blog: Down The Sound Race- Epic Run To Gig Harbor, Slow Beat To Shilshole

This weekend was the Down The Sound Race. This is a two day event sponsored by Sloop Tavern Yacht Club. It is the second race of the three race Triple Crown Series for singlehanded/ doublehanded racers. The format for this race is a Saturday start at Shilshole Marina with a finish at Gig Harbor, party at Arabella's Landing and race back to Shilshole on Sunday. This is a pursuit race where the slowest rating boat starts at 0900. The faster boats all start afterwards based on their handicap time allowance. My start was at 10:07:16 each day. If I pass any boats ahead, than I have saved my time and placed ahead of them.

The Saturday start was awesome! The winds were up to as high as 18 knots. Setting a spinnaker alone on a J35 can be intimidating, but I pulled it off by starting high on the line and heading straight downwind to blanket the 1-1/2 oz chute behind the main until it was fully hoisted.

I headed off in pursuit of the boats in my class that all started ahead of me. I soon passed "Last Tuesday" (Schock 35) by staying low out of the current on the reach to West Point. After west point, I pulled the pole back and ran deep. I expected to jibe to clear Restoration Pt, but the wind came forward a little and I easily cleared the point. I also expected to jibe to clear Blake Island, but again the wind came ahead again allowing me to sail down the eastern shore of Blake Island out of the north flowing current of Colvos Pass. In fact I had a nice back eddy that boosted my speed over ground.

Finally at Pt Southworth, I jibed to port and angled to the Vashon island shore. Here the wind piped up to as high as 23 knots that I observed. The boat was holding speeds in the high eights and once I hit 9.5 knots. "Anomaly"(Santa Cruz 50) reported washing their cabin windows in a few of the stronger gusts. I jibed several time to stay on the east shore and then gambled near Pt Richmond and went down the middle of Dalco Pass. That was a bad move as "Last Tuesday" almost passed me. I had to jibe and reach up to hold down my position ahead of him. I finished second. The well sailed, popular boat "Norn" (Santa Cruz 27) finished ahead of me as I expected as he started ahead of me and his forte is downwind sailing.

The party at Arrabella's was great! Excellent catered dinner. The reports the next morning were that everyone found their way back to their boats even if they don't remember how!

The Sunday morning start was the opposite of Saturdays. The wind was very light from the south and with the strong north flowing current, starting was tricky with many boats over the line early. I motored high of the line. And drifted across the line. I evidently cleared the line by 4 seconds with 0 knots of boat speed and a couple knots of speed over ground.

The fleet worked the north flowing current around Pt Richmond where what little wind their was evaporated. What little wind there was was different from the top of the mast to the water. The masted indicators were reading a wind direction 180 degrees different from the cassette tape hanging from the shrouds. The temperature was in the low 90's this day and with little wind, it was hard to concentrate.

Finally the wind did fill from the north and got as high as 12 knots. The wind stayed consistent as far as Blake Island where a few holes developed. The hot setup seemed to be to tack close to the east shore. Those that venture farther to the east were stuck in a windless zone. I worked through a few holes and found wind along the Bainbridge Island shore. I cut inside the Restoration Pt buoy and gained on "Panic" (J105) and found a good breeze on the long tack to Magnolia Bluff. There I worked the shallow sections along the bluff for current relief from the now flooding current and to get some starboard tack lifts. I passed a couple more boats at West Point, struggled around the point in the adverse current and finished the race at 1703 with 10 knots of northerly wind. I was first boat in the Singlehanded class to finish and may have been the only one. I knew of two boats that dropped out and another was stuck in the hole east of Blake Island.

Thanks to Sloop Tavern Yacht Club for another great Down The Sound Race. And thanks to Arrabella's Landing for accommodating all the boats and providing a nice facility for the dinner. Like last year, this race was challenging. Saturdays fast run to Gig Harbor will be something to remember! The summer races for me are more for fun, so I bring out my older Quantum "B" sails. They still seem fast.

Results when they are posted can be found here: Sloop Tavern's Website

Next race is the Shaw Island classic at Friday Harbor next weekend. I always like visitin Friday Harbor and San Juan Island Yacht club puts on a great event.

Before the start. The white boat is "Norn". It started about 28 minutes ahead of me. With the fast running conditions on Saturday, he was probably sailing about as fast as me. I could not catch him.