Dan's Blog: Race To The Straits May 4 & 5, 2013

This weekend was the annual Race To The Straits. This is a two day race from Shilshole Marina north of Seattle to Port Townsend on Saturday and return on Sunday. This race is for doublehanded(two people) and singlehanded(one person). Another unique part of this race is that the handicaps are applied at the start with the slowest boats starting before 0800 and the fastest boats starting nearly three hours later. In a perfect world, all the boats should be finishing at the same time.

The weather in the NW has been very unusual with sunny warm days and wind blowing from the north as well. The forecast for the weekend was for temperatures in the 80's and wind forecast into the high teens. Sure enough, at my start at 09:29:48, the wind was already blowing 10-15 knots. After arguing with myself, I set the heavy No.1 jib. After the start, my sail choice seem correct until I got near Kingston where the gusts increased to 18-20 knots. No sooner would I think about changing jibs when the wind would moderate and the heavy No. 1 was the proper sail. This trend continued on the entire beat, the wind would blow at 10-12 for awhile, increase to 15-18 and then decrease again. I was "shifting gears" often during the entire beat. I played the left shore for current relief until I got past Point No Point and then my course took me toward Useless Bay. But a tug and barge forced me to tack to the west. And when I tacked, there seemed to be some meanders to the current that seemed to help.

After Double Bluff, I headed on starboard tack toward Marrowstone Island. It seemed like I was getting some lift from the current and examining the track seemed to confirm this. Most of the other boats headed into Mutiny Bay. I worked along Marrowstone Island and got nice port tack lifts. I finished at about 1542 which was a pretty quick beat.

After filling up Point Hudson Marina, the racers enjoyed a noisy party and dinner at the VFW hall.

On Sunday morning, the sun came up to a clear sky. It was warm enough at 0600 to wear shorts and a t-shirt. After a great breakfast at the Hudson Point Cafe, I got underway to the starting area for a 09:29:48 start. The wind was light, but out of the north. There was a strong current flowing across the starting area, so a early start was not recommended! I got a good start on time and set a spinnaker. The wind built as I got farther into Admiralty Inlet. Since the current was changing to flood, I sailed quite a ways towards Whidbey Island before jibing to starboard. But it looked like a shift toward the left so, I jibed back to port and sailed on a nice reach around Bush Point and on toward Double Bluff before I had to jibe back to starboard to round the Double Bluff buoy. During this reach, the wind had increase to about 15 knots and with the current flowing, I was seeing speeds of 8-8.5 knots over ground.

After Double Bluff, I continued straight toward Point No Point. The wind lightened some but then changed back toward the left. So after another jibe, I was heading straight toward the finish at Shilshole. I had gained on some of the boats that sailed high toward Hansville. I worked the middle of the sound and the wind came forward near the finish. The boats that stayed near the Kingston shore seemed to have more wind and some passed me. I finished at 13:48:20. That has to be the fasted time for me to sail from Port Townsend to Shilshole. The GPS track said that I averaged about 7 knots.

It was a great weekend. The wind was strong all weekend and it was sunny and warm. 117 boats entered for the race. That is a all time high amount. Results can be found here: Sloop Tavern Yacht Club Homepage