Port Madison Jim DePue Memorial Race-WSSA #1-It Does Not Get Better Than This

The Jim DePue Memorial is the first race of the seven race West Sound Sailing Association (WSSA) series. It is also the first race of Pt Madison's eight race Big Boat Series. It is a 16.5NM race run in the waters of Puget Sound, starting at Point Monroe and sponsored by Port Madison yacht club. All week before the race, the predicted wind were reported to be very favorable in the mid teens. Furthermore, as the weekend drew near, the weather forecast started predicting clear sunny skies. The prediction was pretty close as we saw winds at 12-20 knots all day and sunny, cloudless skies.

The winds at the start was blowing out of the northwest. We got a good start in the middle of the line on starboard. We soon tacked to port and our heading was straight toward the weather mark location. As we approached the weather mark position, it was soon apparent that there was no buoy at the weather mark location. The lead boats headed right to where the photographer boat was holding position. Since we were farthest to the left, we lost a lot of ground reaching down too the substitute "mark".

We set the spinnaker on port and with the westerly winds blowing out of Pt Madison, we soon found ourselves in the middle of Puget Sound. One jibe to starboard, and we were headed toward the next mark at West Point. The winds stayed strong and we were sailing at ten knots and more. As we got closer to West Pt, we could see a boat in trouble ahead of us. "Dos", a Sierra 26, broached while jibing and was capsized. The photo boat was standing by and by the time we got there, they had there sails down, the boat righted and the engine started. 

At West Point, the course is a reach across the sound to the red nun buoy off Eagle Harbor. I made the decision to take the spinnaker down and jib reach across the Sound. The two boats ahead reached with their spinnakers and gained on us and one J80 sailed up to us flying there spinnaker. We rounded the buoy in fourth just behind  a larger boat.

We started the beat back to the finish at Pt Monroe. The winds on the beat were 15-18 knots. We had a great beat. We pointed higher and sailed faster than a couple of larger boats behind us and gained on one boat ahead of us. It was a sloppy beat with short chop made for a wet ride. Some waves we sailed over and some we went through. At the finish, we were the third boat to finish. 

This race was scored using Time on Time(TOT) instead of Time on Distance(TOD that was specified in the sailing instructions. As a result we placed 5th in class and overall. TOD would have scored us 3rd.

It was a great day for a race. After the previous week at Toliva Shoal, I did not think it could be any better. But it was!

Thanks to my crew of Jim, Rainer and Tim for working hard and getting us to the finish line.

An album of pictures by Jan Anderson can be found here:  http://janpix.smugmug.com/Boats/Jim-Depue-Memorial-Race-2015/47766353_Pm6v53#!i=3904481031&k=sCW8Nx9

And race results are here: https://portmadisonyachtclub.wildapricot.org/Resources/Documents/Racing%20Documents/Jim%20Depue%20Results%202015.pdf

 Right after the start. The winds were great all day.

Photo: Jan Anderson

 Fun day for sailing.

Photo: Jan Anderson

 The crew of "Dos" working at righting the boat by standing on the keel.

Photo: Jan Anderson

Unfortunate that "Dos" broached and capsized. They were in the lead at the time. Fortunately, no body was hurt and they did get the boat righted.

Photo: Jan Anderson

Our course for the day. We started at Pt Monroe and sailed clockwise around the course.