RACING SCHEDULE & RESULTS

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Swiftsure-04

Northwest Harvest Benefit Race Results

By Scott McCulley on board Tigger

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Saturday September 30th dawned gray and soggy. The marine forecast called for a strong chance of precipitation with South winds 10 to 20 knots changing to NW in the afternoon. As skippers gathered in front of the Elk's hall to register, fog settled in, obscuring West Point from Shilshole. Twenty eight boats were registered in three classes; non-flying, flying, and multihull. The multihull group was an all Farrier affair with one F-28R, two F-27, one F-9A and a Tramp. The start of the race was delayed to allow the fog to lift.

As boats gathered near the committee boat, WoopSea, it was apparent that the predicted winds had failed to materialize. Judging from the weather radio, we were stuck in the convergence zone behind the Olympic Mountains. Milling about was fun; we had six multihulls sailing slow circles around the fleet. Tim Horton brought his Nacra cat No Overlap out to view the start of the race.

John & Will Marken's (F-27), Sibling Rivalry

The wind finally kicked in from the NW, but the fog refused to lift. The race committee was reluctant to send the fleet across the shipping channel to Blakely Rock with the limited visibility. After much delay, the racecourse was shortened to two laps around Meadow Point - West Point and back to the committee boat beginning at noon with five-minute intervals between classes.

We had a nice breeze at the start, about 10 - 15 knots and building from the NW. After the relative calm earlier it felt like more. By noon the tide had turned to a flood from the north, so there were some different strategies employed at the start. Most of the boats tried to knock the dinghy off the committee boat thinking it was the favored end. David in 3D opted to try the freshly painted hamburger buoy to see if the tide was less intense inshore.

David Miller's (F9A), 3D

By the time we got up to the first windward mark, I think the wind had built up to around 20 knots. We hoisted the spinnaker and set off after the fleet. The first downwind leg was the best run of the day. We even managed to sneak in front of a few monohulls right at the leeward mark despite spotting them 10 minutes on the start.

Scott McCulley's (Tramp}, Tigger

The wind starting dropping in strength as we were beating back toward the committee boat. And here comes Trillium headed south again before we were even halfway back to the starting line! The race within a race began to see if we could avoid being lapped. We had a nice view of the finish from about a ¼ mile north of the line as Ron took line and overall honors.

We managed to drop back into last place overall on the run North fighting both the wind and current. The second downwind leg was not quite as fast as the first, we had time to eat lunch and kick back. The wind had died down to about 5 knots when we got down to the leeward mark. We had a nice view of the West Point buoy as we tacked into the current and came to a dead halt, balanced with boat speed matching tidal flow. After working up the inside of West Point on numerous short tacks trying to stay out of the current, the wind took a fortuitous shift to the east and allowed us to tack along the length of Shilshole marina. We ducked under the stern of the committee boat with two minutes to spare before the time limit.

Ron Radko's, (F-28R), Trillium

Armadillo BBQ of Woodinville catered the post race dinner with cornbread, pork and beef ribs, chicken, potato salad and coleslaw. The wood fired cooker in the parking lot sure smelled good! We danced to the MAX Band till midnight then dragged our tired bodies home to veg on Sunday.

Wayne Erickson's (F-27), Almond Joy

The real winners were Northwest Harvest. The regatta raised over 2,600 pounds of nonperishable food and $3,000 for this worthy cause. SSYC would certainly like to welcome more participants for 2001, please put this event on your calendar for next year. 

Race results:

1. Trillium (F-28R), Ron Radko 1:43:14 (1:51:03) 
2. Sibling Rivalry (F-27), John and Will Marken 1:53:09 (2:05:03)
3. Almond Joy (F-27), Wayne Erickson 2:06:21 (2:18:15) 
4. 3D (F-9A), David Miller 2:08:12 (2:09:03) 
5. Tigger (Tramp), Scott McCulley 3:47:11 (4:17:47)