RACING - REPORTS

In this section...

Racing Home 

PHRF Ratings 

Calendar 2008 

Results/Reports/Stories 

NWMA Standings

Racing Tips

ISAF rules

Swiftsure-04

Winter Vashon Results: Dragonfly Dominates!

By Wayne Erickson

Click on any photo for a larger view.  Use your browser "back" button to return here.

Now that I have been nominated as Race Fleet Captain, running unopposed. I feel that it is my duty to report the results of the first race in the Northwest Multihull Cup for 2001 (the actual new millennium). 

With the weather reports earlier in the week predicting breezy conditions with rain many of us entered in Winter Vashon were somewhat skeptical about how much fun this was going to be racing on December 2. The weatherman had it all wrong. Sunny 50 degrees and not a drop of rain, with winds at the start at 11 knots from the southeast is perfect racing weather.  Well perhaps a bit more wind would have made the day perfect. We were also treated to rare site in lower Puget Sound, A large pod of Orca whales playing in the wakes of several big ships that passed through the fleet. 

Pat McGarry with Dragonfly his formula 40 catamaran finishing the 30.7-mile course in just 4 hours 35 minute and 17 seconds dominated this 8-boat field. I don't know if this is a new record but with the wind averaging 10 knots for the first part of the race it should be kudos Pat. Coral Reefer and Strider had a great race for second and third with Dave Dupree piping Rod Tharp by 1 minute and 53 seconds this is a race that they will both remember and talk about for a long time. The rest of the finishers were racing the clock and a dying wind to hold on for a finish. I would also like to commend Marty and Linda Adams on Cuttlefish who double handed the race and decided to fly only the screacher instead of a kite. They were close enough to me several times that I could see big smiles on their faces. I decided to withdraw from the competition when we ran out of food and the coffee in the thermos got cold. I have other excuses for our poor performance but I am sure you don't want to hear them here.

Dragon Fly

Race results:

Official race results posted by the Tacoma Yacht Club