RACING SCHEDULE & RESULTS

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Swiftsure-04

10^th Annual Northwest Harvest Benefit Race by Scott McCulley

Saturday September 14^th’s weather forecast called for light winds from the North, changing to 5 to 15 mph from the Southwest. The tide would be peaking at 1:20 p.m. with only a slight dip 3’ to low at 6:18 p.m.

At the skipper’s meeting I lobbied the race committee for a start to the South so that we would at least be drifting the right direction for when the wind kicked up later. I did not need to worry, the predicted wind shift was already setting in by the time we got on the water. With the light winds I was resigned to finishing last in our class. Tigger wants 20+ mph winds to reach the Tramp’s designed operating range and put our competition’s oversize genoas back in the sail locker.

Competition in the Multihull class had the widest spread in PHRF ratings; Haines Hunter Tramp Tigger at 180, Tim Horton’s Nacra 5.8 No Overlap at 55, and Peter Claringbold’s 53’ Grainger trimaran Spirit of Emu at -60. That meant the Peter owed us about 43.6 minutes for the 10.9 mile course. Watching the big purple machine pace back and forth while waiting for our start, it didn’t seem like nearly enough time.

The Multihull’s started last at 11:40. The race committee borrowed my NW Multihull Association burgee to mark our start. I thought we had timed the start pretty well. We cruised down the line with the intention of tacking at the committee boat back toward the Sound to catch the tide. It would put us on a port tack so we would have to give way but with only three boats starting that did not seem to be a problem. Tim was still putting on suntan lotion about 600 yards North of the line. Spirit was prowling around the pin end. We put the tiller over at the start and got a rude surprise. There was a back eddy right by the committee boat going the wrong direction. We finally got to the line about 3 minutes late. Peter pulled up outside the pin and did a 360. Tim finally decided to join the party and all three boats went across the line together. That was the last we saw of them.

Peter certainly deserves a good sportsmanship award for waiting at the start. I also received reports that he gave a wide berth to monohulls when rounding the windward mark, nearly a 1/4 mile. Much appreciated by the other skippers fighting within their class. Spirit of Emu finished in a little over an hour and a half. I believe that they could have sailed the course twice to our once and still finished 20 minutes in front. A very impressive performance.

With Spirit sailing a higher and faster line than Tigger was capable of on the first leg, we focused on trying to stay with No Overlap. Tim is sailing much better with another year of experience under his harness and colorful new sails. We could not outpoint him and the lighter boat was just pulling away. Shortly after rounding the windward mark at Westpoint we did manage to pass one of the non-flying monohulls as we flew the spinnaker. The wind had shifted around to the Southeast a little bit and was lighter so we were almost DDW heading to Point Monroe. We made up some ground on No Overlap on the downwind leg only to see them pop a hull out of the water and take off around the mark at Point Monroe.

This was the first time my crew had been on the boat so I was handling the foredeck on the downwind leg. We made a very sloppy turn at Point Monroe. As I took down the spinnaker, we pulled up the jib to head to Meadow Point. The tail of the spinnaker got jammed in the sheet block for the jib. We had to turn up to get pressure off the sheet and unjam everything. At least we didn’t go shimping, the spinnaker was not damaged and we completed a penalty turn just in case there was a protest.

We finished right at 3:00 p.m. averaging a little over 3 mph in very light winds compared to the purple machine’s 7+ mph average. Not too bad for an overweight family daysailer with crew of 3 and 20 year old sails. It was a good day to be on the water. The three boats corrected out to the same order of finish: Spirit of Emu first, No Overlap second and Tigger third.

First place in each class earned a bonus prize this year, a haul-out! Well worth the $25 entry fee. The awards ceremony was followed by a dance with the Max Band and silent auction. This year’s event raised over $6,000 and 2,500 pounds of food for NW Harvest. I hope that we will see more multihulls participating in next year’s event.

SSYC Race Results and pictures

Northwest Harvest