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Swiftsure-04

2005 Duwamish Head

Ahh, Friday. The radio stations are nattering about the great freeze of 2005, reporters are going live with insightful reports of "Here is another flake and I think it will hit the ground...No but here is another...". The day is calm and grey and cold but nothing that will make trailering Cuttlefish down to Des Moines for the start of the DH Race out of the ordinary.

1. I rechecked the boat as I hooked it up and noticed the slack lines holding the new bow nets and remembered that they needed to be finished before the next sail. Darn, it will be dark after the late launch at Des Moines and I won't know if the boat will even unfold. Decision time and a quick call to Jim Thompson to let him know I will rig and launch from Shilshole instead.

Roger works with Linda and I while his own company gains momentum and usually gets in about 9 or 10 and will cover for us so we can leave about noon, set up and fix the nets and have plenty of time to deliver the boat. At 11, still no Roger and Linda finally discovers he is SICK. Decision time and I decide to take the boat down solo and have Linda drive down and meet at Des Moines. I start for Shilshole at 2 and begin to set up the rig...um, Where are the wind instruments and antenna. A call to Linda and yup , they are still in the warehouse.

I secure the boat and drive back to Lynnwood and as I enter the freeway notice the traffic is stopped. Not slow, not crawling...STOPPED. 1 + hours from 110th to 130th...arrive at the warehouse at 4. Decision time, it has been non stop for Linda and I suggest we close early and go down together. I will adjust the nets as Linda sails south. There is a nice north wind and the trip should be an easy one. Set up goes swiftly but I have never seen so much gear on board. I heave a huge sigh of relief as the boat unfolds and the new nets are perfect but, oh yes I forgot.

It's 5:30 and dark and you know how you secure the boat to the dock with about 8 feet of slack in the dock lines so you can unfold ? Well the north wind had drifted the boat away from the dock so I pulled the bow line in and hopped onto the ama bow, waiting for the lurch as the line came taught. I then jumped up onto the bow and just started to turn as the stern line sent another lurch through the boat. I am now falling backwards toward the bows between the main and ama...this is going to be soooo cold. I manage to snag the wire lifeline leading off the pulpit with my left upper underarm, the one that has a dollar bill sized bruise on it, and hang there trying to keep my feet out of the water. I hobble back aboard and hear Linda’s voice asking where her XtraTuff boots are. Yup, no boots! Decision time. It is now quarter to six and West Marine is still open. Imagine a 15 minute shopping trip to a BOAT store...

A quick flip of the key and the brand new starter I just installed fires off the Merc. A short warm up and I am casting off the lines. Gee, sure is a lot of wind here. We clear the fishing pier and I hear the engine pitch change, like from some pitch to no pitch! It is coughing and sputtering. I move Linda's feet and handle the throttle, coaxing and caressing the silly thing to find the magic spot that will enable us to clear the breakwater. We have no sails up and are dead into the wind. We can't go back as a 180 would put us directly above the pier. Decision time, while coaxing what little life I can out of the motor I tell Linda to drive as far north as she can before turning west to give as much room as possible above the end of the jetty.

This becomes academic as the motor finally dies completely. We are now directly above the jetty with the wind pushing us straight down on it. My first thought was "I don't want to do that much fiberglass work!" Linda bless her heart called for some sail, any sail, any shape, size, color. "I will sail us out of her if you can get me some sail." I grabbed the crank bolt free and hauled the main halyard. Barely half way up, the luff was tight against the mast and wouldn't budge while the rest unrolled and billowed in the wind. Linda had managed to get about half the jib up, the bottom half also billowing. The boat is moving forward and we have cleared the jetty. Decision time...we can sail the boat and with these winds could set a record to DesMoines. We can sail back to the dock under jib alone and drop it at the last moment. We can..."Would you put on your life jacket and get me mine!"

Blush. That little detail done we elected to sail back to familiar waters and sort things out. I didn't like the idea of trying to sail into DesMoines marina with no motor. I considered Blake Island for the night, we've sailed up to mooring buoys before, and an early start to DesMoines the next morning. It's 37 degrees, strong winds with wind on tide, dark, no motor...Yeah, lets go back.

News flash. You can't roll the main with the wind at or abaft the beam. The battens ride forward and jam against the mast. Linda is still trying to keep us moving and we are slowly moving south along the breakwater. Every foot south means we need to win it back. I finally pull the whole main down and release it from the mast track. Streaming to leeward, I can finally roll it. I haul the jib and finally trim it. Linda wants to jibe rather than tack but I ask her to try to tack first which is a trick with jib only. In irons with head to wind, the power of my epithets had less impact than Linda's subtle reverse rudder and she announced we could lay the entrance.

She sailed us up to the dock as I dropped the jib and stepped off catching the last cleat with the stern line. The tide was so low that we had to return Saturday to take the boat home. Took the boat out for a test drive and worked the engine at all speeds and it was flawless. As a pilot we were always aware of carburetor ice and at 37 degrees and high humidity I will bet that was the culprit. I checked the winds and the max was at 6:30 at West Point 25 knots.

Hope you guys all had a fun race...we had our adventure.

Martyn Adams - Cuttlefish (1st Mate)

We had a long spinnaker reach up to Alki point, the forecast snow and rain was nowhere to be seen, the sun was shining through breaks in the overcast, and we were saying, "Gosh, I wonder where Cuttlefish is.  They'd really enjoy this!"

It was, indeed a fun race (except for trying to beat down from Blakely Rock through the convergence zone against an ebb tide), especially when we were ahead of the '31's.  Then we tried to get up to Duwamish Head with the wrong headsail in light winds, and the rest was history!  Make that, we were history.

Tom Speer - F-24 Ama Deus

Duwamish Head 2005, what a hoot. Having done this race numerous times, I think it is safe to say this year was one of the best. Despite the forecast the weather was great, 40F, 5-10 knots of wind, some sun and all the F-Boats finished before dark. Not often we can say that the view from Scooter was great.

The start got off right on time, even if we never heard any of the warning signals and were 2 minutes late with a dying easterly breeze and flood tide. Optimus Prime, Danger Zone and Strider all got good starts. Dragonfly seemed to be suffering from a faulty watch similar to Scooter. Once across the line, it was time to raise the spinnaker and start chasing Optimus, Strider and Danger Zone. For the first half hour or so we  struggled with light air. At less than 3 knots of boat speed we really struggle to keep the chute working (I will try and limit the excuses). Optimus, Strider and Danger Zone were starting to leg out up the east beach, before gybing out to the middle. Dragonfly went to the Vashon side right away with Dark Star and was making up ground fast. We talked to all our monohull friends as the slide by.

Then the wind started to build, still a ESE breeze, could we really reach all the way to Alki? Amazing how 2 knots of windspeed changes everything. We stayed to the east beach and started to get up to speed.  By Fauntleroy we had started to reel the monohulls back in. By Alki we had 10 knots of boat speed in flat water. Perfect sailing, sun was out, Les and I taking turns driving while the other took a lunch break (we only sailed with two). It is fun to pass people and see them stare as they try and figure out if you are single handing and then see the other crew pop up with a snack from below.

By Alki we had reeled DangerZone back into striking distance.  Dragonfly was off the front with Dark Star. Optimus and Strider were close enough to be seen, it looked like Strider was choosing to sail part of the reach with the screecher. At the turn at Alki we choose to go to jib instead of screecher and quickly caught DangerZone as the struggled to get their screecher up.

By Duwamish Head we had caught back up to the J-120s and Synergy 1000 keel boats. Who would have thought we would have a run to Blakely Rock. After some whinning on my part about having to move the spinnaker over to starboard for the hoist, we rounded and set the chute forthe run. Optimus and Strider were up front, with Optimus struggling for a short time as they switched from screecher to spinnaker. Then the discussion of where are we going. With the strong easterly component we were sailing on port towards Colvos passage.

Once we got the increase in wind near Bainbridge we gybed onto starboard back up to the rock.  Seemed like we were opening up on DangerZone.  By this time Optimus and Strider were around and Dragonfly was working the Vashon beach.  We rounded with no problems and went to jib for the beat home.

Coming out of Blakely Rock the decision was wether to go down the Vashon side with Dragonfly, Optimus and Strider or go for the east beach. Only one boat, Kilo (synergy 1000) was going for the east beach, we choose to try the middle for awhile. Strider and Optimus seemed to have wind while we were in dying wind. Danger Zone seemed to be setting up for going down the Vashon side. Up goes the screecher and we decide to commit to the east side. By now Kilo is flying down the east beach, end running the whole fleet. Once we got to Fauntleroy the wind was starting to build out of the south. The rhumbline was perfect for the screecher, just cracked off hard beating. By this time we had lost track of Dragonfly, Optimus, Strider and Danger Zone.

I had been driving for most of the beat and my hands were getting cold so Les sent me below to get some hot tea and fresh hand warmers. As we crossed Three Tree Point we had caught Snake Eyes a 40.5 foot keelboat with large crew and saw Dragonfly heading home under motor.  I'm sure the crew on Snake Eyes were wondering how Les could single hand the boat when I appeared with my hot cup of tea. You gotta love multi-hulls. We passed them with 10 knots of boat speed with the cup of Tea on the cabin roof. They were doing the monohull roll thing with each gust.

The wind continued to build so we furled the screecher and went with the jib. We could see Wayne waiting for us at the finish line. After what seemed like too short a distance the wind started to lessen so Les wanted the screecher back out. Whinning on my part did nothing to dissuade him. My comments that Jim was way back and we could let
off did not convince him. He keep mumbling about that Jim and that we needed to keep pushing hard. So up goes the screecher, with crew screeching the whole time and we make the finish at 4:24. After working hard on getting the new LED running lights in, we turned them on for that last mile even though we did not need them; but they did work.

While cleaning up after finishing, Les commented for me to look up and there it was. Danger Zone at the finish line. Where did he come from, I thought we had him buried. I'm glad we went with the screecher though I doubt we corrected on him.

Still no results up, but who cares it was a great sail.

On another note, Jim arranged for us to launch at the Des Moines Yacht Club and they could not have nicer and more accomdating. Wayne and I really appreaciated being able to pull the boats that evening and have them home on the trailer by 7pm, missing all the snow on Sunday.

Hope to see everyone at Toliva Shoals.

Mike - Scooter

I thought I was finally going to get to do my first real winter race.  The forecast called for snow and windchills well below freeezing. I had dug up everything warm I could find. I had the generator and heater on the boat. Beth was thinking I was totally insane along with everyone else thinking about doing the race.

However, Saturday the morning of the race dawned with few clouds and the temperture already above freezing. Tom, Kirby and myself launchd the boat out of Des Moines and went to breakfast. By the time we made it out onto the water at about 0915 hours it was close to 40 degrees and the wind had filled in nice from the SE. However, about the time of our start the wind was fading. The thoughts were oh no another long drifter.
We got up on the line with Strider and Optimus Prime to nail the start with Dragonfly and Scooter both a little late. Soon everyone had their spinnaker up for the long run to Alki Pt.

All but Dragonfly reached down the East side of the sound. DangerZone was able to hold off Strider and Optimus until just past the ferry landing when the wind kick up a little and thier larger spinnakers and waterline took over. Overall it was a great 10 mile spinnaker run with nice wind and spots of sunshine. However, on rounding Alki Pt. DangerZone was not prepared for the light wind. Strider, Optimus Prime with large headsails quickly legged it out and Scooter squeezed by on the inside.

By the time DangerZone got things straighten out and the screecher up the damage had been done. The wind filled in a little once headed back to Blakely Rocks under spinnaker. However, just past Blakely Rocks the wind became light and shifty if you consider 90 degree shifts every 3 to 5 minutes as shifty. DangerZone had changed jibs on the spinnaker run and slowly closed the gap in some with Scooter. About a mile north of the ferry landing the wind once again filled in for a nice close hauled course back to the finish. For race that was supposed to be one of survival it turned out to be a great race.

Preliminary results looks like Strider beat Optimus Prime by less than 10 seconds on corrected with Scooter back another 9 1/2 minutes, DangerZone 45 seconds back and Dragonfly 15 minutes out of first.

Current NWMHA standings will be posted soon to the website.

The next race is Toliva Shoals on the 12th of Febraury.
The next Multihull Cup race is Blakely Rocks the 1st weekend in March.

Jim - DangerZone