A big part of the success of Whidbey
Island Race Week is due to the
exemplary committee work Rathkopf,
and his team of volunteers, manage to
pull off each year.
This year the race committee
introduced the use of courtesy radio
hails for start count-downs and to call
over-earlies (although there were still a
few no-excuse OCS starts scored). And,
not wanting to make things any easier on
themselves than they do the race boats
themselves, they also set a separate finish
line for the PHRF class finishes than the
one-design classes, which allowed the
RC to fire off quicker start rotations.
But even the best race committee in the
world can’t control the wind. The wind
in Wednesday’s first race, set deeper east
into Saratoga Passage, shifted 90 degrees
Above: In Fleet P08, “Frecklebelly
Madtom,” “Ohana,” “Shenanigans,”
“Wild Rumpus,” “Amigos” and “Nauti
Nymph” run downwind to the mark.
Photo by Borrowed Light Images
Center: Fleet P01 strutting their stuff.
Photo by Jan Anderson
Below: There's gotta be a mark
in there somewhere!
Photo by Borrowed Light Images
near the leeward mark, giving the RC
no choice but to abandon. Fortunately
the wind settled in soon after for a full
afternoon of round-the-buoys action.
Friday, traditionally a one-race day,
was too good to let go to waste. Two
more races capped the week which the
RC determined to use each and every
mark. The big boats were sent to the long
windward mark tucked further west
up into Penn Cove, while some classes
were sent to the gybe mark set just off
the Coupeville dock, to the delight of the
tourists lining the rails who watched the
fleet of racing boats that stretched from
one end of Penn Cove to the other.
Leading the fleet and taking first in
class for the week was this year’s scratch
boat, Roxanne, Greg Slyngstad’s J/125.
48° No r t h , Au g u s t 2009 PA g e 58
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