Corinthian Yacht Club Seattle Blakely Rock
In Division 1, Carl Buchan‘s “Madrona” (2nd place) and Jim Marta’s "Eye Candy." Photo courtesy of Corinthian YC.
Rock Center Sound Series races, the clubroom post-race roared with excitement. The sailing season is off to a great start. Over the course of the day, the wind waxed and waned and flopped and held, but just as we began to wonder whether the race would be shortened, we could see the forecasted northerly coming down the Sound. Saturday morning there were clouds
R
all around, but for a hole above Shilshole, so the 69 racing yachts gathered for the start enjoyed some spring sunshine. It was a classic convergence zone day, but as usual, the details vary, and it is in the details that the race is won. We started with a 5-7 knot southerly,
and in the vicinity of West Point, the wind got as high as 8-10 knots but from there on south, it decreased. As we neared and rounded Blakely Rock, it had fallen to 1-2 knots, and soon after rounding, at about noon, the tide switched to a flood. Continuing north, the wind swung around to the east and many, but not
48° NORTH, APRIL 2011 PAGE 64
esoundingly described as the most unique of all the light-air Blakely
all boats, were flying a chute—or trying to. The wind increased and decreased a few knots several times, and various boats went west or east, looking for more wind and maybe less of a flood or a kick out of the locks. But by about 2:00 pm, holding out
in the middle finally paid off as the approaching northerly arrived, working its way down the center of the Sound first and putting smiles on our faces with 8-9 knots. This breeze took us to Pt. Wells, where the committee boat finished us on a shortened course of 16.8 nm. Dan Randolph, owner of the Mumm
30 Nefarious in Division 2, said, “Today was anyone’s race. All the races I’ve done out here, and all the times I’ve done this race, I’ve never seen the middle pay off. The boats that stayed in the middle did much better than the boats that went to the beach.” Dan’s tactician on Nefarious, Jonathan Flack, added his perspective. ”This year, conventional wisdom didn’t pay. You had to keep your head out of the boat the whole race—Banshee just did a better job of it than we did.” In Division 2,
Derek Campbell's Banshee blasted ahead to finish first, more than eight minutes ahead of second place Nefarious. Eric Nelson's Gardyloo took third. In Division 7, the J/29 Slick, formerly
Abracadabra and now owned by Pat and Christine Nelson and Bob Mayfield, dug out of a bad start and worked close to the shore from the Shilshole breakwater to the north end of Elliott Bay. At this point, they began to cross the Sound to Bainbridge Island, seeking favorable wind lanes and not getting too close to the Island, where boats appeared to be struggling. Once rounding Blakely Rock, most boats launched a spinnaker and headed north on a broad reach. As the wind clocked forward, head sails were raised and spinnakers came down. Slick took a long starboard tack and then several shorter tacks as they approached the shortened finish line. They crossed and corrected to first by 7:37 over Garry Greth's Muffin in second and Reinhard Freywald's Kiwi Express in third. Pat Nelson humorously commented on his boat's success, “We were grateful for the
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98