Corinthian Yacht Club Seattle Scatchet Head by Peggy Johnson T


his year's Scatchet Head race was, in one way, exactly the same for


all divisions—wet. Very wet. It rained from the first start to almost the last finish, but such things just don’t bother the dauntless sailors aboard 73 yachts gathered for the second race of the CYC Seattle Center Sound Series. Almost as constant as the rain was the southerly— which generally increased from 10-12 knots at the start to 20-22 knots by the finish—and the 8 foot ebb. With spinnakers hoisting right after


the start, boats diverged to three lanes— to the west or east shore or somewhere in the middle. In Division 0, the new boat in town, Wasabi, a Kernan 44 owned by Greg Slyngstad (and splashed less than 24 hours before the start), went west chasing better pressure. When the wind shifted from southeast to more southerly, Wasabi found herself on the wrong side of a significant shift. Neptune’s Car, on the other hand, proceeded east of center until off Pt. Wells, then worked their way towards the port layline. Flash worked the center west downwind and met Wasabi, continuing down the west side. In Division 4, Different Drummer,


Charles Hill's Wauquiez Centurion 40s, had a very nice downwind leg. They headed mid-channel picking up a strong ebb and a steady 10-14 knot breeze. Sailing closer to rhumb line than others in their division, Different Drummer was the first to arrive at the Scatchet Head gong buoy. From there, they sailed to the east and short tacked down the shore to stay out of the ebb current as much as possible. Most of their fleet followed this strategy. But one by one, the faster boats in the fleet began to pull through, and by two-thirds of the way back to the finish, they were in danger of losing touch with the leaders. Charles Hill explained what came next. “At this point luck came to our aid in the form of stronger wind. With the wind now gusting over 20 knots and a flat sea, we were able to take advantage of our waterline and Drummer


48° NORTH, APRIL 2011 PAGE 68


started to pull back on the leaders. By now we were constantly feathering our main to keep the boat reasonably flat and were being powered along by our heavy number one. The stronger the wind got, the faster our relative speed, and as we approached the finish line we were closing in nicely on the leaders and had gained enough ground to take second place for the race on corrected time. The only boat we could not pull back on was Finale, Roger and Connie Hills' Swan 46, another heavy boat which also benefited from the combination of strong wind and waterline to romp into a solid lead. Overall it was a great race for us against a very strong group of competitors and we know that it will take flawless sailing plus a little luck to hold onto the series lead.” In the J/105 one-design Division


6, Jim Geros’ Last Tango sailed a great downwind leg by sailing to the west early on. Near the end of the first leg, as the wind lightened for Last Tango and Erik Kristen's Jubilee, the rest of the fleet caught up just in time so that all five boats in the fleet rounded the mark within a few minutes of each other. There was some trading of places as they worked their way southeast towards Edmonds and then short tacked the beach under increasing wind back to Shilshole. Depending on who dug in the deepest to the beach, the distances between the J/105 boats varied, but they stayed within maybe 5-10 boat lengths of each other the entire leg home. At the finish, Jubilee led Last Tango, Robert Blaylock’s Usawi, Lorenzo Migliorini’s Allegro Vivace, and Jerry Dierck’s Delerium, with all five boats finishing within one to five minutes of each other. After rounding Scatchet Head,


Neptune’s Car went west of center until they reached Kingston, where they took a long starboard tack across the Sound, making the eastern shore just south of the NOAA buoy off the north end of Pt. Wells. From there, they didn’t work


the eastern shore too hard—just worked the current line off Carkeek Park, taking fairly long tacks and taking advantage of the shifts that were rolling down. In Divisions 0 and 1, Neptune’s Car


was the only boat that worked the west as hard as they did coming home. Wasabi hung in there for a bit with them, but eventually, they headed east as well. For many on the eastern shore, it


was a long, cold, wet beat of short tacks down the beach. When finally she came into view, Shilshole was a sight for sore eyes.


First overall went to Bravo Zulu,


Denny Vaughn's Beneteau 40.7 of Division 1. As the slow boat (PHRF 57) in a division that includes numerous 18 and 24-raters, she clearly sailed a brilliant race, correcting 5:12 in front of second-in-division Chester Hibbert's Jack Rabbit. With one race left in the series, the


battle is on! In the Series standings after two races, Division 0 has Neptune's Car sitting at the top with 2 points, followed by Flash with 4 points and Artemis with 7. Tight battles are on with every division-- four have ties in the top three positions. Division 7 standings include a tie between Kiwi Express and Slick. In Division 8, the results for Scatchet Head flipped from those of Blakely Rock for the top three boats so that there is currently a 3-way tie for first between Kowloon, Blue Martini, and Rubicon. In Division 9, Blakely Rock overall winner Invader held onto first. Summing up Wasabi's race, Greg


Slyngstad said, “We have lots to learn, but we had a great time, and I was pleased with our performance on Saturday. We're excited to get out again for Three Tree Point.”


Results on page 65 The stories you share are what makes


the 48° North Race Report so personal. If you would like to share your racing experience, please contact, Peggy Johnson, at seismokid@gmail.com or (206) 650-2689.


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