photo courtesy of Corinthian Yacht Club


Corinthian Yacht Club Three T ree Point


“The race committee mercifully abandoned the race, believing that we couldn’t get to Three Tree Point within the time limit.”


The stakes were high. It was March 26, the day of Three Tree Point, the third


and final race of the CYC Seattle’s Center Sound Series. After the first two races on March 5 and March 12, there were tight battles raging in every division. Four had ties in the top three positions. Division 8 had a three-way tie for first between Kowloon, Blue Martini, and Rubicon. And in Division 0, Neptune's Car was in first with 2 points, followed by Flash with 4 points and Artemis with 7. If Paul LaMarche's Neptune's Car could hang on, she could unseat Steve Travis' Flash, who has sailed to the Divison 0 series victory for the past three years. The morning dawned, fine but calm.


With a forecast of a light southerly, seventy-five registered yachts came out for the 9:00 AM reverse-start race on Puget Sound. They sailed around, waiting to begin, weathering the anticipated but short postponement until a north-northwesterly began to fill in. The gun coincided with the end of a


flood tide, lending us a push of current through the start line, but the ebb began a short time later at 10:06. No one really expected we'd finish the entire 30 nm course, so it appeared that the entire shortened race (or the first leg of the full


course) would involve battling against an ever-building current for the 15 miles to Three Tree Point. Strategy, as always, was important. Many of the slower, first-start boats,


headed east for the breakwater and the Fort Lawton shore. It turns out that brought success, and many of them eventually were long gone and in Elliott Bay far ahead of the later-start, faster boats. Some boats went far to the west, and that worked too, provided you got over there early. Flash did this early, and a bit later, Neptune's Car proceeded to the west as well. For those boats that hesitated or stayed in the middle, the suffering was great. There was simply no wind - except here and there in very narrow lanes - and a building adverse current.


About 2:00 pm, after racing four


hours, we still had 10 miles to go to Three Tree Point for a shortened course. This was when we began hearing a series of three horns, every few minutes. Eventually, a whaler motored past, again blasting three horns. The race committee mercifully abandoned the race, believing that we couldn't get to Three Tree Point within the time limit. The entire fleet motored back and sailors began making their way to the CYC


clubhouse for the awards party and gear raffle by the CSS sponsor SLAM. For the two-race series, results are


as determined two weeks earlier. In Division 0, Neptune's Car took first, Flash took second, and Artemis came in third. In Division 1, Bravo Zulu, the overall winner of Scatchet Head, hung on to first, followed by Madrona in second and Jack Rabbit in third. In Division 4, first went to Different Drummer, second to Tantivy, and third to Tahlequah. In Division 8, two tie-breaker rules were used to determine that first, second, and third place went to Kowloon, Blue Martini, and Rubicon. In Division 9, Invader, Marty Godsil's Thunderbird that took first overall in the Blakely Rock race, hung on to first place in division, followed by Tuesday in second and Express in third. The new scoring system used by


CYC has had some issues, which has precluded the publishing of the Series overall results to date.


— by Peggy Johnson The stories you share are what makes


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


48° NORTH, MAY 2011 PAGE 55


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