sun. Artemis in first place made fast for Victoria to maintain their lead. Nigel Barron aboard Artemis remarked after the race that they played the shifts along the shore and found good breeze for the return leg to Victoria feeling confident in their crew work and tactical prowess. The joy of racing with good friends and having a great race made this a fitting final Swiftsure for Artemis. As the sun set over the Pacific
Ocean, Kevin Welch’s Icon and Paul LaMarche’s Neptune’s Car vanished off into the horizon as they made for the “Bank”. Their next twenty-four hours would be trying as they made their way home in light breeze. Paul LaMarche, skipper of the Santa Cruz 70 Neptune’s Car, would weather sitting for three hours at Carmanah Point in 6-8 foot swells until the breeze built to 33 knots providing him with a rip roaring return through Race Passage to the finish at Victoria. Scott Milne aboard Lightning would experience the longest and most enduring kite flying on his boat, making the weekend very memorable for him and his crew, which consisted mostly of sailors from Seattle’s J/24 fleet. As evening settled on us all, it was
“The spinnaker runs, in a building breeze along the
shoreline, was so much fun, I wished the day would never end.” — Amber Whal
time to focus on the night race and sailing the boat downwind at max speed by playing favorable shifts in the wind. As the vacuum of night’s darkness limits most external information, it is critical to get into a crew rhythm and direct your attention to boat performance. As fatigue took hold of us in the dark of the night we were met with a pleasant and uplifting surprise. A pair of dolphin joined us midway through our race playfully swimming along with brightly lit sub-surface con-trials of phosphorescence. Now energized, the crew of Flash
worked tirelessly through the night to recover our position in the fleet. With continuous breeze and the spinnaker full we made for Race Rocks ready for the variability that the “Rocks” would offer in the night. Aboard Wasabi, Alex Krawarik recounted that the downwind
run to “Race Rocks” was one of the more enjoyable night sails the crew has had. As the run progressed they found themselves close behind Artemis while passing through the current and shifty breeze of Race Passage in the early hours of the morning. Past the “Rocks” it was a full on sprint to the finish, boat for boat, in an ever diminishing breeze. Approaching the finish at sunrise,
as the breeze lightened, we all found ourselves progressively changing our sail plan to keep our boats moving. Aboard Flash we peeled to ever lighter sails, ultimately ghosting through the finish with our jib. Following close behind us were Findlay Gibbons’ Zulu and Daryl Homan’s Mai-Tai both Juan De Fuca race competitors. As Flash arrived at the inspection dock we were met by the Swiftsure Race Chair Vern Burkhardt with two bottles of champagne and a trophy for Line Honors. Vern commented that the highlight of this year’s race was being able to meet the racers after each boat finished the race. Each line honor winner and everyone who finished were jubilant that they had mastered the conditions of this year’s Swiftsure. — by Joshua May
FAST! Photo: Jan’s Marine Photography GPL Carbon, FiberPath & Redline Spinnakers.
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48° NORTH, JULY 2011 PAGE 52
Whidbey Race Week Sponsor
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