and boat repair to follow. Many teams had shore support crew


that followed them around the island. In their land yachts, the shore teams would provide much needed resupply and creature comforts. The shore crew race would be a unique one, as they would experience the inner depths of Vancouver Island itself. The best leg of the race would be


the ninth, a 97nm downwind run to Victoria. School children from “Ukee” called the starting sequence. With a rough and wavy downwind start, the fleet finally had the opportunity to hoist their spinnakers and set off to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. According to Graeme Esarey, skipper of Kotuku andwinner of Division 3, ”For us, it felt like vacation for most of the run down from Uclulet to Victoria, where we had speeds in the 12s at the beginning and end of the leg.” During this leg, the fleet had their


second major tactical call—head along the Canadian shore or run south to Cape Flattery and sail a traditional “Swiftsure” approach to race rocks and the finish. Aboard Flash, after a dozen spinnaker peels in changing breeze, we made our way south to Cape Flattery


“The wonder of the Van Isle is


the great people you meet along the way and the many friendships born during the journey.” — Denny Vaughan, “Bravo Zulu”


and then made a straight run to Race Rocks. As the sun set on Victoria, we managed a very close reach, passing only feet from the breakwater pier, as an audience cheered our approach to the finish line. Our lay day in Victoria was spent in


anticipation of the tenth and last leg, the most important race of all. The 60.4nm race to Nanaimo would provide the fleet with our third major tactical decision— head out around Saturna Island to the Strait of Georgia or head inside the islands saving miles on distance. Aboard Flash, as we approached


Stuart Island’s Turn Point midway through the last race, I made my way aloft to search for wind. We made the call to head inside the islands with the rest of our fleet. As the wind died we set our exit for Active Pass. We sailed the Strait of Georgia through the night, closing in on


Jonathan Mckee’s Dark Star, until just at the finish we poked ahead by seconds to earn line honors. As we docked, I looked up into the dark of the morning night to see the ghost of a giant white spinnaker passing through the finish line. Icon had finished mere minutes behind us and it was clear that we had won our regatta. We congratulated the crew of Dark Star and Icon on an exceptionally well sailed regatta. Doing well in a regatta like the Van


Isle 360 is a daunting task and requires keen tactics and close crew work. Steve Travis put it quite well when he commented that, “Crew work is the most important thing to winning races. The idea that you can change sails, or jibe, or tack at any time to adapt to wind or tidal conditions as they develop, make the decisions of where to go on the various legs of the Van Isle critical.” As a whole the fleet in many ways


became a family with each bringing to the regatta something special that, if missing, would have made the regatta incomplete. The 2011 Van Isle 360 will forever be one of my favorite life stories.


— Race results are on page 63


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48° NORTH, AUGUST 2011 PAGE 49


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