FOULWEATHER
CYC Edmonds
The start of Division 2 BLUFF
Each year, at the beginning of
October, while many are anticipating Oktoberfest and the promise of snow filled mountains, Pacific Northwest sailors are anticipating the first distance race of the competitive fall sailing season. Foulweather Bluff, hosted by the Corinthian Yacht Club of Edmonds, is traditionally a light wind race with heavy currents and plentiful sunshine. The course of the race traverses the
north central Puget Sound, taking sailors west to Pilot Point or the Foulweather Bluff buoy, then northeast across the strong tidal rips of south Whidbey Island’s Scatchet Head and back along the eastern shore to Edmonds. For those that believe that they could call this a predictable race, they would be wrong. In the last five years there has been every condition from sunshine slatting to 40 knot puffs howling down Admiralty Inlet. In its 31st year, the CYCE Foulweather Bluff would hold for some, jubilation, and for all, the challenge of the north central Puget Sound.
Saturday morning
63 sailboats gathered to race in ten divisions. Ten divisions started in reverse order with the fast boats starting last. With light winds and grey overcast skies, the race committee signaled a shortened course. John Wolfe, Race Committee for the CYCE, noted that “getting a grip on Saturday’s weather
prediction was trying.” He continued with, “the reality of any race is that you have to work with what you’ve got an hour before the start and hope for the best.” With the sound of the horn. the
fleets were off, setting code zeros and colorful spinnakers. Starting in Division nine and uncertain of the location of the Pilot Point mark, the crew aboard Steve Travis’ Flash found comfort in knowing the fleets ahead would show us the way. As the fleets consolidated along the west shore of the Puget Sound they were too spread out to tell where the mark was located. The crew pointed to where we thought the buoy might be, little did we know we were heading straight for it. Rounding nearly first, we peeled from our code zero to the light asymmetrical spinnaker. The southerly breeze began to build as we close reached to Scatchet Head. With two knots of current against us, we made a timely change to the heavy genoa. Once around the Scatchet Head
“Little Blue Dune Buggy” leading (R to L) “Wasabi, ” “Magic Button,” “Grayling,” “Eye Candy,” and “Airloom.” Photo by Jan Anderson.
buoy, the hard decision of the day was either to tack away or continue east into adverse tidal currents. We stayed the course, heading east and found ourselves continually lifted up to the finish line, with Paul LaMarche’s Santa Cruz 70 Neptune’s Car hot on our heels. We all wondered if waterline would prevail over our ever diminishing lead. As we approached the finish line
we realized that the race committee had moved north, off station, anticipating an even shorter course. As we looked off to our right, there was the RC boat Sinalele racing us to the finish. We started taking bets, would the race committee beat us to the line? Jan and Skip Anderson filled in as the temporary race committee and we finished to the gun and earned the bullet for the day. For Simon Kinsey visiting from the UK, this would be his first time sailing in the Pacific Northwest and as he jubilated later, “What a fantastic taste of sailing in Washington State it was!” The greatest comeback of the day was Reinhard Freywald aboard his Farr 1020 Kiwi Express. Pinched out at the boat end during the start, he overcame his competition to finish first by minutes in Division 5. John Wolfe concluded that, “the combination of numerous sai l ing communi ty volunteers and a building southerly under dry skies made the race a success for the club. Not to mention that the party afterward was great!” by Joshua May
48° NORTH, NOVEMBER 2011 PAGE 36
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