“I’m shocked,” says NW Rigging’s Andy Schwenk. “I’m watching the news and they’re reporting on a sailboat race, not Grand Prix, not Whidbey Island Race Week, but Race Your House!” If it’s the oddity of it, the interest in it, or the simple absurdity of people racing their houses, something piqued the interest of the news media to look into the small Sloop Tavern Yacht Club race. So, Friday morning, before race day, a short informative piece was put together by King 5’s Christie Johnson.
own. “I think each boat should have an animal aboard,” says Gale, sailing aboard her Hunter 430 Defiant. “The kind with four legs, not two...” STYC handicappers gave boats ratings that didn’t have them and even went as far as rating what they had on board to make sure everyone had a chance to sail their boat to its rating. Boats were entering and getting ratings right up until the start of the skipper’s meeting Friday night over keg beers, while a band set up on the loft floor at
Sloop Tavern YC “Race Your House”
rolled across the line a bit faster with the final start of Flying Sails boats hitting the line early with more than a few OCS’s called on the eager fleet of liveaboards. Once around the Meadow Point
buoy it was time to drag race across the Sound and avoid the large research ship directly in their path. The faster boats worked through the early starters and decided if they could hold their chute or not. “We entered the Flying Sails class,” yelled Melanie Edwards aboard the Wasa 38 Vanadis. “Throw the chute up!” Up they went and boats reached low of the mark with tight spinnakers flogging and flapping as they held their course as high as they could. Boats that you wouldn’t expect to see at the front of a regular handicapped race were out in front and reaching at speed. Spinnakers where quickly hoisted on the run back to Seattle, but the passing lanes reduced as Quixote found out. Even though it looks like a slow cruising boat Gypsy Wind wasn’t about to simply let Quixote roll over them. The Elan 40 was seen reaching up and working hard to get around the Nonsuch 36. Up they went until finally the Quixote dove to leeward behind Gypsy Wind, hoisted their spinnaker and finally worked through their lee. Brava led the fleet around the south
The Formosa 51 “Angelique” and the Force 50 “Marauder” rounded within seconds of each other and began crossing tacks to weather, looking more like two man-of-wars lining up for a broadside than liveaboards out racing their houses.
“Race Your House” isn’t a new idea,
but a rebirth of an old Sloop Tavern race created by the original founders of the Sloop Tavern Yacht Club, liveaboards. Yep, STYC was created by a group of liveaboards that wanted to get out and race their boats against each other, cruise together, and simply share a common interest, the love of sailing and living aboard on Puget Sound. Over 30 years have gone by since that auspicious moment at a local seedy bar and 25 boats signed up to race their houses Saturday, October 15, with a perfect fall forecast of winds at 10 to 15 knots out of the north and partially sunny skies. “My house is faster than your house” - that’s all they’re racing for, bragging rights, and a chance to compete against boats that have just as much crap aboard as their 48° NORTH, NOVEMBER 2011 PAGE 40
Ballard Sails. “Keep playin’ til the keg runs dry,” and they did. Saturday morning came around and
the liveaboard racers began leaving the dock for the 11:00 am start for the two Non Flying Sails classes and the Flying Sails class. The Race Committee set up the starting line off the north end of Shilshole and with a course of Meadow Point, Point Monroe, south hamburger, then finish. There was minimal upwind and tons of reaching for the varied designs that came out racing - everything from the slick and fast Elan 40 Quixote to the old IOR boat Monsoon, to the solid Nonsuch 36 Gypsy Wind and the huge Force 50 Marauder. Horns blaring and cannons firing, class one slowly worked across the starting line towards the first mark at Meadow Point. The second start
hamburger with Louise, Bolero, Quixote, & Vanadis hot on their tail. Just behind the lead group, Mike Beste’s Hunter 430 Defiant charged into the mark at 9 knots, not to be left out of the running. Time for some upwind work to the finish and those with crews hiking on the rail finally had a chance to pull away from the boats that reached so well across the Sound and back. Working around the ship canal and along the breakwater, Vanadis and Quixote battled it out tack for tack with Quixote slowly pulling away with her greater upwind speed and crossed the finish line with Vanadis just over a minute behind them. Class 2 had Brava way out in front, finishing first and six minutes in front of the next boat in their class, the Choat 40 Bolero. Back at the leeward mark the slower
rated boats began their upwind beat to the finish and the large Formosa 51 Angelique and the Force 50 Marauder rounded within seconds of each other and began crossing tacks to weather, looking more like two man-of-wars lining up for a broadside than liveaboards out racing their houses. Cannons firing, literally, the
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