2012 AYC Champagne I, Sucia Island Race/Cruise re-cap

April 21^st drew 5 boats with race fans ready for a gorgeous ride from A-town’s refinery dock up the pond to Sucia Island where we’d be greeted by the loud shirts and awesome food of the AYC cruising fleet. The pre-described starting area was found to be a literal windless hole so Commodore Mac and Pangaea led the racers motoring north to the nearest spot of pressure. With the cruising out of the way early a line was set up off Jack Island’s red nun and Andy hailed a passing AYC boat over to provide start horns.

While this event was part of the 2012 AYC race package there seemed a relaxed in approach to the day by the racing boats. Pete and the 50+ club on Passépartout put up new ocean going sails and practiced fancy offshore maneuvers while Andy Schwenk shellacked the 4 pint-sized stowaways aboard Wild Rumpus in plenty of SPF 30. Walt and Jerry were complimented by the lovely Kim Kelley on Syn-di-cat and Emoyeni made it a family oriented day with a crew adorned in matching sweatshirts – Skipper Chris enjoyed the company of his 1^st mate Kyle, the Gybe Princess Nicole, and the Gin Goddess (who exclusively drank rum) Joyce!

Getting off the start Syn-di-cat port tacked the fleet while everyone else made way towards Jack Island. The fleet would split further north with Pangaea and Passépartout making way to the east by Vendovi Island while Rumpus, Syn-di-cat, and Emoyeni looked for better pressures by Sinclair. Steady north-westerly breeze filled in and made it obvious the butts would be warming the rails all the way to the finish at Danger Reef.

Current relief was key till the shift to flood and the Lummi shore had the right flavor so boats eventually converged there with Pangaea leading the charge. Emoyeni and Syndicat had a good duel getting to the Lummi with the Catalina being able to keep a step or two ahead of us on the Islander. As we approached Lummi rocks and the current started to go neutral we decided it was time for a bold move and took the long hitch back towards Pt Lawrence looking for a lift off Orcas.

Passépartout was already on the west side of Rosario, Rumpus was cooking towards the sisters, while Pangaea and Syn-di-cat favored the back eddy along Lummi working north. Initially pressure suffered till it didn’t and the currents sucked until they didn’t. Around Matia Island we hit a solid patch of breeze and carried west with a fresh round of drinks. Pangaea appeared to be finishing up while Pete and Andy laid their final tacks to the finish – and then the breeze went soft.

What we thought was as much as a 20 minute lead on Syndicat, who was last spotted cleaning up an oil spill off Cherry Pt, started getting reeled back into the negative column with every delicate 2kn tack to make Eagle Pt. We were acutely aware there was solid pressure north of Matia and Walt n’ Jerry were in it. Sure nuff’ as Rolfe cove emerged on the north side of the island so did the Catalina blazing on layline to the finish with us just 50yds below. We finished a mere 3&1/2 minutes behind Syn-di-cat and updated our charts renaming Rolfe cove to ROFL cove – what a finish after splitting from the Catalina!

In summary it was quite a weekend of great weather, although chilly, and good sailing if you like the upwind stuff. Probably a bad weekend for the scorer to quit sniffing glue as the phoned in results Saturday night were a bit suspect. Upon final review, Pangaea earned a bullet with Wild Rumpus, powered by cheetos and purple gatorade, took 2^nd. Passépartout lumbered into 3^rd place and Syn-di-cat sailed, as Andy would say, more quicklier than Emoyeni for 4^th and 5^th places respectively.