Thank you for your patience!
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Yes I still blog at times...
Getting married this year meant priorities shifted from crafting semi-coherent ramblings about yachting and generally messing about on boats... Alas, we did it, Nicole and I are hitched, and the schedule is clearing to find more free time to hoist the laundry, haul the mail, and write potentially confused retrospectives on all the action.
2013 AYC Eliza Island Race Recap
A fleet of 11 AYC race teams set into Fidalgo Bay and received the first signs to the end of summer descending upon us with grey skies chilling the bay and faint misty breezes dampening gel coat. AYC resurrected the Eliza Island race for 2013, a course that sends boats from the refinery pier northbound to the “RG” buoy north of Eliza Island and back.
Reaching the first re-start clustered Siren, Cat Sass, and Emoyeni together while Boomer, a yacht clearly never punished by Long Bay, worked their business between Guemes and Huckleberry islands. A new northwesterly filled from the right first and Emoyeni seemed to be the first boat to take advantage as she wound up and greased a wake toward William Point (Or Point Wilson if you’re navigating by movies starring Tom Hanks…)
Soon Emoyeni would be rolled by Siren and Cat Sass while Boomer magically worked through the huckleberry gap the furthest west and seemingly in the better pressure. Eventually the pea soup fog rolled in, along with a rumbling freighter, and boats had to divert their attention from schooling on competitors to simply keeping their boat on course while avoiding tonnage. Eliza Island began to define herself as the fog lifted and revealed Cat Sass and Lucky Duck making way up the west side of Eliza while Boomer, Solitaire, Siren, Corvus, and Spice were split out east. Slightly behind, Little Annie, and Myrica were in tow following the stern of Emoyeni. Meanwhile, somewhere in Catalina, Walt n’ Jerry were landing a 17lb King salmon off peapod rocks.
First around the mark was the only multi hull this side of the 38th parallel without a single kiwi on board, followed by Boomer, Siren, and in a came-outta-nowhere move Lucky Duck. Solitaire would follow Siren down the west side of Eliza while Cat Sass, Boomer, and Lucky Duck opted for a more gentlemanly east side transit. Corvus and Emoyeni crossed tacks and diced it up wondering who would lay first and by barely a boat length Emoyeni rounded as Corvus escaped laying a new red racing stripe down her port side.
At 14:32:46 the Islander Bahama 30 crossed the line which, for those scoring atop cap santé, was the first boat of the day to kiss the finish and reap the bragging rights of what’s been known over the past few years as a damn tough race to finish. Behind Emoyeni by a freshly calculated 5 min 34 sec were the time-out/re-start victims aboard the Viva27 Cat Sass, followed by the little Martin 242, Boomer, which was 3rd over the line. As handicap correction was applied Emoyeni enjoyed an inflated delta of nearly 18 minutes ahead of Boomer who secured a hard fought 2nd place for the day. Lucking out into 3rd was Lucky duck, followed by the woodiest boat in the fleet, the Buchanan sloop Myrica in 4th. 5th place was earned by the relatively quite sailors aboard Siren, 6th place awarded to Little Annie with guest scorer, and hanging around in 7th place the Islander 36, Spice. 8th place goes to the boat caught playing card games near Eliza rock, the SC27 Solitaire. Singlehanding his way into 9th place, Scott Peterson in the CS30 Corvus while 10th place was awarded to the boat seemingly oblivious to the fact there was a real race happening yet somehow managed to put the hull around the course, Walt n’ Jerry on the mighty Catalina 27 Syn-di-Cat. And although they were only 6 minutes behind Emoyeni at the finish somewhere between the negative PHRF rating and a downwind tack gone awry sent the AC27 Cat Sass tumbling down the standings into 11th place…
Just enough nor’ westerly developed ahead of the start to get competitors off and reaching on port tack to the gap between saddlebag and huckleberry island. Emoyeni nailed a mid-line start in clear air while watching Boomer, Solitaire, and Little Annie fight for position on the favored pin end. To leeward were the parallel hulls and manual tacking jib of the mighty Cat Sass went roaring by, seemingly a few minutes late to the start. Cat Sass would eventually park up between the gap of conventional wisdom where the first race re-start would take place. Meanwhile, somewhere in Catalina, Walt n’ Jerry were taking down their kite and pulling crab pots from the bay.
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| The AC27 Cat Sass blows to leeward of the SC27 Solitaire |
Reaching the first re-start clustered Siren, Cat Sass, and Emoyeni together while Boomer, a yacht clearly never punished by Long Bay, worked their business between Guemes and Huckleberry islands. A new northwesterly filled from the right first and Emoyeni seemed to be the first boat to take advantage as she wound up and greased a wake toward William Point (Or Point Wilson if you’re navigating by movies starring Tom Hanks…)
 |
| Boomer spend most of the day ahead of everybody. Most of the day. |
Soon Emoyeni would be rolled by Siren and Cat Sass while Boomer magically worked through the huckleberry gap the furthest west and seemingly in the better pressure. Eventually the pea soup fog rolled in, along with a rumbling freighter, and boats had to divert their attention from schooling on competitors to simply keeping their boat on course while avoiding tonnage. Eliza Island began to define herself as the fog lifted and revealed Cat Sass and Lucky Duck making way up the west side of Eliza while Boomer, Solitaire, Siren, Corvus, and Spice were split out east. Slightly behind, Little Annie, and Myrica were in tow following the stern of Emoyeni. Meanwhile, somewhere in Catalina, Walt n’ Jerry were landing a 17lb King salmon off peapod rocks.
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| Rick and Deano attempt to lead the fleet nowhere at the first restart |
First around the mark was the only multi hull this side of the 38th parallel without a single kiwi on board, followed by Boomer, Siren, and in a came-outta-nowhere move Lucky Duck. Solitaire would follow Siren down the west side of Eliza while Cat Sass, Boomer, and Lucky Duck opted for a more gentlemanly east side transit. Corvus and Emoyeni crossed tacks and diced it up wondering who would lay first and by barely a boat length Emoyeni rounded as Corvus escaped laying a new red racing stripe down her port side.
As Kites popped and courses were chosen it became obvious those who held west were advantaged with better breeze and a shorter distance back to the gap of conventional wisdom, not to mention the ability to hold a kite the whole way. East hanging boats couldn’t lay William point without going back to whites. Siren managed to park themselves up near Carter Point where Emoyeni and Solitaire gybed away. The breeze held a quick time-out while the three west most boats attempted to negotiate the eddy currents. Emoyeni being most heads-up gybed back at the first sign of the filling northwest pressure and rocketed away with the kite pulling hard on a beam reach.
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| Emoyeni sails out of a Tom Hanks movie and into a John Carpenter movie |
Ahead in the distance Cat Sass had put a good 40 minutes on the fleet but began mowing the lawn between saddlebag and huckleberry islands waiting for the door to open up. Boomer had doused and was working hard to escape Samish Bay, giving up all their lead over Emoyeni. As the leading monohulls compressed on Cat Sass’ position, still playing Sisyphus, long eyes spied the gap of unconceivable wisdom appeared to look, gasp, favorable. Refinery stacks showed a decent westerly flowing through the Guemes Channel and if the momentum and current hold okay, the first boat to Southeast Point could get the new breeze first.
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| Nate still can't believe we made it through there |
Boomer, Solitare, and Siren followed lead boat Emoyeni into the gap of unconceivable wisdom as the wind softened. Drawing kites turned to drooping bags of nylon but the west side of huckleberry was a running river of positive flood current. Those who kept their heads out of their boats and played their cards right kept inching forward. It was ultimately the turning point for teams Cat Sass as their boat for boat lead relinquished to Emoyeni. With all boats firmly behind the team nosed into the new Guemes breeze first with victory assured barring the front of the boat falling off suddenly.
At 14:32:46 the Islander Bahama 30 crossed the line which, for those scoring atop cap santé, was the first boat of the day to kiss the finish and reap the bragging rights of what’s been known over the past few years as a damn tough race to finish. Behind Emoyeni by a freshly calculated 5 min 34 sec were the time-out/re-start victims aboard the Viva27 Cat Sass, followed by the little Martin 242, Boomer, which was 3rd over the line. As handicap correction was applied Emoyeni enjoyed an inflated delta of nearly 18 minutes ahead of Boomer who secured a hard fought 2nd place for the day. Lucking out into 3rd was Lucky duck, followed by the woodiest boat in the fleet, the Buchanan sloop Myrica in 4th. 5th place was earned by the relatively quite sailors aboard Siren, 6th place awarded to Little Annie with guest scorer, and hanging around in 7th place the Islander 36, Spice. 8th place goes to the boat caught playing card games near Eliza rock, the SC27 Solitaire. Singlehanding his way into 9th place, Scott Peterson in the CS30 Corvus while 10th place was awarded to the boat seemingly oblivious to the fact there was a real race happening yet somehow managed to put the hull around the course, Walt n’ Jerry on the mighty Catalina 27 Syn-di-Cat. And although they were only 6 minutes behind Emoyeni at the finish somewhere between the negative PHRF rating and a downwind tack gone awry sent the AC27 Cat Sass tumbling down the standings into 11th place…
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