2012 AYC Corinthian Series Race #2, Team Emoyeni re-cap

Forecasted breeze was medium pressure out of the south west and looking like a sunny, pleasant evening in Fidalgo bay… We got the s’westerly but it came with a bigger punch than the guessers at NOAA were betting on. Most boats motored into the lee of cap santé head to hoist small sails and tuck in reefs. During A fleet pre sequence the mighty Pangaea’s 18^th century #3 headsail gave up and ripped from leach to luff, decidedly starting the carnage off proper. Course was a windward/leeward 2x around, ruh roh!

On Emoyeni we opted for a little more powered up plan with a #2 and single reefed main, because we’re stupid – All C fleet boats were late but we were the least tardy to the start and got the boat end in clear breeze with Kymodoce in tow. Our canvas proved deadly as we began to walk away from the fleet en-route to the weather mark. After the rounding we shook out the reef and contemplated a kite but decided to stick to whites. Call to gybe and the main didn’t quite get sheeted thoroughly which resulted in what we’re calling an “unzipping” of the mainsail – the boom swung with such force that we tore every single car in the luff of the mainsail out of the track, bits of plastic raining down on deck like a polymer hailstorm. We were now sailing with a loose foot and a loose luff which was okay downwind but definitely wouldn’t work upwind…

Meanwhile in the action south, Kymodoce gybed proper and set her chute – quite the sight watching Kyle Saum drive his boat under the kite and keep the rig upright in those conditions reminding me that he’s got a pacific cup or two under his belt. They ate huge chunks of distance out of our lead while Walt and the Syn-di-Cat found themselves pulling an MOB from the bay during a gybe gone awry.

Emoyeni rounded the leeward mark in the lead and took down the injured main, so for those scoring at home we now had two yachts on the course powered only by a single sail (the other being Pangaea) Still truckin in the lead to the weather mark I think the salt water may have absorbed into our frontal lobes and misfired a few synapses as we actually went ahead and set a kite sans mainsail for the final downwind leg, which in retrospect was stupid. This may have qualified for the most entertaining and/or dumbest decision in a stiff breeze in recent memory (at least). Battled a gybe and had to shuck and jive to avoid the butt end; seemed like an American Gladiators try-out, then we suffered a knock-down that was really more of a pin-down. Everybody held onto the boat and our bowman, buried up to my rib cage in water and hanging from the shrouds, had to cry uncle and dump the kite halyard – kinda reminded me of doing double damned with Andy and Steph a couple years ago. After hauling the kite aboard and untangling the mess of sheets and gear we still managed to make the leeward mark ahead of our fleet although the chute malfeasance had destroyed any chance of gaining back the time we’d need to correct for the overall win.

In the end we crossed the line 1^st, pulled two buckets of green water from the bilge, and corrected into 3^rd place behind Kymodoce and Little Annie. The hearty crew was made up of Deano, Barry, Rich, and Kyle with the experience to match the severe lack of judgment, and then poor Dave and Pete who didn’t know any better… Yes we wore pfd’s, perhaps the only smart thing we did. Note to self, stop putting a kite up without the main. Just don’t do it… not in 20 knots anyway. Bad Deano.

2012 SYC Tri Island Series #1, Smith Island Race Recap

The last weekend of April would mark the second time this year I’d participate in a race around the curious chunk of wind and wave hammered sediment called Smith Island. Having already participated in a race around the island from Anacortes I was keen to experience the route from Seattle to the north and back. Currents and wind predictions suggested a “gentlemanly” sail.

Pre start conditions had a decent southerly and clear skies as the fleets prepped for a spinnaker start. Aboard Shoot the Moon we had a crew of 11 and enough bottled water for an extra 15 bodies. In our fleet of 6 distance loving yachts we were the slowest rated at 84 and likely armed with the most running jokes and best stories in the fleet. We’re also accused of being snappy dressers too.

At the final approach to the start we were the only ones going for boat end on port tack and although we didn’t have the legs to carry us across the fleet we had em’ right where we wanted em’ gybing several times to keep out of trouble before we could hoist the kite. We got settled in and were about 2hrs from Smith Island according to Michael who had yet to remove an article of clothing.

Michael expertly trimming the staysail for multiple tenths of a knot advantage - photo by Nicole Haustveit

Breeze freshened as we gybed and ran deep on the west side of the sound. Ahead of us was the bulk of our fleet that had found a small hole in the space time continuum and was able to eek several miles of distance on us. Directly behind the short course leaders were compressing with the J105’s J105’ing each other (surprise!).

Teresa and Nicole take time out to share a Facebook moment - photo by Nicole Haustveit

 The ebb continued to build and the geographic shift left kept us running on starboard in sunny skies. Being behind by several miles had the entertainment advantage being able to watch short course boats approaching their turning mark from the wrong board. Sailing upwind to make the leeward mark looks slow; did I mention the ebb was pretty strong?

Approaching Pt Partridge we had yet to gybe since Kingston while the Beneteau 45 in our fleet kept us company flopping shore to shore the whole way from Mutiny Bay to Partridge Bank. We were about 2hrs from Smith Island and we had the fleet right where we wanted them – ahead but showing a clear northerly breeze beginning to fill gently as the ebb tide faded. Big money boats had already rounded and were playing in the convergence, displaying the holes for the pack behind. Ruby came down and Blondie went up for the quick beat to the top of Minor Island.

Best way to catch the fleet is to make Kirt eat a bear claw - photo by Nicole Haustveit

Teresa’s awesome enchiladas were loaded into the oven as we made a left turn at Minor Island and skirted the northern shore(s) of Minor and Smith. We set the kite for a run back thru Admiralty Inlet and it occurred to me we’d only used STM’s genoa about 25 minutes total. 

Trevor's amusing high fashion - photo by Nicole Haustveit

We ran east towards admiralty head in the building flood while the bulk of our fleet ahead was rounding Point Wilson, which was right where we wanted them. On the run a wayward cetacean breached abeam of us a few times signaling approval of our course. I’m not sure what type of whale it was, guessing minke maybe? In any event, Steve wasn’t anywhere near the helm so the whale was in no immediate danger. Michael noted we were about 2 hrs from the finish. 

Smith Island at 3pm with the fleet exactly where we want em' - photo by Nicole Haustveit

The remainder of the racing through Admiralty Inlet was extended puffs and lulls between the shores, with STM being the east most boat whilst the remaining fleet kept mostly west between Marrowstone and Foulweather Bluff. Ed cranked the fun meter up to 10.4kn beam reaching to Bush pt while our competition aboard Absolutely peeled to their dark kite and attempted to disguise themselves as a tree on shore.

Numbers we can live with - photo by Nicole Haustveit

Once a large container freighter was clear we gybed for the western peninsula shore in dying breeze and odd rolly wave sets for the prevailing conditions. Darkness had set in and we were only able to sight the two C&C’s Darby and ReignMaker in front of us and the large reachy Beneteau from Milltown. I think at this point we were about 2hrs from the finish and approaching Appletree cove. Never having followed our fleet the whole day we weren’t about to start now, and given we had em’ where we wanted em’ the decision was made to gybe over to Pt Wells in search of a stronger shore breeze and current relief from the beginning ebb.

The thing about Pt Wells was it was illuminated substantially well to see the lack of breeze but we remained in positive water. Skipper Don went below for a bit of decompression so Michael assumed the helm and promptly put the foredeck to work, threatening “Gybe or I’ll take off my pants and jacket!” (I might be exaggerating) – In the last 2 hrs of the race we did more maneuvers than we’d done in the previous 14 hrs of sailing, no rest for the wicked!

It seemed to take at least 2 hrs to make meadow point but the good news was we were only 2 hrs from the finish. I think from G1 into Shilshole bay was the first time the whole race we’d seen an extended period of negative current. At 01:28:14 the race committee signaled our finish, last boat in the fleet to the dock and by virtue, the boat and crew who got the most time in such unique conditions.

STM’s crew consisted of Skipper Don mainly driving but moonlighting in many other areas, notably bow, Sam working tactics and navigation, Kirt-Kyle-Trevor-Nicole mainly pulling the strings and updating the facebook, Teresa kicking it in the pit, Kristy swinging the main and warning the dangers of Brazilian shampoo (not what you’re probably thinking), Ed being generally all over the boat, Michael with a mean staysail trim, and Steve working the bow and whale targeting.

I’m guessing Ed must have spent the previous week helping little old ladies through crosswalks around Seattle and maybe Kristy donated some hair to a wig shop, otherwise I’m not sure what we did to deserve such a nice sail. In the end we only corrected over the Beneteau in our fleet for 5^th place. It’s fun to win but when you don’t perspective is your friend and I think Steve said it best when he opined, “…it’s worth noting that it could literally be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. A long (85 mile, 16 hour) out-and-back race that was at least 90% downwind and 90% positive current.” Shoot man, I had a blast!

And in retrospect we probably would have placed better if Shawn had chosen to pull lines and crank winches around her pit in lieu of gallivanting around igloos and hanging out with yetis on a snowshoeing adventure. Who does that in April anyway? I think we may have been dangerously low on EZ-Cheese too – also Shawn’s fault. (love ya Shawner!)

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.

2012 AYC Tulip Regatta – Breakdown, musings, and other blithering what-not

It seems Anacortes Yacht Club regattas are a lot like an AC/DC concert in that people will tell you every year that this regatta was the best one yet… And I’m hard pressed to argue with them. Tulip Regatta 2012 kicked off Saturday morning to fickle pressure, glassy water but patience was awarded when a steady breeze filled in from the west and got off 3 races for the day. Sunday came with twice the pressure than the day before and after a little delay while a tanker was set the race committee fired off another 3 races for keelboats and pitchforks… If you were trapped out on a Hobie F18 you got an extra race each day for being so damn fast…

F18’s are exceptionally fast for boats without a convenient place to mount a beer cooler. Team Storm took home 1^st place with an array of solid sailing and distractingly colorful canvas, followed by the crew who just started shaving in Barely 18 with 2^nd place, and Laser Tag in 3^rd.

In the big boat PHRF fleet Teddy Bear mauled her competition taking 1^st place with four bullets in 6 races, followed by the fancy Bellingham Beneteau 36.7 Vitesse in 2^nd, and the freshly painted Baltic 39 Pangaea in 3^rd.

Smaller and sportier PHRF boats in fleet 3 saw the mighty Viper 640 KAA just barely edge the boys and girl aboard the Wavelength 24 Surfin Bird for 1^st and 2^nd respectively. Back in the mix with a fresh new bottom the J30 Celebration partied her way into 3^rd place.

In the “Alcoholics Among-us” fleet, what might be called “upset of century” this side of the Swinomish cut saw SC27 Giant Slayer, with a few new Ullman sails in her inventory, put the hurt on local favorites Wild Rumpus with 5 bullets in 6 races. Rumpus settled for 2^nd place and the boat thats name just changed but still takes the same amount of syllables to get through it (6 by my count), Ziggy and the Outlaws sailed to the podium in 3^rd place.

With the largest PHRF fleet of the regatta, fleet 5 saw hot and heavy competition at the top with a mere one (1) point separating 1^st through 3^rd places. With 12.5 points the always well sailed and well rum’d Catalina 27 Syn-di-cat took 1^st place honors over fellow Catalina 27 Handyman with 13 points for their 2^nd place efforts. And taking 3^rd place with 13.5 points back to Bellingham was the mighty San Juan 28 Hoerndag.

Lastly in the San Juan 24 fleet, another dominating performance from the boat that seems to sail with an imaginary 6 more feet of waterline than her sister ships, 1^st place went to the Magic Juan winning all 6 races. 2^nd place was hard fought for and the mighty Merlin did just enough to take silver from Renaissance in 3^rd place.

Lots of fun to be had on and off the course.

• Only one recorded blowout of the regatta – Tom Dixon’s favorite camo shorts. Welcome back to the bow Tom, the back of the boat is always screwing you.

• I’m guessing that Wild Rumpus consistently empties the shelves of ACE Hardware’s duct tape stock for their outfits.

• I think Shannon Buys should be restricted from purchasing a new main for Magic Juan until he wears out his old one.

• Pangaea is sporting a restoration paint job that relives the days back when she saved two of every living creature from the great flood. It turned out really nice!

• Nice to see Team “The Kraken” keep their rig up for a whole regatta!

• In news of “things that have never happened in Anacortes before”, while they weren’t exactly “kicked-out”, an Emoyeni crew member was definitely denied re-entry into the brown lantern Saturday night (or maybe Sunday morning). Alcohol was a factor.

• Lucky Duck, with guest power boating crew, sent up a duck-dodge style kite hoist designed for laughs but not for speed. They actually managed to get the sideways kite drawing for a second or two. Boat speed readings might have been converted to mph on Saturday.

• Did anybody mention that this year was the “Best Tulip Regatta Ever?”

• Winner, winner, Salmon Dinner! Walt Meagher (whose mustache curls naturally like that) and a small army of volunteers served up 80lbs of the tasty stuff this year!

• John Gunn, feeling significantly under the weather, raced the whole weekend aboard Little Annie single handed. He may have also tied one hand behind his back to give the fleet a fightin chance!

• Eric Beemer has really big friends to help sail a small boat so well…

• I think everyone can agree that the boat with the best name of the regatta goes to the newly christened “Thunder Muscle” of the SC27 fleet. Of course it’s a yellow one.

• I’d like to have clever things to say about the Hobie Tigers but they were too quick for me to observe anything besides impressive seamanship and “holy shit those things accelerate!” 

• Battleshots was a great and/or terrible idea. Stephanie should be commended and/or punished.

2012 AYC Tri Straits I, Smith Island Race – Team Emoyeni Recap

Anacortes served up another heapin helping of yacht racing action March 4^th, 2012. Distance lovers painstakingly readied their boats for a crisp and sunny spring day, and even some were able to make it out to the start area ahead of the 4 minute gun. Slight new twist in this years distance racing is all fleets are scored together so the many David’s of “C” fleet had to worry about correcting over the mighty few Goliath’s in “A”.

Two of four Goliath's. We beat one boat for boat on Emoyeni... Photo credit Nikki Bailey

Conditions at the start were light and sort of fluky, giving the edge to a handful of starters carrying their motor momentum at the pin on port tack and found the building northerly first. Pulelehua, a boat who’s name our skipper will never pronounce right, led being chased down by the only pitchfork in the fleet Kinetic Ki, guest helmsman Dean-o on the stick. Night Runner, Hasenpfeffer, and Handyman led the remaining boats into Guemes channel for some fun as boats began finding their preferred lanes on the escalator west.

“A” fleeters who rocketed away in good pressure and positive current found themselves in a convergence east of Shannon Pt and we observed Night Runner on an ugly port tack going mostly north. Confusion created scrambles as we all took massive headers or awkward hitches north, at one point Syndicat appeared heading off to Bellingham, and positioning for the first re-start began. Hasenpfeffer led Kymodoce and Little Annie to the south west towards Green Pt, mostly on rhumbline, while Emoyeni opted to stay higher heading west for the new northerly breeze flowing down Rosario with Handyman slightly behind and just to weather. At this point it’s assumed Syndicat were on their 4^th round of dark and stormys.

The fleet began cranking the poles back and smiles all around running with the ebb in flat water. Night Runner looked squared downwind and truckin mid channel while the Dash 34 and F28 were well to the west past Davidson rock, but appearing stalled out with kites on deck. Emoyeni gybed away to stay in the remaining breeze while the rest of the fleet held west to their inevitable parking lot. At this point it’s assumed Syndicat had switched to long island iced teas which has been rumored to increase waterline length by several feet.

Emoyeni carried her kite longer than the fleet behind and snuck up on Night Runner before the sea glassed over and she began cork work, carried west in the fading ebb. Pulelehua and Kinetic Ki started moving again while Emoyeni was found to be naughty by nature and spun two current induced circles while the fleet behind had launched drifters and were slowly chewing away the distance. At this point it’s assumed Syndicat had finished their 7^th bottle of rum which pretty much turns her into a cabin version Sierra 26.

If you can see us we're winning? Photo credit Nikki Bailey

RC decided to short course the race as the westerly built ever so slightly and we were able to put kites back up for the 2^nd re-start. Night Runner and Kinetic Ki plowed through the kelp and finished 1^st and 2^nd respectively by lining up radio towers while Pulelehua struggled to find the right sail plan. Being farther to the east than the remaining fleet Emoyeni powered up (if you can call it that) on a reaching angle while her competitors were forced to sail deeper. The Islander eventually slipped below the Dash to finish 3^rd. Pulelehua floated in 4^th while an isolated rum force gale greased a path for Syndicat to beat a hard charging Kymodoce to the line for 5^th and 6^th places. Passépartout, which might mean dead batteries in some French dialect, smoked her way into 7^th place with Little Annie in tow for 8^th.  Finally the mighty Handyman, who at last check was detouring Colville and Swirl Isle's, found a lane and finished 9^th at the NOAA station. Unfortunately Hasenpfeffer threw in the towel somewhere north of Smith Isle, perhaps unaware of the shortened course. On correction the podium placement went to Kymodoce in 3^rd, Syndicat in 2^nd, and an exuberant Emoyeni in 1^st.

Setting a blistering pace of 2.3kn to the short course finish. Photo credit Nikki Bailey

As always, our killer crew consisted of Brian and Becker who woke up early to share time trimming sheets and throwing the kite about on the pointy end. Barry, Kyle, and skipper Chris all had hands in spinning the wheel and taking detailed notes on things that don’t look fast. Fun day on the water with a few surprises, like sunburns and “A” fleeters visible looking aft of the transom, and a great result for the hard work!