SSYC Goosebumps 2017, Race 3

Cake or Death cast from our slip around 12:20 and made way to the GB committee boat. Breeze forecast was for SW 10-25kn but the conditions in the starting area were more 5-15kn. Decision constipation was in full effect regarding canvas. We dipped our toe in with the genoa and felt comfortable enough as the puffs were spread well apart with averages well within genoa’s effective range. The committee chose a predicable AGC, Freeway, Aurora course, 2 laps and laid the start line just south of the Lake Union Sea Ray speed lane.

Shortly after starting, breeze at the top end of our genoa limit (bigger boats relishing in the building breeze)

Of course, within 2 minutes to the start the breeze was steadily up beyond 10kn and puffs were starting to compress. We had a great mid-line start but struggled to maintain point and speed with the soft and baggy genoa. A handful of bigger and heavier boats had overtaken us by AGC.

Westlake shore relief approaching AGC

At the AGC rounding we put up our chicken chute and tried to claw our way back to the leaders, most of whom didn’t hoist flying nylon in the building breeze. Unfortunately a non-flying Catalina 32 decided to park on our wind for most of the leg and yelled absurdities at us about needing water and that we were getting too close. First, we were the leeward boat. Second, each time the Catalina parked on our breeze and killed our kite she became the overtaking boat. Third, we were in the middle of the lake – you have all the water you need. A wipeout would likely have been supplemented with a T-bone.

Not a lot of kites going up (and the Catalina behind casting a shadow on Chicken Little)

Ultimately we could, and should, have gybed to clear our air but the leg was super short and we needed most of it to swap to the #2 headsail – which in retrospect the #2 was still the wrong sail. Reaching across the Aurora mark the wind was now steadily 20kn and whitecaps were scattered across the lake. Tacking at the mark we hauled the blade on deck and prepared for a bareheaded change, still struggling with point and frequent stalling. We hammered on the flattening reef, tacked behind the nemesis Catalina, and sent up the blade.

Fisch and Nicole readying the blade on our bow. After the hoist we were too quick to be captured by still photography :-)

Whole new world.

Once sheets were tied on and car leads dialed in we took off to weather. Speeds were steady between 5.3-5.5kn roaring into AGC and leaving the Catalina in the dust. There was some discussion as to whether we should put the kite back up but ultimately sided with a whisker pole and blade combination that was plenty powered up for the run to freeway.

For as quick as the breeze came on it began to soften after rounding the freeway mark. In addition, the committee boat had drug anchor during the race. This made the finish line super skewed and the beat was no longer tactical. Furthermore, the backing breeze provided relief to the several over-canvassed boats ahead from being overtaken by our super dialed upwind machine. In the end Cake or Death took a respectable 7th out of 22 finishers and 28 participants in the 2nd start. The success of the day ultimately was being prepared for and thriving in conditions others struggled mightily with. 

Becker's arm was too tired from all the pre-race dumbbell pumps so he had Fisch take the crew Selfie

As always, credit to the crew with Nicole and Fisch dressing up the pointy end, Becker handing out tickets to the gun show, Caleb fine tuning tension and handing out cold snacks, Silecia successfully interpreting sparse instructions, and Kyle keeping the kite under the hull.

Has it really been two years since I've posted a blog recap? Good grief I've gotten lazy.

NW Riggers Goosebumps 2014, Race 3

 

The third race of the 2014 Goosebumps series featured sunny skies, a sailable 5-7kn of nor-westerly, and half cooked changes to the NOR that included provisions for a 2^nd start without any description of a flag sequence that otherwise accompanies the signals provided to 1^st start. C'est la vie!

 

At check-in time we read a course of Aurora-AGC, 2-laps which made good sense to us given the wind was very west/northwest, but after the 1^st starters got underway it became obvious that the course board simply hadn’t been completed when we long eyed it. We nailed a pin end port tack start in clear air but stayed high still thinking that the first mark wasAurora till J24 Fat Chance set us straight. The extra distance sailing away from freeway negated much of the advantage from our excellent start.

 

From freeway we were 3 tacks to the aurora mark and boats staying up closer to Gasworks were able to avoid much of the nasty header influencing boats who tacked immediately at freeway, so it was nice of Tuna 525 Full Moon to lead us up as they had snuck to weather and pinned us out of an earlier tack. The aurora mark was set near the Westlake shore in a painful westerly header which complicated and congested the rounding for boats not paying enough forward attention. On Cake or Death we squeezed by and managed another fine spinnaker set.

 

Much of the spinnaker traffic was moving off the Westlake shore per conventional wisdom so we took a bit of a risk and stayed higher, protecting what was at least clear air in a notoriously fluky and softer lane on the lake – there were more than a few big boats who cast big shadows that we were chasing down, despite some dramatic fumbling that was quite a show. Through some wild shifts and boat to boat battles for air we ended up sandwiched between Ranger 26 Rascal and Hunter 31 Friday fetching the AGC mark in a softening breeze. With Friday pinned to weather and Rascal too low on the buoy we were able to take point off their transom and sneak into clear air on the 2^nd fetch to freeway, leaving Friday in the dust.

 

While putting our pedal down and VMG’ing our way to the Freeway mark hot on Rascal’s tail, right behind us the Ranger 22 Anakena was on absolute rails and closing quick. At Freeway Rascal tacked while we hardened up for a repeat of the next triple tack beat to Aurora. Anakena stayed even higher than us, trading high-fives with gasworks observers and crossing ahead near the SPD lake union fuzz docks. While we let Anakena get by, we also managed to catch up with Rascal and big sister ship SJ28 Zephyr. Rascal tacked too early for the mark and was rolled over by both Zephyr and our boat which set them low. Rather than gybe around and re-run their approach to the mark the Rascal crew simply bore off and set for the run.

 

Although we had another quick and pretty spinnaker set we were blocked out to the west by Rascal and a Ranger 23 who seemed to come out of nowhere. The position of the AGC mark and the clear air beneath us allowed for two swift gybes to clear out a lane. Unfortunately all the fumbling about with the other two boats put Anakena out of reach for good, able to sail completely unobstructed by traffic. We did, however, manage to put Rascal and the R23 behind us with our excellent gybes and keen sail trim. In honor of our favorite Persian gangster Milad, we executed a textbook Mexican take-down and reached our way to what we hope is a top half 2^nd start finish.

 

Results are out and they’re confusing...We’d appear to be in 27^th place (It should be 26 as Blue Lullaby did not finish between us and Anakena) scoring all 53 boats together. If we extract the 1^st start boats, our placement is probably somewhere around 8-11 out of 35 boats. I will say this, however, we’re pretty satisfied with whatever the results of the day are – There was a lot of back-and-forth battling with natural competition and we definitely brought a good fight. Crewing for the mighty Cake or Death was Becker and Nicole on the pointy end, Caleb manning the pit, Christine on dogwatch, Brian and Fisch practicing overrides, and Kyle giving trim instructions by stringing random nouns, verbs, and adjectives together without thinking them through.

NW Riggers Goosebumps 2014, Race 2 Re-Cap

On a day where forecasts threatened placid conditions and the NFC Championship game threatened a low turn-out of race boats, sailors were treated to a full lake and a filling northerly 15 minutes before the scheduled start gun. This editions RC reverted racing back to 2012 instructions where only one start would be held so the line was notably busier and clear air was at a premium. One thing that never changes, the pin was so demonstrably favored that the ambient temperature was 35 degrees warmer and girls in bikinis were handing out jello shots within its vicinity.

 

On Cake or Death we had several issues time keeping and had to strategize on the fly.  At 1 min out we began running down the line on starboard protecting a hole to tack into. We timed our tack well and crossed near mid line at the gun with clear air and speed until the behemoths who began legging off the pin-end-cluster footed down and into our lane. After being gassed out by the J30 Slingshot we took a prompt clearing tack back to the middle of the lake. A few more hitches and we rounded middle of the pack behind H31 Friday, some Cal 40, and the T-Bird Poco Mas.

 

We got a bit lost on sail trim fetching the Auroramark failing to keep powered up and allowed several boats over the top of us, including the Ranger 26 Rascal, while we switched spin gear over to gybe set. Our self esteem picked back up when we executed a textbook gybe set on the mark and drawing into clean air well off theWestlake shore, picking off 4 or 5 boats including the T-bird and closing quickly on Friday, sporting new downwind nylon.

 

Approaching the AGC mark we had closed the distance between us and Friday to a boat length and Rascal was just to leeward. As we doused the kite and readied to turn hard inside the mark we observed Friday struggling with their sails and maneuvering unpredictably creating a large zone of disturbed air to overcome. Beneath us, Rascal was fighting to drop their kite and generally making a mess of their rounding as well. Unable to pinch above the chaos our only fighting option was to tack away and sail underneath a steady source of spinnaker traffic from the boats at the back of the pack. Surprisingly, this hitch paid tremendously well (apparently also used with success by the Santana 525 Full Moon) as the lifted board even with the occasional gas from the flying sails. We tacked off the Westlake docks crossing well ahead of Friday and Rascal, and finished just behind big sister-ship SJ28 Zephyr on our final approach to the line.

 

It was a satisfying return to Goosebumps racing where we had our struggles but managed to finish strong and smart amid a substantially diverse fleet. Over 40 boats participated (some unfortunately were not checked in, such as Poco Mas), and Cake or Death managed 19^th place for the day with plenty of time to make the Seahawks broadcast. Game-day crew included BK on the genoa trim, Nicole and Christine pulling kite strings, Becker drinking all the foredeck beer, Caleb cursing at the top batten, Calvin licking everything clean below decks, and Kyle on the extremely adjustable tiller extension…

 

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.

Thank you for your patience!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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…

2013 Anacortes Yacht Club Tulip Regatta Recap

If it’s April and your hobbies have nothing to do with botany, Atown has a regatta for you. The annual Tulip Regatta features boats, canvas, a salmon dinner, and world renowned drinking games. This year’s rendition featured guest PRO Dr. Chris “Still Crazy” White and an army of volunteers who worked race committee like their paychecks depended on it. Over 2 days of varying conditions from every cardinal direction 6 races were run and no hurt feelings reports were filed.

PHRF Fleet 1 featured the new kid on the block, Illusionist, disappearing and reappearing on the podium in first place. Slithering into 2^nd place was the smallest boat in the fastest fleet, the viper 640 KAA, and coming out of hibernation the mighty Teddy Bear took 3^rd.

In the F18 Fleet where two hulls are better than one the podium found the Rum Line accelerating into 1^st place. In 2^nd place, driving it like they stole it were Joy and Ian on the Joyride, followed by the super fancy looking Team Storm in 3^rd.

In the Holy Cross 27 Fleet, 1^st place was awarded to the boat with the least amount of hull paint, Little Blue Dune Buggy. In 2^nd place was the boat with an unusually large amount of y chromosomes, Wild Rumpus, and battling to the podium in 3^rd was the little man on Giant Slayer.

In PHRF Fleet 4, a dominating 6 point performance was pulled off by the most delicious transom in the fleet, the Moore Uff Da. 2^nd place was taken by the boat I’ve affectionately named the burpin turd, Eric Beemer’s Surfin Bird. And in third place, putting their best foot forward and keeping their keel off cap santé rock was the mighty Blackfoot.

Puerto Rican 24’s were hotly contested by a load of boats that begin with the letter M. Supreme dominance was awarded via 1^st place to Magic Juan with her magic main by 2 points ahead of the other (not Bill Lee’s wizardry) Merlin. Rounding out the podium like rounding leeward marks was Mayhem! with a guest or two from those all-state insurance commercials.

Lastly in PHRF Fleet 6, nobody can stop em’ with mustaches like those, the Walt n’ Jerry show sailing “more quicklier” on the Syn-di-Cat in 1^st place. 2^nd place went to the none-design turbo tricked SJ24, The Orange Blob, and in 3^rd place with more Larry’s than any other boat on the bay was Kyle Saum’s Kymodoce.

Observations and musings in no particular order:

• Can we all agree that leeward marks in Deadmans Bay may as well be federally banned? Nothing good ever comes of rounding there!

• I’d like to speak for PHRF Fleet 4 and announce that after careful consideration it can be determined that the open transom on a moore 24 is truly a thing of beauty. We all spent plenty of time looking at it over the weekend.

• Fantastic work by PRO Dr. Chris White & the race committee crew. Races were run very smoothly and we appreciated the fine work over the VHF airwaves. The pep talking/cheerleading was also a nice touch.

• If you’re in Bill Bowman’s way while he’s starting (as much as it might not look like it), Bill Bowman will let you, and everyone else within a ¼ mile earshot, know you’re in his way.

• It’s not an original thought but how did the SC27 fleet, known to be a bit more loud n’ colorful, show up with 5 rigs flying 5 white kites?

• In PHRF Fleet 4 Emoyeni and Lucky Duck developed a notoriety each race for showing up at the startline and promptly never being seen or heard from again. Fear not, they didn’t sink.

• If SC27 hulls aren’t attractively busy enough for you, you should check out the F18 canvas!

• Somebody told me Tom Stockton broke his San Juan 7.7 tiller in a fit of rage. I know Tom and I’m not buying it.

• Somebody else told me Dean Vandament is the Stig. I know Dean and I’m buying it.

• Now that Jason Joiner has announced his presence to the SJ24 Fleet I fear for any fellow competitors sailing with cut-rate insurance plans.

I'd post photos but the ones captured by the photoboat are way to nice to abuse by posting here... Check out the Anacortes Yacht Club page for Del Zane's killer snaps!

NW Riggers Goosebumps 2013, Race 5 Re-Cap

Missing on the water was the Tuna 525 Full Moon, reportedly due to illness which has sidelined pretty much everybody in the greater Seattle area for a day or two. Since her skipper usually recaps each Goosebumps race on the Full Moon blog, I figured I’d take the reigns for a weekend while he recovers and for once the Full Moon crew can re-live the race through blue hull colored glasses.

Race 5 in the 2013 Goosebumps gets a course creativity award for setting a north-south start/finish line off Westlake Ave with good n’ steady 5-8kn blowing from the NW. The RC set a two lap course around cove and freeway marks. You could say the boat end of the line was HEAVILY favored.

In the 2^nd start fleet we got trapped at 1:30 being taken away from the line by a Tbird below us and blocked out of a tack to port away by a black dinghy above us, stalling our planned gybe to the line by a good 20 seconds. By the time the Tbird hitched for the line we were both a good 20-30 seconds late, however we missed the midline pile-up and found a clear lane at the committee boat with the kite up and drawing good. If you didn’t absolutely nail the start like Zephyr did, being late actually gave the open space to sail out to the front of the fleet.

Reaching the cove mark proved a very tricky rounding necessitating a gybe to port with 1^st start leaders (finishing their first lap) reaching the mark hot on startboard at the same time. Like the traffic at the start, the cove turned into an SR520 stop-n’-go without the luxury of ABS. Fending off Ignitor, Friday, and the Newport 33 Free spirit who had us completely boxed in, we watched ourselves get spat out the back while many of the 2^nd start participants found their way up and over the top of us.

Much of the fleet remained on port tack looking for the lift off the shoreline of floating homes while we hitched out to starboard for what looked like better breeze and certainly cleaner air in the middle of the lake. The tactic paid off pretty well and we clawed back a number of positions. We rounded freeway on the heels of Free Spirit and immediately put the kite up.

By the cove mark we had worked over Free Spirit and were closing in on the Columbia 26, The Lab (who was having a tremendous race too…) – The Lab took the rounding a bit wide and without the nightmare traffic previously encountered we snuck in and over to weather and began the beat to freeway. Winds started going light and Free Spirit began water-lining us to death…

The tight reach to the finish was rather uneventful, save for the kayaker paddling directly in the pathway of many finishing boats. We held off True Blue and Friday, but couldn’t reel Free Spirit back in with her waterline proving a bit too much for us off the wind. Based on the preliminary results I’m guessing we placed somewhere between 11^th and 13^th place, despite the results having us in 15^th. There are some strange results entries that have The Lab sitting in 7^th place despite the fact they finished a few boats behind us, and 3 boats engaged in some form of camoflauge magically got between us and Free Spirit… I don’t think that happened, my crew and I were there…

Cake or Death’s crew on the fine sunny Sunday was Nicole on the pointy end, Fisch and BK pulling strings, Caleb in doubt and easin her out, and Kyle yelling starboard more times than reasonably necessary.