There are beautiful weekends in the Pacific Northwest, and
then there are epic amazing weekends.
Swiftsure 2017 fell on one of those epic amazing weekends with clear
blue skies and low to mid 80 deg temps.
Team Hamachi comprised of Shawn, Jason, Chris, Max, Mike, Pete and
Alyosha. The eight of us, our limit
under our current ORC rating, set out Saturday morning to compete on the Hein
Bank ORC course. The 118 nm course left
Victoria BC and boats sailed west to Neah Bay near the entrance to the Pacific
Ocean, and then returned back east passing Victoria to a buoy near Hein Bank,
then a quick 10 nm beat home to Victoria inner harbor and the finish line. The Hein Bank ORC fleet was comprised of all
the fast boats including the big sleds (three TP52s, R/P 55, SC 70). Hamachi was one of the faster boats in Class
2.
Hamachi in Victoria Inner Harbor
For Swiftsure 2017 there were 175 boats on the line
competing on four different courses. The
first fleet was off at 9:00 and the Hein Bank ORC fleet of 16 boats started
near the back at 9:30. Hamachi had a
conservative start which left us dealing with lots of traffic and bad air. The wind was light (4-6 kts) out of the S/SE
and the current ebbing, so we started on port tack and pushed south with the
tide carrying us down the course. We found
the left edge of the fleet and traded tacks with Occam’s Razor (Farr 40) and
several other boats. Due to our starting
position we were near the back of the ORC fleet and had over 100 boats in front
of us. We kept our patience and stepped
up and to the south, eventually finding a river of ebbing current on the left
side before everyone else, except Smoke (TP52) which had done the same and was
rapidly escaping to the S/SW. This river
gave us a 20 deg COG advantage and at least a 2kt SOG advantage and allowed us
to drive right up and around the entire fleet.
We rapidly gained a half mile on many boats and a few (like Terremoto)
tried to come out to join us. We decided
to tack to catch the conveyor running past Race Rocks, versus continuing on to
the outside. By Race Rocks we were
nearing the front echelon of a dozen or so boats who were tacking back and
forth to stay in the current and avoid the swirling back eddies on each side,
which had trapped several boats. On the other side of race rocks the wind started to fade and
boats were left to guess at what to do next.
We saw Neptune’s Car push south across the Strait in the faint breeze
while most of the sleds decided to press the north shore. We chose to push south with Neptune and
KineticV (TP52) and were able to hold some boat speed in 3-4 kts of wind. Both Neptune and Kinetic tacked back in,
presumably to cover their competition, while we continued on, since we were now
at the head of our fleet. It was light
and we downshifted to the drifter enjoying our little bit of pressure and
seeing more ripples ahead of us. We
eventually reached the ripples and set the A1.5 and continued to put the hammer
down on the entire fleet as we chased the fleet leader Smoke ahead of us. The tide was going to shift soon to a big
flood and our goal was to reach across to the other side, making as much time
as we could in the wind we had. Further,
we saw that a westerly was filling in from the mouth of the Strait and that we
would have to pass through a transition zone from our SE.
Race Tracker screen shot at 1pm - around our point of maximum separation from the fleet.
Team Hamachi enjoying our Saturday
Soon after our wind died and we struck the asym and switched
back to the drifter. We floated amongst
the swells for 20 minutes until the westerly reached us and continued on with
first our drifter, and then our Lt/Med #1.
We pressed S/SW as the wind built up to 5-6 kts making for the southern
shore as the flood began in earnest. We
made landfall around Pillar Point where we were caught by the big sleds
Westerly and Crossfire, as well as Dragonfly (unlimited 40 cat). We all tacked up the southern shore as the
wind continued to build. We held our own
until we made the mistake of tacking into Clallam Bay where the wind was light,
and we missed a shift on the outside.
This cost us at least 15 minutes and dropped us back a half mile
relative to our competition. We pressed
back out into the Strait where the wind was stronger and got into a tacking duel
with Absolutely and Dark Star. We were a
little late shifting to our Heavy #1, but once we did we accelerated and put
distance on those boats. The wind built
to 15 kts as we tacked up and rounded the Neah Bay mark at 8:50 pm.
Alyosha taking a turn at the helm
Max and Shawn wish there were...right where they were....
Trading tacks with the big dogs at Pillar Point (4:15 pm) - Smoke on left, Crossfire center, Dragonfly on right.
We rounded Neah Bay first in class as well as first overall
in ORC and hoped we could protect that lead downwind. We set the A2.0 and stay sail, and headed
back east. We made for the north side of
the course and had a nervous crossing as we maneuvered through lots of shipping
lane traffic as darkness fell and the fog thickened. The wind was backing off at that point and we
sailed to Hein Bank in 9-13 kts, which was unfortunate as Hamachi really likes
17 kts plus to get up on a step. This
was our first night sailing on Hamachi so it took us a bit to get into a groove
and we gave up some ground early but made up ground later. It was a beautiful night and the watch crew
enjoyed the northern lights around 1:30 am.
We unfortunately had to listen to Terremoto getting into trouble behind
us around 3:30 am and there was nothing we could do – it’s never good to hear
the DSC alarm go off in the middle of the night. We passed Race Rocks on the outside around 4:00 am enjoying
the last of the flood, and made for Hein Bank.
The sky was brightening behind Mt Baker as we rounded the eastern mark
at 5:00 am and we pressed home as the seventh boat on our course.
As we approached the finish at Victoria we saw
from the race tracker that there was a huge wind hole that has swallowed the
fleet leaders. Smoke, who had lead
everyone from the start, was stuck against the shore and had to watch
helplessly as their competition, learning from their misfortune, sailed out and
around them. We stayed off the shore but
struggled with our own fading wind conditions.
At Hein Bank we were pretty sure we were still winning ORC outright and
knew that this compression would further consolidate this lead. But now the tables had turned and the slower
boats were sailing up behind us. The
tide had switched to an ebb and we didn’t want it to sweep us past the finish
so we avoided going outside. We
struggled in using our drifter and a few puffs to make some headway. We eventually created 1.5 kts of boat speed
500 yards from the finish and were on a good line to pass Westerly at the line,
but then a big cruiser came out of the harbor and his wake killed all
momentum. We never recreated it and
limped across the line to finish at 7:52 am.
A few puffs were filling in which allowed the other boats in ORC 2, ones
that were 20-40 minutes behind us at Hein Bank, to finish 5-10 minutes behind
us.
We tumbled a few spots down to
finish 3rd in Class and 4th in ORC, which was still very
respectable given the competition. After the finish, and our safety inspection, Hamachi made
its way to the San Juans where it will stay for the next two weeks, and then
off to VanIsle 360!!
