Monday, May 29, 2017

Swiftsure 2017

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!!


Monday, May 8, 2017

STYC Race To The Straits 2017



What a beautiful weekend for our sixth consecutive Race To The Straits, put on by the Sloop Tavern Yacht Club.  RTTS (as its known) starts in Seattle off Shilshole on Saturday and ends at Port Townsend, approximately 30 nm to the north.  Everyone overnights and we race home the next day.  It’s a reverse start based on PHRF rating, which makes it a great pursuit race.  It’s been a cold wet winter in the PNW but the skies cleared for a glorious weekend.  The remnants of a cold front on Friday had everyone starting under spinnaker with a 10 kt southerly, with the forecast for a shift to a northerly mid to late morning which would persist for the rest of the weekend.

125 boats registered and over 100 started.  The first start was at 7:47 am for Ruby Louise, a Santana 22 with a PHRF of 276.  Hamachi, with a PHRF of -3, started at 10:06 am and we only had two boats that started behind us.  It’s quite a feeling to look down the course and see over 100 boats in front of you and know that technically we had a chance to catch all of them.  Team Hamachi split up for RTTS.  Shawn and Jason sailed Hamachi (J/125) while Alyosha sailed on Kahuna (Aerodyne 38), Lucas was on Square One (Farr 30) and Chris was on Reboot (J/105).  For Jason and Shawn, this was their first time double handing Hamachi.  In the quick four months since we’ve owned her we’ve been out on the water less than ten times, and nearly all of that was fully crewed racing where everyone had a role and knew their part of the boat.  Suddenly we had to pull it all together in a real time racing environment.  To complicate things further, in typical fashion we showed up on the course late and had barely 15 minutes to set our sails before the start.  This lead to a small oversight that had disastrous consequences.

Saturday was not a great day, and it all began as we left the dock and discovered that we had four bananas aboard.  We hit the start box late and managed to get the main up just a few minutes before our allotted start time.  We positioned the boat for our downwind start and launched the A1.5 spinnaker.  As the kite started to fill in the 10 kts of wind the tack went shooting out (we overlooked locking it down in our rush) until the martin breaker tripped the clip, releasing the tack, and the spinnaker started flogging in the wind.  Oh shit… We grabbed the lazy sheet and started hauling in the clew.  Shawn came forward and pulled the foot of the sail, including the tack, on board.  We weren’t sure what to do because the forward hatch was locked and we had too much sail and wind to bring it down on deck shorthanded.  Jason grabbed the tack and released the clew and dragged it forward to secure the second tack, only to have it slip out of his hand (it was hard to hold the spinnaker in one and the tack in the other…).  Shawn came forward again and we somehow retrieved the tack and secured it.  We hauled it in just enough so that it wouldn’t re-release, and slowly got the situation under control.  This was all caught on GoPro…watch the outtakes.

Once settled we worked up the course and started catching boats.  We struggled to find our line and the wind but eventually settled in working the western shoreline.  The projected northerly was descending and a wind hole had formed in front of us at Point No Point.  We pushed up behind these boats and started drifting as well, while we watched the few boats behind us reconnect.  The boats that started much earlier in the morning enjoy several hours of the southerly, as well as a nice ebb tide, to carry them north and across the wind hole.  We started just as the tide turned so at Point No Point all we could do is sit there and watch them sail away.  Eventually the wind line descended to us and we transitioned to the Lt/Med #1 and sailed across to Whidbey Island and the only mark at Double Bluff.  Once there we tacked into Mutiny Bay pointing high and fast, putting the hurt on a lot of boats.  Tacking out of Mutiny Bay the wind continued to build and we were over powered.  We debated between the Heavy #1 or #3.  We pulled the Heavy #1 on deck and into position, only to see 15-16 kts.  It looked to be building further so we chose to instead put up the #3, only to have the wind back off.  Rapid double handed headsail changes on a J/125 is an exhausting endeavor.  We tried to see if the #3 would hold, but started to quickly lose ground to the fleet.  As a result we dragged the Heavy #1 back up on deck and executed a second peel.  Now we were back in our groove in 12-15 kts of wind, but had given up valuable ground to Laffite’s Kyrnos, a custom 53 in our class, which in those wind conditions was flying.  We tried to reel her in but couldn’t and finished Day #1 exhausted and in 2nd place in our class.  Further, it was a day for the early boats, and we finished #42 overall.  That evening we went over to have cocktails on Kyrnos, and left our bananas on their boat...

After a great evening in Port Townsend, we hit the water Sunday with glorious conditions.  The wind was 10kts from the north and projected to build towards 15 kts, ideal Hamachi conditions.  We had a great start and successful spinnaker hoist.  This time we chose to fly the A2.0.  Being one of the last to start we had a full flood pushing us south, so sailed past Marrowstone Lighthouse to get the current push, and then out into the channel where we had great wind.  We crossed over to Bush Point fairly early to catch the rip up the shore and bombed past Bush Point.  We stayed wide of Mutiny Bay as it looked like lighter air, and passed a lot of boats on our way down and around Double Bluff.  By this point the wind had backed off to 7-8 kts (unfortunately), but we were making the right tactical moves on the fleet.  We worked the currents around Point No Point and stayed slightly wide as we continued south.  We were enjoying better breeze on the outside and passing boats, with most of our competition on the inside.  North of Apple Tree Point we had a decision: continue in and go head to head or stay outside and hope for more breeze.  The wind was coming down from the north and we thought we had better pressure and speed on the outside, so we made a few jibes to stay in the middle of the course, only to have it fade again.  Further, we watched our competition, who we had reeled in, slip away on a completely different wind along the western shore.  While the boats in the middle continued east, we jibed back west to catch the shift.  This paid off as we put the hammer down on everyone, but our move was too late to catch the lead boats that had already slipped away.  We finished Day #2 first in class, finishing over 20 minutes ahead of our closest competitor.  However, our decision to stay outside cost us finishing in the top tier, but we still placed #21 overall.

Congrats to our crew as Alyosha and Kahuna finished #11 overall on Saturday and #10 overall on Sunday, but their class was super competitive and they finished third in class for the weekend. Lucas and Square One finished third overall on Day #2 and third in the Farr 30 class for the weekend.

Race Track (didn't capture Day #1 start for some reason):

And of course the video...the good, the bad and the ugly: