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 3^rd in Class and 4^th 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!!