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!!

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 2^nd 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:

SYC Protection Island

We had a crew of eight turn out for SYC’s Protection Island race, the first of their Tri-Island Series, and also a qualifier for the VanIsle 360.  Shawn was on helm, Chris on main, Jason and Adam were on bow / foredeck, while Pete, Scott, Mike and Steve were in the pit.  The forecast had been up and down all week between a drifter or a fast run out to the island and back.  In the end it was more the latter, but it would start light.  The wind was out of the south at 8-10 and forecast to build to 10-15 by mid-day and then crank up to around 20 in the afternoon.  We had favorable currents with an ebb pushing us out to Protection Island, and a flood pushing us home.

We entered Hamachi under the ORC rules, since that is what we would be racing at Swiftsure and VanIsle.  We also wanted to test ourselves against the big dogs in the fleet.  There were eight ORC boats registered, so they split us into two classes.  We were in ORC2 going up against Olympic Gold Medalist Jonathan McKee and Dark Star (Riptide 44).  We also had Jedi (J/145) and New Haven (Ker 46) in our fleet, which meant we were the smallest and slowest boat, buy a good margin.  In ORC1 were the big sleds of Crossfire (R/P 55), Smoke (TP52), Glory (TP52) and Neptune’s Car (SC 70). 

All ORC boats had a single start and we were in the mix and across the line in a good position behind Dark Star.  The ORC2 boats all started on starboard heading towards the right (east) side of the course, while the ORC1 boats immediately jibed onto port headed west.  There was more pressure to the east and we all accelerated against the other cluster.  Before long Dark Star jibed back west and we followed – why second guess an Olympic Gold Medalist?  This paid off as the two of us continued to pull away from everyone, especially the other two boats in our class.  We recontacted the ORC1 boats on the west side of the course and the six of us would jibe up towards Port Townsend, 30 nm away.  The breeze was steady around 10 kts but we could see it filling in to the south, pushing the slower boats up behind us.  Due to their longer waterline lengths, the sleds slowly increased the gap.  Abeam Marrowstone Lighthouse the increasing breeze finally caught us and we peeled from our A1.5 to an A2.5.  We debated between the A2.0 and A2.5, and luckily picked the sail with the higher end, as we would soon need it.  We made one or two short jibes to position us to lay Point Wilson.  The increasing breeze allowed us to hold, or even close the gap, with Dark Star and Neptune’s Car in front us.  We could also see white caps to the south.  Once abeam Pt Wilson the front caught us and the wind cranked into the low 20s and Hamachi jumped up on a plane and took off.  We were enjoying the sensation of planning out and saw 19.5 kts on the spedo.  However, due to the wind angle, we were sailing away from the lay line.  Further, at 18 kts we were rapidly covering the short 6-7 nm to Protection Island and had to reconfigure our sailplan so that we could beat to winward and round the island in the building seas.  We struck the staysail, put up the #3, and then struck the spinnaker.  This allowed us to head up and round Protection behind Dark Star and Neptune’s Car.  On the lee side of Protection we saw Dark Star strike their sails and retire – we learned later that they had torn their mainsail.

Once around Protection we had a 40 nm beat home in 20-25 kts of wind under full main and #3.  The ebb had switched to a flood, which was stacking up against the southerly wind.  It was a long rough beat.  Further, to hold our advantage against bigger and heavier boats, we sailed through all of the current rips, which were full of big steep waves, to maximize speed over ground – we often saw 10+ kts.  Once around Point No Point we stayed on the west side of the course and were able to catch a wind shift which allowed us to sail directly down the sound towards Shilshole.  Hamachi performed admirably and we held off New Haven until the end, finishing several hundred yards in front to take ORC2 line honors.  We covered the 81.6 nm course in 9:50, a record we may not break for some time...

Hamachi's Course

Due to the timing of the currents and the building wind, the slower boats that started later all did better versus the big sleds at the front of the course.  Hamachi, on corrected time, finished well ahead of the big boats to take first place in ORC overall.

Hamachi finishes first in ORC beating the likes of Glory (TP52) by 46 min on corrected time

We have a great video summary of the race here:

Upon further review... Hamachi wins!

Several weeks after the conclusion of the CYC Center Sound Series, the results have been updated.  In the new results Absolutely retired post-race from the CYC Three Tree Pt event, which shifted us up to second in class, fifth for the race.  This gave us a much needed point in the overall standings and we finished ahead of Terremoto in our Division, taking first place.  It does not change the (unofficial) overall standings with Terremoto in first and Hamachi second.

Results: http://www.cycseattle.org/results/2017_specific/centerOA.html#r3phrf_nw

The rumor:  We don't know exactly why this happened, but we heard that Absolutely retired after sailing into "the box" at the start of the race.  How it happened: Absolutely, after charging us on a port / starboard at the start of the race, continued on before tacking and cut through "the box" - which is a "no go zone" navigation channel at the outflow of the Ballard Locks.  We saw them do this but didn't complain.  Further, they called a foul in this incident and we did our 360.  Apparently they must have felt guilty...?  We may never know. But we like the end result!

CYC Three Tree Point

After two marginal races the weather was looking epic for a great March day of racing.  The rains would pause, the skies would clear, and the wind would fill in with 10-20 kts out of the south / southwest.  Going into the race we had 3.5 points and were in first place, with Terremoto in second with 5 pts.  We knew that in heavy air we may have an upwind advantage over Terremoto so our goal was to load the rail and point it, hoping to leverage our heavy #1 in 15 kts to point high and fast. 

However, on race morning there were a few conflicting weather forecasts with some indicating that a northerly would descend and shut off the wind around the finish.  Unfortunately, race committee got nervous about the weather forecast and decided to shorten the course, selecting Alki and Meadow Points as rounding marks.  This effectively cut the course in half.

We had a good start among the maneuvering boats and got clear air on the upwind side of the course.  The fleet charged west in 12-15 kts and our plan of big sails and lots of crew was paying off.  We pinned multiple boats on the inside but we all eventually ran out of water and had to tack back.  

Hamachi powering off the start line (Thanks Jan!)

Absolutely snuck to the outside and came back on all of the boats now on port tack.  There was a lot going on and we didn't see them until the last minute and they had to duck us and called a foul.  We were in great shape up to that point, but quickly threw in a 360 and pressed on.  We all tacked out to Westpoint and there the boats divided.  We continued on into the channel to catch the now flood tide.  The fleet split with some continuing west while we decided to tack back east into Elliott Bay.  We could see boats getting lifted and stayed on the east side of the course up to the mark.  We traded a few tacts but most of our competition stayed west, and we caught a tremendous lift to sail straight to and then tack over to the mark.  This allowed us to get good separation from our fellow 40 footers.  We rounded, set the A2.5 and headed back for the finish.  

Hamachi heading for home (Thanks Jan!)

Heading downhill we had 10-12 kts of wind, which means Hamachi is well below the point we could plane, but we still made 8-9 kts through the water.  We jibed east towards Magnolia, jibed again to to make Westpoint, then jibed at Westpoint for the Meadowpoint buoy.  The forecast had the wind filling in from the south between noon and 1pm, and it was accurate.  Unfortunately, instead of riding this wind home from Three Tree Point, it meant that the slower boats in the shortened course were blown back up to the leaders.  We rounded Meadowpoint ahead of the wind line and then beat the short distance back to the finish line in the building breeze.  Like the previous weeks, we crossed fifth overall behind the big ORC sleds and took PHRF line honors.

Happy crew: Jason, Shawn and Chris (Thanks Jan!)

In the end Terremoto and Absolutely used the building southerly to close the gap on corrected time with Terremoto finishing first, Absolutely second and Hamachi third in class.  Overall those boats finished fourth, fifth and sixth in the 58 boat fleet.  On corrected time Absolutely finished 40 seconds ahead of us, so our screw up at the start became significant.  We wish we could have sailed the long course, because the weather would have played to our advantage, instead of detriment - but that's sailboat racing!

Results: http://www.cycseattle.org/results/2017_specific/centerOA.html#r3phrf_nw

The Three Tree Point (Alki) race standings meant that Terremoto finished first in our division for the CYC Center Sound Series with 6.0 points (4 - 1 - 1), we finished second with 6.5 points (1.5 - 2 - 3), and Absolutely took third with 9.5 points (1.5 - 6 - 2).  Our generous gift of sharing first in class on the Blakely Rock Race was significant, but not material as Terremoto had us on tie breakers.  There aren't any official overall rankings, but if you add up the points for the 60 boat CYC Center Sound Series fleet, Terremoto finished first with 20 points (4 - 12 - 4) and Hamachi finished second with 28 points (1 - 21 - 6).  Given our experience with the boat, we are really pleased.  Further, we made an impression on the fleet and I think many are trying to figure out "who are the guys with the blue boat?"

We compiled some of the GoPro footage from the three races into a summary.  Only sailboat racers can watch videos of sailboat racing.  Most people find it equivalent to watching paint dry…  Enjoy!

CYC Scatchet Head

CYC's Scatchet Head has been a wet and windy gear buster the last few years, and we were hoping to get a good blow.  While the J/125 has a reputation as a bomber downwind offshore sled, all we've been able to do is test its inshore upwind abilities with the races to date.  We've been pleasantly surprised by the boats all around capabilities, but are getting anxious to "send it".  We were hoping CYC's Scatchet Head would deliver and the Pacific Storms were lining up.  In the end the race occurred between two strong fronts, so all we saw was 10-15 kts oscillating between the SE and SW.  So the "go big" moment had to wait, but the boat continues to earn the respect of the fleet.

Our crew of Chris, Mike, Adam, Steve and Mikki (along with Jason and Shawn) were off the dock early.  The heavy rain rolled in for the start and we set up for our first real downwind leg, albeit in lighter than desired conditions.  Given that we have never even sailed the boat in a downwind race leg (it's hard to count last week since we never saw more than 5 kts downwind), and we are new to asym spinnakers (the J/36 had a pole), we were making it up a little as we went - but that's how we roll.  We debated about the wind and the forecast to build...or not...and decided in the end to go with the A2 based on the color coded crossover chart on our bulkhead (hey - if all else fails, read the manual...). 

We chose the west side (pin end) of the start and set off down the course in 10-12 kts.  We struck the #3 and hoisted our spinnaker staysail, only to find that the winds were too light and it did more harm than good.  We stayed west and were getting better breeze than the rest of our fleet.  The larger ORC boats started right behind us and the TP52s hugged the west side, as all the forecasts said it would be slightly heavier air there.  A group of us jibed to head farther west in search of this breeze, while the other half of our fleet kept on their lines to the east.  The wind was out of the SE so many of these lighter boats (Wicked Wahine - Melges 32 / Terremoto - Riptide 35) were choosing to sail deeper lines to lay the mark.  After a short run to the west we jibed back pointing mostly at the leeward mark up at Scatchet Head.  We spent a bit of time trying to find the downwind sweet spot, and found we were pointing higher and faster than these other boats, but in the end sailed a longer course.  The wind built to 15 kts gusting to 18 kts and we felt the boat's potential, but never really got it on a plane.  We all converged at the Scatchet Head buoy and, after a conservative takedown on our part where we gave up a little time, we rounded immediately behind Wicked Wahine and abeam Terremoto.

We powered back up hill for home in 10-12 kts with our Heavy #1.  We dialed the boat in, making 7.25 kts through the water, and passed Terremoto and then Wicked Wahine.  We pushed out to the west of the fleet to catch the incoming flood tide and stayed west of everyone.  About half way home there was a big wind shift to the SW which we reached first.  This allowed us to point high and put some separation on everyone.  We had the ORC boats Jedi (J/145) and Jam (J/160) trying to reign us in and we were able to fend them off.  Within a mile of the finish the next front overcame the fleet and the wind jumped up to 15-17 kts.  This allowed us to power along pointing incredibly high and cranked across the finish at 8kts. 

We were the first PHRF boat across the line and fifth overall to finish behind the big ORC sleds: Crossfire (R/P 55), Smoke (TP52), Glory (TP52) and Neptune's Car (SC70).  On corrected time Terremoto was able to keep the gap small enough that they finished first in class while we took second.  Overall, this was not the race for the fast PHRF boats, as we corrected out to 22nd and Terremoto took 16th.  Through two races we are 1st in class and 5th overall.  Results can be found here:

Overall:     Overall Results
By Class:  Class Results

CYC Blakely Rock Race Summary

The 2017 racing season kicked off March 4th with beautiful but cold weather in Seattle.  Sixty two (62) boats had assembled for the CYC Blakely Rock Race.  A week of storms dissipated leaving patchy blue skies, sun and the remnants of a southerly.  This was forecast to fade over the course of the race leaving everyone potentially in a drifter.  Our crew of Mikki, Alyosha, Steve, Lucas, Chris and Max (along with Jason and Shawn) assembled early to entertain the camera crew making Max famous over in China.  We were off the dock, cameras and drones in tow, and after the cameos set about to racing.  We hoisted the heavy #1 in the stiff morning breeze and quickly dialed the boat in.  Based on the pressure we decided to return quickly to the dock to pick up some heavier air sails in case things did not settle down as planned.  Back on the water we quickly entered the start box for our start sequence (#8), which had the highest performing PHRF boats.  We started amongst the usual suspects and PNW power houses including: Absolutely (Farr 39), Terremoto (Riptide 35), White Cloud (Cookson 12.5), Wicket Wahine (Melges 32), Madrona (Custom 40ft), and Freja (Aerodyne 43).

Team Hamachi - Pre-Start

We had an average start and ended up behind traffic in bad air so we quickly tacked out and back to set up our lanes.  We worked up the east side along the Shilshole breakwater and then worked back west, making several tactical tacts to gain on our fleet, eventually moving out front with White Cloud.  The upwind beat in 8-10 kts left everyone fairly bunched as we approached Blakely Rock.  As predicted the wind began to fade causing people to make extra tacts as they rounded the mark.  We rounded abeam Terremoto and immediately behind White Cloud and Absolutely.  Once around most of the fleet hugged the western shore searching for puffs of wind.  We moved out towards the middle of the channel seeking the benefit of the ebb tide.  A group of four boats including Hamachi, Terremoto, Absolutely and Dos started separating to the east chasing our own pockets of wind. After a half mile Terremoto and Dos jibed back west towards the fleet, while we continued on with Absolutely on our stern.  Surveying the course we clearly saw more ripples in Elliott Bay and along the eastern shore, but apparently only Absolutely and us had this assessment, because no one followed us.  

As we continued east the breeze slowly built.  We jibed to lay West Point as well as the northern mark and carried this breeze steadily north.  At this point only Absolutely and Hamachi were in the wind and we put serious distance on the entire fleet.  In fact, we were reeling in the two lead boats: Crossfire (R/P 55) and Smoke (TP52); which were several miles ahead at the time we rounded Blakely Rock.  Over the course of two hours we pushed north following the wind line that was clearly only on the east side of the course.  The wind was directly out of the west so we were in a very tight reach and Absolutely eventually had to fly a jib, while we had our A1.5 cranked tight.  This allowed us to put additional distance on them, and we somehow kept gaining on Smoke, watching them round the windward mark about 0.3 miles ahead of us.  As we approached the mark we put up our #1 jib and reached in and around.  In the process we struck the A1.5 and put up the A3, which was now serving as our Code 0.  We were the third boat to round the windward mark (behind Corssfire and Smoke) and, with the exception of Absolutely and Wicked Wahine, the rest of the fleet could hardly be seen.  

We now pushed south towards the finish making good time, as Absolutely worked north.  After 20 minutes we came across the race committee boat heading north.  They hailed us on the VHF and asked us to call their cell.  They relayed that they had a conundrum as they were moving to shorten the course, with the goal of making the northern mark the finish.  However, now that we were around it (by this time so was Absolutely), they could not do that without giving us some consideration, or making the entire fleet sail the complete course.  Over the next 10 minutes a weird phone dialogue/negotiation ensued as they worked to figure out what they were going to do.  The wind was fading and we had good boat speed, while Absolutely was parked behind us.  It was also clear that we would finish with plenty of time on Absolutely to take the overall PHRF win.  The race committee was not at the windward mark and did not have clear timing between the boats. Absolutely claimed that they had the time they rounded and also timed how far behind they were from our rounding - they said around five minutes.  We did not have times for either.  In this scenario, even with the shortened course, the race committee said that Absolutely could have won. We pointed out that we were now 0.5 miles in front of Absolutely, with 1.5 miles to sail, heading towards the finish at 3 kts while they were parked - in our opinion we were clearly going to win (we were).  We were happy to finish the full course to prove our point, but this would mean everyone else would have to as well, and most would not.  After a final discussion with the race committee and then our crew, we decided that the best thing to do for the fleet was to shorten the course.  Further, in the theme of sportsmanship, we agreed to "share" the victory with Absolutely.  We were putting good karma (and good will) in the bank for future occasions. 

Team Hamachi - We Know Our Finish Place

When the results were tallied only 28 boats of 56 in PHRF finished the course.  On corrected time we (and Absolutely) finished 45 minutes ahead of 3rd place and an hour and 15 minutes ahead of the 4th place finishers. We were all pleased with the overall outcome, especially given this was only our second race and fifth day sailing Hamachi.  Race results can be found here:

Overall: http://www.cycseattle.org/results/2017_specific/centerOA.html#r1

Class: http://www.cycseattle.org/results/2017_specific/center.html

Some great shots of Hamachi from Jan:

Mikki on Bow:  Mikki on bow 
Hamachi going to weather:  Team Hamachi in the office, Hamachi powering uphill