The weekend of October 18th and 19th brought a welcome change to sailing in the Pacific Northwest: There was wind! What a concept. As always, the Sloop race committee did an excellent job of getting the races set up and got the Fall Regatta fleet of 29 vessels with one non-flying sail class and four spinnaker classes off and racing before getting the fast furniture regatta started. The Race Your House fleet consisted of 33 vessels in two non-flying sailing classes and two flying sail classes.
Click on any of Jan Anderson’s photos to enlarge, and see the rest at her web site.
With a very atypical southerly breeze that stayed in the 8-12 knot range for the entire day, STYC got three round-the-buoy races off for the Fall Regatta that varied in length from five to nine miles. The Race Your House fleet sailed one long race of 15 miles that went upwind for a short distance and then a long running leg to Spring Beach followed by a reach across the Sound to Port Madison then a reach back to Meadow Point, followed by a short beat back to the start-finish line.
For the Fall Regatta, consistency paid big dividends with three of the five classes swept by one boat winning every race. In the NFS Class it was Bill Pirrie with his Islander 36 Whistling Swan, in Class 4 it was Garry Greth sailing the Santa Cruz 33 Muffin, and in Class 5 it was the Farr 30 Nefarious skippered by Ashley Bell. In Class 2 the C&C 27 Blue Jeans sailed by Corky Brown was a one point winner over the San Juan 7.7 Rock Lobster. It was almost as close in Class 3 with the Moore 24 Sputnik winning by two points over the J-80 Skye Rocket.
The Fast Furniture Fleet was really out for a good time and they weren’t disappointed. The liveaboards are a tight knit group and once a year they get the opportunity to put all talking and bragging aside and find out who really does have the fastest furniture.
In the NFS Class 1 ace offshore sailor Al Hughes and his wife sailing their home Louise were first to finish, first in class and third overall , just five minutes ahead of Tom McDowell and the Impossible Dream. The NFS Class 2 group featured a mixed group of modern cruising designs that ranged from the Hunter 37.5 Renegade to Tartan 48 SJ. First to finish and first on corrected time as well as second overall was the Centurion 47 Tre Gatti skippered by home owner Kevin Monis. Second on corrected as well as second on elapsed time went to the Tartan 48.
The overall winner of the day was the slowest rated vessel in the fleet, 50-ft+ wooden ketch Ariel of Victoria that used her ketch rig and long waterline on the reaching legs to real advantage, correcting out almost eight minutes ahead of second place Freeflyte.
First to finish over the entire fleet was the beautiful Golden Wave/Cheoy Lee 55 Epilogue who toured the course is just 2:09:32 for an average speed of 7.22 knots which was also good enough to win the class and take 4th overall. Second place went to the Outbound 44 Akimbo skippered by Jon Howe.
A great day on the water and a big thank you to the Sloop Tavern Yacht Club as a great time was had by all.
