Photo by Jan Anderson.
Update: All Jan’s photos are here.
We all knew it would be slow. The good news is that CYC figured it out and set a short course. They missed the part about keeping it in the Silshole Basin (a box within West Point, Point Monroe, Jeff Head and the Buchan Buoy) and instead sent us to Duwamish Head then back to Meadow Point.
The southerly was as predicted at the start however by 1130 to 1230 it went very flat over the Sound, dropping first on the east side where a number of the early starters went only to run into the ebb running hard along the south side of West Point from Four Mile Rock. A lot of later starters went to the West in what was left of an east-southeasterly. Eventually it died in the West and then a light westerly filled in under Magnolia sending that previously becalmed group down to Duwamish reaching under spinnaker.
Photo by Jan Anderson
Once you rounded Duwamish it was a beat back to Meadow Point in a spotty west-northwesterly. Some boats like Kahuna played that ebb running along West Point a little too tight and ended up spending some time on the beach while the tide was still dropping. North of West Point the northwesterly tried to fill but pretty much stayed between four and seven knots. The conventional wisdom to tack into Magnolia and try for the ebb out of the Ship Canal didn’t seem to work as the northwesterly was keeping that local north-northeasterly along the Shilshole Breakwater from developing.
Photo by Jan Anderson
All in all not a bad day on the water unless you went hard to the West as many in that group simply dropped out and called it a day. Kudos to CYC for making the right call to shorten the course and make it a three race series. A very tough three race series.
3 comments
Thanks Bruce for another well written article. I really enjoy your weather briefs too. Please continue the good work. Ballistic had a great day. We sailed smart and did much better than previous races. Upwind at the start then switched to code 0 as the wind shifted. We were hoping for a northerly downwind start with a switch to south at the rounding for a run to the finish turned into the complete opposite. Be careful what you hope for?
“some boats”??? how about the boat leading the way back….
Hi Karl, the Northwest Yachting fleet of RC drones was grounded because of good weather, Bruce was reporting from the middle of the fleet and Kurt was wrestling with a laurel bush. So, do tell what you saw!