Monthly Archives: July 2012

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posted by wirw admin at 9:25 PM.

 After a Thursday afternoon of sunshine and breeze and an evening of music and food in the rum tent on the lawn of the Oak Harbor Yacht Club, the racers aboard the 115 race boats competing in Whidbey Island Race Week 2012 stumbled from their nearby tents and returned to the waters of Penn Cove the morning of Friday, July 20 for one final day of fun.

The Vipers, a dozen strong with ten making it to the starting lines for their Pacific Coast Championships, settled their scrappy week-long fight with a total of ten races. Thanks to the throw-out, it was Ed Feo’s Locomotion representing Alamitos Bay Yacht Club who broke the tie over local favorite Garret Johnson and his KAA crew from Anacortes YC. Each earned a final tally of 26 points. Surprisingly, KAA never bulleted a race, but held strong with five seconds during the week. Coming in third, with three firsts under their belts, was the FNG Dr. James Sears and his crew aboard FNG, also from Alamitos YC.

For their 2012 World Championships, the 16-boat Thunderbird fleet who selected WIRW as the venue to vie for the carved wooden perpetual trophy also enjoyed ten races in which to decide bragging honors, at least until next year. As with the Viper contest, Craig Burnell and crew aboard the super speedy Predator also claimed the top for the championship by winning a tie breaker. With just three bullets and just one second place finish, Burnell’s boat from Seattle’s Corinthian Yacht Club eked out a win with 25 points to Duncan Stamper’s Sunday, whose 25 points contained just one bullet and three seconds. Kyle Henehan’s San Diego based Compound X, representing Mission Bay Yacht Club took third for the week with 31 points. (Burnell’s cousin, Stuart Burnell, aboard his T-Bird, Kuma San, took fifth. Joe James, representing Three Tree Point Yacht Club, campaigned Stuart’s other boat, Tantivy, a perpetual front runner in Puget Sound races. Tantivy took fourth in the P4 Class.)

Tie breakers for the week’s top places weren’t reserved for just first—second and third in the Melges 24 class were also decided by a tie breaker. Each representing Seattle’ Corinthian Yacht Club and each with a week’s total of 25 points, Chris Johnson’s Wiggle Room took the silver, while John Rahn’s Pickled Beets took the bronze. Fellow CYC member, Tom Norris, and his crew aboard Gravy secured gold with 18 points.

The J/105s always put on a Corinthian show of good sportsmanship and solid competition and WIRW 2012 was no exception, with bullets sprinkled among the fleet, and daily awards going to almost each of the eight entries. But it was Jerry Diercks and his Pacific Northwest posse aboard Delirium who walked away with the big win at the end. The three amigos campaigning Corinthian Yacht Club-Portland’s Free Bowl of Soup, Doug Schenk, Eric Hopper and Matt Davis, took second overall with 24 points. And just one point behind stood Bellevue, Washington, based Erik Kristen and his Jubilee.

Several classes saw clear breakaway leaders, such as Class P10. Karen Anderson’s Martin 241, Dragonfly, gave up just one bullet but was able to throw it away to earn just seven points. Shannon Buys’ Magic Juan, coming off last month’s San Juan 24s North Americans (also held at the Oak Harbor Yacht Club) managed to overcome a first day bottom-of-the-pack ninth place and crawled back up to second for the week. (The San Juan 24s NA’s winner, Dave Steckman’s Oak Harbor based Skamokawa fell to fourth, missing third for the week by just one point.) Looking strong and finishing strong with a shiny new headsail, though not necessarily consistent throughout the week, was the venerable Jim McAlpine and his sprightly crew aboard the J/24 Lucky Jim, also from Oak Harbor.

Also finishing with a perfect score of 7 (thanks to being able to toss a sixth-place finish, as did Dragonfly) was Laney Gale and her crew aboard the Olson 911, Blue Martini (representing both Hood River Yacht Club and Seattle Sloop Tavern YC), in the Performance 30 class. Second, from Montesano, of all places (this small county seat in Washington is not far from the birthplace of Kurt Cobain), J. Rosenbach’s Beneteau 35s5, Bodacious, earned a hard-fought-for second with 15 points and a relatively consistent string of second place daily spots. Third was Ken Chin’s Olsen 911 Kowloon, with their Montana-based tactician, Dennis Muri, calling the shifts. The Kowloon Nation also gets the award for best crew shirts for the week.

A third woman skipper also claimed a top spot. April Butler’s Dart, Ogopogo, from Bainbridge Island, Washington earned first in the PHRF class P8 over the two Rocket 22s, Chris Lloyd’s southern Washington state, Octopussy, and Aaron Leskoseck’s, South Lake Union Trolley, from Summerland, British Columbia.

In the Super 30 class, two Flying Tiger 10Ms had to wait for the final day to decide the 10-boat strong leader. After the dust settled, it was Kirk Leslie’s Prowler, from West Vancouver who emerged victorious. Charles Rice’s, Charlie Mike, representing Portland Yacht Club, took second, with Daniel Randolph’s Farr 30 from Seattle, just two points behind in third.

The top three PHRF classes duked it out like a rumble on the water. John Hoag’s 1D35, Shrek, and Herb Cole’s Melges 32, Ballistic, first and second in the big boat class, finished within one point of each other. Andre Wojcieszek’s 1D Radical Departure, down from West Vancouver’s Eagle Harbour Yacht Club, took third place for the class back with them north across the border. In Class P2, representing Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, Jack Prentice and his crack crew of kids and adults aboard the J/109 Diva took an early lead and never looked back (though they threw a rare fifth place in at the end of the week’s racing just to sandbag a bit). Brad Butler’s Sierra 26x, UNO, earned a respectable second. Third place was anybody’s guess, and in a suspenseful finish to the week’s racing—finally earning a bullet—it was S. Adam Korbin’s J/109, Astral Plane and his crazy Canadian crew from Royal Van who celebrated their bronze win like partiers of an Olympic caliber.

Yet another tie-breaker was needed to decide the overall finisher in Class P3. With just ten points it was Bryan Agnetta’s Davidson 30, Dangerous When Wet, whose bullet in the week’s final race secured them the top spot in class, with Bob Mayfield and Pat Nelson’s J/29 Slick taking second, also with just ten points. Poster child for the week (literally), the IOR two-ton, Shoot the Moon, with Don Wills at the helm, took third. Wills has competed at Whidbey Island Race each of the regatta’s thirty years, and his achievement was honored with the artwork gracing this year’s poster. Coincidentally, an earlier boat of Wills’, the sleek lined Q-class, Grayling, was racing at WIRW 2012 in Class P9. Grayling is now campaigned by Duke Phan.

Whidbey Island Race Week 2013 is on the calendar for Sunday, July 14 through Friday, July 19, with Dinghys Whidbey Island 2013 (SWI) set for July 13 and 14. With 2012 being a Vic-Maui year, WIRW sometimes sees a slight cannibalization of crew. This year’s Vic-Maui winner, Tom Huseby and his seasoned crew aboard his newest J/145, Double Take, may return to WIRW in 2013, along with some other big boats to make it a fair fight. And rumor also has it that Whidbey Island Race Week organizer Gary Stuntz has lined up a title sponsor throughout at least the next three years (with specific dates to be determined by the tides), so plan your vacations through 2015 accordingly.

posted by wirw admin at 10:10 PM.

You know it’s going to be a good day of racing when 1) the smell of cows wafts on the back of the thermals rolling down Blowers’s Bluff, 2) the marine layer dissipates by noon revealing the snow-capped Olympic Mountains to the west, and 3) the pure white mumd of Mt. Baker and the craggy Cascades erupt on the Eastern horizon.

Four days down, one to go. Going into Thursday’s racing several of the 11 classes of 115 boats competing in Whidbey Island Race Week 2012 were tied for the top spot. And many were within just a one-point spread between places two, three and four. Seven races are needed for a throwout, And with the wind forecast to get heavier by Friday, meaning the toss out for their worst score is a given for the racers, keeping the final outcome a suspense to the bitter end is a given.

During the summer in Puget Sound one is able to race every day of the week. So why bother making the trip to a remote outpost on an island that still relies on propane for heat and seems more at times like a scene from Northern Exposure rather than just 75 miles between the two booming tech metropolitan hot spots of Seattle and Vancouver, B.C.? For starters, the northern latitude of the Pacific Northwest manifests itself in days that last longer than anywhere else in the contiguous United States. (Geographical fact: Seattle is further north than Toronto, Canada.) Throughout July the morning sun pokes it fingers through the drapes shortly after 4:00 am. It doesn’t get dark again until past 10:00 pm. Local Fourth of July fireworks displays don’t even begin until about 10:30 p.m., which sucks if the holiday falls midweek. (But at least our civic displays of professional pyrotechnics last longer than 15 seconds…)

Perhaps another reason more than a thousand yachties choose to spend their summer vacation at WIRW is the local bounty. The long damp spring resulted in blueberries the size of plums and raspberries as big as fun-size Snickers, yet even sweeter. The crab season is seeing record hauls –the Dungeness are crawling over each other just to be first to the turkey legs in the pots. The Kings have returned, finally, so if you like wild Pacific salmon, simply drop a line at lunchtime and you’ll be feasting in 45 minutes. Though you’ll be competing with bald eagles, harbor seals, sea lion, Great Blue Herons and Orca whales for your daily meal.

Need more convincing? How about few mosquitos, no snakes, deer ticks nor venomous spiders. low humidity, temps in the mid 70s and blue skies, with a couple of clouds tossed in simply to make the sunsets stunning. But let’s get back to the racing. The RC managed to juggle the 100+ in eleven classes meaning there here starts at the same time there were classes finishing, such as the flock of T-Birds coming across the start line while the Vipers, with “The Doctors”’s Dr. Sears, aboard FNG, crossing the finish line to secure another great race.

Thursday’s racing included a gate. Would it pay to go left or right? Depends on the weather, of course, but one of the front runners, James Spear’s FNG, chose the less popular starboard gate. A flyer? Perhaps, but following the herd is simply that, while choosing the path less traveled is often, well, more interesting.

Speaking of more interesting, Bryan Agnetta’s Davidson 30, Dangerous When Wet, a front runner in PHRF class 3, earned one of the several Over Earlies on Thursday. The first, and so far only (knock on wood) collision was between David Cohen’s, J/9-, “Eye Eye” and Bruce Chan’s Farr 30, “65 Red Rose” (aka, Cystic Fibrosis) at the start of Thursday’s first race. Another interesting race-type move of note was the really nice port tack start by John Rahn on his Melges 24, Pickled Beets. Not surprisingly. Two of the top boats , Shrek, John Hoag’s ID35 , and Adam Korbins’s Astral Plane, led the fleet around the courses on Thursday.

Liza Tewell

posted by wirw admin at 9:12 AM.

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posted by wirw admin at 9:00 AM.

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posted by wirw admin at 9:25 AM.

Hump day on Whidbey Island Race Week is always unpredictable. And Wednesday’s races were no exception. Regardless, it was another day in paradise, albeit it cloudy one. The third day of the only true five-day “Race Week” regatta in the U.S. began with rain. More of a heavy mist, really. By 10:00 am (1:00 pm ET) the moisture, whatever it was called, had stopped.

 A southerly was forecast, meaning racing in Saratoga Passage. But those ever fickle winds shifted to the north/west and racing again was in the beloved Penn Cove playground, much to the delight of the spectators at the Coupeville Dock. A low, low tide at 11:00 am meant that , in Penn Cove anyway, where the water is late to enter and late to exit, and swirls predictably counterclockwise, it was simply another day in paradise.

Like a horse race where the chaos of shoving the steeds into the gates transforms into a choreographed line-up of racers heading to the same finish line, the 115 boats in 11 classes prepped for Wednesday’s races. Slack tide didn’t affect the starts too much, aside from the P3 fleet, which generated a general recall. The Race Committee sent out a whaler to usher back the class, like a sheep dog herding the flock back to the starting line.

Later, the “I did it, I admit it”flag required that over-earlies in some starts choose one end or the other to exonerate their premature starts, costing precious seconds. But as they say in golf,”never over never in,” as the Cohen’s family Idaho-based J/80, Eye Eye, learned –twice.

Ultimately, most classes saw at least two starts and finishes. The P9 class, which got in just one race on Monday, managed three, as did the Melgeese 24. Drama abounds in that class, with more juicy gossip to come later.

Though the day dawned with perennial Northwest dampness (Forks is maybe 40 miles due west as the crow flies) by the time the races started the air was dry, though still grey. The lack of sunshine, however,didn’t deter the campers from the Coupeville Boys and Girls Club from gawking at the racing yachts while fishing for perch off Coupeville’s Red Barn dock. An added treat was enjoying the up-close-and-personal fly-bys of several boats, including Vancouver’s FT10M, Prowler, who threaded the anchored yachts like a weaver. An added bonus was the tray of brownies handed out by the Nordic Tug which was spectating for Race Week but did double duty as RC for the previous weekend’s dinghy regatta.

Like true PROs, the RC managed to shoot off – and finish – two races for most, and three for the P9 and Melges classes, meaning that if the magic number of seven is reached by Friday, a throwout can put the final results into disarray. Top of mind is always quality over quantity, but how many other race “weeks” can deliver up this level of suspense?! And like the extra olive in a martini, the California based Viper, FNG, pulled off a sweet port tack on their start.

The overall award is even more of an unknown with the top finishers after Tuesday among the 11 classes, which include five one-designs (and the Thunderbird Worlds and the Viper Pacific Coast Championships) not necessarily staying there after Wednesday’s racing. Making a run for the cup is the T-Bird, Sunday, as well as several of the San Juan 24s, who are still smoking hot from their recent North Americans (also run through the Oak Harbor Yacht Club). Keep a lookout for Sweet Jesus, who may have extra help from above. Also not to be dismissed is Kermit, Mike Stainsby’s lime green Martin 242 from Portland, Oregon.

At the end of Wednesday’s racing, the sun emerged, natch. But the racers didn’t seem to mind. The band of the day, Gertrude’s Hearse (look them up online) started the rum tent on time, thanks to a ride in from the race course for the band’s lead singer, Ray Hines, from the race course organizer’s Boston Whaler. Hines raced aboard Daniel Randolph’s Farr 30, Nefarious (representing Seattle’s Sloop Tavern Yacht Club) which did better in day’s second race than the first, thanks to some pre-race rig fine- tuning.

The dearth of red flags coming into the marina on Wednesday afternoon after the day’s racing is just another harbinger of the drama to come which is Whidbey Island Race Week.

posted by wirw admin at 8:49 AM.

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posted by wirw admin at 9:35 PM.

The harbor start fired at 10:00 on Tuesday, July 16, signaling a high noon start for the second day of the 5-day Whidbey Island Race Week 2012 regatta. In the morning haze, 115 racing boats filed out of the Oak Harbor Marina to parade to the day’s venue. From shore it was hard to tell – would it be a southerly in Saratoga Passage, along the east banks of Camano Island (scene of the Barefoot Bandit and his now notorious crimes) or a westerly, harkening back the sailors to the Penn Cove playground? A promising, and relatively early, westerly beckoned the boats into the Cove. Oh, fickle wind Gods! As soon as the marks had been set and the courses marked on the reader board, the wind shut off. In its place, however, and somewhat to blame, was sun. Not a bad tradeoff for sailors who suffered through a Seattle June which saw just one, and a half, official day of sunshine.

The question now was, will it stay or will it go? In reply, the tease of a breeze answered with a coy easterly. In the thirty years of Whidbey Island Race Week, an easterly has only been started – and finished – three times. Regardless, the Race Committee analysed the situation and in their professional opinions, said, “Let’s go for it!” Unfortunately, the evil easterly with her icy chill flowing down off the frigid Cascade foothills pulled back once the RC had showed their cards. Enter the art of layering, Northwest-style.

Imagine if you will, a dimension, of sight and sound, where time comes to a stop, and you are forced, yes, forced, to DO NOTHING. That was the Twilight Zone the racers then endured for nearly four hours while waiting for a fair and decent breeze to fill. The week before many of those in attendance had most likely been fighting rush hour traffic, dashing from meeting to meeting, checking email, firing off memos and compiling project plans. On this particular Tuesday they were doing. Absolutely. Nothing. For about four hours. Then the tide changed and the wind filled in. Stations everyone!

By 3:30 on Tuesday afternoon, the minus tide had switched to a flood and played chicken with the incoming westerly. Now choppy with swells, Penn Cove had transformed from a tranquil netherworld into the “toilet bowl,” so called because of the Cove’s oval shape which swirls the current forever counter clockwise, regardless of the tide. In other words, when heading west, always hightail it to the north shore and “bang the beach” (and please don’t say that with an Aussie accent).

Coming into the second day of racing, a few predictable leaders had emerged. Not surprisingly, John “Mr. Consistency” Hoag, and his crew of a quarter century the 1D35, Shrek, established a foothold in the big boat class. (Ironically, Hoag took first the previous weekend in the small boat dinghy regatta, Dinghys Whidbey Island, in the F18 class aboard Shrek 3.) Hoag and his Seattle based crew have won WIRW before, including once with nary a bullet. However, another strong contender for overall honors is Brad Butler’s Sierra 26X, Uno, the only racer to port tack their class, PHRF P2, on Tuesday. But with Jim Prentice’s rival J/109, Diva, representing Royal Vancouver Yacht Club holding the lead in P2 after Monday’s racing with just two second-place finishes, it could be anyone’s horse race. Perhaps Diva’s secret weapon is 14-year-old Will Stuntz, son of Whidbey Island Race Week organizer, Gary Stuntz.

A full five days of racing makes the final outcome of the regatta that much more unpredictable and the extra-low minus 1.5 tide set to arrive later in the day on Wednesday throws just one more crap into the shoot. Once Tuesday’s numerous protests are settled, all the racers, and the race committee, are hoping that Wednesday’s westerly makes it over the mid-island hump from the Strait of Juan de Fuca in a more timely manner, bringing with it a steady stream of air down the chute from Neah Bay at the mouth of the Pacific Ocean. One of those hopeful for a bit more breeze to aid in their continuing march toward the top of the scoreboard will be Charles Rice and his Milwaukie, Oregon based crew aboard his Flying Tiger 10M, Charlie Mike, named in honor his grandfather, and paying homage to the Army call sign, Continue Mission. Or in Race Week parlance, let’s keep this party going!

Liza Tewell

posted by wirw admin at 8:24 AM.

Here is a picture from about 5am this morning of some of the fleet.

posted by wirw admin at 10:39 AM.

While the Midwest and East Coast of the United States prepared to bake in yet another wave of heat or be pummeled by golf-ball sized hail and devastating winds, the racers on 115 boats who traveled from 15 states, four countries and two Canadian provinces awoke on the first day of Whidbey Island Race Week 2012 to a weather report of mid-70s and partly sunny skies, with perhaps a sprinkle or two to keep it clean and green (in true Norwest fashion). Not to rub it in, but the forecasters made good on their promise of Pleasantville and threw in a bone of 8-knot winds just to ice the cake. As Whidbey Island Race Week organizer Gary Stuntz says is perhaps the best advice he got from previous Race Week organizer, Bob Ross, “Throw a party for 1,000 of your closest friends, and they will come.”

Now in its thirtieth year, WIRW 2012 began with Brigadoon-like perfection. Dozens and dozens of tents sprung overnight from the ground like mushrooms on the Navy base adjacent to the Oak Harbor Marina. Local restaurants, grocery stores and businesses prepared for the welcomed onslaught of shoppers. And one thousand sailors and their shore support crews converged in the playground of Penn Cove on Monday morning to officially kick off the five-day racing portion of the only remaining true race “week” in the United States. Include the opening weekend’s two-day dinghy regatta, Dinghies Whidbey Island (DWI), and it’s a full seven days of racing. And in this Olympics year it was only fitting that the 1984 Flying Dutch gold medalist Carl Buchan was among the contestants. (Buchan placed first in the DWI 505 class.)

On Monday morning the racing sailors were welcomed with the “sound of freedom” as Navy sailors from the nearby Whidbey Island Naval Air Station practiced low-altitude fly-bys in the early morning marine layer that clung stubbornly to the island. Oddly reassuring, the tranquility of waking up in a town unblemished by high-rises, yet protected by the most advanced military technology tax money can buy results in a rare feeling in this day and age: serenity.

Those sounds of freedom that call Whidbey Island home include Thunderbirds. And coincidentally, the Thunderbirds (as in boats, rather than planes) chose Whidbey Island Race Week to hold their 2012 World Championships.

Northwest born-and-bred, the hard-chine “T-Birds” reveled in their home waters. Even more fittingly the 26-footer was designed in 1958 by Seattle naval architect, Ben Seaborn. The dozen T-Birds who threw their hats into the ring for this year’s Worlds performed in true one-design fashion, swapping leads throughout their two races of the week’s first day of racing. The first day of racing often is used to size up the competition, with some sandbagging to be expected. Only the final results come Friday will reveal the true champs – and the winner of the gold mainsail decal – but Monday’s racing was more akin to the Kentucky Derby: “Coming into the second and final weather mark rounding of the day’s last race, it’s the Carey boys on Invader on port, Hussy II on starboard, with the team from San Diego, Compound X, spit out the middle, and it’s the red-eyed Invader that’s first around and on the straightaway to the finish!” Ah, yes, it’s going to be a fun week of watching who will be the next T-bird world champion.

The T-Birds aren’t the only class holding a championship at Whidbey Island Race Week. The Vipers have also selected the Oak Harbor venue this year for their Pacific Coast Championships. A sporty two- or three-person high-performance sport boat, the Viper 640 sails well in both light air and heavy weather so whatever meal Penn Cove or Saratoga Passage dish up during the week the dozen Vipers in the PCC pit will feed well.

Penn Cove is the favored venue for spectators, with the action getting up close and personal enough for young enthusiasts watching from the dock of Coupeville’s red dock to shout words of encouragement to their newest athletic heroes. The Anacortes crew about the Viper, Barrel of Monkeys, got so close to the dock during Monday’s two races that they were able to exchange pleasantries, while still in full hike, with kids watching the action. (By the way, Kim’s Café serves up both the premier view of the regatta as well as mouth-watering Thai food, and the espresso shop on the southwest corner is a fine place to follow up with a ubiquitous Northwest latte.)

An uplifting sign was all the shiny new cloth parading on the race course. Like peacocks showing off their feathers , new sails are an obscure, but accurate, bellwether of a positive economy. In other words, things are looking up.

Stay tuned for more racing highlights as we follow the action at www.whidbeyislandraceweek.com of all 115 boats in 11 classes, five of them one-design, competing in Whidbey Island Race Week 2012 through Friday, July 20.

Note, for those reading this at the races on their smart phones, mobile devices or tablets: No crabbing in Area 8-1 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The Oak Harbor Yacht Club will hold another Penn Cove mussel dinner on Wednesday at 6:00 (get there early, before they run out). Lost and found is at the Hospitality Desk. And don’t drive faster than 30 mph on Midway.

By Liza Tewell

posted by wirw admin at 5:07 AM.