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
