So.......Opening Day of Yachting Season has long been celebrated by my family and me on the shores and waters of montlake cut, lake washington and SYC. I enjoy the crew races, the festivities, the dress, but for the last nine years an alternate "opening day parade" has been evolving to the point where this year, 109 sailboats raced "to the straits" and back. It was indeed quite a parade and you can see the route in the chart below. Sloop Taven Yacht Club started this cool race for any PHRF handicapped boat, but you can only sail singlehanded or doublehanded. You race from Shilshole to Port Townsend, party all night, and race back the next day from Port Townsend to Shilshole. The slowest rated boats start more than an hour earlier than the fast boats, so it is indeed a parade!
My good friend John Murkowski invited me along on his beautiful Jeanneau 45p. This was a great boat for the race. Comfortable, big, seaworthy, fast. We were plagued by light winds on the first day and like many others, did not finish. We were in the hunt on the second day until the whole fleet becalmed at point no point, and we decided to power on home.
My good friend John Murkowski invited me along on his beautiful Jeanneau 45p. This was a great boat for the race. Comfortable, big, seaworthy, fast. We were plagued by light winds on the first day and like many others, did not finish. We were in the hunt on the second day until the whole fleet becalmed at point no point, and we decided to power on home."Gray Wolf" the Rodger Martin designed 40 footer with a stayless mast won our division easily as they were the only boat in our class to finish the race both days. In these shots below, the wind has just come in after 9 hours of drifting. A gorgeous boat under a pillowy sky.
The wind got fresh in the evening and with an incoming flood, the little boats could only sail to get to the party. It was pretty impressive to see these Moore 24s and Olson 25s handle some trying conditions with only a crew of two.
On Sunday after the majority of the fleet had quit the race due to light wind and major tide, a big front came from the south, and I was very glad to be in a big, seaworthy boat. But even then, I was a little concerned and we needed to have our "wits" about us, as we powered and pounded into a 35 knot gale. I heard that "Tachyon" recorded 39 knots on the anemometer, and they were right there by us. I was seriously worried about all of those little boats, and in fact many of them ducked into kingston, or edmonds..for what they hoped would be the night, but it ended up being the next day too.....becasue it kept on blowin....I tried to catch it on video on the scene below. All of the images here by Allan Johnson with my ultra lame camera. Come on out an do "race to the straits" next year! You can find out more about it here: http://www.styc.org/race_info/RaceToTheStraits/index.shtml
The wind got fresh in the evening and with an incoming flood, the little boats could only sail to get to the party. It was pretty impressive to see these Moore 24s and Olson 25s handle some trying conditions with only a crew of two.
On Sunday after the majority of the fleet had quit the race due to light wind and major tide, a big front came from the south, and I was very glad to be in a big, seaworthy boat. But even then, I was a little concerned and we needed to have our "wits" about us, as we powered and pounded into a 35 knot gale. I heard that "Tachyon" recorded 39 knots on the anemometer, and they were right there by us. I was seriously worried about all of those little boats, and in fact many of them ducked into kingston, or edmonds..for what they hoped would be the night, but it ended up being the next day too.....becasue it kept on blowin....I tried to catch it on video on the scene below. All of the images here by Allan Johnson with my ultra lame camera. Come on out an do "race to the straits" next year! You can find out more about it here: http://www.styc.org/race_info/RaceToTheStraits/index.shtml
