Smith Island start

Smith Island start

Martha racing around Smith Island (photo by Robert Ambrose)

Following a blustery week, and faced with a Gale Warning, the twelve boats reporting for the start found very light winds and calm seas. As race time approached long scans of the surface showed no dark patches to indicate wind. The very light NE draft was not enough to register on the RC anemometer. However the fleet was demonstrating steerage-way, although barely stemming the current by the pier, so there was nothing to be gained by a postponement and the start was on time.

Observation from Fort Worden an hour after the start showed the fleet flying rather limp spinnakers to a light Southeasterly in Admiralty Inlet but after passing Pt Wilson the current became stronger than the wind and boats were carried West until they could clear the wind shadow of the bluffs. Challenging conditions.

The results are provisional as two boats we do not have contact information for have not reported finish times to racecommittee@ptsail.com.

Some highlights from Sparkle:

Strange but true, we sailed upwind with our symmetrical spinnaker for most of the race. The sun was shining and warm (I have a sun burn on my face to prove it), sea birds were in abundance, there were several porpoise sightings, and possibly a whale sighting too. We rounded clockwise and met several of the other boats rounding on the east side of Minor. A significance difference from last year was that nearly the entire fleet converged on the east side of Minor Is. at the same time. Having rounded from the west, we tacked twice on our return leg and were able to lay the Pt. Hudson buoy in one long tack. The current, for us, was favorable the entire way.

And a report from Martha is here – Martha Sail Training.

Smith Island Race 2017

Information is provisional and subject to modification. Results saved: Monday, April 3, 2017 2:30:48 PM PDT

Pos	Sail	Boat	Skipper	Rating	Finish Order	Finish Time	Time Allowance	Corrected Time	Time Behind	Adjustments	Pts
1	1144	Blew Bird	Piper Dunlap, Dan Ginther	198	3	18:20:47.0	01:31:24.6	05:44:22.4	00:00:00.0		1.0
2	SP	Cito	Rankin, Sean	255	9	18:51:18.0	01:57:43.5	05:48:34.5	00:04:12.1		2.0
3	642	Owl	Dunning, Dale	198	5	18:30:20.0	01:31:24.6	05:53:55.4	00:09:33.0		3.0
4	549	Knot Raven	Bolling, Brian	198	6	18:37:12.0	01:31:24.6	06:00:47.4	00:16:25.0		4.0
5	81	Sparkle	Guy Hupy, Brian McGinn	129	1	18:07:38.0	00:59:33.3	06:03:04.7	00:18:42.3		5.0
6	172	Boreas	Greene, Josh	198	8	18:49:31.0	01:31:24.6	06:13:06.4	00:28:44.0		6.0
7	226	Martha	D’Arcy, Robert	111	2	18:11:22.0	00:51:14.7	06:15:07.3	00:30:44.9		7.0
8	C 36	Norma Mae	Arsulich, James	148	7	18:38:09.0	01:08:19.6	06:24:49.4	00:40:27.0		8.0
9	18944	Sir Isaac	Bailey, John	93	4	18:28:00.0	00:42:56.1	06:40:03.9	00:55:41.5		9.0
10T	39954	Andiamo	Anderson, Eric	185	10	No Time	01:25:24.5	-01:25:24.5	-07:09:46.9	RET	13.0T
DNF	ID	Impossible Dream	McDowell, Todd	190	DNF	No Time	01:27:43.0	No Time	No Time	DNF	13.0T
DNF	83330	Lucky	Hall, Keith	42	DNF	No Time	00:19:23.4	No Time	No Time	DNF	13.0T