Port Townsend Sailing Association » Racing out of the Bay

Key West Race Week Day 1, Big Boats in a Building Breeze

JK — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:41:04 +0000

The wind builds into the low 20′s and the big boats fly in day 1 of Quantum Key West Race Week. Video by TP2, thanks Craig Montague for the tip. Always fun to look at the sail shapes and check out some of the jib sheeting angles. Amazing.

Evelyn 26 NIMBUS Takes Duamish Head Overall

JK — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:44:34 +0000

NIMBUS formerly known as IMPULSE of the PTSA

From Ballard Sailor’s report on the 2012 Duamish Head Race on Pressure Drop.

By 2pm the mid raters were crossing the finish line en masse, but amongst them was a little 26 foot boat sailed by one of those old Des Moines Sea Scouts – Mark Harang on his new Evelyn 26 NIMBUS (formerly IMPULSE). Now Harang is no stranger to this race, having won the South Sound Series overall in the Thunderbird 26 Rev back in 2000. But in his first race on his new boat Mark, with Kathryn Burnette and Brad Baker as crew, pushed this little boat hard. Crossing the finish line just in front of a much faster rated J105 and almost 25 minutes in front of the next boat in the large class I, NIMBUS not only won its’ class but corrected over all 79 boats that made it out racing on the Duamish Head to take Overall corrected honors by over 6 minutes over the next boat! “Those Sea Scouts of the South Sound learned a thing or two back in the day,” smiles Stephanie Schwenk, “and old age and treachery have only made them more wily. So, the South Sound heroes are back again and on their very first race ever on the boat they took the overall. They squeaked out a start, from out of nowhere. If it was anyone else, I wouldn’t have believed it. Littlest and leeward boat of the fleet, blanketed by a crowd with an ebb that should push them over the line and into the pin, they jam it through and spin to port, hoist and take off… leaving the rest of us in the dust. Be on the lookout for the Evelyn 26 NIMBUS. Unassuming name, but looks like trouble!”

You can read the entire story here.

Time to Pick Up the Tempo

JK — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:40:57 +0000

Ahhh shorts, I remember those – Sailing Thunderbird Sailboats {in the summer}

JK — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:54:33 +0000

more summer T-Bird sailing photos here ….

America’s Cup 34, a tech overview

JK — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:16:05 +0000

The media presentation of sailboat racing has forever changed based on the work done for the 34th Cup races. It’s really excellent and if you haven’t seen it you can replay the races on YouTube here. At the center of those changes is Stan Honey, well known sailor, navigator and electronics wizard. The first down lines super imposed on the TV show football field, Stan’s work. Nascar car tracking and data, Stan’s work. And now he has brought that technical expertise to help clarify and explain his own sport, sailing. From the Panbo electronics blog, a review of the equipment being used to show sailing in a new, and very involving way.

Stan Honey has not always been grinning during the San Diego session of the AC World Series, but it’s staggering what he and the many tech teams behind the scenes have already accomplished. As I had hoped. In fact, while I came mostly to see the technology, I’ve become enthralled by the racing itself, which — almost ironically, and a far cry from previous AC’s — is all about sailing skills rather than competing design and gear technologies. The fleet of AC45 catamarans is nearly pure one design (they have some latitude over the “soft” sail designs) and I understand that the only racing electronics the crews use are GPS speedos. What all the gadgetry and software supports are remarkably agile race management, fast and fair umpiring, and phenomenal audio video broadcast coverage…

MARTHA, Making Wood Look Good…Again!

Kathy Grace — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 00:25:44 +0000

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MARTHA cleaned up in her division in the ‘Round the County Race this weekend, and possibly overall as well. MARTHA was the only boat from Port Townsend that attended (that we know of). The weather forecast kept many boats at the dock and slammed a number of the ones that went out. Check out roundthecounty.com for race results and stay tuned for the race stories!

Until Kathy and the crew update their story, you can read a fun story from Ben Braden whose Moore 24 finished second in class behind MARTHA and 6th overall here. Photos lifted from the great Sean Trew’s Facebook page.

Alexandra Cup 2011, Tight Racing in Bigger Breeze

JK — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 17:31:56 +0000

Photo by Tim O'Connell.

ACE leads LADY VAN in the breezier conditions of this year’s Alexandra Cup for R Boats. For two years we have watched LADY VAN dominate in the lighter winds on Port Townsend Bay. Now it appears ACE is coming into her own in the higher breezes facing the boats this year at the Alexandra Cup for R Boats in Vancouver at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club. To quote ContenderCAN2399 on Sailing Anarchy, “Great to see how the design choices made in the 20′s (what combo of length, sail area and displacement to chose) are playing out in the variable weather of 2011.”

Pics from the Sloop John B

JK — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 05:18:41 +0000

Sym Sebastian sent in some pictures from the September 17th PLYC race on Frank Lawson’s J/105, JOHN B, with Chris, Kathy and Sym crewing. Sym mentioned that it was blowing a steady 20 with gusts to 28.

Got some pictures? Send them in.

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Dan and Mike at The Northern Century

Dan Newland — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 04:21:42 +0000

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From Dan Newland …

Here are some pictures I took of the “Northern Century Race” Mike and I just did. It’s a 100 mile race from Anacortes to Pt Roberts, then Hein Bank and back to Anacortes. We tanked it and finally withdrew Saturday night after 23 hours, 18 miles to go and facing a building ebb against us with no wind. We had already sat 4 hours slating in no wind and 3 knots of current going backwards and sideways between the southern part of San Juan Island and Victoria where the current sounded like a running river (this is no B.S., it really made a rushing sound!) and swirling out of control in eddies and whirlpools. We had waves from the Straits 3 miles away where it was blowing 20-25 kts to make us more miserable. Another few hours without sleep having been awake for 40 hours didn’t sound very good so we bagged it.

It was the most challenging race I have ever done and there was so much local knowledge that we were like babes in a manger. Not a clue! But about half of all the racers dropped out. Thinking about it now with a little distance, I’ll probably do it again. I was pissed not to finish but it was a beautiful sail Friday night. Warm with beautiful skies and all around, surrounded by the San Juan Islands. Gorgeous.

The race had trackers on each boat and here is the attachment to look at the tracks. On the “Yachts” tab at the top of the page click on “Show track” and it will come up for the selected yacht. Very interesting! In particular, look at Madrona vs. Emma, 2 boats that were 4 seconds apart at the finish with Madrona going through Cattle Pass. A gutsy move to be sure! Where we apparently went wrong was going between Sinclair and Guemes Island since other than that, we were right along the same path as the winners like Icon and Emma.

So we didn’t finish, but we had a SPECTACULAR night’s sail. It was gorgeous and pretty well pegged the meter for stunning. Finally, Anacortes YC did a great job.

Northern Century

JK — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 20:07:17 +0000

Light air evening at the Northern Century, Anacortes Yacht Club's 100 mile race. Photo by Sean Trew.