There’s a new PTSA race buoy in front of the Port Townsend Marine Science Center and we have two of great sponsors to thank.
The materials for the buoy were donated by the good folks at West Marine. Thanks to the store manager Lenore, West Marine supplied everything starting at the anchor up including a 1″ rode rated at 25,000 lbs. If a log tow drives over it as has happened in the past, the tug has its work cut out.
If you haven’t been into the West Marine store lately you haven’t seen all the new sailing gear that Lenore has brought in. Beyond the store, Lenore has been volunteering for the race committee and hopes to have her Lido in PT soon. Maybe it’s time to revive the Lido fleet racing.
The anchor was obtained through and installed by Mike Roth of Roth Diving Service, but not without a lot of effort. According to Mike, they were working in a three knot current that presented a quite a challenge. Once when he came back up to switch air tanks – it took four, he surfaced at the bow of STEP’N ANNIE and noticed that despite swimming hard, he wasn’t making any progress towards the stern boarding ladder. The current was stronger than his stroke. Who hasn’t been sailing next to a mark on the Bay and noticed that the buoy was staying in the same place, or worse, passing them? Between the current, the back eddy’s and the wind shifts, the Marine Science Center buoy is always an interesting challenge.
Thanks, too, to Satch for putting this all together. Hopefully, we’ll get more course boards with the “M” mark listed, “M” being the identifying symbol for the new Marine Science Center buoy.
A big thanks to all our PTSA sponsors, we really appreciate all you do to support racing and sailing on Port Townsend Bay.