From Jeff Brantly on the Committee Boat (see below for report from Dave James aboard Salsa):
The forecast for Saturday's THREE FORT FIASCO called for rain and plenty of wind. Safety was emphasized at the skipper's meeting and several competitors opted to not race , including Emiliano on the sunfish- good call Emiliano! Of the 15 registered boats, 11 made the startline.
CERIDWEN with Matt at the helm and HOUAT skippered by Dwight, were the first to go and they both headed west towards the Ft Townsend buoy. Next up was Blaise and Russell on the HIPPO and they headed east towards Ft Flagler. Then came the 3 Thunderbirds that all headed in unique directions. Ken on ROADRUNNER went east towards Flagler, Bob on KUMA SAN went north towards Worden, and Stig steered CORVO westward towards Ft Townsend. The predicted wind and currents offered advantages and disadvantages to each direction. Next came FURTHERMOORE w Ari at the helm and PICKLE TRAIN with Oden choosing to head north towards Worden. The final three larger boats all choose to head north towards Worden with Dave skippering SALSA, Ron on SPEEDRACER (welcome to PTSA racing Ron!), and "bowman" Samual skippering NOATAK. The Fiasco was on and the RC crew was busy exchanging predictions on which direction would be best. The wind continued to build to 14-16 with higher gusts and the rain was wet. These conditions made it challenging for the RC to monitor and track all the racers as the weather became more sporty. CERIDREN, HOUAT, HIPPO, PICKLE TRAIN and SPEEDRACER chose to retire.
The MOORE 24 FURTHERMOORE lost her rig during a "round-down" on the downwind run from Worden to Flagler, Fortunately, Ari, Piper, and Lucas handled the dismasting without injury and were able to self rescue and return to BH without incident. That left 5 boats still on the course to compete for bragging rights as the first ever winner of the Fiasco. The second half of the race was fun to watch as three boats (SALSA, NOATAK, and KUMA SAN) rounded the Flagler Mark and headed towards Ft Townsend. At the same time, ROADRUNNER was also racing to Ft Townsend on a fast reach coming from Ft Worden. CORVO was out of sight as they worked hard to get to Ft Worden and back. The last 15 minutes was a drag race as the four boats that rounded Ft Townsend buoy reached to the finishline from west to east. Meanwhile, CORVO was reaching fast from east to west. In the end, the bigger boats owned the day with SALSA (J29) winning and NOATAK (J35) finishing 5 minutes later. ROADRUNNER was the first tbird to finish and were just 15 seconds behind NOATAK. The next 2 tbirds finished about two minutes later and crossed the finish line in different directions within 20 seconds of each other!
The day ended with most of the racers gathering at the clubhouse to exchange "yachting tips", discuss strategies, and share a cold beverage. There were some great discussions about the pro's and con's of some of the decisions made throughout the day. All in all, the inaugural THREE FORT FIASCO was a success. Look for this event to grow!
The race committee of Dave B, Dave W, Tuscan, and Angela did a great job helping me run the event. Kudos to them.
| 3 Fort Fiasco Pursuit Race Results |
| Race Length – NM. |
10.1 |
|
Start |
13:00:00 |
(Alert 12:54:00) |
| |
|
|
| Sail # |
Boat Name |
Skipper Name |
Boat Model |
PHRF |
PHRF* Dist. (S.) |
Start Time |
Finish Time |
Pos- ition |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| none |
Ceridwen |
Matt McCleary |
Atkins 39’ Schooner |
350 |
3535 |
13:00:00 |
RET |
|
| |
Houat (Inshore) |
Dwight Nicholson |
18’ Gaff. Open, D/E |
350 |
3535 |
13:00:00 |
RET |
|
| |
Leaf (Inshore) |
Emiliano Marino |
Sunfish Lateen Rig |
350 |
3535 |
13:00:00 |
DNS |
|
| 3209 |
Visa |
Mike Gaede |
Islander 32 |
210 |
2121 |
13:23:34 |
DNS |
|
| 240 |
Hippo- potamus |
Blaise Holly |
Int. 210 |
181 |
1828.1 |
13:28:26 |
RET |
|
| 1069 |
Merlin |
Mark Blattner |
T-Bird |
175 |
1767.5 |
13:29:27 |
DNS |
|
| 1256 |
Road Runner |
Ken Lane |
T-Bird |
175 |
1767.5 |
13:29:27 |
15:24:24 |
3 |
| 1254 |
Corvo |
Stig Osterberg |
T-Bird |
175 |
1767.5 |
13:29:27 |
15:26:49 |
4 |
| 1248 |
Kuma San |
Bob Denny |
T-Bird |
175 |
1767.5 |
13:29:27 |
15:27:10 |
5 |
| 93 |
Further- more |
Ari Rubenstein |
Moore 24 |
168 |
1696.8 |
13:30:38 |
RET |
|
| 126 |
Underdog |
Rob Ambrose Dan Ginther |
Ultimate 20 Dingy |
162 |
1636.2 |
13:31:38 |
DNS |
|
| 47879 |
Pickle Train |
Oden Smith |
Santa Cruz 27 |
159 |
1605.9 |
13:32:09 |
RET |
|
| 161 |
Salsa |
David James |
J29 FR |
123 |
1242.3 |
13:38:12 |
15:19:03 |
1 |
| |
Speed Racer |
Ron Lewis |
Olson 30 |
99 |
999.9 |
13:42:15 |
RET |
|
| 28528 |
Noatak |
Sam Shirk |
J35 |
80 |
808 |
13:45:27 |
15:24:09 |
2 |
|
From Dave James on S/V Salsa: You know it’s going to be an exciting day on the water when the skippers meeting is opened with “What do you think?”, and “Do you want to race?” and is closed with the disclaimer that it is up to each skipper to determine his/her boat and crew’s abilities and only proceed if it’s safe for them.
From my observations, the wind was blowing 14-20 knots around the course with some gusts a little higher. Some did heed the warnings and opted not to sail. Eleven of the 16 that signed up went for it and started the race. I can’t say exactly, but about half of those that started chose to drop out before their first mark rounding leaving three T-Birds and three PHRF boats on the race course.
Making it even more interesting, the three T-Birds all chose to go around the course in three different directions, one heading to Fort Townsend, one off to Fort Flagler, and the other towards Fort Worden accompanied by the 3 PHRF boats.
The wind at Fort Worden was around 16 knots but by the time we got down towards Fort Flagler the wind was a solid 20 knots. Only two spinnakers were visible on this leg and then we hear over the radio that one of those flying a spinnaker has been dismasted in Admiralty Inlet. Hearing about the dismasting on the radio all racers were concerned and at the ready to assist. The PHRF racer closest to the dismasting did take a detour and checked in on them before continuing to sail the race. Thankfully, nobody was hurt and the boat made it back to the harbor safely.
The three remaining racers taking this route all rounded Fort Flagler within a few minutes of each other and began the beat to Fort Townsend. The current was pushing them all south, so they had to take a hitch north to clear the shallow water at Rat Island.
After rounding Fort Townsend, it was a tight reach back to the finish line. With the wind 14-16+ knots, this leg went fast.
Remember the start where the T-Birds all went in different directions? Now approaching the finish was all three T-Birds congregating from three different directions all to finish within three minutes of each other leaving the question open about which was the correct way around the course.
Thank you to everyone at PTSA that made this event possible. Looking forward to doing it again next year.