Sandy Mackie sent me a copy of the e-mail he sent the crew of Short Circuit after the Blakely Rock Race. He thought reading about racing out of Seattle might tempt someone into trying it.
Now if it does tempt someone north, they might learn something from Sandy's notes. I always find interesting how others organize their boats. Here we get a look at both log keeping, what he notes when, and crew communication. You might learn something where ever you race.
Still, I did not run it with the hope you would learn anything, nor be motivated to go north. I ran it because I think our Members like to read stories about racing.
I hope you enjoy it.
Ed.
TO: Short Circuit Crew
FROM: Alexander W. Mackie
DATE: March 11, 1999
Good Race Everyone! Third in Class 5, minutes behind Roxanne and Greyhound.
Next Race:
This Saturday, Shilshole at 8:00-8:15. Leave the dock at 8:30, first start at 9:00. Possession Point, 27 miles, Meadow Point to Scachet Head and back. Flooding tide for most of the race, adverse on the way out. Same crew as last week, Joe is out of town and will not be with us this race.
Course:
A northerly was blowing so the weather mark was a temporary buoy about four miles out on a direct line with Point Wells, which would be our target until we could see the mark. Leeward Mark was Blakely Rocks. Port roundings.
Start.
Wind was a northerly 10-12 kts with a strong outbound tide. The line was m/l true and leading fleets were generally equally divided between left and right down the course with no obvious advantage. We have been grouped with bigger boats, 35-42 feet, so we were looking for a clear alley and to avoid a fight at the start. Medium # 1 was the right head sail, 10-15 k range.
We took our usual Port tack approach 2-3 boat lengths below the line, passing the pin at 2 min. Ran the line for 1 minute plus and tacked about 4 lengths ahead of the pack. We had a clear run down the line with only Roxanne, a 40 footer, below us. We were on the line with speed at the start.
Roxanne began to squeeze out underneath us and as soon as she got on our air we looked to tack to avoid a blanket. Crossed just behind Night Runner and Greyhound, but the remainder of the fleet had already tacked to Meadow Point. We were ahead with clear air and inside on the lift.
Weather leg was a balancing act between the lift on the beach and the better wind and tide outside. Greyhound and Roxanne held outside the longest and gained about 1 minute on the fleet. Night Runner and Chiron were with us, just right of center, and we all closed together. Rounded just ahead of Night Runner and Chiron with a good bear away set.
Night Runner, a Peterson 42 in disguise, was closing fast and threatened to blanket, so we gybed away and held to the left to get out of the tide. Winds were evenly balance and most of the fleet was going left. Night Runner went right and headed to the Bainbridge side. Chiron held left of center and we went wide left. Our Tripp 33 cannot run with the big boats. We need to hold a higher angle for speed. We kept bearings on Roxanne, lead boat, Night Runner and Chiron and were gaining slowly through the first half and holding even to Meadow Point. Av. speed 7+ Winds holding 12-15 with some higher puffs.
At Meadow Point we gybed for West Point and the rocks and we were aimed right at the rocks. The higher gybing angle, together with the lack of tide, looked good on the boats in the middle. Night Runner on the far side was making good time on the far right. Winds gusting to 17+. At the entrance to Eagle Harbor: Night Runner right, Chiron left of middle, and Short Circuit converged. We were overlapped and ahead of Chiron. Night Runner crossed 2-3 lengths ahead of us.
Rounding.
Gybed to port for the rounding and set up for the #3 given the winds. Chiron went inside and we elected to use her as our depth sounder. Only the center rock was showing and you could not see the ledge on the NW side. I have seen half a dozen boats hit the rocks in these conditions. I would rather overstand than take the risk.
We rounded and pulled ahead of Chiron, about 10 lengths back of Night Runner, who also rounded closer than we did, only to see a boat from the class ahead tack and come back right on top of us. Winds had also dropped 11-15. We have the wrong sail up but can see strong white caps ahead, so we choose to keep it up. We spend 3-5 minutes trying to get out from under the 35. He is not on our air, but is definitely a distraction. We are holding our own on Night Runner, even with the wrong sail, as the winds see-saw between 13-15, where the sail works well, and then drops to 10-12, where it does not.
The final leg of the race is between Night Runner and Chiron who are scratch and Short Circuit who will get about 2 min. Time on time formula.
We finally tacked away to clear the 35 because Chiron was gaining and we were on a general lift. The tack allowed us to cross ahead of Chiron and get inside of the progressive lift which Night Runner and Greyhound were on. We are about 2.30 minutes behind Night Runner and 5-6 min. behind Greyhound. Roxanne is leading, but we cannot get a watch on her. Greyhound and Roxanne both owe us about 2 minutes.
Tactically we were headed to Magnolia, with a favorable tide, to take the “Hedrick Hitch” Take the knock at Magnolia and get a lift as well as a tide push out of Elliot Bay to West Point.
At Magnolia, Greyhound goes deep to the beach and Night Runner tacks early. We cross Night Runner at 2.30 minutes, but elect to go further into the beach and take Greyhound’s line. No real knock this time going into the beach.
We tack when we can lay the West Point can, near low tide so we do not want to get too close. Winds still in the 12-15 range, too low for the #3, but we do not want to lose the time and sea room it would take to change sails.
We are clearly better off than Night Runner. At the West Point can we cross her track at 2.00 min. We cross her line so as not to be in bad air. It looks that you can lay the committee end of the line from West Point but Roxanne and Greyhound are on headers and cannot make the line. On the final leg Chiron passes us. Nothing like water line in 12-15 kts, but is so close that we will hold our time. We tack once more as boats to east, including Night Runner are on a much lower course and we are on a straight line to the finish.
Night Runner crosses about 1.30 min. ahead at the finish, Chiron is 30 seconds ahead.
Final results Roxanne, Greyhound 30 seconds out of first. Short Circuit 5 minutes out of first, about 15 sec/mile. Night Runner 6.30 out of first.
The first 3/4 of the race went as well as we could expect. Coming home, I should have tacked to clear the 35, even though he was not on our air. The boat was a distraction and forced us to sail lower than we wanted to.
On the choice of sail for the final leg. I called for the number 3 because the wind was showing 17 kts, the highest range of the day. There was no sign it was building, however, and with the waves, the 3 is under powered below 15 kts. The better call is the heavy #1, 15-20 kts which you can feather up in the puffs and still have the power in the lulls.
Overall good race, we can be competitive with these bigger boats.
Sandy Mackie, Short Circuit