Jay Berglund and I launched Gizmo at 0730 and promptly motored out to the starting line of the Race to the Straits. There were 118 boats entered in this annual two day race from Shilshole Marina in Ballard to Port Townsend and back the next day. But at this early hour, only the cruising classes were showing any life. The race featured a reverse handicap, so Icon, the big Perry 66 didn’t get to start until almost 1100. Other than a couple of Moore 24s being launched, there was very little activity on the docks. Our start was 0817 09, and I wanted to get out early to get a feel for the wind and chop. It was going to be a beat all the way to Port Townsend.

With the wind at about 12-15 knots, I opted for our 110% jib rather than the 150% and it proved to be the right sail as the wind continued to build as the day warmed up. This was a double-handed race, so I wanted to keep sail changes to a minimum. Initially, we performed very well to windward, matching speed with the larger cruising boats and out pointing them by as much as 8-10 degrees. But as the wind continued to build to about 16-18 knots, we started losing ground to the boats behind us. We had been holding our own nicely until then.

The Thunderbird fleet that started nine minutes after us caught us before we got to the halfway point. Then it was the Moore 24s and the Santa Cruz 27s. While surrounded by overtaking boats, I realized that we were making significant leeway and our speed was off. So, I took the helm and started tweaking as is my custom. I recently installed a new digital speedometer, so I started tuning to that. First, I gave the main some more twist and then eased down the traveler until the main started backwinding a bit. That seemed to fix the leeway problem, and when I looked at the speedometer, we had just gained .2-.3 knots! The boat had less heel, was riding over the waves smoothly instead of crashing through them, was going faster with less leeway and felt far more comfortable to sail. It was actually a bit counter-intuitive. Since we were racing, I felt like I needed to really haul that main in tight and power through the waves. But every time I did so, Gizmo heeled over more and lost a quarter of a knot! She has a daggerboard, which presents minimal cross sectional resistance to leeway. I suppose this would be true of any boat with a very high aspect ratio keel. It needs to be as close to vertical as possible to work well. So the moral to this story is to tune to the speedometer, rather than the seat of the pants and keep the boat as upright as possible. And I also realized that I need to add additional some purchase to the traveler!

Gizmo was in class 15, which included a Ranger 26, a Ranger 22 a San Juan 7.7m and a variety of cruising boats. The San Juan 7.7, Rock Lobster, put up a heated battle with us. We swapped tacks up the west side of Puget Sound against the flood, and then broke for the turning mark at Double Bluff where Gizmo finally pulled ahead to stay. The Ranger 22, True Blue, was very over-powered with their genoa up, burying their rail all the way and not a serious challenge. After rounding the turn mark at Double Bluff, we found positive current first in Mutiny Bay, then soon after, all over the channel as the ebb set in. We were first in our class to reach Port Townsend, with Rock Lobster nine minutes behind and True Blue about 53 minutes behind. We never did see the Ranger 26 and the other cruising boats until they came in some time later.

Finding a slip in Port Townsend was a challenge. The marina has room for 75 boats, and not all of those cleared out to make room for us. In order to get 118 boats in the remaining slips, rafting was the order of the day with rafts of up to 5 and 6 boats wide. But, once moored, Sloop Tavern Yacht Club knows how to throw a party! The dinner included clam chowder, oysters and roast chicken washed down with copious amounts of beer and wine, and there was a rock band for entertainment. Actually, I snuck off to a hotel room and crashed after seeing the results posted.

Sunday was another glorious, sunny day, with winds out of the north west at 10-15 knots which meant a spinnaker run all the way back to Shilshole Marina. Looking forward to getting underway, the first task was to get out of the marina. Many on the sports boats rafted behind us didn’t start until much later than us, and their hung-over crews weren’t anywhere to be seen. But finally we managed to escape and threaded our way out.

The wind was very light as we left the harbor, but was building. By the time we started, it was about 5 knots and continued to build from there as the day warmed up. We quickly set our chute on a reach and we were off towards the point at Marrowstone Island. The tide was still ebbing for a couple of hours, but we found positive push from the starting line to Marrowstone and then south along the beach. The boats that had started earlier and gone further offshore were sailing backwards compared to Gizmo! We hugged the shore until the wind forced us to break for Double Bluff. By then, we were racing an Alberg 30 named Cleo-na-mar with the largest symmetrical spinnaker I have ever seen on a boat of that size. She almost didn’t make it around the turning mark as the current was now flooding at about 2 knots, but she eventually squeeked by.

There wasn’t another boat within three miles of us at that point. The wind had been slowly building towards 10-12 knots, straight down the straits. A freighter kept us heading east for awhile, then it was south across the shipping lanes towards Puget Sound. Our plan was to hug the western shore until we got to President point and then head over to Shilshole Marina. Once in the Puget Sound proper, Gizmo rocked! Wind speed had built to 20+ knots, our speed was over 6 knots through the water with an additional 1.5 knots push and we were rocking and rolling like a drunkard. After one wild broach, kind of scary in a boat with all her ballast internal to the hull, I decided to play it safe and tried to keep her on a broad reach. This forced us to abandon the western shore and head out towards the Edmonds side of the sound. But we were able to stay in the lead with Cleo-na-mar all the way until Appletree Cove where two hotrod boats, Dos and Ogopogo, finally caught us.

This is where I think we got some help from Prudence. The wind shifted allowing Gizmo to head right for Shilshole Marina with a good current push, while the rest of the fleet was heading south down the western shore. Two in-bound freighters came through and pinned the entire fleet there for at least 30 minutes before anyone else could turn and head for Shilshole Marina. By then, several of the faster boats had over-stood and were having trouble laying the finish line under spinnaker. More than one came in under main alone. Unofficial results had Gizmo finishing 15th out of 118 boats. Cleo-na-mar had doused their huge spinnaker earlier and put up a smaller asymetrical, and in doing so gave us the lead. But what a glorious sight it was to look over your transom and see 100 colorful spinnakers converging on the finish line.

The official results will be published on May 27. But the unofficial results gave Gizmo the overall win for Class 15. This race is already on our schedule for next year. By then maybe we will have upgraded our 25 year old sails. What a hoot!

John Thompson, Gizmo