Six thirty on Friday morning, Gizmo nosed out of the marina headed north, bound for Ballard. Jay Berglund and I were intent on participating in the 2014 Race to the Straits, the annual short-handed race from Shilshole Marina to Port Townsend and back. It would be a 160 mile round trip over the next four days. We were competing in the double-handed flying sails class, and were looking forward to defending our title from last year. The delivery went well with a strong southerly breeze to push us along, until I discovered that we had left the working jib at home! I had taken it home to dry out after the last race. We were just entering the Narrows at this point, and with a 3.5 knot push, we couldn’t really turn back even if we had wanted to. What to do? I wasn’t about to go into the Straits without a working jib. Luckily, my son was off of work for the day and needed money. So, $50 later, we had our jib after a very brief stop at Point Defiance and were off to Ballard.

The race featured a reverse handicap, with every boat having an individual starting time based on their rating. Gizmo crossed the line at 08:23:12 and headed west under spinnaker with a 10-12 knot breeze. There were 133 boats registered, but 112 boats actually started. We were riding a very strong ebb all the way with a building breeze from the south, so we anticipated a fast passage. About half the boats followed us all the way across the shipping channels, while the others stayed in the middle. My plan was to follow the shoreline north and cross the shipping channels a second time well upstream of the turning mark at Double Bluff. I think it worked out well, because only two boats caught us before the turning mark, 18 miles into the race. And neither of these two were in our class.

So far, so good. We had gybed early when we had plenty of time to wait for a lull and go for it. Not everyone did likewise and that’s where the carnage began. The wind had increased to over 20 knots by the time Gizmo entered Admiralty Inlet, and continued to build via a series of short squalls. Many of the boats behind us crossed the shipping channel on a hot gybe angle and had to gybe around the mark. So, they didn’t have the luxury of waiting for a lull. And many came around in a cluster requiring them to gybe quickly to avoid each other. There are a number of great pictures on Jan’s Marine Photography site of the action at the buoy. At least three spinnakers were destroyed right here in front of her waiting camera! And at least one mainsail split asunder in the gybe. I’ve heard rumors on Sailing Anarchy of more carnage, such as boats being driven ashore, but I can’t vouch for that.

Regardless, that was all behind Gizmo. We now had only five boats ahead of us and a good lead on the pack behind us. The wind was increasing steadily and we recorded some surfs of up to 8 knots! Gizmo’s hull speed is only 5.7 knots. The GPS was telling us that we had a 3 knot push and we were closing on Maristone Light pretty fast. But, alas, all good things come to an end.

About 2 miles short of the light, we were struck by a gust that instantly broached us and stopped us dead. We were actually sailing sideways on beam ends! I was hoping that it was just a momentary gust and would pass, but after what seemed like an eternity, I finally decided to let the guy fly and get the sail off of her. If nothing else, we could go put the little chicken chute up to finish the race. It took both of us to wrestle to spinnaker down, and only then after we blew the halyard and laid the sail down on the water. Mind you, it’s only a 22 foot boat; how hard could it be? But eventually, we succeeded and got the boat under way under main alone. The fleet had caught us by this time, at least those hadn’t also broached, and were quickly passing us. We weren’t in any condition to get a spinnaker back up any time soon, so we raised the working jib and put it on the spinnaker pole. This got us back up to hull speed, but we were no longer surfing and couldn’t keep up with the fleet.

Almost all the boats went wide around Maristone Island, so we decided to cut the corner and bee-line it straight to the finish. At first it looked like a poor decision as we had to sail through the lee of the island. But the rest of the fleet was being slammed offshore. At one point we witnessed just about every boat with a spinnaker still up broach all at the same time. And some of them stayed on their sides for a long time! As Gizmo cleared the island, we understood why. The wind was whistling through our rigging at over 30 knots allowing us to come screaming in to the finish on a reach at over 7 knots!

But our day wasn’t over then! Not a chance! Just on the other side of the finish line was the shoreline! So I scrambled forward and doused the jib, and yet we still took another knock down! Just to make things even more complicated, while we were trying to get the motor lowered and started, boats were screaming in all around us in some very marginal levels of control! There was more than one collision after the finish. We got the motor going and discovered that with the wind and the chop, 3-4 waves, we almost couldn’t make any headway even at full throttle! I got the main off of her, couldn’t roll it in the wind, so just threw a couple of ties around it.

Unlike many boats, our entry into the harbor was slow but uneventful. Several boats managed to douse their chutes and promptly wrap the sheets around their propellers. I heard a rumor that more than one had to be towed off the beach. One boat lost all their lifeline stanchions on one side by a sheet that got wrapped around their propeller and was looped around the stanchions. Two boats came in with shredded spinnakers all over their rig making entry into the harbor in the heavy winds precarious between the narrow jetties. Gizmo had completed the course at about 12:30, making it just over 4 hours to complete the 30 mile course!

This race featured some red-hot race boats, such as Uno, Terramoto, Riptide, a flock of Mumm 30s and J-105s, but guess who took line honors and won the free haul-out? A full-keeled Alberg 30 named Cleo Na Mor equipped with a massive asymmetrical spinnaker! And who came in second? A tricked out 60’s vintage Columbia 26! I kid you not! And third? A Ranger 23, followed by a Yankee 30! All inexpensive vintage cruising boats! That night featured a feast and party in the Maritime Center, but Jay and I were both too exhausted to participate.

The weather didn’t approve for the return trip. Gray skies, showers and 15-20 knot winds at the start. We put in a single reef and raised the 110 jib and set off. Our start was right after slack water, so we opted to cross the channel before the ebb really set in and work the northern shore. Easier said than done. Once we got into the channel proper, we experienced 4-6 foot breaking waves, with some 8-10 rollers left over from a ship’s wake. I started to wonder if maybe we had met our match; maybe we should just admit defeat and motor home. The radio had been active since early morning with boats calling in to the race committee to cancel. But then again, Gizmo is an MORC design and was made to be able to handle this weather. So, we soldiered on across the channel and finally found smoother water.

The rain actually physically hurt due to the wind, which by this time had increased to steady 20-25 knots, with gusts exceeding 30. I actually have a wind speed app for my phone, but I was too busy driving to play with it. But the wind was whistling through the rigging and causing all the waves to break. I finally found a bit of smooth waters in one of the coves, and took the opportunity to take a second reef. A couple of the gusts could have broken 40 knots. Speaking of breaking things, we drove past a dismasted Wild Rumpass, a Santa Cruz 27, surrounded by assisting sailboats happy for an excuse to quit sailing. We worked the north shore, eventually passing the turn mark at Double Bluff at 13:40, then turned south into Puget Sound and worked the western shore.

It was a long and exhausting beat, but we eventually made it to the finish line intact at 19:18. Unfortunately, after almost 11 hours of slogging to windward in brutal conditions, we missed the 19:00 time limit and were scored a DNF. We weren’t alone. Over 60 boats didn’t finish the race. Some didn’t even try. Jay and I were very happy that we were just able to complete the course in those conditions.

In order to catch the flood for home, there was no time to waste licking our wounds. But the sails came down, the autopilot came out and we set off for Gig Harbor, reaching it at a bit past mid night. We slept soundly the rest of the night, then completed out voyage on Monday morning. Overall, the big boats won. The conditions on Sunday were too harsh on the smaller, lighter boats. Will we do it again next year? You bet! But Gizmo will have storm sails by then. You really don’t want to enter Admiralty Inlet without being equipped to handle 40 knot winds. It’s a long commute just to have to withdraw and motor home.

John Thompson, Gizmo