Racing at SISC

2015 RESULTS…

Series A

Hot Rum Race	–	1 Jan
Ben Mohr Rock	A	18 Jan
Ground Hog	A	1 Feb
Channel Islands	A	15 Feb
Walker Rock	A	1 Mar
Spring Regatta	A	14-15 Mar
Round Prevost	A	29 Mar
Bas Cobanli	A	12 Apr

Series B

Moresby-Portland	B	26 Apr
Round Saltspring	B	16-17 May
Wednesday Night Jun-1	B*	3 Jun
Wednesday Night Jun-2	B*	10 Jun
Night Race	–	13 Jun
Wednesday Night Jun-3	B*	17 Jun
McMillan Trophy	B	21 Jun
Wednesday Night Jun-4	B*	24 Jun
Captain Passage	B	28 Jun
Wednesday Night Jul-1	B*	1 Jul
Wednesday Night Jul-2	B*	8 Jul
Wednesday Night Jul-3	B*	15 Jul
Wednesday Night Jul-4	B*	22 Jul
Wednesday Night Jul-5	B*	29 Jul
Wednesday Night Aug-1	B*	5 Aug
Wednesday Night Aug-2	B*	12 Aug
Wednesday Night Aug-3	B*	19 Aug
Wednesday Night Aug-4	B*	26 Aug

*The Wednesday Night Races will be combined for each of June, July, and August, to become one result for each month.

Series c

Montague Harbour	C	13 Sep
Jack Langdon	C	27 Sep
Round Pender Day 1	C	10 Oct
Round Pender Day 2	C	11 Oct
Long Harbour	C	1 Nov

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Long Harbour Race

Sunday, 1 November 2015

My friend Louis and I set out gamely on Deryn Mor with the rest of you to attempt this race. The forecast was bleak, and while things looked OK at the skippers’ meeting, it didn’t take long for the forecast to become bleak reality.

Ten minutes into the race, Louis and I looked at each other, both now drenched in the downpour, and decided that we really were Fair Weather Sailors, and on the first tack out after a screwed-up up start, turned around and headed home. DNF means — in this case — “Drenched, No Fun”…

However, I take my soggy hat off to the intrepid sailors who persevered.

Philippe’s comment:

Congratulations to FIRST DRAFT which managed a convincing comeback after touching a starting mark at the crowded pin end, and having to go around the end of the line for a second start. One boat obviously forgot about the last mark at Horda Shoals and gave up what had been a commanding lead for ¾ of the race. It had to make up the extra distance and those 12 extra minutes translated into a loss of 6 places, so determined was the fleet. The race was a bit rainy with some squalls but the SE wind was near perfect, allowing completion of the 8.8 mile course by the fleet in slightly over two hours.

Vincent’s comment:

I admit to being a bit heartbroken after throwing away perhaps the best 2/3 of a race I have sailed, by forgetting Horda on the way back and having to backtrack almost a mile to round it.

I was also exhausted from the solo grinding and having to tow Electra onto her dock at the end due to a spinnaker sheet around the prop.

Hmmm… For those of you looking for Broken Tiller fodder, these are perhaps several items for consideration!

So here are the results…

PHRF-CC

Boat	Skipper	PHRF-CC	NFS	As Sailed	Finish Time	Corrected	Place	Points
FIRST DRAFT	Douglas Woolcock	174	30	174	12:38:40	02:00:31	1	100
ELECTRA	Roger Kibble	144	24	144	12:35:27	02:02:48	2	88
WILDFIRE	Gyle Keating	177	18	177	12:43:35	02:04:35	3	75
KAY D	Martin Herbert	191	21	191	12:50:20	02:08:18	4	63
SECOND WIND	Eric van Soeren	157	27	184	12:51:08	02:10:18	5	50
VELICA	Vincent Argiro	147	nfs permnt	147	12:45:40	02:12:13	6	38
OASIS	Bob Jones	117	21	136	12:44:36	02:13:22	7	25
DERYN MOR	Kevin Vine	243	18	261	DNF	DNF	8	13

PHRF-NW

Boat	Skipper	PHRF-CC	NFS	As Sailed	Finish Time	Corrected	Place
FIRST DRAFT	Douglas Woolcock	171	30	171	12:38:40	02:01:02	1
ELECTRA	Roger Kibble	144	24	144	12:35:27	02:02:48	2
KAY D	Martin Herbert	213	21	213	12:50:20	02:04:27	3
WILDFIRE	Gyle Keating	147	18	147	12:43:35	02:10:11	4
OASIS	Bob Jones	105	21	136	12:44:36	02:13:22	5
VELICA	Vincent Argiro	141	nfs permnt	141	12:45:40	02:13:25	6
SECOND WIND	Eric van Soeren	123	27	150	12:51:08	02:16:55	7
DERYN MOR	Kevin Vine	234	18	252	DNF	DNF	8

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Round Penders Single-Handed Race

Saturday & Sunday, 10-11 October 2015

Race 1: Saturday

Ten Club boats and one guest boat showed up for this two-day event, despite the ominous weather forecasts that led up to it. What an intrepid, courageous bunch!

At first, the dire warnings of big wind for Saturday’s Race seemed like cries of “wolf”, as the beat toward Navy Channel took place in generally pleasant, light and variable SE winds. However, by the time the first pack of boats entered Plumper Sound, the breeze had picked up substantially, making the approach to the Razor Point finish quite a challenge for some. By the time the back of the fleet approached the finish, the gusts were strong and sustained, reaching a reported 40 knots at one point.

These conditions made the Flying Fifteens a real handful for their skippers, as Greg’s Sprite kept filling up with water, requiring constant bailing, and Martin’s Kay D actually capsized, leaving Martin standing on the keel, wondering when the crew was going to climb down to release the jib sheet!

Saturday also provided us with stunning displays of torrential rain. At times, the runoff from Deryn Mor’s mainsail was as if someone had released a storm drain somewhere up the mast that was emptying into the cockpit. Had I not taken the precaution of duct taping the port cockpit locker shut on Friday afternoon, gallons and gallons of water would have wound up in the bilge, which would have certainly dampened my spirits!

Everybody made it into Port Browning safely — generally unscathed, but with great tales to tell — just as the sun broke out to finish off with a lovely warm late afternoon. What a day! We saw the full spectrum of everything the weather could have offered. Except snow.

The results of Saturday’s race are quite interesting… the corrected times for the first 7 boats are only 13 minutes apart. The last few boats had chosen alternately to take Prevost Island to port, which left them stuck in a hole at the top of Navy Channel for some time, and disadvantaged as they approached Razor Point in difficult and building wind and sea conditions.

Thank you to Ole for lending Caliente for Happy Hour. Eleven guys in various states of sogginess, eating chips and red wine can make quite a mess! We moved into the Port Browning pub for Rib Night dinner, and bought Paul a pitcher of beer to celebrate his win. After dinner, we retired to Eric’s Second Wind to enjoy a couple of gifts that Vincent had brought back for us from Italy: a lovely muscat dessert wine and a panforte — traditional Italian fruit and nut cake. Thanks everyone for their generous offerings of food and beverages throughout the afternoon and evening.

While Ogopogo took both Saturday’s line honours and corrected first, as a guest, he’s not in the running! Congratulations to Deryn Mor, Velica, and Kaitoa for their podium finishes.

Here, thanks again to Philippe, are the numbers…

PHRF-CC

Boat	Skipper	PHRF-CC	NFS	As Sailed	Finish Time	Corrected	Place	Points
OGOPOGO	Paul Faget	89	36	125	13:56:30	03:28:06	1*	0
DERYN MOR	Kevin Vine	243	18	261	14:41:00	03:28:54	1	100
VELICA	Vincent Argiro	147	n/a	147	14:05:52	03:30:22	2	90
KAITOA	Philippe Erdmer	114	33	147	14:06:40	03:31:09	3	80
CALIENTE	Ole Andersen	81	24	105	13:58:53	03:37:14	4	70
WILDFIRE	Gyle Keating	177	18	195	14:29:00	03:37:16	5	60
RADIANT HEAT	Tony Brogan	144	18	162	14:22:00	03:41:07	6	50
SPRITE	Greg Slakov	191	21	212	15:13:00	04:11:18	7	40
OASIS	Bob Jones	117	21	138	14:51:10	04:17:59	8	30
KAY D	Martin Herbert	191	21	212	15:25:15	04:22:11	9	20
SECOND WIND	Eric van Soeren	157	27	184	15:17:30	04:25:27	10	10

PHRF-NW

Boat	Skipper	PHRF-CC	NFS	As Sailed	Finish Time	Corrected	Place
OGOPOGO	Paul Faget	114	36	150	13:56:30	03:20:20	1*
DERYN MOR	Kevin Vine	234	18	252	14:41:00	03:31:20	1
VELICA	Vincent Argiro	141	n/a	141	14:05:52	03:32:16	2
KAITOA	Philippe Erdmer	108	33	141	14:06:40	03:33:04	3
CALIENTE	Ole Andersen	72	24	96	13:58:53	03:40:25	4
RADIANT HEAT	Tony Brogan	138	18	156	14:22:00	03:43:05	5
WILDFIRE	Gyle Keating	147	18	165	14:29:00	03:46:47	6
SPRITE	Greg Slakov	213	21	234	15:13:00	04:03:58	7
KAY D	Martin Herbert	213	21	234	15:25:15	04:14:32	8
OASIS	Bob Jones	105	21	126	14:51:10	04:22:47	9
SECOND WIND	Eric van Soeren	123	27	150	15:17:30	04:38:55	10

Race 2: Sunday

After a hearty breakfast of Eggs Benedicts and Omelettes, the fleet ventured out to start Leg 2 in Plumper Sound in pleasant conditions. The flooding tide propelled the fleet forward, though depending on your placement in the rivers of current, it made a big difference to how much benefit you got from it. The wind soon became patchy and as the fleet moved past the opening to Bedwell Harbour, but some — with no wind in their sails — were drifting faster than others who had managed to keep their spinnakers full.

In the meantime, the early leaders — Ogopogo, Caliente, and Velica — had slipped away to assume a commanding lead.

At some point in the early afternoon, Deryn Mor got left several miles behind along the Pender bluffs. From first to last. Sigh…

Once again, Ogopogo managed line honours and first on corrected time, but the podium belongs to Velica, Caliente, and Wildfire.

However, the big winner — the winner of the Round Penders Trophy — is Velica with second and first place finishes! Congratulations, Vincent!

PHRF-CC

Boat	Skipper	PHRF-CC	NFS	As Sailed	Finish Time	Corrected	Place	Points
OGOPOGO	Paul Faget	89	36	89	13:42:35	03:57:34	1*	0
VELICA	Vincent Argiro	147	n/a	147	14:13:58	04:07:30	1	100
CALIENTE	Ole Andersen	81	24	81	13:53:30	04:12:32	2	90
WILDFIRE	Gyle Keating	177	18	177	14:59:50	04:39:37	3	80
SPRITE	Greg Slakov	191	21	191	15:12:22	04:45:34	4	70
KAY D	Martin Herbert	191	21	191	15:18:42	04:51:21	5	60
OASIS	Bob Jones	117	21	117	14:48:00	04:53:53	6	50
KAITOA	Philippe Erdmer	114	33	114	14:48:15	04:55:31	7	40
SECOND WIND	Eric van Soeren	157	27	157	15:12:20	04:59:53	8	30
RADIANT HEAT	Tony Brogan	144	18	144	15:25:45	05:18:53	9	20
DERYN MOR	Kevin Vine	243	18	243	DNF	DNF	10	10

PHRF-NW

Boat	Skipper	PHRF-CC	NFS	As Sailed	Finish Time	Corrected
OGOPOGO	Paul Faget	114	114	13:42:35	03:48:12	1*
VELICA	Vincent Argiro	141	141	14:13:58	04:09:44	1
CALIENTE	Ole Andersen	72	72	13:53:30	04:16:23	2
SPRITE	Greg Slakov	213	213	15:12:22	04:37:00	3
KAY D	Martin Herbert	213	213	15:18:42	04:42:37	4
WILDFIRE	Gyle Keating	147	147	14:59:50	04:52:11	5
KAITOA	Philippe Erdmer	108	108	14:48:15	04:58:21	6
OASIS	Bob Jones	105	105	14:48:00	04:59:31	7
SECOND WIND	Eric van Soeren	123	123	15:12:20	05:15:44	8
RADIANT HEAT	Tony Brogan	138	138	15:25:45	05:21:47	9
DERYN MOR	Kevin Vine	234	234	DNF	DNF	10

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Jack Langdon Trophy

Sunday, 27 September 2015

Today was — once again — one of those hard-to-beat days. Thirteen boats ventured out on the water for a wonderful sail, followed by an excellent Salmon Barbecue hosted by the Club. The evening’s after-dinner entertainment was the beautifully eclipsed “super” moon. Quite exceptional, actually… what a combination!

We missed some of the regulars today: Philippe on Kaitoa, Bob on Oasis, Greg on Sprite, Eric on Second Wind, Hugh on Coda, Jim on Battle Axe, Matti on ICBM… Imagine if they’d all been able to be with us!

There were a lot of us from the sailboat race at the dinner. Thank you to everyone involved who made that happen. What a fun evening!

So here are the results, thanks to Philippe…

This was a Reverse Handicap Race, where boats started individually at a time calculated from their rating. For example, Deryn Mor, rating 243 (PHRF-CC) started at 10:38:27, whereas Caliente, rated at 81, started at 11:13:33… the idea being that under ideal conditions, everybody finishes at the same time.

Skipper	Finish	Place	Points
Paul Faget	13:36:00	1*
Vincent Argiro	13:49:16	1	100
Roger Kibble	13:50:18	2	92
Kevin Vine	13:53:50	3	83
Craig Leitch	13:57:20	4	75
Gyle Keating	13:59:10	5	67
Douglas Woolcock	14:00:35	6	58
Tony Brogan	14:21:10	7	50
Martin Herbert	14:24:18	8	42
Ole Andersen	14:42:00	9	33
Keith Simpson	15:00:52	10	25
David Questo	15:03:10	11	17
Roland Boudreau	15:28:00	12	8

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Montague Harbour

Sunday, 13 September 2015

PHRF-CC

Boat	Skipper	PHRF-CC	NFS	As Sailed	Finish Time	Corrected	Place	Points
WILDFIRE	Gyle Keating	177	18	177	16:06:50	05:13:11	1	100
IMP	Craig Leitch	137	45	137	15:59:21	05:24:51	2	88
VELICA	Vincent Argiro	147	n/a	147	16:06:55	05:27:21	3	75
ELECTRA	Roger Kibble	144	24	144	16:09:07	05:30:59	4	63
RADIANT HEAT	Tony Brogan	144	18	144	18:02:55	07:22:23	5	50
OASIS	Bob Jones	117	21	138	18:01:32	07:25:03	6	38
SPRITE	Greg Slakov	191	21	191	DNF	DNF	7	13
KAY D	Martin Herbert	191	21	191	DNF	DNF	7	13

PHRF-NW

Boat	Skipper	PHRF-CC	NFS	As Sailed	Finish Time	Corrected	Place
IMP	Craig Leitch	137	45	162	15:59:21	05:12:57	1
WILDFIRE	Gyle Keating	177	18	147	16:06:50	05:27:16	2
VELICA	Vincent Argiro	147	n/a	141	16:06:55	05:30:20	3
ELECTRA	Roger Kibble	144	24	144	16:09:07	05:30:59	4
RADIANT HEAT	Tony Brogan	144	18	138	18:02:55	07:26:25	5
OASIS	Bob Jones	117	21	126	18:01:32	07:33:19	6
SPRITE	Greg Slakov	191	21	213	DNF	DNF	7
KAY D	Martin Herbert	191	21	213	DNF	DNF	7

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Wednesday Night (August #4)

Wednesday, 26 August 2015

Sixteen boats came out this evening… possibly a record for this millenium!

The best part of this event was the Gathering On The Breakwater after the race. I’ve never seen such a crowd! Nor such a generous offering of yummy après race appies! Thank you to everyone! Only on Saltspring! We’re so fortunate!

The results, from Philippe…

PHRF-CC

Boat	Skipper	PHRF-CC	NFS	As Sailed	Finish Time	Corrected	Place	Points
ICBM	Matti Troyer	114	6	114	17:38:09	00:39:07	1	100
OGOPOGO	Paul Faget	89	36	89	17:36:42	00:39:10	2	–
IMP	Craig Leitch	137	45	137	17:42:55	00:42:28	3	93
VELICA	Vincent Argiro	147	n/a	147	17:45:22	00:44:13	4	87
FIRST DRAFT	Douglas Woolcock	174	30	174	17:49:55	00:46:45	5	80
DERYN MOR	Kevin Vine	243	18	243	17:57:08	00:48:40	6	73
SPRITE	Greg Slakov	191	21	191	17:53:29	00:48:54	7	67
KAY D	Martin Herbert	191	21	191	17:53:31	00:48:56	8	60
WILDFIRE	Gyle Keating	177	18	177	17:53:37	00:50:00	9	53
CODA	Hugh Greenwood	264	n/a	264	18:02:17	00:51:38	10	47
BATTLE AXE	Jim Raddysh	210	18	210	17:58:30	00:52:05	11	40
KAITOA	Philippe Erdmer	114	33	114	17:50:50	00:52:07	12	33
SECOND WIND	Eric van Soeren	157	27	184	17:56:42	00:52:21	13	27
BRAVO ZULU	Mark Strongman	249	18	267	18:04:02	00:52:53	14	20
RADIANT HEAT	Tony Brogan	144	18	162	17:56:40	00:54:00	15	13
OASIS	Bob Jones	117	21	138	17:54:44	00:54:04	16	7

PHRF-NW

Boat	Skipper	PHRF-NW	NFS	As Sailed	Finish Time	Corrected	Place
OGOPOGO	Paul Faget	89	36	114	17:36:42	00:37:38	1
ICBM	Matti Troyer	114	6	111	17:38:09	00:39:18	2
IMP	Craig Leitch	137	45	162	17:42:55	00:40:54	3
VELICA	Vincent Argiro	147	n/a	141	17:45:22	00:44:37	4
FIRST DRAFT	Douglas Woolcock	174	30	171	17:49:55	00:46:57	5
SPRITE	Greg Slakov	191	21	213	17:53:29	00:47:26	6
KAY D	Martin Herbert	191	21	213	17:53:31	00:47:27	7
DERYN MOR	Kevin Vine	243	18	234	17:57:08	00:49:15	8
WILDFIRE	Gyle Keating	177	18	147	17:53:37	00:52:15	9
KAITOA	Philippe Erdmer	114	33	108	17:50:50	00:52:37	10
CODA	Hugh Greenwood	264	n/a	237	18:02:17	00:53:29	11
BRAVO ZULU	Mark Strongman	249	18	258	18:04:02	00:53:30	12
BATTLE AXE	Jim Raddysh	210	18	180	17:58:30	00:54:19	13
RADIANT HEAT	Tony Brogan	144	18	156	17:56:40	00:54:29	14
SECOND WIND	Eric van Soeren	157	27	150	17:56:42	00:55:00	15
OASIS	Bob Jones	117	21	126	17:54:44	00:55:04	16

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Wednesday Night (August #3)

Wednesday, 19 August 2015

Imagine. A lovely warm August evening. An encouraging breeze at the skippers’ meeting that deteriorated into nothing at the finish. An ambitious course, that could have taken an hour and a half to complete given the conditions at the start, but instead took until dark… and beyond…

Last week’s race course was over after only 17 minutes of lively action!

Nevertheless, a fleet of a dozen boats gave it their best, and here are the results:

The results, from Philippe…

PHRF-CC

Boat	Skipper	PHRF-CC	NFS	As Sailed	Finish Time	Corrected	Place	Points
IMP	Craig Leitch	137	45	137	20:52:10	03:49:42	1	100
KAITOA	Philippe Erdmer	114	33	114	20:55:15	04:01:11	2	92
FIRST DRAFT	Douglas Woolcock	174	30	174	21:29:47	04:12:41	3	83
RADIANT HEAT	Tony Brogan	144	18	162	21:40:00	04:26:52	4	75
CODA	Hugh Greenwood	264	n/a	264	DNF	DNF	5	8
BATTLE AXE	Jim Raddysh	210	18	210	DNF	DNF	5	8
SPRITE	Greg Slakov	191	21	191	DNF	DNF	5	8
KAY D	Martin Herbert	191	21	191	DNF	DNF	5	8
SECOND WIND	Eric van Soeren	157	27	157	DNF	DNF	5	8
ELECTRA	Roger Kibble	144	24	144	DNF	DNF	5	8
ICBM	Matti Troyer	114	6	114	DNF	DNF	5	8
CALIENTE	Ole Andersen	81	24	81	DNF	DNF	5	8

PHRF-NW

Boat	Skipper	PHRF-NW	NFS	As Sailed	Finish Time	Corrected	Place
IMP	Craig Leitch	162	45	162	20:52:10	03:41:16	1
KAITOA	Philippe Erdmer	108	33	108	20:55:15	04:03:29	2
FIRST DRAFT	Douglas Woolcock	171	30	171	21:29:47	04:13:47	3
RADIANT HEAT	Tony Brogan	156	18	156	21:40:00	04:29:14	4
CODA	Hugh Greenwood	237	n/a	237	DNF	DNF	5
BATTLE AXE	Jim Raddysh	180	18	180	DNF	DNF	5
SPRITE	Greg Slakov	213	21	213	DNF	DNF	5
KAY D	Martin Herbert	213	21	213	DNF	DNF	5
SECOND WIND	Eric van Soeren	123	27	123	DNF	DNF	5
ELECTRA	Roger Kibble	144	24	144	DNF	DNF	5
ICBM	Matti Troyer	111	6	111	DNF	DNF	5
CALIENTE	Ole Andersen	72	24	72	DNF	DNF	5

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Wednesday Night (August #2)

Wednesday, 12 August 2015

The results, from Philippe…

PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	NFS	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
111	114	6	114	ICBM	Matti Troyer	17:16:47	00:17:12	1
171	174	30	174	FIRST DRAFT	Douglas Woolcock	17:19:06	00:17:53	2
114	89	36	89	OGOPOGO	Paul Faget	17:17:50	00:19:02	3
162	137	45	137	IMP	Craig Leitch	17:21:16	00:21:02	4
138	141	18	159	RADIANT HEAT	Tony Brogan	17:22:44	00:21:46	5
237	264	nfs permnt	264	CODA	Hugh Greenwood	17:26:15	00:21:46	5
108	114	33	147	KAITOA	Philippe Erdmer	17:22:55	00:22:20	7
147	177	18	177	WILDFIRE	Gyle Keating	17:25:14	00:23:32	8
213	188	21	188	SPRITE	Greg Slakov	17:26:40	00:24:29	9
72	81	24	81	CALIENTE	Ole Andersen	DNF	DNF	10

PHRF-NW

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	NFS	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
111	114	6	111	ICBM	Matti Troyer	17:16:47	00:17:17	1
171	174	30	171	FIRST DRAFT	Douglas Woolcock	17:19:06	00:17:58	2
114	89	36	114	OGOPOGO	Paul Faget	17:17:50	00:18:17	3
162	137	45	162	IMP	Craig Leitch	17:21:16	00:20:16	4
138	141	18	156	RADIANT HEAT	Tony Brogan	17:22:44	00:21:52	5
108	114	33	141	KAITOA	Philippe Erdmer	17:22:55	00:22:32	6
237	264	nfs permnt	237	CODA	Hugh Greenwood	17:26:15	00:22:32	6
213	188	21	213	SPRITE	Greg Slakov	17:26:40	00:23:39	8
147	177	18	147	WILDFIRE	Gyle Keating	17:25:14	00:24:35	9
72	81	24	81	CALIENTE	Ole Andersen	DNF	DNF	10

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Wednesday Night (August #1)

Wednesday, 5 August 2015

The results, from Philippe…

PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	NFS	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
147	177	18	195	WILDFIRE	Gyle Keating	18:10:33	01:04:08	1
234	243	18	261	DERYN MOR	Kevin Vine	18:17:07	01:04:11	2
111	114	6	114	ICBM	Matti Troyer	18:03:16	01:04:52	3
72	81	24	105	CALIENTE	Ole Andersen	18:03:08	01:05:40	4
141	147	nfs permnt	147	VELICA	Vincent Argiro	18:08:05	01:06:21	5
144	144	24	168	ELECTRA	Roger Kibble	18:10:20	01:06:27	6
138	141	18	159	RADIANT HEAT	Tony Brogan	18:10:20	01:07:20	7
123	157	27	157	SECOND WIND	Eric van Soeren	18:11:00	01:08:10	8
171	174	30	174	FIRST DRAFT	Douglas Woolcock	18:13:34	01:08:54	9
213	188	21	188	KAY D	Martin Herbert	18:16:50	01:10:32	10
94	94	incl	94	SELKIE	Gordon Wylie	18:09:10	01:13:13	11
108	114	33	114	KAITOA	Philippe Erdmer	18:14:35	01:16:28	12

PHRF-NW

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	NFS	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
234	243	18	252	DERYN MOR	Kevin Vine	18:17:07	01:04:56	1
111	114	6	111	ICBM	Matti Troyer	18:03:16	01:05:10	2
144	144	24	168	ELECTRA	Roger Kibble	18:10:20	01:06:27	3
72	81	24	96	CALIENTE	Ole Andersen	18:03:08	01:06:37	4
147	177	18	165	WILDFIRE	Gyle Keating	18:10:33	01:06:57	5
141	147	nfs permnt	141	VELICA	Vincent Argiro	18:08:05	01:06:57	6
138	141	18	156	RADIANT HEAT	Tony Brogan	18:10:20	01:07:38	7
213	188	21	213	KAY D	Martin Herbert	18:16:50	01:08:08	8
171	174	30	171	FIRST DRAFT	Douglas Woolcock	18:13:34	01:09:12	9
123	157	27	123	SECOND WIND	Eric van Soeren	18:11:00	01:11:46	10
94	94	incl	94	SELKIE	Gordon Wylie	18:09:10	01:13:13	11
108	114	33	108	KAITOA	Philippe Erdmer	18:14:35	01:17:12	12

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Wednesday Night (July #5)

Wednesday, 29 July 2015

The results, from Philippe…

PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	NFS	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
114	114	6	114	ICBM	Matti Troyer	17:47:04	00:48:15	1
141	147	nfs permnt	147	VELICA	Vincent Argiro	17:55:57	00:54:31	2
108	114	33	114	KAITOA	Philippe Erdmer	17:54:15	00:55:37	3
144	144	24	144	ELECTRA	Roger Kibble	17:57:25	00:56:12	4
213	188	21	188	KAY D	Martin Herbert	18:05:43	01:00:20	5
213	188	21	188	SPRITE	Greg Slakov	18:05:44	01:00:21	6
147	177	18	177	WILDFIRE	Gyle Keating	18:05:24	01:00:59	7
138	141	18	159	RADIANT HEAT	Tony Brogan	18:04:49	01:02:03	8
123	157	27	157	SECOND WIND	Eric van Soeren	18:12:20	01:09:27	9
158	201	18	201	EFFERVESCENCE I	RB Bortz	18:29:45	01:20:55	10

PHRF-NW

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	NFS	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
114	114	6	114	ICBM	Matti Troyer	17:47:04	00:48:15	1
141	147	nfs permnt	141	VELICA	Vincent Argiro	17:55:57	00:55:01	2
108	114	33	108	KAITOA	Philippe Erdmer	17:54:15	00:56:09	3
144	144	24	144	ELECTRA	Roger Kibble	17:57:25	00:56:12	4
213	188	21	213	KAY D	Martin Herbert	18:05:43	00:58:17	5
213	188	21	213	SPRITE	Greg Slakov	18:05:44	00:58:17	6
138	141	18	156	RADIANT HEAT	Tony Brogan	18:04:49	01:02:19	8
147	177	18	147	WILDFIRE	Gyle Keating	18:05:24	01:03:44	7
123	157	27	123	SECOND WIND	Eric van Soeren	18:12:20	01:13:07	9
158	201	18	158	EFFERVESCENCE I	RB Bortz	18:29:45	01:26:03	10

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Wednesday Night (July #4)

Wednesday, 22 July 2015

While the breeze looked promising, the skippers’ were anticipating the usual evening “shut down”, and chose a sensible course around Ganges Shoal and Welbury spar before retracing their course home. The wind seemed to hang in there, however, and the first boats began finishing shortly after 6 PM.

The fleet welcomed back Matti Troyer on ICBM, who on his first outing managed Line Honours and corrected to 2nd place!

The results, merci Philippe…

PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	NFS	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
144	144	24	144	ELECTRA	Roger Kibble	18:09:20	01:07:52	1
114	114	6	114	ICBM	Matti Troyer	18:07:35	01:09:17	2
171	174	30	174	FIRST DRAFT	Douglas Woolcock	18:19:07	01:14:06	3
213	188	21	188	KAY D	Martin Herbert	18:23:30	01:16:40	4
123	157	27	157	SECOND WIND	Eric van Soeren	18:20:15	01:17:03	5
138	141	18	159	RADIANT HEAT	Tony Brogan	18:20:52	01:17:25	6
108	114	33	147	KAITOA	Philippe Erdmer	18:23:45	01:21:37	7
213	188	21	188	SPRITE	Greg Slakov	18:32:44	01:25:08	8
237	264	nfs permnt	264	CODA	Hugh Greenwood	18:46:50	01:28:34	9
158	201	18	201	EFFERVESCENCE I	RB Bortz	18:44:01	01:33:46	10

PHRF-NW

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	NFS	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
144	144	24	144	ELECTRA	Roger Kibble	18:09:20	01:07:52	1
114	114	6	114	ICBM	Matti Troyer	18:07:35	01:09:17	2
213	188	21	213	KAY D	Martin Herbert	18:23:30	01:14:03	3
171	174	30	171	FIRST DRAFT	Douglas Woolcock	18:19:07	01:14:25	4
138	141	18	156	RADIANT HEAT	Tony Brogan	18:20:52	01:17:45	5
123	157	27	123	SECOND WIND	Eric van Soeren	18:20:15	01:21:07	6
213	188	21	213	SPRITE	Greg Slakov	18:32:44	01:22:14	7
108	114	33	141	KAITOA	Philippe Erdmer	18:23:45	01:22:21	8
237	264	nfs permnt	237	CODA	Hugh Greenwood	18:46:50	01:31:44	9
158	201	18	158	EFFERVESCENCE I	RB Bortz	18:44:01	01:39:43	10

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Wednesday Night (July #3)

Wednesday, 15 July 2015

The dying evening breeze made for some great slow-motion mark-rounding action. Some very close quarters (at 0.075 knots), but nobody shared any gel coat.

Wednesday Night winds are never predictable, but what has become predictable is the scene below of the after-the-race picnic tables (photo by Philippe…)

That’s about two dozen folks in the photo, plus another half dozen or more behind the photographer. The picture says it all…

Here are the results from Philippe…

PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
213	188	188	KAY D	Herbert	18:08:40	01:03:02	1
171	174	174	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	18:09:27	01:05:03	2
147	177	177	WILDFIRE	Keating	18:14:39	01:09:37	3
105	117	117	OASIS	Jones	18:09:08	01:10:33	4
108	114	114	KAITOA	Erdmer	18:11:50	01:13:39	5
234	243	243	DERYN MOR	Vine	18:31:55	01:18:18	6
213	188	188	SPRITE	Slakov	18:30:33	01:23:08	7
123	157	157	SECOND WIND	van Soeren	18:29:52	01:26:17	8
158	201	201	EFFERVESCENCE I	Bortz	DNF	DNF	9

PHRF-NW

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
213	188	213	KAY D	Herbert	18:08:40	01:00:53	1
171	174	171	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	18:09:27	01:05:20	2
105	117	105	OASIS	Jones	18:09:08	01:11:54	3
147	177	147	WILDFIRE	Keating	18:14:39	01:12:45	4
108	114	108	KAITOA	Erdmer	18:11:50	01:14:21	5
234	243	234	DERYN MOR	Vine	18:31:55	01:19:14	6
213	188	213	SPRITE	Slakov	18:30:33	01:20:18	7
123	157	123	SECOND WIND	van Soeren	18:29:52	01:30:51	8
158	201	158	EFFERVESCENCE I	Bortz	DNF	DNF	9

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Wednesday Night (July #2)

Wednesday, 8 July 2015

Another lovely evening with a gentle breeze drifting down Ganges Harbour greeted the hopeful skippers of 13 boats… a great turnout. A course was chosen out to Welbury Spar, back around the Breeze, out again to the SISC 5-knot buoy, and then home.

As it turned out the course was more ambitious than the breeze was, and virtually everyone at one point was left out to dry. Caliente and Kaitoa managed to finish in a relatively timely fashion, but the back of the fleet either packed it in, or crawled at an agonizingly slow pace toward the finish line.

Thanks to a little good luck (a private puff of wind) and Newton’s First Law of Motion (aka “inertia”) Second Wind managed to drift past Electra to finish just in front…

Martin’s perspective from the picnic table…

As I enjoyed a beer on the dock Effervescence and Battle Axe fought out a very close (at least in distance) battle to the finish. Heartbreakingly Eff was boat lengths from the finish when the tide changed and she was swept into a 360 degree proto penalty turn. A slight puff, well more like a zephyr, or perhaps a breathe of the gods filled Battle Axe’s Spinnaker, hand held by Jim himself and they crossed over the line. Captain Bortz was undeterred and held on to finish the last agonizing three boat lengths at 3 minutes a boat length. It was as exciting as any race at .075 of a knot can be and the two boats are to be congratulated.
It should also be noted that they both sailed a smart and successful first leg and rounded ahead of many faster boats. Well done.

Martin Herbert, seated at the picnic table beer in hand, but well behind both Battle Axe and Effervescence at the time of deploying paddles.

Here are the results from Philippe…

PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
108	114	114	KAITOA	Erdmer	18:52:52	01:55:43	1
72	81	81	CALIENTE	Andersen	18:50:30	01:59:31	2
138	141	159	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	19:19:42	02:13:44	3
123	157	157	SECOND WIND	van Soeren	19:19:50	02:14:15	4
144	144	144	ELECTRA	Kibble	19:20:38	02:17:40	5
171	174	174	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	19:31:35	02:21:58	6
180	210	210	BATTLE AXE	Raddysh	20:23:15	03:00:59	7
158	201	201	EFFERVESCENCE I	Bortz	20:25:25	03:05:11	8
237	264	264	CODA	Greenwood	DNF		9
234	243	243	DERYN MOR	Vine	DNF		9
213	188	188	SPRITE	Slakov	DNF		9
213	188	188	KAY D	Herbert	DNF		9
105	117	117	OASIS	Jones	DNF		9

PHRF-NW

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
108	114	108	KAITOA	Erdmer	18:52:52	01:56:49	1
72	81	72	CALIENTE	Andersen	18:50:30	02:01:20	2
138	141	156	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	19:19:42	02:14:20	3
144	144	144	ELECTRA	Kibble	19:20:38	02:17:40	4
123	157	123	SECOND WIND	van Soeren	19:19:50	02:21:21	5
171	174	171	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	19:31:35	02:22:35	6
180	210	180	BATTLE AXE	Raddysh	20:23:15	03:08:44	77
158	201	158	EFFERVESCENCE I	Bortz	20:25:25	03:16:56	8
237	264	264	CODA	Greenwood	DNF		9
234	243	243	DERYN MOR	Vine	DNF		9
213	188	188	SPRITE	Slakov	DNF		9
213	188	188	KAY D	Herbert	DNF		9
105	117	117	OASIS	Jones	DNF		9

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Wednesday Night (July #1)

Wednesday, 1 July 2015

Nine boats showed up on time for the start. Two others didn’t, but joined in anyway…

Normally, the evening breeze dies. Which it did, leaving the entire fleet of 11 boats rounding the Ganges Shoal mark simultaneously. What a hoot! As far as I know, it was done in a very sportsmanlike manner and no gel coat was traded.

Normally, the evening breeze doesn’t fill in again, but this time it did, blowing everybody home, and changing up the finishing order a little as the boats with large handicaps moved up the ladder and the boats with small handicaps moved down.

Deryn Mor was a surprise first, Kay D second, and Radiant Heat third. Battle Axe was just off the podium in 4th place.

The Results:

PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
234	243	243	DERYN MOR	Vine	18:57:04	01:39:44	1
213	188	188	KAY D	Herbert	18:53:10	01:43:54	2
138	141	159	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	18:49:30	01:44:49	3
180	210	210	BATTLE AXE	Raddysh	18:59:20	01:46:15	4
123	157	157	SECOND WIND	van Soeren	18:53:45	01:49:13	5
141	147	147	VELICA	Argiro	18:52:40	01:49:48	6
108	114	114	KAITOA	Erdmer	18:49:06	01:51:51	7
114	89	89	OGOPOGO	Faget	18:48:35	01:55:54	8
213	188	188	SPRITE	Slakov	DNF	DNF	9

PHRF-NW

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
213	188	213	KAY D	Herbert	18:53:10	01:40:21	1
234	243	234	DERYN MOR	Vine	18:57:04	01:40:55	2
138	141	151	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	18:49:30	01:46:04	3
141	147	141	VELICA	Argiro	18:52:40	01:50:48	4
180	210	180	BATTLE AXE	Raddysh	18:59:20	01:50:49	5
114	89	114	OGOPOGO	Faget	18:48:35	01:51:19	6
108	114	108	KAITOA	Erdmer	18:49:06	01:52:55	7
123	157	123	SECOND WIND	van Soeren	18:53:45	01:54:59	8
213	188	188	SPRITE	Slakov	DNF	DNF	9

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Captain Passage

Sunday, 28 June 2015

The Captain Passage Race is a reverse handicap race, which means that through a clever calculation, the slower boats start first, followed by the faster boats, with the intention of everybody finishing at the same time. Thank you to Martin, Roger, Tony, and Philippe who have lent their takes on the day’s events…

First, from Martin Herbert…

Wind blowing out of the harbour, Flying fifteens away first at 10.44.53, overlapped and moving well. The rest of the fleet getting away in short order and looking good, although the faster boats did report a lull in the wind strength that made the small boats look even smaller.

Greg Slakov, in Sprite found the correct line and led the fleet to Batt Rock. Kay D found a hole off the Sisters ;and was saluted by First Draft, Wildfire, and Electra as they sailed by. Another hole developed at Batt Rock that allowed Kay D to get back into second place. Sprite added to the Flying Fifteen fun by throwing in a couple of turns just to close up the two boats.

Around Batt Rock it was Sprite, Kay D, First Draft, Electra, and Wildfire. On the leg to U62 everyone was putting distance to windward in the bank as the wind on the Prevost shore looked lighter and the tide was starting to run. Kay D had played some powerboat waves and surfed through the lee of Sprite into the lead and looked well set up to round U 62 in the lead when a lull in the final approach changed the whole game. The first three boats were swept by the mark and had to tack, fighting the tide and almost at a stand still.

Electra called it just right and surged into the lead with Wildfire right behind. It was a painfully long time until a gust finally granted passage around the mark for the early leaders. The run down to Welbury Spar had the tide taking the wind out of the sails making it a lack lustre leg but on rounding Welbury it was a great thrash to windward.

Electra rounded Welbury first, then Wildfire, Kay D, Sprite, Kaitoa, and First Draft. This leg was owned by Gyle Keeting, who called the lay line to perfection and made it in one tack, snatching the lead. Craig Leitch, at the helm of Kaitoa, ground through the Flying Fifteens and moved into third. Electra was on the attack and had the spinnaker flying almost immediately. The crew work was impressive, the gybes well executed. Wildfire was slower to get her spinnaker up, hampered by having no crew, which cost her the race. Electra sailed on to a very well deserved win.

Kaitoa held off the Flying Fifteens despite having gone NFS and claimed third place. Kay D was fourth and Sprite held on to 5th beating Oasis, on a late race surge, by a couple of very skinny seconds. First Draft was also in this group providing the finishing flourish that the race organizers had hoped for, three very different boats overlapped at the line.

It was a race with many ups and downs and a lot of interesting tactical decisions and was remarkable by how many of our small fleet had moments to shine. I am sure that I missed many brilliant tactical triumphs on the course while I had my head in the bilge trying to sort out the tangle of lines, and I hope those skippers will tell me of their brilliance in days to come. Another great day on the water.

Hats off to Roger Kibble our winning skipper.

Martin Herbert aboard the Kay D

And now, from Roger Kibble…

Eight boats assembled under almost clear sky and a pleasant 6-8 knot NW breeze. It was a reverse handicap race which should have worked well but a few isolated holes foxed some of the fleet on the way around the course of Batt Rock, U62 , Welbury Spar, Batt Rock and finish.

The Flying Fifteens were first to start and crossed the line side by side determined to have a close match race within a race.

First Draft confused their start time and so gave two or three minutes to the rest of us.

Wildfire and Electra made spinnaker on time starts and waltzed up to harbour together.

Radiant Heat found a hole or a hole found Radiant heat just after the start and he lost some ground to the fleet and was obliged to play catch up.

The wind moderated and started to clock to the South near Batt Rock and this direction change and the strong flood tide played havoc with most boat’s race plans.

Sprite slowed and soon was obliged douse the chute and tack to find more useful breeze above the mark. Kay D had been sailing lower and had already tacked to chase Sprite which was ahead. Electra was above the mark and was taking down their chute barely moving when Sprite call starboard so triggering a 720 degree circle in the light wind. Ouch!

Wildfire was being sailed solo by Gyle and he had his hands full redeploying his sails to respond to the major shift.All the boats were battling flood current and soft breeze trying to find the way around Batt Rock. Electra tacked south and the new SE wind blessed this move and removed some of Electra’s lost ground. She was able to round Batt Rock just after the two Flying fifteens and slightly ahead of Wildfire.

First Draft was next followed by Oasis and Wildfire all now beating in the new wind. The wind became much lighter as the boats moved towards U62. The Flying Fifteens lost speed and VMG as the flood overwhelmed the wind and moved these boats below the mark. Electra and Wildfire were able to claw significantly above the mark and moved ahead of the two frustrated match racers who spent much time sailing against the current to fetch the mark.

The rest of the fleet closed on these boats while Wildfire and Electra rushed with the tide to Welbury Spar under spinnakers. Electra turned first with Wildfire close on her heels.

The wind perked up to over 12 knots and both boats beat towards Batt Rock. Electra put in an unnecessary tack while Wildfire gambled on a straight course. It payed off and Gyle just made the mark and turned first. Now both boats flew downwind with spinnakers flying and covering each other jibe for jibe.

The two flying fifteens seemed to decide to wait for each other to resume their private match race on the way back, very sporting.The wind moderated typically when nearing the finish line and Electra only went ahead at the last minute with a jibe towards Walter Bay.

Gyle was the moral victor sailing brilliantly alone and managing superb large boat sail handling.

It was certainly a race full of tactical surprises, wonderful weather and fun sailing… another Perfect Saltspring sail!

Roger Kibblefrom the cockpit of Electra

And from Radiant Heat — aptly named, given the high temperatures — here is Tony Brogan’s take on things:

This is tail end Charlie reporting from the back of the fleet.

Malcolm joined me on the dock and so it was decided to go with a spinnaker rather than NFS as we had crew. Experienced on dinghies many years ago, Malcolm helped set the tackle and sails and we took to the water.

Today, skipper acted as crew with a new helmsman!!

The breeze was good and we tootled around back and forth at good speed. Number 2 was the genoa of choice, spinnaker on the pulpit and lines deployed and bag all repacked, we were ready.

Time was counting down and we saw the two Flying Fifteens and then the others take off.

Then it was us and across the line under head sail at good speed. Your poor old skipper toiled to raise the spinnaker. Such a lot to remember but in good time the golden sun was up in the dark blue sky. What started as a near beam reach was now a broad reach but I thought we will make good time.

Kaitoa was behind and then abeam on starboard and closer to shore, Oasis was catching from behind. We were slow. Electra had doubled their lead.

We moved out to the center left as there was more wind. Closer now to Sisters and Kitoa was making tracks. Our wind shifted to the northwest. We gybed. We were slower still and the wind oscilated. Now we were nearly stoped and Oasis passed us and Kiatoa was a dot on the horizon already. With Oasis close but still sailing with spinnaker up we realized we had no wind at all. What there was now came from the southeast and we dropped the spinnaker.

Oasis was gone now off to starboard but still we were trapped. By this time the fleet was rounding Batt Rock a mile and a half ahead. Finally we tacked out away from the course with the flood pushing us back to Second Sister. But after a 400 yard sail we found steady air. We tacked again to head for the mark to see most of the fleet was at U62, but in light air. Our breeze was filling and moved toward the south and we flipped to starboard.

Over this mile we could see Oasis to starboard on port and heading to the shore. In the meantime we were sailing well and steadily lifting to the mark. This was a 20-25 degree lift. By the time we were on Port for the short tack to Batt Rock we saw Oasis in lighter air and when she turned we were 20 boat lengths ahead.

Rounding Batt rock in a good breeze I noted a 2-3 knot current. We took an offset line to U62 and head up 25 degrees. Oasis close behind was faster and catching us. We made U62 perfectly with Oasis on the outside nearly abeam. We still had a good breeze to Welbury and decided that wing on wing was more prudent than trying a spinnaker launch and a re-bag for the last leg.

Oasis was 5 boat length ahead at the mark and we followed to Batt rock. Close hauled all the way until the last 100 yards we were just around without a tack as was Oasis.

Our spinnaker launch was respectably slow but we still were up before Oasis. It was the longer run home. We were closer to the fleet now and getting closer all the time.

For a brief period we thought we may be lucky and get past a couple of boats but their wind filled in and in the end Oasis was a couple of minutes ahead and First Draft just 82 seconds ahead.

If it had not been for that 15 minute hole we would have won the race handily!! Oh well there is always next time and we had a good sail in the end.

This is the first race where I was never on the helm once. Sure was hot and tiring being foredeck, pit, grinder and tactician. It is the first race I drank cup after cup of water.

Tony Brogan on the foredeck of Radiant Heat

And finally, from Philippe Erdmer…

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
144	144	144	ELECTRA	Kibble	13:01:28	00:00:00	1
147	177	177	WILDFIRE	Keating	13:03:04	00:00:00	2
108	114	114	KAITOA	Leitch	13:09:09	00:00:00	3
213	188	188	KAY D	Herbert	13:10:10	00:00:00	4
213	188	188	SPRITE	Slakov	13:13:04	00:00:00	5
105	117	117	OASIS	Jones	13:13:06	00:00:00	6
171	174	174	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	13:13:30	00:00:00	7
138	141	141	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	13:14:52	00:00:00	8

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Wednesday Night (June #4)

Wednesday, 24 June 2015

It began as cloudy, warm, and not very windy. Then, to add to the ambience, it rained a little. Then it became not very windy at all. Though they tried gamely, several boats packed it in after a long struggle on just the first leg. Another took over 4 hours to complete the course. However, it was a text book start, with most boats lined up beautifully on the horn… One or two took took quite some time to get enough way on to get turned around and heading in the right direction.

Craig Leitch, sailing the truant Philippe Erdmer’s Kaitoa — NFS — managed to be in the right place at the right time (or maybe it was just brilliant sailing) and snailed to victory some 50 minutes ahead of the next boat to cross the line… Well done!

Jim Raddysh gets full marks for perseverance, as Battle Axe crept across the finish just after 9 PM, which gave him a 5th place middle-of-the-pack result. Well done, Jim! 😉

The Results:

PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
108	114	114	KAITOA	Leitch	18:40:33	01:37:59	1
171	174	174	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	19:30:36	02:21:03	2
138	141	141	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	19:32:05	02:29:33	3
105	117	117	OASIS	Jones	19:30:34	02:33:38	4
180	210	210	BATTLE AXE	Raddysh	21:08:07	03:40:56	5
158	201	201	EFFERVESCENCE I	Bortz	DNF	DNF	6
213	188	188	SPRITE	Slakov	DNF	DNF	6
213	188	188	KAY D	Herbert	DNF	DNF	6
144	144	144	ELECTRA	Kibble	DNF	DNF	6

PHRF-NW

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
108	114	141	KAITOA	Leitch	18:40:33	01:38:53	1
171	174	171	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	19:30:36	02:21:40	2
138	141	138	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	19:32:05	02:30:14	3
105	117	105	OASIS	Jones	19:30:34	02:36:35	4
180	210	180	BATTLE AXE	Raddysh	21:08:07	03:50:24	5
158	201	158	EFFERVESCENCE I	Bortz	DNF	DNF	6
213	188	213	SPRITE	Slakov	DNF	DNF	6
213	188	213	KAY D	Herbert	DNF	DNF	6
144	144	144	ELECTRA	Kibble	DNF	DNF	6

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McMillan Trophy Race (re-run)

Sunday, 21 June 2015

A great day on the water, today, with 7 boats showing up for the Father’s Day McMillan Trophy Race re-run. Personally, I had a really good time on the first leg. However, my luck changed, and when I realized that the adverse current through the Captain Passage was just getting to its max, and the breeze was beginning to falter, I seized the moment, decided to quit fooling around, and took advantage of the breeze I had to sail home.

Here’s our resident scribe, Martin Herbert’s accounting of the day…

Strong morning winds revved up the hopes of the small fleet that turned out for this rerun but by race time the wind was dropping. Fifteen minutes before the start hopes were raised as the wind again strengthened and the start saw the fleet away with a good downwind start. Kay D seized the pin and hoisted on the gun to pop into the lead. By the Sisters it became necessary to play the streaks of wind and gybe out to avoid a dead spot. Velica did this just right and strode into the lead. Perhaps the best run to Batt Rock was aced by Kevin Vine on Deryn Mor, who arrived at Batt Rock right with the big boats and clearly leading on handicap. At the mark a fierce ebb was in progress and aboard Kay D we had decided to tack right away to seek tide relief under Scott Point. Velica rounded first and kept on towards Prevost. Kaitoa was next and tacked over. Kay D was third around but had to wait until clear of Kaitoa to tack, a most fortunate situation as the tide was ripping and even with the extra room we barely made it around. Radiant Heat, Deryn Mor and Electra held on to the Prevost side but in short order Tony Brogan tacked Radiant Heat and the fleet split three left and four right.

Craig Leitch was helming Kaitoa and did a masterful job of getting over out of the tide and lead the fleet. Radiant Heat also sailed a good inside leg and overtook Kay D just before Scott Point to slip into second spot. As Kaitoa got around Peile Point she rocketed off. The wind started to ease and Radiant Heat was held back but as soon as she cleared the point off she went. On the Kay D we had a few moments of not making ground but were finally able to get round on a gust. We crossed the returning Kaitoa who now had a lead of almost two miles and gave her a cheer.

The ebb took us fast to leeward once past the point and ahead snaked a line of standing wavelets such as I had never seen. With great interest we crossed this line and found that we were in the ebb from Active Pass which was going in the other direction. On the other side the tide had been taking us away from the wind and we were doing 2 knots. on this side the tide was pushing us towards the wind and our speed jumped to 5 knots. Amazed and delighted we took this into Ben Mohr to round in third.

Velica and Electra had by then come up the Prevost shore and were locked in a battle for fourth that looked like it was a lot of fun.

Coming back through Captain Passage we remembered the tide line and put some distance to windward into the bank. Even with that we had a scare as the wind went light again and we could see how fast we were being swept. We had Radiant Heat ahead to alert us to what was ahead but Kaitoa was out of sight heading for what would be an impressive victory. But wait, the wind Gods are fickle. As we flew spinnaker towards the Sisters we saw Kaitoa through the gap sitting bolt upright and Radiant Heat with sails slatting listlessly rocking over a big powerboat wake. Hope spring eternal and Bruce Barnard, my borrowed Aussie crew, did some brilliant gybes as we hunted the wind and the leaders. For a little while we looked golden but then Kaitoa found a northerly gust and worked it towards the finish line. As our running wind stacked up against the new breeze it faltered. And so Kaitoa rightfully took line honours and the very patient Radiant Heat, who had rested in a hole for a very long time, found a breeze to hold on to second. Close behind was Kay D.

Velica and Electra continued their match race, with Velica getting past Electra at Peile Point and still in the lead when last I got a look. They were so close and changed the lead a number of times so I am sure they had fun.

It was a very interesting day to be on the water, lots to think about and lots to learn. And we do live in such a beautiful place, we are blessed.

Martin Herbert
aboard the Kay D

And here, all the way from Alberta and back, are Philippe’s results…

PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
213	188	188	KAY D	Herbert	13:28:10	02:43:34	1
108	114	147	KAITOA	Leitch	13:21:09	02:46:47	2
138	141	159	RADIANT	Brogan	13:27:33	02:49:58	3
144	144	168	ELECTRA	Kibble	13:30:51	02:50:52	4
141	147	147	VELICA	Argiro	13:30:52	02:56:15	5
234	243	243	DERYN	Vine	DNF	DNF	6
237	264	216	CODA	Greenwood	DNF	DNF	6

PHRF-NW

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
213	188	213	KAY D	Herbert	13:28:10	02:38:00	1
108	114	141	KAITOA	Leitch	13:21:09	02:48:18	2
138	141	156	RADIANT	Brogan	13:27:33	02:50:43	3
144	144	168	ELECTRA	Kibble	13:30:51	02:50:52	4
141	147	147	VELICA	Argiro	13:30:52	02:56:15	5
234	243	141	DERYN	Vine	DNF	DNF	6
237	264	216	CODA	Greenwood	DNF	DNF	6

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Wednesday Night (June #3)

Wednesday, 17 June 2015

The Results:

PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
213	188	188	SPRITE	Slakov	18:38:44	01:30:39	1
144	144	168	ELECTRA	Kibble	18:36:02	01:30:44	2
213	188	188	KAY D	Herbert	18:39:53	01:31:42	3
69	78	102	CALIENTE	Andersen	18:28:03	01:32:01	4
141	147	147	VELICA	Argiro	18:36:01	01:33:34	5
138	141	159	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	18:39:55	01:35:39	6
108	114	114	KAITOA	Erdmer	18:36:15	01:38:41	7
171	174	204	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	18:59:24	01:47:12	8
123	157	184	SECOND WIND	van Soeren	18:59:30	01:50:20	9
0	234	234	BATTLE AXE	Raddysh	19:08:30	01:50:47	10
168	204	222	JEEKERS	Sladen-Dew	19:43:30	02:23:14	11
222	234	249	CODA	Greenwood	DNF	DNF	12

PHRF-NW

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
213	188	213	SPRITE	Slakov	18:38:44	01:27:33	1
213	188	213	KAY D	Herbert	18:39:53	01:28:34	2
144	144	168	ELECTRA	Kibble	18:36:02	01:30:44	3
69	78	93	CALIENTE	Andersen	18:28:03	01:33:22	4
141	147	141	VELICA	Argiro	18:36:01	01:34:25	5
138	141	156	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	18:39:55	01:36:04	6
108	114	108	KAITOA	Erdmer	18:36:15	01:39:37	7
171	174	201	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	18:59:24	01:47:39	8
0	234	234	BATTLE AXE	Raddysh	19:08:30	01:50:47	9
123	157	160	SECOND WIND	van Soeren	18:59:30	01:54:14	10
168	204	186	JEEKERS	Sladen-Dew	19:43:30	02:30:32	11
222	234	237	CODA	Greenwood	DNF	DNF	12

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Night Race

Saturday, 13 June 2015

It was a beautiful evening, but the wind that had been present all day, was starting to give signs that it was going to pack it in for the night. Despite this, the five skippers who showed up chose an ambitious course out to U60 (the flashing red buoy in-between Prevost and the Channel Islands) and back. I felt a bit guilty as I stood on the dock to watch Electra, Wildfire, First Draft, Radiant Heat, and Velica as they started the slow beat out of the harbour, but not guilty enough, and I happily rejoined the dinner party going on in the cockpit of Rob Denny’s Sandpiper.

This morning, I got an email from Vincent on Velica…

Hi Kevin,

Well it was quite an experience! The beat out of the harbour was fairly usual, given that it was still light, and there was a decent although shifty 5-8 knots. Roger took the lead from me within a couple of tacks, but he fell into a bit of a hole in the middle of the channel beside Second Sister. I kept to the Sister shore, and got a great lifting puff that shot me past Electra. The wind came up slowly as we left the harbour, and I was fortunate to get the best of that first, and pulled away from the fleet, leading by a good piece by the crossing to the Prevost Shore.

After dodging a tug and barge, I beat up to the U60 mark in slowly diminishing wind. Just as I rounded the mark, expecting a decent reach/run home, the wind died completely and I was adrift. Slowly a new wind appeared, from the North! I saw the rest of the fleet, some under spinnaker, pass me on the way to the mark, as I beat slowly toward home. By now the stars were a riot across the sky, with a very prominent Milky Way. Venus was so bright as she set that I could see her reflection trailing in the water.

I was doing fairly well until I started being sucked toward Captain Passage near Horda Shoals by the last hurrah of the flood tide. A few ineffectual tacks followed, before I got some way on toward Second Sister.

The final beat into the harbour was a bit agonizing, with only 3-5 knots of extremely shifty wind from everywhere between SW and NE, a damp cold, and a fading will. Nonetheless, I toughed it out patiently, and crossed the line (per regulations!) at 03:12:30. Radiant Heat had motored past me just outside the harbour, but I could not find anyone else behind me. When Gyle motored into the marina, I greeted him and learned that he had turned on the engine just at the mouth of the harbour. Douglas followed under motor about 20 minutes later, but Roger gamely managed to finish about 5 am.

Here’s what it looked like through Vincent’s lens as dusk was falling away…

And Philippe’s Results:

PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
141	147	147	VELICA	Argiro	03:12:30	05:56:11	1
144	144	144	ELECTRA	Kibble	05:00:00	07:43:02	2
147	177	177	WILDFIRE	Keating	DNF	00:00:00	3
171	174	174	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	DNF	00:00:00	3
138	141	141	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	DNF	00:00:00	3

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Wednesday Night (June #2)

Wednesday, 10 June 2015

The crews of 10 boats showed up for the skippers’ meeting and decided to sail out to Ganges Shoal mark, back to the SISC 5 knot buoy, then out to Welbury Spar and home. It was a lovely evening, with a very sailable breeze blowing out of the SE which brought everybody home under sail… except Imp…

As it turns out, minutes into the race, just off Boulder Bay, Imp threw in a tack, thinking she could dodge Radiant Heat, but instead, made contact, got her rigging caught in the J-30’s pulpit, and with a bang Imp’s mast came down… in pieces!

It took several minutes to untangle the mess, but outside of what appeared to me to be not much more than cosmetic damage to her, Radiant Heat sailed on to finish the race. Tony requested redress of 15 minutes on his time to deal with the collision, which you’ll see Philippe has applied to his finish time.

The good news is that no one was hurt.

The rest of the boats had a good time on the water, with Caliente taking line honours, Sprite holding off Kay D and Velica edging out Electra by only 3 seconds!

Here’s a rather dramatic photo of the action (from Philippe…)

collision

The Results:

PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
213	188	188	SPRITE	Slakov	18:39:44	01:31:34	1
141	147	147	VELICA	Argiro	18:35:17	01:32:51	2
213	188	188	KAY D	Herbert	18:41:22	01:33:04	3
144	144	144	ELECTRA	Kibble	18:35:20	01:33:19	4
69	78	102	CALIENTE	Andersen	18:34:50	01:39:06	5
138	141	141	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	18:44:45	01:43:00	6
123	157	157	SECOND WIND	van Soeren	18:49:07	01:44:46	7
234	234	234	BATTLE AX	Raddysh	19:19:32	02:00:17	8
222	234	251	CODA	Greenwood	19:31:00	02:07:18	9
162	137	137	IMP	Leitch	DNF	DNF	10

PHRF-NW

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
213	188	213	SPRITE	Slakov	18:39:44	01:28:26	1
213	188	213	KAY D	Herbert	18:41:22	01:29:53	2
144	144	144	ELECTRA	Kibble	18:35:20	01:33:19	3
141	147	141	VELICA	Argiro	18:35:17	01:33:42	4
69	78	93	CALIENTE	Andersen	18:34:50	01:40:33	5
138	141	138	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	18:44:45	01:43:29	6
123	157	123	SECOND WIND	van Soeren	18:49:07	01:50:18	7
234	234	234	BATTLE AX	Raddysh	19:19:32	02:00:17	8
222	234	237	CODA	Greenwood	19:31:00	02:09:39	9
162	137	162	IMP	Leitch	DNF	DNF	10

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Wednesday Night (June #1)

Wednesday, 3 June 2015

Nine boats showed up yesterday evening to sail out to Welbury Spar and back, passing by our Ganges Shoal mark on both legs. For the first two-thirds of the race, the SE breeze was steady and productive enough and the fleet made good time, with frequent changes of position and close crosses. However, soon after passing by the Ganges Shoal mark on the way home, the wind began shutting itself off in what seemed like selective patches, making the run home a shifty challenge.

Nevertheless, everyone finished in good time and headed for the picnic benches to welcome Greg Slakov back to the racing circuit and enjoy Tony’s pot stickers!

Douglas Woolcock’s First Draft on the beat to Welbury Spar

The Results:

PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
144	144	144	ELECTRA	Kibble	18:21:25	01:19:42	1
69	78	102	CALIENTE	Andersen	18:16:36	01:20:03	2
141	147	147	VELICA	Argiro	18:25:18	01:23:08	3
138	141	141	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	18:25:57	01:24:31	4
162	137	182	IMP	Leitch	18:35:56	01:28:50	5
213	188	188	SPRITE	Slakov	18:38:37	01:30:32	6
108	114	114	KAITOA	Erdmer	18:28:45	01:30:59	7
213	188	188	KAY D	Herbert	18:39:20	01:31:12	8
171	174	174	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	18:38:37	01:32:22	9

PHRF-NW

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
144	144	144	ELECTRA	Kibble	18:21:25	01:19:42	1
69	78	93	CALIENTE	Andersen	18:16:36	01:21:13	2
141	147	141	VELICA	Argiro	18:25:18	01:23:53	3
138	141	138	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	18:25:57	01:24:54	4
162	137	207	IMP	Leitch	18:35:56	01:25:46	5
213	188	213	SPRITE	Slakov	18:38:37	01:27:27	6
213	188	213	KAY D	Herbert	18:39:20	01:28:05	7
108	114	108	KAITOA	Erdmer	18:28:45	01:31:52	8
171	174	171	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	18:38:37	01:32:46	9

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Round Saltspring 2015

Saturday – Sunday, 16-17 May

These results are extracted for the overall results and represent our Club’s performance in Round Saltspring 2015 and the winners of the Steve Thomas Round Saltspring Trophy.

These results are based on a “Time on Distance” calculation and “official” PHRF-NW ratings…

Go to the Round Saltspring 2015 website for complete coverage…

Boat	Skipper	PHRF	As sailed	ELAPSED TIME			Seconds	Corrected TOD	H	M	S	PLACE
CALIENTE	Andersen	69	69	9	37	29	34649	31751	8	49	11	1
OASIS	Jones	105	105	10	10	55	36655	32245	8	57	25	2
IMP	Leitch	162	162	11	23	31	41011	34207	9	30	7	3
ELECTRA	Kibble	144	144	11	32	9	41529	35481	9	51	21	4
VELICA	Argiro	141	141	11	48	18	42498	36576	10	9	36	5
WILDFIRE	Keating	147	147	11	53	42	42822	36648	10	10	48	6
RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	138	138	12	10	56	43856	38060	10	34	20	7
SOUL THYME	Simpson	111	111	12	4	11	43451	38789	10	46	29	8
FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	171	171	13	48	50	49730	42548	11	49	8	9
SECOND WIND	van Soeren	123	123	13	21	9	48069	42903	11	55	3	10
EFFERVESCENCE	Bortz	158	158	17	25	58	62758	56122	15	35	22	11
PHOENIX	Lipsett	185	185	DNF	12

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Moresby-Portland Race

Sunday, 26 April

Martin’s Moresby Portland Race report:

This was a long race and so I am just going to give some highlights. Rosemary has noted that I often take as long to right the report as I do to complete the race but there is no way I am going to spend 9 1/2 hours on this.

The start: Starboard tack header with just minutes to go was picked up by Imp, who made an immaculate start and was able to cross over onto port and clear the fleet. Oasis got off well at the outside end as well, while Radiant Heat slammed the door on Velica at the inside end. Kay D got a fair start in the middle of the line in clear air and at full speed.

Oasis and Imp sailed a very good beat, both boats making very good calls on the shifting wind. The wind clocked steadily all morning punishing any boat that went left. The one exception was on the final approach to Moresby, where a lull and then a new breeze caught some boats out. Kaitoa and First Draft did a good job of working their way through the fleet.

The long downwind gave lots of opportunities for gains and losses and presented some tricky situations. In general the conservative “aim your boat at the next point” seemed to work out best. Bob Jones and the crew of Oasis have been on a roll of late and put in another stellar performance today, taking line honours with a good lead, very impressive.

A grand day for a sail, and with a race of 26.2 NM, what a sail it was.

Martin Herbert
aboard the Kay D

And here are the results as calculated by Fresh-from-France-Philippe…

PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
105	142	142	OASIS	Jones	16:38:02	06:01:22	1
162	137	137	IMP	Leitch	17:17:31	06:43:10	2
171	174	174	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	17:48:03	06:50:17	3
108	114	114	KAITOA	Erdmer	17:15:15	06:55:29	4
141	147	147	VELICA	Argiro	17:48:22	07:07:12	5
213	188	188	KAY D	Herbert	19:09:12	07:56:40	6
138	141	141	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	18:36:40	07:58:34	7
147	177	177	WILDFIRE	Keating	19:15:11	08:09:46	8
222	231	246	SKEENA CLOUD	Taylor	DNF	DNF	9

PHRF-NW

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
105	142	105	OASIS	Jones	16:38:02	06:22:45	1
162	137	162	IMP	Leitch	17:17:31	06:28:24	2
171	174	171	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	17:48:03	06:52:04	3
108	114	108	KAITOA	Erdmer	17:15:15	06:59:27	4
141	147	141	VELICA	Argiro	17:48:22	07:11:04	5
213	188	213	KAY D	Herbert	19:09:12	07:40:25	6
138	141	138	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	18:36:40	08:00:45	7
147	177	147	WILDFIRE	Keating	19:15:11	08:31:48	8
222	231	237	SKEENA CLOUD	Taylor	DNF	DNF	9

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Bas Cobanli Memorial Race

Sunday, 12 April 2015

Race Day — Sunday, 12 April 2015 — saw a record number of fifteen boats participate in this event! Welcome to Jim Raddysh on his new-to-him Nicholson 30 “Battle Ax”.

Roger Kibble masterminded the occasion, setting the course around Prevost with a dipsy-doodle in Captain Passage… (see photo below). After the race, Roger — with the assistance of Kathleen (Kibble) and Jill Cobanli — prepared an excellent Chili Dinner which was enjoyed by nearly 30 people, some of whom just “showed up”!

Here’s the story from Martin Herbert’s perspective…

The Bas Cobanli Memorial Race was run on April 12th in the hopes of getting better winds than last year. The morning did not look too promising as only wisps of wind coloured the water’s surface. However Roger Kibble set an optimistic course that included Ben Mohr Rock, Prevost Island, Deep Ridge Marker, the Channel Islands, Welbury Spar, Horda Shoals and Batt Rock, all to Starboard and then home to the finish off the club.

Fifteen boats turned up for this race, a record number and a testament to the enthusiasm of our Fleet Captain. At the start the winds were still light and the fleet would be reaching off to the Sisters, the less formal name for this group of islands, which are sometimes called the Chain Islands. I am told this double name is not meant to confuse visiting yachtsmen, but is just added to enhance the colour of our after racing stories and add spice to the language.

The start line was crowded with many boats vying for the best spots. Ogopogo, Radiant Heat and Velica were right on the line in the middle at the gun with several second row boats coming on with good speed behind. At the lee end there was even a line up to hit the mark with Electra giving it a good swipe and Oasis bumping it twice in the effort to get away. I have it on good report that both boats did their penance before continuing with the race.

As the zephyrs swept down the hills Ogopogo capitalized on them to stretch into the lead while the Kay D came through into second place. Then the wind swung from astern and the spinnakers started to bloom. The wind was still light and fickle and the boats would get the wind by turns. The flat water by the Sisters made our crew wonder about how we would get around this long course but then dark ripples materialized and swept into the harbour.

Ogopogo, in the centre of the harbour got the wind first and took off like a rocket into a huge lead that she would soon regret. Imp and Velica were also in the centre of the harbour and passed Kay D, who had favoured the left side. Velica, Imp and Kay D rounded the Sisters and set a course for Ben Mohr, just slightly cracked off but not so much to alert Ogopogo, who was marching bravely off to round the Channel Islands, thinking they were the Chain Islands mentioned at the skippers’ meeting! There would be many more minutes of this lovely and fast visiting yacht going briskly in the wrong direction.

This left Velica in the lead and set the stage for a great battle between Imp and Kay D that was to last the whole race. Kay D hoisted spinnaker and reached across James Bay at high speed closing on Imp but not yet getting by. Astern was Radiant Heat in fourth but the sight to remember was Oasis, charging along the bone in her teeth and making up for that bad start.

Velica rounded Ben Mohr and hardened up onto a beat for the long tack up the far side of Prevost, skimming the Galiano shore. She was being well sailed and my tactician Tony Meek summed up the situation. “You wont go wrong by following Vincent.”

With a following tide the waves built up and the wind was up as well. I didn’t see anyone reef but there were some moments when it became necessary to de-power the rig. On this long beat the bigger boats moved up the fleet. Ogopogo re-passed us and then Oasis went by. Imp was hanging onto fourth place but off Bright Island, with the tide and wind driving us at over 6 knots to windward and the waves square she got locked into a wave pattern and almost seemed anchored. I have never seen anything like it, we were overhauling her at speed when the conditions change slightly and she was magically released. This did set up what was for me the best part of the race, overlapped with Imp and doing seven knots, close reaching for the Deep Ridge Marker. On the beam reach to the Channel Islands we hit our top speed, 10 knots for a few seconds of wild surfing, passing Imp

Velica played the run to Welbury Spar masterfully but was unable to hold back Ogopogo with her asymmetrical spinnaker. Back in the lead this fast yacht put pedal to the metal and started stretching out. A very impressive boat and well sailed. The wind now started showing signs of weakness and for the slower boats there was still a long way to go. Fortunately for some of us it still had some blusters to come, but not enough to stop Imp from rolling us on the way into the harbour. What a great battle we had and I am sure that there were many more throughout the fleet. The only sad sight was the beautiful spinnaker of Deryn Mor barely filling on her run to home, skunked by a dying wind.

Ogopogo took line honours with Velica second across. Oasis was third home.

The sailors retired to the club house to enjoy a chilli dinner cooked by no less than Roger Kibble. I am sure great stories were told. It was a most fun race and a very good course. Thanks to all who turned out to enjoy the fun.

Martin Herbert
aboard the Kay D, spray soaked and smiling

And here are the results from Philippe…

They bear some looking at… the first two boats corrected within 30 seconds of each other. The next two boats tied. Fourth through eighth spots were within 8 minutes of each other. As Martin indicated in his report, the slow boats got skunked with a dying wind. Congratulations to podium winners: Kay D, Velica, Oasis, and Electra!

PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
213	188	188	KAY D	Herbert	14:23:15	03:34:09	1
141	147	147	VELICA	Argiro	14:10:15	03:34:38	2
144	144	144	ELECTRA	Kibble	14:14:00	03:39:17	3
105	142	142	OASIS	Jones	14:13:20	03:39:17	3
147	177	177	WILDFIRE	Keating	14:28:25	03:42:20	5
108	142	163	MYSTIC	Questo	14:28:40	03:47:08	6
114	89	89	OGOPOGO	Faget	14:04:20	03:48:46	7
138	141	159	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	14:29:10	03:48:57	8
162	137	137	IMP	Leitch	14:22:19	03:49:50	9
171	174	174	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	14:40:00	03:54:09	10
234	243	243	DERYN MOR	Vine	15:05:25	03:54:38	11
222	234	249	CODA	Greenwood	16:04:40	04:42:53	12
158	201	201	EFFERVESCENCE I	Bortz	15:58:41	04:56:19	13
222	231	246	SKEENA CLOUD	Taylor	DNF		14
?	234	234	BATTLE AX	Raddysh	DNF		14

PHRF-NW

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
213	188	213	KAY D	Herbert	14:23:15	03:26:50	1
141	147	141	VELICA	Argiro	14:10:15	03:36:35	2
144	144	144	ELECTRA	Kibble	14:14:00	03:39:17	3
114	89	114	OGOPOGO	Faget	14:04:20	03:39:45	4
162	137	162	IMP	Leitch	14:22:19	03:41:25	5
138	141	156	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	14:29:10	03:49:58	6
105	142	105	OASIS	Jones	14:13:20	03:52:16	7
147	177	147	WILDFIRE	Keating	14:28:25	03:52:20	8
171	174	171	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	14:40:00	03:55:10	9
234	243	234	DERYN MOR	Vine	15:05:25	03:57:26	10
108	142	129	MYSTIC	Questo	14:28:40	03:59:02	11
222	234	237	CODA	Greenwood	16:04:40	04:47:22	12
158	201	158	EFFERVESCENCE I	Bortz	15:58:41	05:15:07	13
222	231	237	SKEENA CLOUD	Taylor		DNF	14
?	234	234	BATTLE AX	Raddysh		DNF	14

The view of the fleet on the way home, from Velica’s stern, shortly after crossing the Finish Line.

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Round Prevost Race

Sunday, 29 March 2015

I do seem to go on about this… but we continue to luck out with the weather! It was forecast to be wet and windy. Instead, it was essentially dry (except for the salt water spray) with varying degrees of breezy and breeze-less conditions. We saw anywhere from 3 to 20 knots. Great fun! The 9-boat fleet definitely got the better part of the day to play in!

I got to sail with Wildfire today along with Gyle and Martin, and enjoyed a great day on the water that featured lots of round-ups, several venues of flogging sails as the wind either oscillated, or we reefed and un-reefed, or bobbed around in ferry wash and in the lee of Pender Island in Swanson Channel, or clawed our way to windward with the spinnaker through Captain Passage.

The breeze, however, proved a bit problematic for some of our intrepid fleet, as three boats bailed and headed for the barn. I’m not sure what Kay D’s reason was. I’ll assume it was good common sense. Escape had a problem with their furling gear, and prudence turned them around to get it fixed ready for another day. Greg on Skeena Cloud sent this message along, which kept me chuckling for some time:

The short story is DNF. The long story would fill a book. If the book was written by the Marx Brothers.

Congratulations to Wildfire, Oasis, and Velica. Did I mention that I was crewing on Wildfire?

PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
147	177	177	WILDFIRE	Keating	13:13:55	02:32:52	1
105	142	163	OASIS	Jones	13:11:54	02:34:05	2
141	147	147	VELICA	Argiro	13:10:44	02:36:38	3
162	137	137	IMP	Leitch	13:13:04	02:41:20	4
138	141	159	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	13:21:10	02:43:51	5
123	157	184	SECOND WIND	van Soeren	13:38:58	02:54:28	6
222	231	246	SKEENA CLOUD	Taylor		DNF	7
213	188	188	KAY D	Herbert		DNF	7
129	153	153	ESCAPE	Devlin		DNF	7

PHRF-NW

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
162	137	162	IMP	Leitch	13:13:04	02:35:25	1
141	147	141	VELICA	Argiro	13:10:44	02:38:04	2
147	177	147	WILDFIRE	Keating	13:13:55	02:39:44	3
105	142	126	OASIS	Jones	13:11:54	02:42:54	4
138	141	156	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	13:21:10	02:44:35	5
123	157	150	SECOND WIND	van Soeren	13:38:58	03:03:20	6
222	231	246	SKEENA CLOUD	Taylor		DNF	7
213	188	188	KAY D	Herbert		DNF	7
129	153	153	ESCAPE	Devlin		DNF	7

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Spring Regatta

Saturday & Sunday, 14-15 March 2015

The tail end of previous night’s rain petered out by race time on Saturday morning, but the boisterous breeze persisted! Coming from the SW and then NW, it blew over the hills in thrilling gusts, wind shifts, puffs and lulls. While everyone in the eight-boat fleet had the option of declaring NFS, no one actually flew a spinnaker for either race. At one point, someone reported sustained gusts of over 30 knots.

Saturday was a great day of big breeze sailing… sunny and warm enough to sail in a T-shirt.

: Photo by Philippe Erdmer

Afterwards, the crews assembled on the breakwater in the warm afternoon sun to enjoy a fantastic offering of potluck appetizers and beverages. Yet another excellent day! We missed those of you you couldn’t made it. But I’m sure that mowing the lawn was a lot of fun, too…

: Photo by Philippe Erdmer

Sunday

While Saturday’s breezy conditions surprised us all by being warm and dry, Sunday’s conditions weren’t quite the same happy surprise…

It was raining and cold. At first, the NW wind was disappointingly light and puffy. However, despite that, the enthusiastic fleet decided to circumnavigate Prevost Island, ostensibly “practicing” for the “Round Prevost Race” coming up on March 29.

The 1030 start had the fleet bunched up at the start line, with Greg Taylor’s Skeena Cloud nailing the start with impeccable timing, followed very closely by Douglas Woolcock on First Draft.

: Photo by Jim Raddysh

This regatta was owned by Electra and Oasis who traded podium positions for first and second on each of the three races. Well done!

Here’s the results from Philippe…

Regatta Race 1 (Saturday)

PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
144	144	144	ELECTRA	Kibble	11:53:40	01:21:54	1
105	142	163	OASIS	Jones	11:58:53	01:24:35	2
108	114	114	KAITOA	Erdmer	11:55:55	01:28:05	3
171	174	174	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	12:04:24	01:28:25	5
234	243	234	DERYN MOR	Vine	12:13:46	01:29:27	4
147	177	177	WILDFIRE	Keating	12:06:10	01:29:41	6
138	141	159	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	12:04:10	01:30:09	7
222	231	246	SKEENA CLOUD	Taylor	DNF	DNF	8

PHRF-NW

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
144	144	144	ELECTRA	Kibble	11:53:40	01:21:54	1
171	174	171	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	12:04:24	01:28:48	5
108	114	108	KAITOA	Erdmer	11:55:55	01:28:56	3
105	142	126	OASIS	Jones	11:58:53	01:29:26	2
234	243	234	DERYN MOR	Vine	12:13:46	01:29:27	4
138	141	156	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	12:04:10	01:30:33	7
147	177	147	WILDFIRE	Keating	12:06:10	01:33:43	6
222	231	237	SKEENA CLOUD	Taylor	DNF	DNF	8

Regatta Race 2 (Saturday)

PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
105	142	163	OASIS	Jones	14:38:58	01:19:55	1
144	144	168	ELECTRA	Kibble	14:40:19	01:20:36	2
147	177	195	WILDFIRE	Keating	14:45:10	01:21:58	3
108	114	147	KAITOA	Erdmer	14:39:55	01:22:45	4
138	141	159	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	14:44:10	01:25:22	5
234	243	261	DERYN MOR	Vine	15:00:40	01:27:57	6
171	174	204	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	14:56:20	01:30:59	7
222	231	246	SKEENA CLOUD	Taylor	15:03:40	01:32:13	8

PHRF-NW

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
144	144	168	ELECTRA	Kibble	14:40:19	01:20:36	1
108	114	141	KAITOA	Erdmer	14:39:55	01:23:30	2
105	142	126	OASIS	Jones	14:38:58	01:24:29	3
147	177	165	WILDFIRE	Keating	14:45:10	01:25:34	4
138	141	156	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	14:44:10	01:25:44	5
234	243	252	DERYN MOR	Vine	15:00:40	01:28:58	6
171	174	201	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	14:56:20	01:31:21	7
222	231	237	SKEENA CLOUD	Taylor	15:03:40	01:33:18	8

Regatta Race 3 (Sunday)

PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
105	142	163	OASIS	Jones	14:38:58	01:19:55	1
144	144	168	ELECTRA	Kibble	14:40:19	01:20:36	2
147	177	195	WILDFIRE	Keating	14:45:10	01:21:58	3
108	114	147	KAITOA	Erdmer	14:39:55	01:22:45	4
138	141	159	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	14:44:10	01:25:22	5
234	243	261	DERYN MOR	Vine	15:00:40	01:27:57	6
171	174	204	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	14:56:20	01:30:59	7
222	231	246	SKEENA CLOUD	Taylor	15:03:40	01:32:13	8

PHRF-NW

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
144	144	168	ELECTRA	Kibble	14:40:19	01:20:36	1
108	114	141	KAITOA	Erdmer	14:39:55	01:23:30	2
105	142	126	OASIS	Jones	14:38:58	01:24:29	3
147	177	165	WILDFIRE	Keating	14:45:10	01:25:34	4
138	141	156	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	14:44:10	01:25:44	5
234	243	252	DERYN MOR	Vine	15:00:40	01:28:58	6
171	174	201	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	14:56:20	01:31:21	7
222	231	237	SKEENA CLOUD	Taylor	15:03:40	01:33:18	8

Final results

Calculated using low-point score for three races:

1. ELECTRA

2. OASIS

3. KAITOA

4. WILDFIRE

5. FIRST DRAFT

6. DERYN MOR

7. SKEENA CLOUD, RADIANT HEAT (tied)

9. CALIENTE

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Walker Rock Race

Sunday, 1 March 2015

It was a pleasant-enough morning, but with nothing but breathy zephyrs to offer the keen fleet. The skippers’ meeting pondered the merits of a variety of alternatives, but eventually settled on moving the fleet out to the end of the harbour for the start and then following the course marks to complete the Walker Rock Race…

And some of them did, as a credit either to their luck or dogged determination!

Minutes after the slow start at the Second Sister light… (P. Erdmer photo)

The Motley Crew at the Skippers’ Meeting (B. Johnston photo)

Here’s the story, from first Martin’s and then Philippe’s perspectives…

The Walker Rock Race, March 1, 2015

The fleet motored out to the Sisters and the start was held in almost no wind between the light and Ganges Shoal marker. Three boats crowded the light end with Electra winning the start, Caliente away next and Kay D right on her stern. The fleet started out laying Welbury Spar, the first mark, but soon headers had them dropping below the lay line. The wind was very fickle and shifting through about 30 degrees, sometimes too fast for the boats to be able to respond. There were also lulls, creating velocity headers so similar to the actual headers that the leg became very tricky as we closed in on the mark. Kaitoa had successfully poached the crew of Ogopogo, April and Paul, and the boat looked exceptionally well trimmed as it moved through the fleet to round Welbury in the lead. Next around was Electra, followed by Radiant Heat, Imp, Caliente and Kay D. Kaitoa and Electra took the last of this bit of air with them leaving the rest of the pack in the doldrums. Most boats tacked around Welbury and made for Scott Point. Caliente opted to stand out on Port Tack into Captain Passage, a move they would come to regret. At some later point, after a bit of hailing and negotiating Radiant Heat tacked over onto port as well just clearing the Starboard Imp. As I was watching these two tacking ahead of me my own jib collapsed, but from the leech to the luff. I know this from IOM sailing and quietly furled my jib and let the main all the way out. I sat still as the Kay D sailed dead downwind past the two close hauled boats. This was how the diminutive Kay D emerged third into Trincomali Channel. The two leaders were dots on the horizon.

Blessed be, a breeze, patchy but enough to get the boats moving and the long beat to Walker Rock was begun. Kaitoa had worked out a massive lead and looked to be playing the shifts but favouring the Galiano side. Electra had made a beeline for the Galiano shore but she seemed to be standing more upright in less wind. There were patches of good wind and shifts through 30 degrees quite common so there was a lot to be gained, but always with the danger of being caught out in the tide if the wind fell. Both Radiant Heat and Imp were hunting down the Kay D and soon all three boats were on the same upwind line but spread across the channel. Thus with each shift the third place hat changed hands. Very exciting, then the wind started to fade away. By the third hour of the race the blessed wind had dropped from 4 knots to .9 knots. At 1.15 it dropped to under half a knot and Imp, caught in the middle started moving backwards. Kay D was on the Saltspring shore and making against the tide, but only just and she still had to cross over the main stream. Radiant Heat was over by the Islets off Galiano and still clung to hope.

Imp rounded and hoisted spinnaker for home. Kay D followed, having hung on last year on the early attempt, rounding Walker Rock at 4.00, missing the time limit on the run home and nearly freezing in the dark. A little puff made for a very pleasant spinnaker ride home and this increased so that on the spinnaker reach across the mouth of Long Harbour I got to five knots of speed. When I rounded into Captain Passage I could not see that anyone had rounded Walker Rock but this new wind might have been enough for the leaders to make Welbury in time. It had turned grey and cold and I was glad to be back at the club by 3.30.

Thus ends part one of the race, over to Philippe for the excitement at the head of the fleet.

Martin Herbert, who extends thanks to Gyle and Eric for offers of a tow home and to Ole for a tow to the start line.

Picking up the report approximately where Martin left off, here is an addition from Philippe.

Kaitoa was flying two newly recut sails just delivered by Stuart’s UK loft at Sidney, which clearly made an impact on her performance and pleased its skipper accordingly. Kaitoa also had the benefit of above average number of hands on board, and these were no greenhorns. With Paul at the helm and April trimming like a ballerina, all grace and lightness, the easy collaboration of the husband and wife team allowed the boat to make the most of every patch of wind. Rarely has the boat felt in such good hands; a pleasure for its regular skipper to participate in.

The view back from the stern of Kaitoa just before the tide turned at 1 pm showed the full heartbreak of the fleet, most of which had barely made it out of Captain Passage. No matter how valiantly skippers would fight from then the tide had changed from a friend to a foe and the vanishing wind added to the ache. We kept counting the boats and estimating their progress while tacking from one side of the channel to the other before the mark. It became clear that only Electra and Radiant Heat stood a chance of completing the course.

From Captain Passage, Kaitoa had been favored with consistently building breeze to Walker Rock, allowing it to round efficiently and hoist immediately thereby further leveraging its good fortune. The long run down Trincomali back to the passage was first favored slightly east of the channel centre, then the wind slowly dialed up on the Salt Spring side so that by the time we reached Nose Point and veered clockwise to thread the passage the chute came down immediately and we were reaching with purpose. West of Scott Point the northerly breeze built to more than 10 knots and provided the fastest leg of the entire course past Welbury and to the Sisters. Then, with a few long asymmetric tacks up the harbour as the weather front moved in, the cloud ceiling inexorably lowered allowing Kaitoa to finish in solid breeze before 4:15 pm in the first rain showers. Still well out beyond the sisters, Electra was storming home and Radiant Heat similarly got help from the wind gods to close the gap and finish before the skies opened in earnest.

Cheers, Philippe

Here’s Philippe’s accounting…

PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
108	114	114	KAITOA	Erdmer	16:13:40	06:23:06	1
144	144	144	ELECTRA	Kibble	16:37:55	06:29:32	2
138	141	141	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	17:29:57	07:22:28	3
222	231	246	SKEENA CLOUD	Taylor	DNF	00:00:00	4
222	234	216	CODA	Greenwood	DNF	00:00:00	4
213	188	188	KAY D	Herbert	DNF	00:00:00	4
147	177	177	WILDFIRE	Keating	DNF	00:00:00	4
123	157	157	SECOND WIND	van Soeren	DNF	00:00:00	4
162	137	137	IMP	Leitch	DNF	00:00:00	4
69	78	78	CALIENTE	Andersen	DNF	00:00:00	4

PHRF-NW

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
108	114	108	KAITOA	Erdmer	16:13:40	06:26:45	1
144	144	144	ELECTRA	Kibble	16:37:55	06:29:32	2
138	141	138	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	17:29:57	07:24:29	3
222	231	246	SKEENA CLOUD	Taylor	DNF	00:00:00	4
222	234	216	CODA	Greenwood	DNF	00:00:00	4
213	188	188	KAY D	Herbert	DNF	00:00:00	4
147	177	177	WILDFIRE	Keating	DNF	00:00:00	4
123	157	157	SECOND WIND	van Soeren	DNF	00:00:00	4
162	137	137	IMP	Leitch	DNF	00:00:00	4
69	78	78	CALIENTE	Andersen	DNF	00:00:00	4

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Channel Islands Race

Sunday, 15 February 2015

I offer my sincere condolences to Canadians elsewhere enduring winter’s blasts on February 15.

Well, what else can you say when today, on Saltspring Island, we had such an amazing day on the water? Seriously. Thanks to those who crewed the dozen boats in today’s event for your camaraderie. We are lucky…

Here’s Martin’s accounting…

A chilly wind blowing out of the harbour had the fleet huddled together at the start line for an exciting running start. To the credit of our fleet no-one was sunk in the proceedings and the fleet got away in good order. Shortly after the gun Electra worked into the lead that she was never to relinquish as Roger Kibble sailed a very good race. Also from the slower boats Kevin Vine shone, sticking with the faster boats and finding good lines in stronger wind.

The morning promise of a good romp was soon turned into just a pleasant float as the sun came out and the wind eased off.

The ambitious course of Batt Rock (P), Welbury Spar (S), Channel Islands )P), Welbury Spar )S), Batt Rock (P) gave lots of opportunity to try and out guess the competion. On the long beat back from the Channel Islands Vincent got it right as he played the Prevost shore and took maximum advantage of tide relief. The approach to Welbury Spar was very challenging as the wind was swinging wildly and the wind going up and down with gusts of very short duration.

And then there was the end game with everyone’s hopes jumping up as Electra stood bolt upright off Boulder Bay. Her huge lead dwindled fast as Radiant Heat, Velica and Imp charged up to the smooth blue water. The rest of the fleet followed suit, enjoying gaining on the faster boats then suddenly concerned as even slower boats drew abreast. Second Wind and Wildfire changed places many times and sometimes were neck and neck only feet apart. Electra, after seeing her lead decimated, found a puff that took her to the finish and died, restoring her to her glory. The rest of the fleet wallowed but the well sailed Radiant Heat held on to take second while Imp managed to get by Velica for third across the line. Effervescence pushed through the lulls and found the gusts and worked her way up the fleet in fine form as did Deryn Mor, both giving your writer quite a scare and most likely a whooping.

And so it turned out to be a fun day on the water. I had the pleasure of sailing with David Wood whose considered tactical advice kept me out of trouble several times. Several new members also came out to crew on boats in advance of bringing their own boats into the fray. With twelve boats on the line we are continuing to show our growth and judging by the post race smiles I only see that trend continuing.

Stand by for more events, thank you Kevin, keep them coming.

Martin Herbert aboard the Kay D

Here’s Philippe’s accounting…

PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
144	144	144	ELECTRA	Kibble	14:08:20	03:33:44	1
234	243	243	DERYN MOR	Vine	14:56:38	03:47:09	2
222	234	249	CODA	Greenwood	15:00:25	03:48:34	3
138	141	141	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	14:26:26	03:52:30	4
141	147	147	VELICA	Argiro	14:33:20	03:57:08	5
158	201	201	EFFERVESCENCE I	Bortz	14:55:00	03:58:54	6
162	137	137	IMP	Leitch	14:32:39	04:00:04	7
213	188	188	KAY D	Herbert	14:52:45	04:01:14	8
171	174	174	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	14:53:18	04:06:36	9
147	177	177	WILDFIRE	Keating	14:55:34	04:07:40	10
123	157	157	SECOND WIND	van Soeren	14:54:10	04:13:38	11
108	114	114	KAITOA	Erdmer	14:47:30	04:24:00	12

PHRF-NW

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
144	144	144	ELECTRA	Kibble	14:08:20	03:33:44	1
234	243	234	DERYN MOR	Vine	14:56:38	03:49:51	2
162	137	162	IMP	Leitch	14:32:39	03:51:16	3
222	234	237	CODA	Greenwood	15:00:25	03:52:12	4
213	188	213	KAY D	Herbert	14:52:45	03:53:00	5
138	141	138	RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	14:26:26	03:53:34	6
141	147	141	VELICA	Argiro	14:33:20	03:59:17	7
171	174	171	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	14:53:18	04:07:41	8
158	201	158	EFFERVESCENCE I	Bortz	14:55:00	04:14:03	9
147	177	147	WILDFIRE	Keating	14:55:34	04:18:48	10
108	114	108	KAITOA	Erdmer	14:47:30	04:26:31	11
123	157	123	SECOND WIND	van Soeren	14:54:10	04:27:03	12

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Ground Hog Day Race Results

Sunday, 1 February 2015

The weather forecasters — as late as last night — had a pretty bleak outlook for today. But clearly, they have no idea what goes on where we sail at Saltspring Island! And while there was a smattering of rain, the day only got better and better, and as the afternoon wore on, the breeze picked up and the sun came out! It turned out to be a great day on the water, preceded by a great brunch enjoyed by a great bunch of sailors!

From my perspective, today was perfect example of what makes Saltspring Island Sailing Club exceptional. Everybody pitched in to do their part as a team, making light work of the heavy lifting, and having a great time doing it. Thank you to you all. And to whoever it was who stayed behind to make sure all was well in the kitchen after the rest of us left for our boats…a special thanks!

Our intrepid scribe, Martin, offers the following

The Groundhog Day Race and Event!

What a great turn out for this fun event! Thirty six avid sailors and fourteen boats, the club was buzzing with activity. Right off the bat the bar was set high as David Wood made everyone a most excellent omelette and the kitchen volunteers hit a home run, serving up a delicious brunch. My day was made at that point, and as there was no wind, I would have been happy to go home to my boatbuilding shop. However, I had enticed Paul Faget over from Gossip Island to crew for me and his better half, April, came to sail with Philippe. She wanted to keep an eye on us to make sure I didn’t lose her man overboard. So race we must.

The Groundhog Day race is a reverse handicap, so all the number crunching is done by Philippe ahead of time and everyone starts at their own allotted time with the idea that everyone should then finish at the same time. It never happens but the idea in intriguing. With a light wind start and a building breeze, the slower boats are at a tremendous disadvantage, but the reverse is also true, and thats just life for those of us doomed to race in a handicap situation. Rob Denny’s Sandpiper was first away in almost no wind, trying valiantly to eek out a lead that would last. Boat after boat started and 20 minutes and 47 seconds later the mighty Caliente joined the race.

Rob held the lead past Goat Island when Deryn Mor slipped into the lead. Kevin Vine had David Wood aboard and these two hung on to the lead all the way to the Sisters, sailing very well. At this point Imp came through to top spot, closely pursued by a well sailed Radiant Heat. But as the wind increased the big guns were coming up fast from behind. Electra lead the charge to the left while Caliente and Imp went up the middle. Deryn Mor lead a small group to the right, a very risky choice. In my years at the club I have only ever seen two boats make this pay, Bob Jones in Oasis and Philip Grange in Fandango. Kevin almost joined this elite group but at the last minute a huge “Leftie” brought Electra in on a beam reach. Electra, Caliente and Imp arrived at the mark at the same time… Oops, but the flurry on rule numbers was resolved when Caliente manned up and did a penalty turn.

The leaders were slow to put up spinnakers after Batt Rock but a backing wind soon had them coming out. As to be expected with a building wind all the low rated boats were at the front while the slower boats did battle in the rear of the fleet. Some observations on the leg from Batt Rock to Welbury Spar: Deryn Mor put up a very strange asymmetrical spinnaker which only reached half way up the mast, but sheeted well past the stern. Shortly after deploying they took down this sail and replaced it with one of the same colour but much better fitting the boat. I have it on good authority (David Wood) that Kevin Vine packed the spinnaker.

[Though my memory sometimes fails me at convenient times, I don’t remember this part at all, so it can’t be true. KV]

On the other side of the coin, at Welbury, Douglas Woolcock, single handing on First Draft, did an absolutely perfect spinnaker gybe. On board Caliente, crewed by Ian Leckie, Art Munneke, Pete McGovern and another Peter (who did admirable service at brunch as well) clawed back from a penaltly turn to snatch the lead. They lead the charge to the Sisters on a tight reach, the luff of the spinnaker set to perfection. Also well sailed on this leg was the seriously under-crewed Kaitoa, kept on a razor’s edge by April’s steady hand on the helm and Philippe manning the sheets.

The final act of this race was the descent into the harbour, that terrifying sight of the last hundred yards to the finish line looking as flat as glass. The top four, Caliente, Electra, Imp and Kaitoa went in and in the words of the crew of Caliente “It was panic stations”. Spinnakers collapsed, were dropped, re-hoisted and everything was up for grabs. The second group of four, Velica, Radiant Heat, Wildfire and First Draft went in and ground to a halt. Hopes were raised aboard the first two of the slower boats, Kay D and Deryn Mor as they brought the wind down to the parking lot, hoping to improve on 9th and 10th place.

But it was not to be, Caliente found the wind again and took the crown. Kaitoa took second with Electra third. Not long after the majestic “Effervescence” crossed the finish line with massive spinnaker pulling, to bring a rather enjoyable race to a conclusion.

What had looked to be a complete bust at 11.00 o’clock turned out to be a fun day on the water. Aboard the Kay D I was delighted to sail with Paul Faget, the usual skipper of Ogopogo. Paul has a great skill set that is obvious in his handling of his very fast boat and which he transferred seamlessly onto my low tech 68 year old designed Flying Fifteen. It was a true pleasure to sail with him. It was also good to see Coda out for her second race and see Hugh Greenwood obviously enjoying himself at the helm. It seems like the racing fleet is finding its form, thank you Kevin for your steadying hand on the helm, it looks like it is going to be a great season.

Martin Herbert grinning under the boom of the Kay D

And the results from the indomitable Philippe…

Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Place
CALIENTE	Andersen	02:42:30	1
KAITOA	Erdmer	02:43:20	2
ELECTRA	Kibble	02:47:30	3
IMP	Leitch	02:49:19	4
KAY D	Herbert	02:51:50	5
FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	02:53:44	6
VELICA	Argiro	02:54:43	7
RADIANT HEAT	Brogan	02:54:46	8
WILDFIRE	Keating	02:58:05	9
DERYN MOR	Vine	02:59:45	10
SECOND WIND	van Soeren	03:04:10	11
CODA	Greenwood	03:08:20	12
SANDPIPER	Denny	03:09:00	13
EFFERVESCENCE I	Bortz	03:16:13	14

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Ben Mohr Rock Race Results

Sunday, 18 January 2015

While the weather reports for the Ben Mohr Rock Race suggested a good breeze, the race started pretty placidly. However, by the time it was over, it had gotten pretty exciting. Everybody finished by 12:30! What a blast of a sail!

The fleet discovered today that when a Flying Fifteen starts to plane, it makes a loud “Yahoo!” noise.

Speaking of which… here’s our faithful scribe: Martin Herbert…

Ben Mohr Rock Race, the first counting race of the season, was a mixed bag of conditions. The race was perhaps best summed up by Theo Woolcock, the youngest racer present and the only official carrier of a stuffed giraffe, as “squirrelly-whirrely!” Vincent Argiro’s excellent instruments had the gusts topping out at 28 knots during the race and the pre race milling about saw the wind swing through 360 degrees more than several times.

None the less the start was nailed by Kaitoa hands down and although many boats were on the line Philippe steered his yacht masterfully on a line of wind into a clear lead. The rest of the fleet split into groups, one favouring the Goat Island side of the harbour and the other playing the Saltspring shore. First one looked golden, died and then the other found more wind. Out past the Sisters there was promise of real wind on the water.

The big red Caliente moved forward, and when Kaitoa hugged the Sisters a little too close, moved into the lead. Oasis, with Bob Jones at the helm, played the middle and also moved up well. At the Sisters the wind filled in and the gusts were superb. The fleet was closely packed with the three boats that chose to fly spinnakers providing some excitement for the rest of the fleet. Just before Wellbury spar buoy the wind swung round to a dead run which brought on some impressive death rolls as boats tried to squeeze to port to clear Prevost Island without gybing.

At this point Oasis pulled off the tactic of the race, threw in a gybe, and made a bee line for Ben Mohr, leaving several of the leaders bearing off for Active Pass. The reason for this remains unexplained.

The rounding of Ben Mohr Rock seemed an exercise of mass chaos. The wind had swung even further making Ben Mohr essentially a lee mark with a beat to windward to get back to Captain Passage. Caliente rounded and tacked and went into immediate reef mode. Oasis and Kaitoa rounded overlapped with the former inside also tacking immediately and the latter following suit. Next was Kay D overlapped inside Electra and wanting to stay on Port tack for a hitch away from dirty air. A quick look under the jib revealed Kaitoa on Starboard tack just three boat lengths away. A quick moment of panic until I realized that Kaitoa was moving backwards at a fair clip and we would cross her bow. When the dust had cleared Caliente still held the lead but Kay D was in second, Oasis third and Velica in fourth.

The rounding of Ben Mohr was Kaitoa’s undoing. Kaitoa generously opened opportunities for the rest, which they greedily took… [KV]

At this point I will segue into my usual rant about short course racing and how are fleet needs to work on mark rounding and boat handling. A simple addition of a lee mark could make all our Wednesday Night races give us practise of dowsing our spinnakers in the heat of battle and rounding a lee mark. We should consider the summer evening races as a training ground to increase our skills. Rant over.

The rain now came down and the course went ghostly white, gusts singing in the rigging, as we slogged back up to Peile Point. Oasis, with the bone in her teeth regained second place and was off snapping at Caliente’s heels. Just off Nose point the wind went lighter and the bigger boats started making inroads and moving up the fleet. Just before the Sisters Velica moved into third and Kaitoa moved up some places as well.

Actually, Kaitoa sailed from behind, then in between, and then on beyond, both Kay D and Electra who were hoping their spinnakers would make a difference. And they did! But not in the way their skippers were hoping for. What a treat! KV

The rain stopped and the sun came out to round out the conditions of the day to “everything”.

The distance between Caliente, getting line honours, and Wildfire, ably single handed by Martin Councell, was very short. It was a tight and exciting race, and a great workout on the water, a fantastic opener for our racing season.

Martin Herbert… clinging to the side of Kay D and hooting every time we went over 11 knots.

And our faithful results-guy, Philippe Erdmer who says: A great gusty day with lots of tactical decisions – and sailing mistakes all around. Congratulations to the podium winners!

PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
213	188	188	KAY D	Herbert	12:27:15	01:47:39	1
105	142	163	OASIS	Jones	12:23:36	01:48:07	2
147	177	195	WILDFIRE	Keating	12:29:30	01:48:38	3
141	147	147	VELICA	Argiro	12:24:38	01:51:43	4
102	108	144	KAITOA	Erdmer	12:25:20	01:52:54	5
144	144	144	ELECTRA	Kibble	12:27:00	01:54:32	6
69	78	78	CALIENTE	Andersen	12:22:50	02:02:39	7

PHRF-NW

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
213	188	213	KAY D	Herbert	12:27:15	01:43:58	1
141	147	147	VELICA	Argiro	12:24:38	01:51:43	2
147	177	165	WILDFIRE	Keating	12:29:30	01:53:24	3
102	108	138	KAITOA	Erdmer	12:25:20	01:53:56	4
105	142	126	OASIS	Jones	12:23:36	01:54:18	5
144	144	144	ELECTRA	Kibble	12:27:00	01:54:32	6
69	78	69	CALIENTE	Andersen	12:22:50	02:04:31	7

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Hot Rum Race

January 1, 2015

It turned out to be yet another lovely day on the water for the 11 boats that ventured out this morning. The breeze was virtually non-existent, and it took an hour and a half (give or take) for the fleet to finish the less-than-two-mile course! Nevertheless, there were several exciting moments as the closely grouped boats threaded their way in ultra-slow motion around the course…

Here’s Martin’s report:

The New Years Day Classic followed the tradition of the last few years and was a light wind tactical chess game of a race. Eleven boats showed up to duel for the rum. The first duel took place at the skippers meeting where Kay D vehemently protested the use of the “Breeze” as a mark because of the huge wind shadow this mammoth boat casts and how boats with short masts are unfairly disadvantaged. Kaitoa responded with the advice to round wide if you were a little boat but finally relented after extracting a promise that this would be the only request from the Kay D for the rest of the year. Fair enough. Mark’s trimaran was selected as the first mark, followed by the 5 knot marker and then home.

At three minutes to the start a small whisper of a wind rolled down the hills making the start line impossible to cross on Starboard tack while making the lee end much closer to the first mark than the weather end. As a result the lee end was crowded with boats stalling on the line. Ricochet was just to windward of the pack and keeping some speed was able to bear off and win the start. All along the line boats were struggling to get up to speed and some at the lee end had to make turns to keep from fouling the mark or other boats. At the weather end of the fleet, seemingly well back were First Draft and Kay D.

First Draft also had been hovering on the line and so was trying to accelerate but Kay D, on the first hint of the puff had sailed away from the line on a close reach, gybed at a minute and a half to go and did her final approach at full speed, 1.7 knots. This allowed her to roll most of the fleet and arrive on the windward quarter of Ricochet in second place. This puff faded out before some of the bigger boats even got up to speed and allowed Ricochet and Kay D to stretch out their lead.

At this point there appeared a very tantalizing streak of wind on the Goat Island shore. Wildfire, who got away well from the start line and was the most right of the fleet gybed over to get to the new wind and several other boats did likewise, including Ricochet. At about the same time one of the live aboard boats rousted out of bed and put on the stove. Shortly after the smoke started to rise it showed a renewal of the wind from the hills and the Kay D took over the lead.

Not for long though, as she sailed into a transitional area between Grace Islet and the main harbour and slowed. The fleet closed and when the next puff came it took Kaitoa through into the lead. Velica, who had done a turn at the start line was making a great comeback was second around the trimaran. Kay D slipped around third just ahead of First Draft.

The second leg was a reach to the five knot marker with the wind coming in waves from down the hills by the club. Kaitoa chose to go to leeward of the Breeze despite the dire warnings of the Kay D at the skippers meeting. Hmmm, big wind shadow. Meanwhile Velica and Kay D played a close game of cat and mouse as the faster accelerating Flying Fifteen pulled ahead on the start of a new gust and was reeled in as the wind faded, the momentum of the bigger boat bringing her on.

First Draft and Ricochet decided to go to A Fleet and hoisted spinnakers. On the score sheet A fleet is designated with the letters DSQ which seems a little unfair to your scribe and should perhaps be reconsidered before next year. Usually the Kay D also joins this group but this year the wind never got into the useful range for her tiny spinnaker. I must say Ricochet looked gorgeous as she abandoned any attempt to go to the next mark and rounded up on a close reach towards the club with her big asymmetrical pulling valiantly. It was like a slow motion replay of Comanche’s spinnaker reach out of Sydney Harbour, where she grabbed the early lead of the Sydney Hobart race in fine style. So Richard, thanks for making it home from that amazing race to join our humble event!

The puffs won over the lulls and Kay D rounded the five knot marker in the lead and road a line of wind over to Saltspring shore. Velica read the same signs and followed. Both boats watched the fleet coming down and used the information of their trim to guide the tactics. Careful note was taken of Deryn Mor, ghost along Goat, always a threat but momentarily in lighter wind. Velica played the inside while Kay D played the centre but taking hitches over when possible to avoid a big split, protecting her lead. A larger gust had Kay D hit 4 knots, with Velica closing at 5 knots, but the finish line too close for a change of position. So Kay D took line honour, raced to her slip, where tactician Tony Meek got out his potato cannon to finish the fleet with a bang.

Velica took second over the line and on handicap and Deryn Mor sailed into third.

We made our way up to the clubhouse where Staff Captain Betsy Johnston and her crew put on a lovely lunch. Vice Commodore Paul McManus welcomed us all and read a list of all those who helped put the event together. I makes me very proud of the club when so many throw there shoulders to the wheel and make everything work so well. Hats off to our wonderful club.

Martin Herbert aboard the Kay D

And the results, thanks to Philippe:

Using PHRF-CC ratings:

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
213	188	209	KAY D	Herbert	11:53:09	01:14:08	1
141	147	147	VELICA	Argiro	11:54:53	01:22:43	2
234	243	261	DERYN MOR	Vine	12:14:40	01:27:07	3
144	144	168	ELECTRA	Kibble	12:03:35	01:28:25	4
102	108	144	KAITOA	Erdmer	12:00:35	01:28:40	5
225	225	243	CODA	Greenwood	12:15:45	01:30:05	6
105	142	163	OASIS	Jones	12:10:00	01:35:10	7
147	177	195	WILDFIRE	Keating	12:15:30	01:35:55	8
123	157	184	SECOND WIND	van Soeren	12:24:30	01:45:43	9
171	174	204	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	DSQ	DSQ	10
117	117	135	RICOCHET	Clarke	DSQ	DSQ

Using PHRF-NW ratings:

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place
213	188	234	KAY D	Herbert	11:53:09	01:11:41	1
141	147	141	VELICA	Argiro	11:54:53	01:23:28	2
234	243	252	DERYN MOR	Vine	12:14:40	01:28:08	3
144	144	168	ELECTRA	Kibble	12:03:35	01:28:25	4
102	108	138	KAITOA	Erdmer	12:00:35	01:29:29	5
225	225	243	CODA	Greenwood	12:15:45	01:30:05	6
147	177	165	WILDFIRE	Keating	12:15:30	01:40:07	7
105	142	126	OASIS	Jones	12:10:00	01:40:37	8
123	157	150	SECOND WIND	van Soeren	12:24:30	01:51:05	9
171	174	201	FIRST DRAFT	Woolcock	DSQ	DSQ	10
117	117	135	RICOCHET	Clarke	DSQ	DSQ

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Race

Day, Month 2015

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PHRF-CC

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	NFS	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place

PHRF-NW

PHRF Rating	Club Rating	NFS	Rating As Sailed	Boat	Skipper	Finish Time	Corrected Time (Time on time)	Place