Puget Sound Sailing Championship

CYC PUGET SOUND SAILING CHAMPIONSHIP 2020

Puget Sound sailors were treated to classic fall conditions for Corinthian Yacht Club’s PSSC (combined small and big boat) regatta on October 10 and 11. Saturday morning started with overcast skies and breeze out of the south-southeast around 8-14 knots.

This year, CYC's October throwdown adhered to crew restrictions of four or fewer crew on boats under 30 feet, and five or fewer on boats 30 feet and larger. Neither these restrictions, nor some inclement forecasts, kept PNW racers from coming out in droves. The small boats on the south course saw an impressive 74 boats across eight classes. Meanwhile, the larger boats up north had 43 boats across six classes.

J/105, Corvo, leads competitors around the windward mark in blustery conditions.

Four friends and I were racing on the J/111, Valkyrie. The boat is owned by Cathy VanAntwerp, who is new to the Seattle racing scene. We were fortunate to have Nick Leede join us for the weekend as driver. He recently purchased the Farr 39 Tachyon and was unable to race his boat due to the crew limit. Rounding out our crew for the weekend was Dan Westra, and Galen Collins. This was the first time this particular crew had raced together on Valkyrie and the chemistry was great. Valkyrie raced in Class One on the north circle. Other Class One racers were the XP 44 Maverick, Aerodyne 43 Freja, and the Farr 30 Nefarious. With a 36-second class rating band, there was lots of fun and competitive racing.

On Valkyrie, we recognized that, with two larger boats on the start line, we needed to have clear air starts at hull speed. Going into race one we noticed in the pre-start the breeze had a lot of east in it. Being able to sail quite high on port tack, we made an early decision to start on port tack at the pin. The start gun fired and we blasted off the line on port, our competition was all at the boat end. Nefarious closed the door on Freja and Maverick causing them to tack around outside of the start line. We led the whole race and collected line honors — a satisfying start to the weekend.

Race two got off to a similar start with Nefarious joining us at the pin end this time. A little jockeying with Nefarious made for a sporty start, but we were both able to get a clean start on port tack again. Maverick and Freja were at the other end of the line and played chase to the smaller, port-tack starters for the rest

Class One boats zoom downwind toward the pot of gold. The author and the Valkyrie team lead the way.

of the race. Conditions remained excellent and enjoyably brisk, with the breeze around 12-16 knots.

The wind moved to the south before the start of the third race, squaring it up more with the course and the geography of Puget Sound. Then, a thunderstorm from the north began to bear down on the fleet. As we rounded the weather mark and set the kite we sailed into a small squall line, ominous clouds, and lighting.

We were sailing north with the wind at our backs watching boats sail south towards us with their kites up only half mile down course. With that, we saw the squall line moving towards us. We prepared for a gear change, and when the breeze of approximately 30-35 knots out of the north hit (a 180° shift!), we were ready.

Unfortunately for us, after taking the lead from Maverick on that downwind leg, the race committee abandoned the race due to unsafe conditions. Much of the fleet was forced to take down sails with a few others deciding to seek shelter back at Shilshole.

After about an hour-long postponement, we were back to racing. We had a close battle with Nefarious throughout race three and she managed to correct over us. Valkyrie finished Saturday with a 1-1-2 and were quite pleased with our race day. I want to give kudos to the north circle race committee who suffered the loss of a mark set boat that flooded and turtled early in the day. They got off three great races despite the setback.

Sunday morning brought more breeze and a light misty rain. We added three more races to the scorecard that day with breeze in the 14-17 knot range, mostly out of the south. At one point, the breeze swung so far east that our race course was east-to-west in race five. An unusual direction and velocity for any seasoned Sound racer.

The sportier conditions on Sunday led to exceptional racing in Class One. We sailed smooth races with no mistakes and were able to walk away with three bullets on the day. It was a solid regatta sailed by team Valkyrie that allowed us to score seven points in six races, throwing out our only second place finish to Nefarious.

Across all the classes, it was a great weekend to be out on the water. Some classes had battles for first, even more seemed to be having hotly contested battles for second. With excellent participation and enthusiasm, we look forward to even more competitors joining the fun in the 2021 season.

The south course saw large dinghy fleets across multiple classes, including the RS Aeros like this one, sailed by Dieter Creitz.

By Patrick Doran Photos by Jan Anderson