Foulweather Bluff Race

FOULWEATHER BLUFF RACE 2022

Corinthian Yacht Club of Edmonds (CYCE), in partnership with Kingston Cove Yacht Club (KCYC) and the Port of Kingston, hosted the 42nd running of the Foulweather Bluff Race in early October. With the new starting area outside of Kingston (unveiled in 2021), the race committee chose the two longer courses of the three options for 56 boats in 11 different classes. The start was delayed by one hour due to a canceled ferry sailing, but then sailors were fortunate to have near-perfect fall conditions. Here are a couple of reports from the course:

THE VIEW FROM THE REAR - by Gregory Miller

We were first-timers in this race, sailing the Ericson 28+ named Aditi with a fetching yellow hull. The pre-race hospitality of the KCYC folks was outstanding, including nearly-literal icing on the cake: hand-delivered ice cream bars to top off the BBQ dinner.

Aditi was the slowest-rated boat in our class and we were sailing shorthanded on the shorter course — from Kingston to Pilot Point, northeast to Scatchet Head, and back to Kingston. With a chase-style start, we had the privilege of momentarily racing pretty much the entire fleet as each of the faster boats took turns passing us. This was exacerbated by a slovenly start on our part, stuck well behind the line in a wimpy wind. Indeed, by the time we reached the first mark at Pilot Point, we pretty much had clear water behind us and a forest of boats ahead — a good reason to not look back.

As we headed toward Scatchet Head, the wind became quite favorable and we were reaching along at pretty much the top speed our boat can achieve. We were surprised to see other short course boats off to the west sailing relatively slowly, apparently in some kind of wind hole. With our line and favorable breeze, we caught up with and joined the scrum of boats working around the green gong buoy, cheered on by the resident seals.

Aligning with Tolstoy’s observations about happy and unhappy families, it seems that all successful spinnaker launches are alike, but each unsuccessful launch is unsuccessful in its own way. Since our spinnaker whisperer had taken ill and thus was not aboard, and we were working shorthanded and making decisions on the fly, we discovered three new variations of unsuccessful spinnaker launches. Each got more problematic in its side effects. We finally decided to stuff the kite away and do our best without it.

Letting the spinnaker drama go, we just poled out our headsail and had a pleasant downwind sail to the finish line, not too terribly far behind the rest of the non-flying sail short course boats. With a modicum of alternative-universe rationalization (“If this had happened instead of that, then we would have done much better...”) we came away feeling more up than down, and it really was a great day on the water. Plus, we did come out on top in one category: Aditi was the first boat listed on the official Foulweather Bluff T-shirts thanks to the alphabetical foresight of some previous owner who named the boat.

Congratulations to the short course boats who won classes 1, 2 and 3, respectively: the Ericson 25+ Mola Mola, Westsail 32 HULA, and Morgan 27 Smilin’ Jack.

Light winds tempered starting speeds, but the breeze would build.

A BRILLIANT DAY FOR SAILING - by Nathan Kundtz

Let’s start with the most important part – the people. Our Beneteau 393, Equilibrium, had a solid mix of crew from our PNW Offshore campaign, new crew members, and family on board. It was terrific to be out sailing with our racing friends again following the summer cruising season. We emphasize using races to improve skills and build confidence with future offshore sailing in mind; and this time we even had the chance to get some spinnaker practice in as a group before race day.

The start of the race was a touch slow, but we got off to a solid start in 4 to 5 knots of northerly breeze. The forecast predicted a wind shadow extending far south of Whidbey in the morning, so we had originally planned to short tack up the west side of the Sound. Mother nature, of course, had other plans, and the wind pattern was reversed, so the fleet ultimately went east where the wind was strongest.

The breeze built through the morning, with 10 to 13 knots from the north-northwest making for perfect upwind sailing up to the Foulweather Bluff mark. Almost the whole crew was on the rail, and even ate lunch while hiking out.

After rounding the mark, it was time to deploy the spinnaker and begin a broad reach back home. The wind remained steady almost all the way to Scatchet Head, but lightened and moved westerly as we neared Whidbey requiring a couple of jibes to correct our approach. We rounded the Scatchet Head buoy in very light winds, but it picked back up almost immediately once we made some distance away from the island.

The final ride home was a gorgeous broad reach in 16 knots. We played the spinnaker and took some extra care not to round up. Once it was clear that the wind would be steady we fired up the music and enjoyed an absolutely perfect run all the way to the finish line. What a day! It was a great race by the excellent team from CYCE and, this time, the weather did its part, too.

The overall long course winner was the Riptide 35 Terremoto, and Westsail 32 HULA won the short course overall. Youth division honors went to Evelyne aboard Equilibrium and Emily and Alice aboard Blizzard.

In the world’s best reason for a DNF ever, the J/120 Magdalena abandoned the race to return a crew member who got a call during the race that a heart had become available for transplant. The crew member is presently in recovery with his new heart.

In what originally appeared to be an elective evasion, a commercial ship turned a 360-turn to wait for racing boats to clear the shipping lanes near Point No Point. The pilot has since filed a complaint with the Vessel Traffic Service, making this a clear and unfortunate reminder that all recreational vessels, racing or not, have an obligation to clear the lanes for commercial traffic.

All in all, it was a beautiful Foulweather Bluff weekend. Thanks to all the sailors who made the trip, and to everyone from both CYC Edmonds and Kingston Cove Yacht Club who helped make the event possible.

Photos courtesy of Jan Anderson.