Monkeybones Racing: May 2013

The Sloop's RTTS is becoming the annual "event" for PNW sailing. In 2013 over 115 boats registered for the short handed two day race to Pt Townsend and back. 2012 was our first outing and it was a great trial run. However, at that time Monkeybones was in the midst of several upgrades and we did the race with no instruments (other than the wind indicator at the top of the mast). With medium to light winds and strong currents to contend with, we were at a clear disadvantage (not to mention it was Jason's first sailboat race - ever) and we finished well down in the pack, vowing to come back better prepared and be competitive the following year.

The 2013 RTTS was shaping up beautifully with weather projected to be near 80 degrees and winds from the N to 10 kts. However, when we woke up Saturday morning the forecast was up with winds from the NNE at 5 to15 kts. We stocked the boat with enough food and beer for a week and set off a bit late from Elliott Bay. RTTS uses adjusted start times based on your PHRF, so slower boats start earlier, faster boats later. Our start time was 9:25. We rounded West Point at 8:55 flying just our main and had to rush to get in the start box. The wind was 11-13 kts at the time and, stuck between the #1 and #3 jib, we made the call to "go big or go home" and went with the #1. This ultimately paid off.

Shawn set us up and we had a great start and followed the fleet on a starboard tack over to Pt Jefferson. Unlike 2012, where we started behind most of the fleet and then fell back from there, in 2013 we used our new B&G instruments effectively and quickly dialed the boat in. The result was we immediately started gaining on everyone else, which was a new experience for us. As the fleet tacked up the western shore the wind built up to 17 kts. Everyone flying a big jib was overpowered and it was all we could do to keep the boat balanced. We got into a great tacking duel with Great White, a J35 skippered singlehandedly by Dan Wierman, and spent most of the weekend trying to shake him at some point or another. We continued up the west side hugging the shore and progressively passing boats. About a mile north of Apple Pt we studied some of the boats farther out in the channel and saw that they were getting a good lift and were pointing higher. As a result we decided to take our first flyer and tacked out away from the crowd. It turned out to be one of two defining moves of the day. As we cleared the shoreline the wind bent around more from the NNW and we were able to ride this single tack clear up into Useless Bay. With the big #1 we powered along at above 7 kts making huge gains on the fleet. We rounded the Double Bluff mark ahead of the J105's that started before we did and set our sights on the 15 to 20 boats ahead of us. We tacked into Mutiny Bay and then followed the fleet out again towards Marrowstone Is. This entire time we kept looking over our shoulder waiting for the bigger and faster boats, especially the ones in our class, to overtake us. It wasn't until off Bush Point that a few big Farr's from the class above us appeared and we followed these fast boats across to the west side and tried to catch the now ebb current out towards Pt Townsend. A good portion of the fleet stayed in the middle of the channel while we hugged the west side. Our second defining moment came near the finish where stayed close to shore, catching a great current wiping past Marrowstone Pt, and then tacking in over Midchannel Bank. This move allowed us to stay on the rhumb line and take advantage of the ebb current accelerating over the shallow water. As a result we tacked right up below the finish line passing the fleet out in deeper water. We tacked twice more and crossed the finish line at around 15:30, finishing Day One 10th overall and first in our class.

Day two was a brilliant PNW day with beautiful views west and east from Pt Townsend. The forecast was originally N wind to 10kts, but had been revised overnight to 5 to 15 growing to 15 to 25 kts. Given our experience the weekend before, we were not excited about flying our new spinnaker in high winds with just the two of us.

After Day One we were in the unusual position of being a marked boat and having to defend our first place ranking. We had a 12 minute lead on Bat Out of Hell and 15 minutes on Nefarious, both Farr 30's with PHRF's of 53. We weren't entirely sure we could hold these two faster boats off, especially with the forecast for big winds. We crossed the start and launched our new North S2 spinnaker and were able to dial it in. The wind started at around 10 kts, and grew to 15 kts in the middle of the channel. We jibed south with the fleet and again made steady gains. We jibed down past Bush Pt, then again off of Double Bluff, only to watch Nefarious pass us and sail off. Due to her PHRF she started 13.5 minutes behind us and, just short of the half way point, she'd already made that up. It was going to be tight to the finish.

We struggled a little with boat speed crossing the channel on our way over to Point No Point and Nefarious got out in front of us by about a mile, but we were still ahead of Bat Out of Hell. As we rounded Point No Point the wind built to 18-22 kts and continued that way until we were off Kingston. We were running close to dead downwind with the boat at 8-9 kts through the water, trying to keep the boat stable while tracking Nefarious, who by this time may have been two miles in front of us. We could see Bat Out of Hell inside of us and, while they were slowly pulling away, we felt we could keep the loss of time manageable. However, staying in the channel and taking a deeper course paid off as the inside wind died off and those boats jibed out. Bat Out of Hell passed behind us off Kingston and we could see we were gaining on Nefarious, who was farther down the course in lighter winds. Watching the boats ahead there was clearly a wind shift coming because suddenly they were all on a tight reach trying to lay the finish mark at Shilshoal. We didn't want to get too far down so we quickly jibed off President Pt just in time to catch the windshift and went screaming home on a power reach at 8.5 kts, crossing the line at 13:42. We finished one minute behind Project Mahem (Farr 30) and 1.5 minutes behind Bat Out of Hell (Farr 30), and just ten minutes behind Nefarious (Farr 30), which meant we retain our first place class ranking! After the results were tallied we finished 11th overall.

Final Class Results: https://www.styc.org/race_info/RaceToTheStraits/2013/Res_Series_Class.html

Final Race Results: https://www.styc.org/race_info/RaceToTheStraits/2013/Res_Series_Division.html

Jan's Picts: http://janpix.smugmug.com/Boats/Race-to-the-Straits-2013/29291605_WVLQ3n#!i=2497823325&k=XcF8jGz&lb=1&s=A

Post Mortem: Overall it was a huge success for Monkeybones as she proved she can be a real PNW contender. Many of the boats from the first day fell in the rankings while the smaller, faster boats that were able to plane out in the heavy 20 kt wind jumped markedly in the overall standings. Monkeybones held her spot, slipping only from 10th to 11th. Only three other top ten boats from Saturday stayed in the top ten, with notable boats (like Icon) tumbling down the ranks. MB has seen a lot of weather the past two weekends and we started hearing several new creeks and groans that will have to be addressed here in the near future. Finally, our first place finish qualifies us for the Grand Prix, which was a 2013 racing goal. It's great to get that out of the way!

Monkeybones Racing

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Sloop Tavern RTTS Pictures and Video

Monday, May 6, 2013

Sloop Tavern Race To The Straits 2013