Swiftsure Lightship Classic

Thanks to Jeff, Peter and Mike for coming out for our first Swiftsure Lightship Classic.  This was MB's first appearance and we were signed up for the Cape Flattery (Neah Bay) race - a 100 mile event.  We were out there with all of the other top racers and usual suspects from the Pacific Northwest with boats from Portland to Vancouver BC and beyond.  

Since this was our first Swiftsure there was a little bit of learning going on both before the race and on the course, and several boat / gear upgrades required to meet the race's strict safety requirements.  Prior to departure we outfitted the boat with new reefing lines and fixed our broken outhaul (from Race to the Straits) and installed a new 25W cabin mounted VHF with stern antenna.  We also ran jack lines to secure the crew.  

Shawn and Peter took the boat up early on Thursday so that we had Friday for final preparations.  The rest of the crew filtered in on Friday with Jeff flying up in the morning, Mike flying up in the afternoon, and Jason coming across from the San Juans in the evening.  Upon reaching Victoria we learned that we also needed to have our own class flag (a french bergie) as well as our sail numbers mounted on the port and starboard rail.  Our team jumped into action calling upon their home economics and marketing skills to fashion the bergie using materials appropriated from the Salvation Army (it's amazing what you can do with scissors and duct tape) and Jeff was able to find a store to print large laminated numbers...one at a time...  The team used more duct and sail tape to create a single rail number (ours is 30925) which was secured to the rail with zip ties and line.  Finally, we ran around town and found a bomber man-overboard flag (Mike had fashioned a homemade one but it wasn't going to cut it out on the Strait).  With preparations complete we hit the party at the Steamship Bar and Grill.  Apparently both Shawn and Peter made quite an impression on the race support crew the night before because EVERYONE knew them and came to say HI at some point during dinner.  After a solid meal and several rounds of drinks we retired somewhat early with the crew sleeping on MB and Jason sleeping on Sounder (the Almar).  

Race Day started off at 5 am and we were first in-line for Starbucks and the buffet breakfast, which was key.  Fully fueled we made our way back to the boat and everyone filtered off the dock and into a long boat parade out to the race starting line.  The weather was dry with 8-12 kts from the SW with a forecast to build over the afternoon.  We set up among the other 200 boats with our #1 headsail.  We were the third of four starts with the big boats leaving at 9:00 and our start was at 9:20.  We maneuvered for a solid start at the middle of the line, choosing to play it safe with all of the traffic.  There's great drone video (click here) of the start and MB can be seen middle-left (@ the 30 second mark - white main with yellowish jib / white hull - not the blue hull).  

Once underway it took us 10-20 minutes to get in our groove, primarily because we needed to get the jack stays set and tighten up the forestay, which required a few tacks due to our gear setup.  We dueled with several boats up to Race Rock, about 7nm from the start, and continued to trade tacks up the south side of Vancouver Island.  Being new to Swiftsure we didn't have the benefit of understanding the wind and current patterns up the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  We could tell there was better current inside against the shore but many boats were already tacking out for the far (US) side of the Strait.  We chose to make one last tack into shore to grab the better current, which proved to be our downfall...  

As we approached the shore we could see a wall of wind coming down the Strait.  While we initially thought this was to our advantage since it looked to be on the northern (our side) of the Strait, once we tacked back and set up for a long 3-4 hour beat across the Strait the rising breeze (14-15 kts) was creating short steep waves that cause the boat to pound and sapped precious speed.  Most of the other boats did not follow us back to shore so we were on our own and fighting the worsening conditions, while they were closer to the calmer waters on the far side.  About an hour in we were seeing winds between 14-17 kts which was the very upper end of our #1.  We made the decision to switch down to our #2 which, while it was old and tired and hadn't been used in a couple years, was properly sized and pliable to allow us to power through the head seas.  The crew did an excellent and efficient sail change but we quickly noticed that the leech of the #2 was starting to come out of the forestay track.  Within a few minutes the leech peeled out of the track down to the base of the forestay, with the base of the sail getting stuck in the track's steel feed fitting.  We quickly lowered the #2 however the base of the sail was firmly stuck in the track feed despite the efforts of Mike and Jason, aided by screwdrivers, to dislodge it.  Peter came forward to use his weight and strength, to no effect.  We tried to re-set the #2 to get a headsail working in the primary (port) track (we set the #2 in the starboard track) but the stuck #2 deformed the tracks to the point that this was not possible.  In the end we decided that the #2 was done - never to be used again - so we cut the #2 out of the track and Jason was able to pry the small piece of remaining feed cloth free with a screwdriver. This all was going on with MB plowing and pitching through steep head seas in the middle of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, making for very wet and dynamic bow work (Mike was almost gored by sharp objects more than once).  Once clear we were able to set the #3 and were back sailing.  However, this whole episode, most of which was caught on GoPro, set us back 20-30 minutes and lost at least a mile relative to the competition.  For the next 2+ hours we soldiered on in steep 2-3 foot chop on top of rolling swells with the boat slowly building to 6.8 kts and then pounding waves slapping us back to 5.5 kts.  

Here's video of the start and sail change.  Then the GoPro died and we were too busy to recharge it:

 

We were thankful to get to the far side and calmer waters where the wind was down to 10-12 kts.  We went to switch back to the #1 when we had our next issue.  Earlier, just after switching to the #3, we had to move the jib sheet car because of sail tension adjustment and somewhere in that process the car's pin head sheered off.  Now in lighter waters we wanted to move it back to support the #1 but the car's pin sheered off below the face of the car, meaning it was unreachable and the pin was locked into position by the spring.  Mike and Pete worked on this for five minutes as we gave up more speed and ground in the lightening wind, eventually giving up.  We had a second (backup) car we could use but, because of where the other car was stuck, it had to be fed into the track from the aft end of the sheet track, which was blocked by an end fitting.  So Mike, Peter and Jason set about removing several through deck bolts and were able to pry the end fitting loose and loaded the second car.  They then reassembled and resealed all of the hardware and bolts.  This whole escapade sapped another 15-20 minutes before we could get the #1 back up.  Once complete though the boat quickly accelerated and we were back racing at speed. However, by this time the damage was done.  We were 2-3 nm from the Neah Bay mark still beating upwind when most of our competition passed us under spinnaker heading home. We soldiered on working up to Neah Bay and gained some ground against the remaining boats around us, then gave most of it back in fluky conditions near the mark because of indecisiveness.  We eventually rounded at 7:45 pm, beating our prediction of 8:30 pm and headed back east in fading light and light drizzle.  Unfortunately, by this time we had already given up 1-2 hours to our primary competition between our bad tack, extended pounding out in the middle of the Strait, and head sail / sheet track issues.  

The winds were forecasted to fade, and we were living it in 6-8 kts near Neah Bay, but they were also supposed to be stronger on the northern side and decent in the center of the Strait.  As a result we immediately turned north and Peter cooked us all freeze dried dinner on his camp stove while we jammed some music to lift our energy.  It was much needed after 11 hours sailing upwind.  We followed Mata Hari, who we'd been dueling all day, north across the Strait and wove between a few commercial vessels.  Once on the northern side of the shipping lanes we jibed east, then again north into what was supposed to be stronger breeze.  This worked out as the wind built from 10 kts up to 15 kts over the course of an hour.  We approached shore and the jibed east again and watched the wind continued to build as we neared the center of the Strait.  Just after midnight it hit 20 kts and the boat was flying along at 9 kts sustained and the wind continued to build.  The crew clipped in since a man overboard at that point would be a scary event.  By 1:30 in the morning the wind was steady at 22-23 kts with gusts of 26 kts and the boat was surfing down large swells, which we couldn't see, at 10 kts.  This was clearly a highlight since it amounted to some of the heaviest air downwind sailing this crew had done together, and it was in the middle of the night and in the middle of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  Unfortunately we were now back out near the shipping channel and we had a tug and barge heading right at us.  In these conditions we were not sure about our ability to jibe without a big wipeout so we made the decision to douse the spinnaker, which we did an excellent job of with a classic heavy air takedown through the slot between the main and boom, and jibed away under main.  This was a good decision since we passed very close to the tug and his load.  We set the #1, which had been lashed to the bow, and headed back to shore doing 8+ kts.  Relieved to be out of harms way we debated our next move.  We passed in front of Mata Hari, who we had passed earlier, but delayed setting another spinnaker and watched them pass us sailing deeper and faster lines.  In the end we decided to set our heavier but smaller cruising asym and reached home at 9 kts.  We passed Race Rocks at 4 am in 19-22 kts sustained, at which point we had our one and only wipeout / broach, which we quickly recovered from.  The wind started to ease and we debated whether to re-set the spinnaker but fatigue, and the realization that we were already out of the competition, convinced us to take the easy route.  We crawled to the finish line and crossed at 5:30 am.  

Our final adventure came after we finished inside Victoria harbor.  At some point during the night Shawn, wresting the boat in heavy seas, inadvertently kicked in the ignition switch to our motor.  As a result Jason had to climb into the starboard quarter berth and spent several long minutes fidgeting with our finicky ignition switch to get the boat started.  We motored in to the inner harbor for our obligatory checkin and safety review.  There Jason jumped off to get his boat and Jeff disembarked for a Kenmore Air flight home.  Not wanting to shut the motor off, MB was on the dock for only a few minutes before Shawn, Peter and Mike headed back out for a long trip back to Seattle.  After sailing for 21 hours they spent another 14 hours getting home.

As a final wrap up the crew and MB did well handling the wide range of sailing conditions.  We had excellent sail changes and McGivered our way out of several tough situations, both before the race and on the course. Unfortunately our lack of course experience and some untimely gear failures knocked us way down in the final standings.  However, we achieved the primary objective of having fun and demonstrated to the Victoria shore crew that we really were a "Drinking Team with a Sailing Problem".  This crew will be back for many more Swiftsure races!

Prologue:  Swiftsure has an amazing website and race tracking system.  You can replay the entire race, and watch MB, here.