"Heavy Air, Seattle Style"
Saturday's racing started with a class meeting at the CYC Shilshole clubhouse to cover class business. The most interesting parts of this were of course the voting on amendments to the constitution, and the proposal for the 2006 Nationals submitted by boats in the South East and East coast. Long story short, the amendments to change the weight limit to 1100 pounds and the amendment to permit limited stiffening of the hull passed, while all otherse failed, and the proposal to host 2006 Nationals in Florida was accepted. New class officers were also elected.
Saturday's racing started out with a cooler mix of sun and clouds, certainly nothing like the solar fryer people had experienced the day before on the water. The wind was S at about 10, with the day's forcast as S 10-20. Which proved not wholly accurate, as the day wore on. Today would become the decisive day of the regatta for many boats.
The first race started off well enough, with #1 conditions in a nice steady Southerly and not much current. There was still a bit of residual ebb on the outside that messed with people. Apacalypso sailed out of form and ended up mid fleet with along with Orcrist somewhere. I don't remember much about this race, other than that in these moderate conditions the racing is very tight.
Race two started off with rapidly building winds. Although most boats were still sporting #1s, it was becoming clear that these were now quickly changing to #3 conditions. At the top mark the wind was a steady high teens gusting over 20, and almost every boat had the same thought: how to get the 1 down and the 3 up on such a short leeward leg? The course was not XUXU as before, but XZXU - which meant a very short first leeward leg. With the winds it was going to be only a matter of a few precious minutes, and with people moving around the boat getting sails it was precarious. This was great sailing however, with all the boat showing good heavy air driving skills and tearing up the course! Many boats successfully changed down on the leeward leg, despite the still rapidly building conditions, now blowing 22 with gusts to 25+ and 2-3 foot waves. This change down was critical in this race, as boats that remained with a 1 were overpowered through tacks and fell behind. The second beat (short) was just a battle against waves and wind, and the next rounding and run was pure fireworks as boats hoisted and tore off down the course. A longer leeward leg enabled boats that had not changed down yet, such as Aliens, to change to the #3. While this race was great, it was the beginning of the end on my boat. Our cabinets started separating from the hull with the wave action, but that would only become clear the next race.
The start to the third race was difficult in the now heavy breeze, with some of the top boats staying out of the potential fray this time and opting for mid line or even pin. At the pin RoadRunner, War Canoe and Orcrist went out on stbd, with good speed, crossing the fleet. RoadRunner went, but we hung with War Canoe a while and made Aliens and other boats on this side duck us. Then War Canoe went and there was no longer any real reason to stay on the left, so we tacked onto port. After the tack we hit a wave and there was a dull noise from inside the boat. We had heard it before about 6 months earlier, and knew what it meant: the cabinets had popped. I went below to check, and sure enough. So here in 30 knots we took down the #3 to ease the load on the rig and hull, and sailed for Shilshole. It was truly amazing watching the fleet round the windward mark, set, and tear off down the course. MOF and Lunchbox rounded at the same time, but MOF had clearly superior speed downwind and just took off. Everyone was sailing well in control in waves in 30+ knots of breeze, a testament to the abilities of the boats and crew that showed up to Nationals this year.
A little later, Surfer Girl retired and a crewperson on Wyewacket got hurt, so both these boats and Wraith sailed into Shilshole about 30 minutes after Orcrist. Even then conditions were beginning to ease, with winds back down below 30. Then Barnstormer came sailing in under main, and MOF got towed in by a whaler. At first it seemed like the racing was done for the day, and these boats had just gotten up the course early, .... but no one else was coming in. The fleet was all still racing! Barnstormer had hit MOF and holed her below the waterline, both boats were done for the regatta.
As for the fourth and final race on Saturday, I was not on the course so don't know what happened, other than that the winds were still up. For us, the regatta was over and it was time to fix the boat and plan for the next one.