CYC Home
March 13, 2010
By Peggy Johnson
Corinthian Yacht Club’s Scatchet Head Race on March 13, the second in the three-race Center Sound Series, was another fabulous day on the water for 69 boats. It was sunny and cold and windy and dry. The race began under an ebb tide, with the change to a flood taking place at around 10:00 or 10:30 am. The largest flood current was about 1 knot and occurred between 1:00 and 1:30 pm. The NOAA marine forecast was for S 15-25 shifting to SW 10-15 in the afternoon.
This 25.4-nautical-mile race starts off Shilshole, heads due north, rounds the Scatchet Head gong buoy to port, and finishes near the start off Shilshole. Years ago, the race went to the mark at Possession Point instead, but since boats consistently encountered a wind hole there year after year, CYC switched the rounding mark to nearby Scatchet Head, 2 nautical miles to the west-northwest. And so it is that the name of the race is now Scatchet Head.
Photo by Jan Anderson
Freda Mae, owned by CYC Member Vincent Depillis, was the overall winner of the Scatchet Head Race.
The race got off to a smooth start, on time and under a steady 20 knots of breeze. In P2, White Cloud, a Cookson 12 m, was eager to sail but had just six crew on the 39-footer. On their way out to the start, they stopped by the clubhouse dock, hoping to pick up additional crew. No such luck, so they headed out to the start line.
Kirk Schroeder, one of her crew, described the situation for me. “By now the Class 1 gun had gone off and with a steady 20 knots blowing and about eight minutes to our start, we scrambled to get the main up and prep the kite on the foredeck. With none of our regular bow folks on board, we got the kite up a bit late and headed down the rhumb line to the mark.”
Light on crew for such a windy race, they would have to sail impeccably. Kirk continued. “Amazingly with our light crew, heads-up sailing, and grinding in on every puff, we were the first boat in our class to the windward mark, outside of that pesky Melges, Banshee!” After rounding, the beat home proved more difficult with the light crew. “It wasn’t until around half way back to Shilshole that the other boats, one by one, picked us off due to our lack of rail weight.”
Since Greg Slyngstad sold Roxanne shortly after the Round the County race in October, Alex Krawarik and others of the Roxanne crew sail on String Theory, Bob King’s Olson 40. Their strategy was to run to the Scatchet Head buoy and just after rounding, cut right on port tack to take advantage of the forecasted southwest shift.
At the mark, it was “in P4 Gardyloo, then Nefarious, then us (String Theory) on the heels of Uno, the Sierra 26, Grace, the J/122, Eye Candy, the Farr 395, and the 1D35s Shrek and Kahuna. The Sierra was doing awesome. We all went right as did most boats in P1, P2, and P3.”
After awhile, Nefarious and String Theory both tacked to starboard, but this was slower for String Theory, which could not stay high and as a result, entered rougher water. They lost ground to Nefarious, which was able to stay high on the beach. String Theory decided to tack back to port and the right side.
Nefarious continued on starboard across the Sound to Edmonds. At Kingston, Gardyloo and the 1D35s flopped to starboard and crossed. “It was very telling how favored the right was at Kingston, as these boats all crossed ahead of us but we finished well ahead of them at the finish: our gains were made all in the final leg from Kingston to the finish.”
In P9, on the run to Scatchet Head, Symbiosis stayed mid-Sound while all the other boats went east. About a fourth of the way to the mark, during a set of deep, rolling waves, Symbiosis’ kite deflated and with the subsequent trimming, an error occurred on board which resulted in a bad wrap of the spinnaker around the forestay. It took a long time to unwrap it and she lost a lot of ground. A short time later, as the eastern shore boats made their way west towards the mark, Here and Now tacked in front of Kowloon who subsequently experienced some kite trouble and loss of time.
Blue Martini had a fast downwind leg and was forced to take down the spinnaker early to avoid a port starboard conflict with Outlaw. This slowed their approach to the mark and they were passed by Rubicon which rounded just in front. Symbiosis followed.
After rounding, it was not long before the P9 fleet split up, half going west and half going east. Blue Martini’s Laney Gale began the race with the strategy to go west after rounding at Scatchet Head, and that she did. While some boats stayed rather near the middle for awhile after rounding, the fleet split up into the western boats and the eastern boats. About 2/3 of the beat to the finish, the boats short tacking the east shore of the Sound included Here and Now, Rubicon, Kowloon, Outlaw, and Symbiosis, while on the west shore, Blue Martini was sailing with Penetration, Magic Button, and Norn from P10 and P11. Blue Martini stuck with their plan to stay west, hoping for the westward shift, staying out of the current and waves, until past President Point. Laney continued, “When we were almost laying the committee boat we started across, footing off the wind with a better course through the waves. We had at least a 20 degree lift on starboard and favorable current. We were the only boat at this point as all the boats behind us had crossed earlier. With great crew work and tactical plan, we were able to pick off several boats in our fleet and finish just behind Lunch Box!”
Alex summed up the race perfectly. “It was an interesting race—not all are. It was not the same situation as last weekend where the first several starts had WAY more pressure than later starts, as look who took First Overall (minus the trimaran) – the Olson 25 Three Ring Circus in P11! They sailed a great race. It’s awesome to see little boats like the Olson 25, Norn the SC27, and Ladybug, a Peterson 30, do so well