The Corinthian Yacht Club of Edmonds sponsors and annual race from Edmonds to Foulweather Bluff, located at the very Northwestern tip of Bainbridge Island. This year Carrera entered Foulweather Bluff as a PHRF racer in Division 5, and this race served as the first distance race that most of the crew had ever participated in.

Dan and I had delivered Carrera to Edmonds the night before, at first trying to sail up the Sound, but resorting to motor North of Medow Point. The crew assembled at 9 Saturday morning in Edmonds and we got on the water to prepare for our 9:50 start. As the gun approached, we were still disorganized and arranging things, and so our starting sequence was a little rushed. We had a great start though, on the pin end of the line, with Barnstormer (another Olson 30) and a Melges 24 starting with us and only a half boatlength behind. The wind was freshening from the Northwest, and we settled into a long long starboard tack out into Puget Sound.

At first Barnstormer was blowing us out of the water, pointing slighty higher and going slightly faster, and we watched their lead grow quickly. We were boat for boat with the Melges the entire way to Point No Point, but Barnstormer is clearly a very fast Olson. About 20 min after the start, Barnstormer leveled off and started footing a little South towards Point No Point, while the Melges and us held our course and stayed further out. Now we were rapidly approaching a fog bank, which, as it began to lift, revealed an ugly sight ahead: there was no wind ahead to the South, near land, and many of the boats had stalled with slack sails. Barnstormer was in there, in a hole South of our course, and it suddenly became vitally important to point as high as possible and stay as far out in better wind as possible.

A wind shift, and the Melges popped their asym spinnaker and walked away from us. We stayed with it and made a good course to the very tip of Point No Point, which we had to tack around. By the time we were beating for Foulweather Bluff, on the same Northwesterly course that had taken us all the way from Edmonds, most of the boats that had been stuck in the hole earlier were coming back. The Melges was up ahead, and we would never catch them for the rest of the race.

Rounding Foulweather Bluff bouy was great, it had only taken us 2 hours to get there, and the day was beautiful. The course to Sachet Head seemed to be a reaching leg - may boats were unsuccessfully flying spinnakers, so we reached under headsail until the wind started shifting and we popped the .75 ounce spinnaker, intent on having less shoulders for better reaching performance. This cost us in the end. Barnstomer took a flyer and was one of only two boats that stayed far out off the mark layline - it payed off. The wind lightend considerably, but was better out and Barnstormer not only made up their loss, about 3 minutes behind at Foulweather Bluff, but got a substantial lead, about 5 minutes or more at the Sachet Head mark.

Halfway to Sachet Head I heard a low crack from the stern. The Spin blocks were attached to the stern pulpit, and the stern pulpit was bending and pulling out! We quickly wrestled the spinnaker blocks off the pulpit and attached them to the toe rails instead. It seems like we are constantly breaking things. Only an hour before, we had blown up a D-shackle that attached a tweaker pully to the toe-rail. In the last race we had lost a halyard. What next?

The current was very strong as we rounded Sachet Head bouy, and we grazed the mark with our spinnaker as a Santa Cruz 27 squeezed us on the inside. The final run to Edmonds involved light, tempramental winds. At one point we almost launched the drifter, but the wind finally filled in enough for us to make the finish line in about 4:47 from the start of the race. Barnstomer finished 11 minutes ahead, I think the Melges finished first in the division. The other boat in the division, a Skye 51 ketch, which creamed us upwind but was slow downwind, finished a long time after us.

We were back in Edmonds marina at 3, after a great day of racing and a really fun ride along the South end of Whidbey. Hopefully this race will prepare us somewhat for the Port Ludlow race, October 9-10!