Eager to make up for the DNF Orcrist took in 1999's Winter Vashon, we entered this years race with a more experienced and dedicated crew, and a better understanding of sailing and what it would take to get around the island. Adventure awaits my friends, adventure awaits!

Well, as it turns out this was a little more adventure than we bargained for. The week of the race was a blustery one, but still we got some of the crew out to haul the boat out and clean the bottom. A clean bottom will make us go faster! Especially in light air, which is what I thought this might turn into.

Summer and Nancy volunteered to deliver the boat to Tacoma on Friday, so Friday they left the dock in stiff winds and rain to motor to Tacoma. The going was windy but the waves seemed to be acceptable, because they motored against the steady 20+ knot breeze until the made Tacoma Yacht Club just before dark.

It was blowing pretty hard at the start of the race, with the winds forecast just to get heavier. Opinions varied, but I guessed it was blowing about 22 knots at the start, with choppy seas. We watched the sequence carefully, and started right on time, under main alone. We were ready to hoist in a few short minutes, and the first try was a little frightening in the heavy air: sheet and guy were quickly blown as the boat caught the breeze. I was driving too hot! Summer and Nancy wrestled the sail to the deck, and re-rigged quickly for another hoist. This time I drove down, and the sail went up quickly and filled. The boat surged ahead, and rolled a few times. The rudder became overpowered and we Chinese-broached (boom in the air). Everyone remained on board, but the spin pole bridle broke as the boat righted itself, and the topping skied.

We came up, everyone caught their breath, and we proceeded to go to plan B, which was sail under main and jib while we figured out the spinnaker thing. We had lost a spin sheet in addition to the bridle breaking. So Summer worked on fashioning a new bridle and spinnaker sheet from a spare jib sheet. We gybed close the the beach, and the wind was slowly building. Gybes were manageable, since the boat is so light and goes fast enough for the apparent wind to be less than that of the bigger boats, but everyone was having lots of problems. Some boats broached, some spinnakers were destroyed, alot of folks stayed with white sail.

The trip down Colvos passage was very rapid, and by the time Summer was done with her repairs, it was almost time to round the island. We needed to reef, but we had not rigged the reefing system at the start of the race. In retrospect, we should have been at least double reefed, and perhaps even taken the main down completely.

We were completely overpowered when we tried to head into the wind. Reefing didnt help much, by now the winds were blowing a good 35 knots. The wind waves were 6-8 feet, much larger than my crew had yet seen, and so this was a whole new thing to them. I had been in conditions like this once or twice before, so was a little more comfortable, but still nervous.

At this critical point, we made the decision to head home and take the DNF. There was little incentive to head back to Tacoma, as we knew we would have to deliver the boat back that night or the next morning, might as well just go there now and be comfortable doing it. We were not the only ones, though a surprising number of people toughed it out! More people seemed to finish the heavy air race than typically finish the light air races.

Anyway, the trip back to Shilshole was relatively controlled, but the wind was certainly building, with gusts to 40. At one point we hit 15+ knots surfing down a wave, and routinely hit 11 and 12. It was a real fun ride back, lots of people, including visiting skipper Lisa Winterhalter, got a chance to drive the boat and surf the waves!

Orcrist scored a DNF in this year's Winter Vashon.