• A sea of sails as boats mill around the starting line for the 2001 Swiftsure.
• Exhibition Race boats line up near the starting area, with Flash Gordon 2, Neptune's Car, and Kotuku visible.
• Eight Hours on the beat. Dave Champion drives White Cloud towards Port San Juan with not a single boat in sight.
• Kotuku crosses White Cloud's bow, 45 miles from the start. It's a whole new race.
• Minutes after a 3am broach and destroyed spinnaker, White Cloud is again driving forward under heavy spin.
• Dawn. Approaching Race Rocks at dawn. The wind has subsided to a nice 15; Flash Gordon 2 is easily visible 2 miles away. It's a whole new race.
• The final tack into Victoria Harbor. A half mile to the finish line, only 5 minutes behind Flash Gordon and less than 2 hours behind boats twice our size.

I was fortunate to be invited by Steve Johnson to sail on White Cloud, a Cookson 12m, for the Swiftsure 2001 Exhibition Race. This was a long race for competetive big boats, including Steve Travis' sleek Farr Flash Gordon 2, 2 70-foot sleds Neptune's Car and Coruba, and a mixed bag of Santa Cruz 50's and other large boats.

We were the last start, after the Sookesure boats. A very light westerly made the initial tactical decision difficult - short tack the shore, or go out for better air? The fleet split almost immediately (7 of the 10 registrants started), with the two 70s engaged in a tacking duel along the shore, while Flash and Kotuku headed out. We took some middle ground at first, but headed out after Race Rocks in the building wind.

We changed down to the #3 soon, and sailed with that sail for most of the beat towards Port San Juan. Winds to 23 and wind waves of about 6 feet kept the drivers on their toes. After a while, we could no longer make out anything more than a hint of the competition in front of us or behind. Flash was up ahead, and occaisionally the 70s would appear out of the mist, far ahead, only to get lost again.

Several miles out of Port San Juan, and the winds have lightened enough to go back to the #1. Looking towards shore, the wind has glassed off and....waitaminute..both Flash and Kotuku are stuck in a hole on the shore, drifters up, trying to get back to better air. 45 miles from the start, we cross Flash Gordon, Kotuku crosses one boatlength ahead of us, and its a whole new race!

Kotuku gets some seperation going to the mark, but we keep Flash at bay behind us. The crew is now very tired - Annie has been sick the entire race, and is below in a sleeping bag. Dave was sick for a while, too. The rest of us have been hiking for 8 hours. We round the small Port San Juan bouy 2 and a half minutes behind Kotuku, and with Flash 45 seconds behind us. It is now a tight reach in 18 knots of air to Neah Bay, 11 miles away. Its getting dark, time to turn on the lights. We keep Flash behind us the entire reach across the mouth of the Straits. Two miles from Neah Bay, and the dark ghost of a 70-footer passes our stern, returning from Swiftsure Bank on the long course.

We round Neah Bay mark in a crowd of small boats at 10:30, and the air shuts off. Flash ghosts silently by us. Even though the spin is up, we have no pressure. I am flying the spin now, Steve is driving, looking for pressure. Finally it starts to fill, and we can bear off a little. It keeps building. We change from the light kite to a .8oz kite.

I take turns flying the spin all night. At one point I get about 30 minutes of rest down below, but am called up to help in a heavy air gybe. The boat is planing now, in 25-30 knots of air. Steve is driving very exactly and the boat responds well, surfing down waves, heading up a little to get speed for the next wave. Steve is having alot of fun, driving the boat expertly and soaking it up. But something goes wrong...the spin pole skies, the boat immediately rounds up. Its 3am, and we are getting dragged sideways with no bite on the rudder. I blow the spin sheet, but the spinnaker is alreay shredded. Steve regains helm, and we wrestle the spin to the deck. A dazed foredeck gets ready to set the heavy kite, but we are all a little shaken. By the time we get the heavy spin up, its only blowing 20 knots again.

We peel a short time later, and I fly the spin with Betsy until dawn. We pass Race Rocks light, and there is Flash Gordon, a mile away, off our stbd bow. We thought we had lost them for good, but its a whole new race!

We cross the finish at around 6:30. White Cloud had won the Exhibition Race by two minutes on corrected time...