Race to the Straits Photos

We had a wonderful race up to Port Townsend and back.  We had very favorable uphill conditions on Saturday, the girls were wonderful and watched movies all day while I grunted and sweated and tacked.  And tacked.  And tacked.  Double-handing is hard work, and all my time loafing behind the steering wheel hasn't exactly built up the strength I needed to tack the old girl a hundred times in 30 miles.  Janna seemed to be having fun though!

We ended up second, behind Westerly, the beautiful old yawl sailed by a couple of wily veterans.  We were also the second monohull to finish--out of 110 or so--so that took the sting out of losing a bit.  And we won the Jack and Jill class for the day.  Then we had a wonderful dinner featuring a 70lb halibut that my dad and Janna's dad caught the day before.  Life in the PNW is good!

Day 2 was downwind, not great for Non-flying sails class, but we did our best.  We managed to get ahead of Westerly and Breeze, our toughest NFS competitors, and then we just tried to keep our boat between them and the finish line.  It worked.  Results are here:
http://styc.org/race_info/RaceToTheStraits/2012/race1.htm


We had a great weekend.  Thanks to everyone from the Sloop who made it possible, and to Tom and Marie for hosting us in PT!

Photos taken by Jan's Marine Photography.  Thanks Jan!

Also, a very interesting review of the race here:
http://www.pressure-drop.us/forums/content.php?3482-Epic-Shorthanded-Racing