February 2024 48° North - Digital

40 ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME

46 TOP 25 FOR 2023

FEBRUARY 2024

28 OVERCOMING SAILING ANXIETY

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19001900 N. Northlake N. Northlake Way,Way, Seattle Seattle 1900 N. Northlake Way, Seattle FEBRUARY 2024

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FEATURES Healing My Sailing Anxiety

After years of struggle, a liveaboard cruiser faces her fears.

By Samantha McLenachen

48º NORTH

Marina del Rey to Astoria

Coastal hops to bring a newly acquired Grand Banks home.

By Tom Sims

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Rune Sails the Salish Sea

100 miles on a 16-foot boat is the adventure of a lifetime.

By Brian Holloway

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48° North’s Top 25 Race Boats of 2023

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COLUMNS Close to the Water: Cruising with My Mate

Recognizing consistently great sailing around the PNW.

A second cruise brings border crossings, uncertainty, and lessons.

By Bruce and Kate Bateau

24

NEW Column: Hikes for Boaters

This month’s boat-accessed trails are in central Puget Sound.

By Michael Boyd

26

Diesel Deep Dive: Magic Inside Your Cylinders Understanding the nuances of compression and related issues.

By Meredith Anderson

50 52

RACING Duwamish Head Aboard Cherokee

A great day of winter sailing to kick off the 2024 racing season.

J/Podders at J/70 Worlds

Local sailors’ experience at a major championship regatta.

ON THE COVER: A perfect sunset in a quieter-than-expected Winter Cove on Saturna Island for the 48° North Cruising Rally fleet, including Tartan 3400 Rugosa and Hunter 376 All ‘Swell. The next morning following lawn games ashore, there was an orca show in Trincomali Channel. Cruising dreams come true! Photo by Joe Cline.

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Background photo by Jan Anderson.

CONTENTS

34

FEBRUARY 2024

6

Editor PASS IT ON

When the Seattle Boat Show rolls around, the boating community collectively thinks more about those just beginning their waterborne journeys in the Pacific Northwest than at any other time of year. Sure, old salts love the show, too, for its deals, its cool new tech, and its homecoming reunion vibes. Still, who doesn’t remember their first boat show? Who didn’t stroll those red carpets and feel equal parts: “This is for me!” and “How will I ever…? Know enough? Afford any of this? Be ready to take the leap?”

It’s as wonderful as it is initially daunting.

That’s where experienced boaters come in. Every person who is already embedded in the sailing, cruising, paddling, and boating communities is a walking, talking embodiment of the reality that it is possible. We come from a wide array of backgrounds. Though we share similar passions, we have diverse interests, lifestyles, and motivations. Our boats are all along the spectrum of size, cost, and design, not to mention mode of propulsion. We are those starry-eyed daydreamers walking around with a bag positively bursting with brochures… just a few years or decades in the future.

The boat show illuminates the fact that each of us can be catalysts for the next generation of boat folk. I’ve often urged our readers to bring a friend to the show or out with you on your boat. Or both. Really, it’s even more than that, and the boat show demonstrates that the tent is so much bigger than anyone’s circle of friends.

We who already live our personalized versions of boat life can provide inspiration, simply by representing the possibilities. And by adding even a few words of encouragement for someone considering, or venturing into, life afloat; by sharing in their infectious enthusiasm; or by laying the groundwork for a friendship that might include some gentle, thoughtful mentoring as dockmates or buddy boats—we fan the flames of zeal and smooth the waters for their passage to broad boaty horizons.

This kind of thing happens all the time among mariners already. Support, education, inspiration, mentorship, and genuine fun are tenets of the boating culture and communities of the Salish Sea and other Pacific Northwest waterways. The boat show reminds me, however, that there’s always a new group of promising future seafarers thinking about stepping aboard for the first time to chase that dream.

In that way, it’s exactly like homecoming at school. There’s the carefree set of more experienced, more established people at the center of it all; and each year, there’s a new class of first-year students, clustered on the fringes, wondering if they’ll ever feel anything but unfamiliar and unconnected. They will. You will.

When this magazine comes out, the industry portion of the establishment will be moving boats and brochures into the Lumen Field Event Center and Bell Harbor Marina, along with wares from watermakers to wakeboards. Soon after, the community establishment will make their annual pilgrimage to the show. As we do so, let’s find ways to share the love with the next generation. Boat life is the best life. Pass it on.

Please come visit with us at the Seattle Boat Show!

Volume XLIII, Number 7, February 2024 (206) 789-7350 info@48north.com | www.48north.com

Publisher Northwest Maritime Center Managing Editor Joe Cline joe@48north.com Editor Andy Cross andy@48north.com Designer Rainier Powers rainier@48north.com Advertising Sales Kachele Yelaca kachele@48north.com Classifieds classads48@48north.com Photographer Jan Anderson 48° North is published as a project of the Northwest Maritime Center in Port Townsend, WA – a 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose mission is to engage and educate people of all generations in traditional and contemporary maritime life, in a spirit of adventure and discovery.

Northwest Maritime Center: 431 Water St, Port Townsend, WA 98368 (360) 385-3628 48° North encourages letters, photographs, manuscripts, burgees, and bribes. Emailed manuscripts and high quality digital images are best!

We are not responsible for unsolicited materials.

Articles express the author’s thoughts and may not reflect the opinions of the magazine.

Reprinting in whole or part is expressly forbidden except by permission from the editor.

SUBSCRIPTION OPTIONS FOR 2024! $39/Year For The Magazine $75/Year For Premium (perks!) www.48north.com/subscribe for details.

Prices vary for international or first class.

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Joe Cline Managing Editor, 48° North 48º NORTH

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10 All the Power You Need

LETTERS

Enjoying 48° North in Another Cruising Paradise

Model Shown Beta 38

Hey Andy,

Engineered to be Serviced Easily!

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We thought 48° North might be interested in this image.

Catherine and I were recently on St. Croix in the USVI and got this picture at the farthest southeastern corner of the United States. Point Udall at 17°45’21.22”N 64°34’01,53”W. Fun times scouting potential cruising grounds! That is Buck Island Reef National Monument in the background.

The My Boat article about Aarluk came out great. Thank you!

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Response to Peter Salusbury’s Article “Five Decades of Southern Straits Races” Alexandra Anglin: Great article!

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Madelyn Jones: Well written Peter Salusbury and I loved reading all your stories from Straits over the years. I grew up hearing my mum tell the story of Pearce Arrow wrecking on Worlcombe and would try to find pieces on the beach there.

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FEBRUARY 2024

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FEBRUARY 2024

News from the Northwest Maritime Center >> 48° North has been published by the Northwest Maritime Center (NWMC) since 2018. We are continually amazed and inspired by the important work of our colleagues and organization, and dedicate this page to sharing more about these activities with you.

48° North is part of something bigger, and we believe the mission-minded efforts of our organization matter to our readers.

SHE TELLS SEA TALES, MARCH 9, 2024 — DOING A WORLD OF GOOD IN A WORLD THAT CONTINUES TO NEED IT Sometimes this page is news-focused, sometimes a call to action. At other times, it's an opportunity for 48° North to make sure that our regional audience is aware of something amazing that the Northwest Maritime Center does. This month is the latter.

We're not telling you about She Tells Sea Tales because we're necessarily asking you to attend (it always sells out, but if you'd like to stay apprised of details, sign up for the email updates).

This is just an incredibly special program that more people should know about, whether they might attend, plan something similar in their own communities, or just take heart and inspiration from its very existence.

She Tells Sea Tales could be the most important maritime event you've never heard of. Hilarious and heartbreaking, raw and brutally honest, She Tells Sea Tales is a night of live storytelling offering an intimate glimpse into the lives of women in the maritime industry. The proceeds support NWMC's women- and girls-centric educational maritime programs, including the Girls' Boat Project.

NWMC's Associate Director of Maritime Partnerships, Angela Hewitson, shared this perspective about the impact and importance of She Tells Sea Tales: "She Tells Sea Tales is an intimate space where there are equal parts lyrical expressions of freedom and subtle, if not tragic, hurts and wins that have hummed beneath the surface of a woman at sea.

Even in a world where we are fighting to shatter the gender paradigm, this celebration of grit and grace acts as a torch against the ongoing sexism, gender bias, racism, harassment, violence, and internalized misogyny still plaguing so many industries. This might

sound like an old narrative and it is, but it’s because of these barriers barely 2% of the maritime industry is made up of women.

I’ve seen the power of women and girl centered programming and you might think as students they go through this process of empowerment and end up like ‘I can do anything,’ but it’s more like ‘Duh, we belong in this space.’ Listen in to the unique perspectives of these women’s tales. I'm feeling more grateful than ever for the inspiration and connection this space provides."

Renowned sailmaker and sailor, and past She Tells Sea Tales presenter, Carol Hasse, joins in the praise, "This program gives us the opportunity to hear remarkable, empowering, important stories in women's voices about their professional and recreational experiences. It's so deeply personal and authentic, it has become my favorite event NWMC does."

This year's She Tells She Tales presenters include McKayla Bower, Julia Maynard, EmmyLou Reijnen, Katelinn Shaw, Tracy Landboe, Karen Sullivan, and Susan Conrad. » www.nwmaritime.org/shetells/

EVENTS CALENDAR » www.nwmaritime.org/events BOAT BUYING BASICS March 5-6, 2024 Virtual Class

ANCHORING AND ANCHORAGES March 12-13, 2024 Virtual Class

WEEKEND WORKSHOP: DEMYSTIFYING MARINE FINISH March 23, 2024 NWMC Boatshop

OUTBOARDS: MAINTENANCE, CARE, AND TROUBLESHOOTING May 5, 2024 NWMC Boatshop

APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN FOR THE FIFTH ANNUAL SALISH 100 SMALL BOAT CRUISE, JULY 18-25, 2024 Starting in Olympia and ending in Port being no longer than 16 nautical miles, experience everything the Salish Sea has Townsend, Washington, and open to all making it a perfect choice for day sailors to offer: currents racing through narrow small boat vessels, 22-feet and under, looking to enter the cruising world. The channels, tide rips, sandbars, rocky shores, the Salish 100 is back! Once again, this cruise will visit Puget Sound ports in wonderfully protected anchorages, wind year’s cruise will be a self-supported, this order: Swantown Marina, Henderson conditions ranging from flat calm to sleep-aboard event, with shore camping Inlet, Filucy Bay, Gig Harbor, Blake Island, small-craft warnings, encounters with options at most, but not all, overnight Kingston, Port Ludlow, and Port Townsend. wildlife, and some new friendships that’ll Along the route, skippers from across last a lifetime. stops. » www.nwmaritime.org/salish100/ The route is 100 miles, with each leg the states and other countries will

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FEBRUARY 2024

low tides » News & Events SEATTLE BOAT SHOW EXCLUSIVE PANEL REVEALS INSIDER STORIES: BOYS IN THE BOAT AND HISTORY OF UW ROWING on the UW Campus until she was rescued by a student named Kirk Knapp. Conny was subsequently refurbished and brought back to her former glory. Visitors to the Seattle Boat Show will have the opportunity to witness the remarkable transformation of Conny through before-and-after pictures.

INSIDERS’ LOOK AT BOYS IN THE BOAT AND HISTORY OF UW ROWING In addition to the display of Conny, the Seattle Boat Show is hosting a special panel presentation on Sunday, February 4, from 1-2 p.m. Curated by UW rowing historian, Eric Cohen, who was a key resource for author Daniel James Brown during the research for his book, Boys in the Boat. Cohen is a former UW coxswain, three-time Pac-10 champion, 1981 consensus National Champion, and Captain at Washington. The panel promises an insiders' look into UW rowing and behind the scenes stories about the Boys in the Boat story and movie.

Panelists are: Eric Cohen; Kirk Knapp, owner of Conny; Melanie Barstow, former University of Washington women’s crew team and founder of the “1936 Tours” at UW; John Tytus, president of Pocock Racing Shells; and Yaz Farooq, Olympian and current UW Women's Rowing Head Coach.

Tickets are required for the panel presentation and are $20 for those who have already purchased show tickets, or $39 which includes single day admission to the boat show and admittance to the panel presentation. » www.SeattleBoatShow.com

In a tribute to the rich history of the University of Washington (UW) crew team, and the legendary Boys in the Boat book and newly-released movie, the Seattle Boat Show (February 2-10, 2024) is proud to announce two special opportunities for showgoers to take a deeper dive into the history, stories, and legacy of UW rowing and the epic quest for gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. On Sunday, February 4, the show will host a panel presentation by UW rowing legends who will share insider stories. After being inspired by the panel, show goers can visit the original Conny, the 1936 coaches’ boat, a replica of which features prominently in the movie.

BOYS IN THE BOAT COACHES’ BOAT ON DISPLAY Conny—a 28-foot 1932 cedar boat built for the UW crew team and named for famed rowing coach Hiram B. Conibear—will be in the Antique and Classic Yacht Society display for all nine days of the show. Conny put in many years of service on the UW crew team as the coaches’ boat, including the 1936 team. She ended her days with the UW crew team in the spring of 1971 when two members of the team took take their dates out for an evening cruise on Lake Washington without permission. The coaches might never have known, except for a bad accident that resulted in injuries on the other boat and left Conny to rot for many years

CORINTHIAN YACHT CLUB OF SEATTLE'S 'FRIDAYS IN FEBRUARY' SPEAKER SERIES FOR 2024 Corinthian Yacht Club (CYC) of Seattle invites you to attend their Fridays in February series, when club members present about their cruising adventures.

With food, drinks, friends and inspiration, it's a great way to spend a winter evening.

Social hour begins at 6 p.m. and the programs run 7-9 p.m., all at the CYC Clubhouse at Shilshole Bay Marina. Preregistration is encouraged.

FEBRUARY 9: FIRST TIME TO THE BROUGHTONS Presenter: Chris McMuldroch Forty-four days at 6 knots on Wind 48º NORTH

Dancer, a Tartan 3800 sailboat, during an early-summer cruise to British Columbia's Broughton Archipelago.

Chris will share about the crew, lessons learned, and favorite places they visited.

FEBRUARY 16: DASH TO DESOLATION SOUND Presenters: Greg and Mara Barckert In early August, the Barckert family casts off for a month aboard their Riptide 55 Rocket Science. Two-and-half-days and 180 miles later, they arrive in Desolation Sound and summer can officially begin.

They will share tips for a quick passage—

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hint, you don't need a big fast boat—and delve into their experience from 2023.

FEBRUARY 23: BAREBOAT CHARTERING ON ITALY'S AMALFI COAST Presenters: Hal and Ginger McMillan Hal, Ginger, and six friends chartered a 46-foot sailboat for a week. They'll share stories and information about their cruise and the chartering process, and their destinations including Capri, Positano, and Amalfi, as well as delightful lesser-known spots. » www.cycseattle.org FEBRUARY 2024

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FEBRUARY 2024

low tides » News & Events ANCHOR MARINE AND COMMUNITY BOATING PROGRAM IN PORT ANGELES FORGE NEW PARTNERSHIP

PAUL BIEKER NAMED 2023 WINNER OF CRUISING CLUB OF AMERICA'S DIANA RUSSELL AWARD

The Community Boating Program (CBP), located in Port Angeles and serving Clallam County, is on a mission to provide access to boating opportunities to youth and adults on the Olympic Peninsula. CBP recently announced a new strategic partnership with Anchor Marine, a distinguished veteranowned marine service company excelling in the repair and maintenance of boat engines and vessels. Their work together highlights the shared values and synergies between the two organizations, emphasizing a comprehensive approach to supporting the boating community through maritime education, a deep appreciation for local waters, and creating lasting positive impact throughout the community. » www.communityboatingprogram.org

The Cruising Club of America (CCA) has chosen Paul Bieker of Anacortes, Washington, to receive its Diana Russell Award. This award recognizes innovation in sailing design, methodology, education, training, safety, and the adventurous use of the sea.

Bieker is a yacht designer and boatbuilder with 30 boat designs to his credit starting with a series of successful International 14 skiffs. His development of small hydrofoils for 14s led to being recruited to work on foil design and structures in America’s Cup campaigns, and his work helped win two America’s Cups (2010 and 2013), among many other successes.

He is one of the world’s foremost foiling-boat designers. » www.cruisingclub.org

SEA TALES ON A WINTER'S EVE AT ARTFUL SAILOR

SARC CORRECTIONS

In 1958, four dedicated pacifists attempted to sail the 34-foot wooden ketch The Golden Rule, into the grounds of imminent nuclear bomb tests in the Marshall Islands. You're invited to The Artful Sailor’s Port Townsend loft to experience Golden Rule’s past voyages, restoration, and future through the eyes and imagery of Veterans For Peace presenter and Golden Rule crew member, Zoe Byrd. Presentation will be Sunday, February 18, 2024 from 6-8 p.m. A $20 donation is encouraged. » www.theartfulsailor.com

Despite our best efforts, we occasionally stub our toe putting together the region's racing calendar. Here are two corrections: • Published as Frigid Digits, CYC Seattle's January dinghy event is actually called Frigid Digit.

• Sidney North Saanich YC's Blackline Patos Island Race was incorrectly listed on March 23-24. It will take place April 15-16. » www.48north.com/sarc for continued updates.

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Clear of the bottom, as an anchor 4 Rope used to control the setting of a sail in relation to the direction of the wind 8 Line used to control the shape of a sail 9 Serious hazard to shipping where the temperature falls very low accompanied by high winds 10 Ocean sounds from a raging sea 11 Go into new areas where no one else has been before 13 Response to a captain’s order, 2 words 15 Fisherman’s equipment 17 Lifeboats 19 Front of a ship 23 “I’d like to buy __, Pat”- 2 words 24 Sea neighboring Greece 25 Any stairway on a ship 26 Gibson of “Braveheart” 27 Trike rider 28 High and low water lines

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» See solution on page 58 1

On or in a vessel Ocean inlet Very tranquil waters might be described as “smooth as ____” 4 Captain of a ship 5 Section of a TV series 6 Label 7 Blue and white flag hoisted indicating ships about to sail, 2 words 12 Direction for navigation, sometimes 14 At right angles to the fore and aft or centerline of the ship 16 “Medium” perception, abbr.

17 Depth of the keel below the waterline 18 Darkness 20 Distant object detection system 21 United 22 Tranquil 25 On the sheltered side, at sea 26 Doctor title, abbr.

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low tides » Products News » MANTUS DINGHY

For cruisers in the Pacific Northwest, finding a dinghy that can be dragged up on rocky, barnacle laden beaches without being damaged has long been a difficult task. Now, coming in 2024, Mantus Marine is set to launch their rotomolded rigid dinghy, which offers the stability and convenience of a rigid inflatable but provides a durable, efficient, and low maintenance hull.

Model 104 is 190 lbs, 10.4 feet long, and 5.7 feet wide, providing 30% more interior space to a comparable rigid inflatable and copious amounts of storage space. Thick foam bumpers along the sides of the dinghy create a cushion when coming alongside a boat or dock. The boat is easy to get on plane and can take up to a 15 hp long or short shaft outboard of your choice. Rowing from the middle seat is fun and easy and the standard package includes oars, seats, and convenient storage bags. Wheels are optional.

Price: $5,440 » www.mantusmarine.com

» TORQEEDO TRAVEL FAMILY

Torqeedo has taken their original “Travel” electric outboard to the next level. The new Travel Family is a next generation lineup that serves an even broader range of boating applications. The Travel Family’s modular design starts with four packages to choose from: the Adventure Package pairs an 1,100 W Travel and a 1,080 Wh battery with an innovative mounting and steering system that gets kayak anglers quickly and stealthily to their secret spots. The Essential Package is the original Travel, redefined. It pairs an ultra-efficient 1,100 W outboard motor with a 1,080 Wh battery. The Range Package substitutes a higher-capacity battery (1,425 Wh) for when you want to spend all day on the water. And the Power Package easily propels sailboats, larger boats, boats on coastal waters, or vessels that routinely experience windy, wavy conditions with its heavy-

duty 1,600 W direct-drive motor and 1,425 Wh battery. Once the package is selected, a multitude of charging, propeller, and accessory options allow boaters to build their perfect electric Travel companion.

Price: $2,899/$3,389/$3,998/$3,990 » www.torqeedo.com

» YETI HOPPER M12 BACKPACK SOFT-SIDED COOLER

YETI is at it again with the latest in their lineup of soft-sided coolers to keep your drinks cold and ready at your fingertips. The YETI Hopper® M12 Backpack Soft-Side Cooler features a wide mouth opening with durable and powerful magnetic flap to create an ultra leak-resistant shield that stays open when you need it and snaps closed with a push. Made for comfort, this backpack cooler is designed to fit wine bottles and can carry up to 20 cans of your favorite beverage. Closed-cell foam offers impressive cold-holding capabilities, and RF Welding is used to eliminate stitching and provide leakproof seams in the interior liner. The exterior of the cooler is built with high-density fabric to withstand punctures and UV rays. To help extend the life of the cooler, both the interior and exterior materials are treated to be mildew resistant. You can attach accessories to the cooler’s HitchPoint™ Grid and the Kangaroo Pocket lets you easily stash away keys, a wallet, or phone.

Price: $275 » www.yeti.com 48º NORTH

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Seattle Yachts Sailing Academy American Sailing Association (ASA) Certified Sailing School Based out of beautiful Anacortes, Washington, we offer a complete range of ASA courses from Basic Keelboat 101 through Advanced Coastal Cruising 106, Cruising Catamaran 114, Docking Endorsement 118, and private instruction.

Schedule online NOW for our ASA Instructor Qualification Clinic (IQC). April 17-21. ASA 201, 203, 204, 218, and 205. www.sailtime.com/location/anacortes/sailing-school Pay online for courses throughout the 2022 season. Book Now! Courses are filling up fast!

Call us at 360-299-0777 if you want to talk about your sailing future!

719 28th Street Anacortes, Washington 360-299-0777

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CLOSE TO THE WATER

CRUISING WITH MY MATE A SECOND CRUISE BRINGS BORDER CROSSINGS, UNCERTAINTY, AND LESSONS LEARNED.

by Bruce & Kate Bateau Sailing across Lopez Sound, enjoying the summer weather.

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t’s an image I’ll never forget: my wife, Kate, hoisting our boathook overhead, a radar reflector lashed to the tip, as we were engulfed in fog on the edge of Haro Strait. A moment ago, we could see Vancouver Island clearly five miles distant; now only the forestay was visible on the bow of Luna, our 19foot wooden catboat. Beyond us, somewhere in the shipping lanes, a tanker honked relentlessly.

“What are we going to do now?” Kate asked, her voice strained with fear. “That ship is going to clobber us.”

“Moresby Island is much closer than you think,” I said, holding up the GPS. “Plus, I’ve got a compass bearing and we’re way out of the lanes. We’re safe.”

“If you say so,” she replied, staring into the all-encompassing whiteness.

It was one more tense moment in the see-saw of emotions experienced during our second cruise together. After years of solo small boat adventuring, Kate joined me for the first time the previous summer and we spent two weeks roaming the

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our allotted three days at the dock, and it was time to move on. The Salt Spring Island Cheese Company had put a spell on Kate several years earlier, and the call to return was strong.

But getting there required crossing Haro Strait, where we encountered that fog. Fortunately, it didn’t last long and the container ship passed by us uneventfully.

We arrived at the Canadian customs dock in Bedwell Harbour with just a few big trawlers ahead of us. The customs folks clearly dismissed our tiny wooden boat as any kind of smuggling threat, since they didn’t bother searching it for contraband while the agents crawled all over the bigger craft like ants at a picnic. Our real challenge for the day was deciding which of the 10 mooring buoys at the adjacent provincial park to choose.

Before long, cheese was procured and devoured. We enjoyed puzzling over the relative spending power of Canadian dollars.

There were relaxed walks in the woods and strolls through quaint towns. We even avoided what would have been a hard, rainy slog to another island by taking a ferry instead. A few days later, on the edge of Haro once again, our bow turned eastward, the thick fog returned, for just long enough to silence Kate with fear (though it dissipated before we needed to deploy the radar reflector).

A different challenge came when we approached the United

After clearing customs, Luna sits peacefully on a mooring in Bedwell Harbour.

San Juans (see “Close to the Water” in last month's issue of 48° North). It went so well that we set aside three weeks this summer to go farther, but if last year was a dream cruise, this year’s voyage had a touch of nightmare.

A week earlier, we’d packed Luna and launched in Anacortes, more comfortable with the boat than last summer, as well as the basics of cruising together. We departed under calm, sunny skies, but despite the slack tide, out in Rosario Strait I felt like a mouse being toyed with by a cat. Wavelets and chop bashed into Luna as we bumped our way across. Luna’s high bow deflected spray, and the cockpit remained dry, but Kate’s silence and furrowed brow told me all I needed to know: Hurry up, and get me out of this boat.

Reaching Spencer Spit State Park, I handily nosed Luna up to a mooring ball where, using lessons learned last year, Kate deftly hooked its ring with our boat hook and secured a line.

We both cheered and collapsed into the cockpit for appetizer hour. After dinner, we loaded into a dinghy I’d built over the winter. I beamed with pride as it tracked perfectly and easily accommodated both of us in comfort.

Come morning, the pendulum hand swung the other way.

“Honey, did you by chance spill some water on me?” I asked, baffled by the damp seeping into my sleeping bag.

A peek beneath the floorboards soon revealed that the garboard plank was weeping. And after two days at sea, enough water had gathered to slosh out of the bilge and onto my bedding. This necessitated an unplanned trip to Friday Harbor to acquire some epoxy putty to staunch the flow.

From there it was a noisy motorized hop to Jones Island, our favorite state park. Although the wind had been on our nose so far, luck now turned in our favor. Not only did we get the last spot at the dock, but we soon met a sailor who was also a fisherman. “I’ll catch you some flounder,” Paul offered, and a few hours later Kate and I were sitting at a picnic table, drinking wine and preparing two fresh fish. I never would have guessed that just olive oil, salt, pepper, and heat could create such perfection. We gazed at the charming cove, filled with cruisers, and at the island peaks in the distance. For all this, a little water on my sleeping bag seemed a small price to pay.

Time passed surprisingly quickly, and soon we had spent 48º NORTH

The author looks across San Juan Channel from his favorite park, Jones Island.

The view of the Gulf Islands from Sidney Spit is a sight to behold.

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job on the tiny dock. A bevy of small boats soon piled up nearby, including a family with a baby and a sailing father and adult daughter, making a lively scene. Arriving here felt like a more rugged version of our beloved Jones Island. Hiking over the steep hills, chatting up birdwatchers, and admiring the rippling waters surrounding us buoyed our mood.

Come bedtime, a wind blew against the ebb tide pushing past the dock, creating an unbearable bucking, rocking motion in our cabin. In the dark, we hauled a tarp and our sleeping gear up to the campground’s picnic shelter. The moon was rising, casting a silver glow on the water and highlighting the bold silhouettes of the fir trees surrounding us. Despite our unanticipated new sleeping quarters we smiled, snugged up in our sleeping bags, relieved by the solid, comforting stillness of the land.

Months later, looking back over our ship’s log, I read a tale of challenging and unusually strong conditions for summer that often dampened Kate’s enthusiasm. When solo, things that test my skills and judgment often make a trip memorable and interesting. However, continuously playing the roles of captain, safety officer, and navigator with Kate aboard forced me to take on a different burden of responsibility, and Kate to depend on me, to a degree that was new and unsettling to both of us.

I was edging towards selling Luna when we got back. Rightly or wrongly, the boat seemed to embody the shortcomings of our cruise. I didn’t want to revisit them, yet I couldn’t help dwelling on them. Unloading the boat would solve that problem I thought.

Yet as the fall progressed and Kate and I both gained some distance, we found ourselves looking back on our mishaps with less angst, coming to see them not as the disappointments we felt so keenly at the time. Now, instead of lingering in the dark times, it was the moments of great beauty that we recalled.

Gradually we found ourselves wondering how we might do things differently on a future trip.

We’ve got the winter to figure it out.

Kate rests in Luna’s cockpit at James Island State Park, the couple’s last stop.

States border near Roche Harbor. The Customs Border Patrol Roam App failed to work properly and an annoyed agent called my cell phone.

“You didn’t fill out the declaration tab properly,” he said tersely. “And you scanned the wrong documents. Report to Friday Harbor immediately.”

It would take our tubby little boat at least two hours of annoying motoring against another headwind to make it there.

Crestfallen, I saw the quiet anchorage and delicious meal I’d been coveting at the nearby Westcott Bay Shellfish Company slip away.

Clearing customs at Friday Harbor barely took five minutes.

Grouchy and too demoralized to head all the way back to Westcott, we chugged over to a cove on the edge of town and anchored.

Then, while assembling the cockpit tent, one of its support poles slipped out of our hands. Like a spectator at a movie, I watched it glide over the coaming and sink silently into the water.

“What’s the tide doing,” Kate asked, equally shocked. “Maybe we can retrieve it later?”

With oozy mud and a vast field of trash can lid-sized sea lettuce below I just shook my head. There were two remaining poles, and we’d have to make it work.

Despite these setbacks, we regrouped the next morning, rowed ashore, and climbed aboard the local bus, which took us to historic English Camp, where a hiking trail through the woods led us directly to Westcott and the oysters we’d been craving.

It wasn’t the way we’d planned to get there, but as we sat at our patio table, looking out at the sparkling bay, I grinned. As is often the case on a cruise, we adapted and found something special in the process.

The unexpected day on San Juan Island had turned out well, but we were ready to go home. Since we couldn’t make it back to Anacortes in one day, we set our sights on James Island hoping that, unlike last year, there would be room for us at the dock.

Current swirled as we approached the park’s tiny cove. I gunned the motor, making a wide arc, so our bow faced away from the island, while Kate deployed the fenders and wielded the boat hook. Together we executed a perfect parallel parking 48º NORTH

Bruce Bateau sails and rows traditional boats with a modern twist in Portland, Oregon. His stories and adventures can be found at www.terrapintales.wordpress.com.

It didn’t happen as planned, but a trip to Westcott Bay Shellfish Company was a highlight.

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24

HIKES FOR BOATERS

CENTRAL PUGET SOUND

by Michael Boyd Photos by Karen Johnson

We are excited to welcome Michael Boyd and Karen Johnson to the family of 48° North columnists. Michael has written a handful of excellent 48° North features, which were paired with Karen’s beautiful photographs. Experienced and well-traveled cruisers, they are excited to share one of the major passions that cruising has enabled: exploring Pacific Northwest hikes that are difficult or impossible to access unless you arrive by boat. Though they’re going to bring you to some astonishingly remote locations, they are beginning the series closer to home.

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e like traveling by boat. Perhaps we’re drawn to it by the slow, relaxing pace, or the views of water, sky, and the distant land. Or maybe it’s the colors — mostly blues, greens, and grays. For most Northwest boaters, at the end of every day’s travel there’s a carefully selected destination. Of course, the first consideration for any boating destination is that it meets the needs of the boat for a secure place to anchor or moor. For us, this usually means anchoring.

So we look for a place that’s well protected from wind and waves, has a soft bottom of suitable depth, and room to swing without encountering either land or other boats. A place where we will feel totally comfortable in leaving the boat alone.

The best destinations also provide an opportunity for shore leave. Sometimes that is only rock-hopping under a cover of trees. Other times it’s a beach that is only exposed at low tide.

But we are happiest when we can go for an extended hike, along beaches or exploring farther from the water. This might mean checking out a local town (perhaps looking for a coffee shop) but more often means, for us at least, hiking through the terrain, perhaps to a viewpoint where we can see the water and maybe even our boat resting peacefully at anchor. Good hiking is an integral part of what makes for a great destination. Here are a few of our favorites near our home port of Seattle.

We think of Central Puget Sound as the region north of Tacoma Narrows that is an easy one-day journey from Seattle by boat. There are lots of boats here and the shoreline is heavily populated. But despite the population pressure, there are still wonderful opportunities to moor or anchor your boat safely and take in a wonderful hike through woodlands and other wild areas.

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VASHON ISLAND’S DOCKTON AREA TRAILS Only a short trip from the town of Gig Harbor (a great destination for road walks itself) and Tacoma, Quartermaster Harbor is a long bay on the south side of Vashon Island and Dockton is a small community on the bay’s east side. There is good protection for anchoring here, evidenced by the large number of boats on permanent moorings, and also a public dock with no services, just a set of floats. Staying here is easy whether anchored out on the broad, flat mud bottom or tied to the dock; we’ve done both. The last time we were on the dock, a mother seal spent several hours getting her young pup to climb out onto the dock right behind our boat.

On shore is the Dockton County Park and behind it the Dockton Forest Mountain Bike Trails, a wilderness park with a large number of trails which, in turn, is connected via trails to

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Local Dockton teenagers sliding off the roof of a dock building to cool off on a hot summer day.

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the Maury Island Natural Area with miles of mostly flat walking but there SEATTLE Blakely Harbor even more trails. There are lots of are plenty of others, offering more or opportunities for exploration here less distance. and, even though we’ve been here Blake several times, we feel we have only BAINBRIDGE ISLAND’S BLAKELY Island just begun. Our last was a hike from HARBOR the dock to the Natural Area viewpoint Blakely Harbor is a long, narrow bay which is 300 feet above the water on the southeast shore of Bainbridge with spectacular 180 degree views Island, open to the east but well from Des Moines to Tacoma. Nearby, protected from all normal Puget there is even machinery left from a Sound wind directions. Aside from long abandoned sand and/or gravel the hikes, its real claim to fame is the Dockton quarry. More exploration awaits there. absolutely fabulous nighttime view of It was a warm summer day and, when downtown Seattle and, on the right we got back from that hike, the local day, moonrise over West Seattle. But teenagers had found a way to cool off; to enjoy all this you need to anchor. climb to the top of the dock building The head of the harbor shallows fairly and slide down its metal roof into the water 20 feet below. Oh, quickly. It also narrows at this point so there is only anchoring to be a teenager again. That hike was about 4.5 miles but there room there for a couple of boats. Further out the harbor is are plenty of others, both longer and shorter. wider but also deeper. Unless we just happen to get there at the right time, that is when someone just happens to be leaving, BLAKE ISLAND STATE PARK we usually find ourselves anchoring a ways out in 45-50 feet.

Blake Island is the closest state marine park to Seattle. Holding is excellent everywhere so it’s never been a problem.

Accordingly, and as many Puget Sound boaters know well, it The harbor is lined with houses on its north and south sides. has plenty of facilities for boaters with trails around and across The west end is the site of an old lumber mill, now a “park.” the island in several directions. There is a breakwater protected Shore access is at a road end just west of the last house on the marina on the north end of the island and mooring buoys in north side. Once ashore, there are several popular hikes to do numerous places around the island. Anchoring is possible in here. One is to explore the site of the old mill and its lagoon. several areas, but the west side seems to be the most popular. There are several short trails to do just that. If you fancy a road Anchoring here can be difficult; the mooring buoys are set on a walk you can go visit the Bainbridge Island Japanese American shallow shelf, outside of which is much deeper water. We prefer Exclusion Memorial over at Eagle Harbor. to grab a buoy. Last time we were here, a boat anchored south But our favorite Blakely Harbor option is a hike on a nice of the buoys on short scope dragged ashore overnight in less forest trail over to Fort Ward Park on Rich Passage. It’s called than 10 knots of wind. the Fort Ward Hill Trail. The trailhead is in a small parking area About half the hikes on Blake are on trails that include off of the road due west of the lagoon. It’s a good, normal hiking portions sharing the dirt roads that maintenance crews use to trail (not a wide, groomed state park trail) that climbs a bit of take care of the park. We almost always do the outside loop a hill before turning south then west to meet the water again road as well as one or more of the interior trails. There are trail in Fort Ward Park. Once near Fort Ward Park, the trail divides maps in multiple locations; unfortunately, they don’t always providing several ways of entering the park before hitting the agree, so there’s sometimes that element of uncertainty that main park road by the water. A number of loops are possible, makes exploration so delicious. Luckily you can’t get too lost; but a straightforward 4.5-mile roundtrip from our dinghy at you are on an island after all. The outside loop is a bit over 4 the road end has been about right for us. It’s not a spectacular hike but it is a great way to spend the day while waiting for the Seattle skyline light show to begin.

Hiking the perimeter Wherever you land as a cruiser, one way to find information loop on Blake Island. on hikes is to check out the visitor information kiosk when you go ashore at a park, city, or town. You’ll often find a pamphlet with a trail map or destination suggestions that might be accessible from your boat.

Michael and Karen have been cruising the Salish Sea and beyond for more than 20 years, hiking every chance they get. For more resources for hikers, visit their website at https://mvmischief.com/library/.

For additional hiking information in this area Michael and Karen also recommend: Afloat and Afoot in South Puget Sound

by Marge & Ted Mueller.

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26

DIESEL DEEP DIVE

THE MAGIC INSIDE YOUR ENGINE’S CYLINDERS

by Meredith Anderson

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or many folks, the engine aboard their boat is a mystery and what happens inside can be closely compared to magic. You hit the start button or turn the key, and the engine fires right up! At least, you hope it does.

While there are many components working together in a diesel engine, the engine’s internal operation is a fairly basic concept. It is an iron block equipped with pistons sliding up and down that create and harness an explosion, which is then converted into a type of energy or “work” that we can use — rotational energy that can spin a wheel or propeller, for example. While this article won’t be long enough to explain every aspect, I will be diving into one of the three main things every diesel needs in order to run: air, compression, and fuel.

Compression is one of the most important things a diesel engine needs in order to create the explosion inside the cylinder. Since we are talking primarily about diesel engines in recreational boats, compression is extremely important since diesel fuel will not ignite without good compression. This is not as critical in a gasoline engine, as gasoline is far more volatile and can ignite much more easily thanks to a spark from a spark plug. Diesel engines only use the heat built up from compressing air molecules within the cylinder to ignite the fuel itself. Any reduction in that compression can prevent the ignition of the diesel and prevent the engine from starting.

So why do sailors and cruisers care about this? Well, many of us have engines that rely solely on compression to get started, meaning they do not have glow plugs, an intake grid heater, or any 48º NORTH

Pulling a cylinder head on a Yanmar 2GM20F for a rebuild, and machining valve seats. Due to poor compression, it was very difficult to start. other form of heat to help them start, especially on cold days. The widely used Yanmar GM series (2GM20F, etc.) are examples of engines that can become extremely cantankerous in the cold when trying to get it started, because they have a lot of work to do to warm up that cold iron engine block. If there is any lack of compression, you will notice it with these engines as they will not start easily until they build up enough heat from the compression to fire. An engine like this will have a much higher compression ratio than its counterpart with glow plugs installed (Universal, Beta, etc). A compression ratio describes the amount that the air/fuel mixture in a cylinder is compressed from its original volume, with a higher ratio meaning the mix is compressed into a smaller volume, thus yielding greater power and efficiency. If you’ve ever tried to start a Universal engine with faulty glow plugs, it just doesn’t want to happen as its

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compression ratio isn’t enough to build up heat quickly. In an older non-glowplug-equipped Yanmar, you may notice it gets harder and harder to start the more wear and tear it has; this is a direct sign that somewhere, compression isn’t quite where it should be. The most common causes of this type of compression issue are leaking exhaust or intake valves, or piston rings.

If the engine is hard to start, how do we confirm compression is the issue?

I recommend a great DIY approach to finding out if compression pressure is leaking from the top of the cylinder. To do this check, while the engine is running, I will remove the oil cap usually on top of the valve cover. Because the crankcase pressure below the pistons should be “atmospheric” pressure (about 14.7psi), I shouldn’t feel any puffing against my hand out of the oil fill hole. If I do feel puffing, that tells me there is compression leakage somewhere into the crankcase FEBRUARY 2024

Yanmar 2GM engine with cracked #1 piston causing a no start condition.

The author removing an injector rocker arm for compression adapter on CAT C15 engine. below the cylinders. If I want to find out whether the piston rings are leaking or whether the top end is the culprit, I can remove the dipstick and use my hand or a piece of paper towel to indicate whether there is pressure in the bottom end. If I only feel pressure under the valve cover, most likely it is something related to valves in the top end. To be clear, this is not a comprehensive test. To get accurate numbers for each cylinder, mechanics will use a compression gauge with an adaptor that fits the engine by use of a glow plug hole or an injector hole. If they want to go further, a leak down test would confirm where the leak is coming from — in this test, compressed air is applied to

the compression test adapter and one listens to the sound of air escaping.

Most of the time when diagnosing an engine for poor compression, there are many signs that indicate an issue far before I crack the gauges out. Typically, I’m led right to the exhaust and intake valves, as most recreational diesels have wet exhausts and the salty air will corrode valve seats and make the engine quite difficult to start. Recreational diesels also suffer from excess idling or low speed operation without load, and have resulting piston damage over time from soot and carbon, which are extremely abrasive to the cylinder walls. Running your engine in the recommended

operating range of about 80% under load will help prevent this buildup.

A compression test, while useful, will not give us all the answers, but it can confirm whether there is an issue related to poor compression or not. And the words “compression issue” don’t have to strike fear in the heart of every cruiser.

The more you know, the more you’ll be able to work to prevent these issues!

Meredith Anderson is the owner of Meredith’s Marine Services, where she operates a mobile mechanic service and teaches hands-on marine diesel classes to groups and in private classes aboard clients' own vessels.

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FEBRUARY 2024

HEALING MY SAILING ANXIETY

by Samantha McLenachen

HOW I LEARNED TO ENJOY THE SAILING PORTION OF THE CRUISING LIFESTYLE I LOVE The sail back home from Gig Harbor to Tacoma was supposed to be a celebratory affair, an exciting end to our weekend getaway on our Hunter Legend 43, Muse, and a perfect way to spend the holiday. What it turned into, however, was the catalyst for me to get serious about my sailing anxiety. The northerly winds whipped through Colvos Passage on the west side of Vashon Island, climbing to 23 knots, and my fear took complete control over me. Sustained winds of that strength usually result in a small craft advisory, but it certainly didn’t help matters that I lost my mind.

Cruisers are often warned against sticking to a set schedule, and for very good reason. Mother Nature calls the shots. But sometimes the pressures of life push us to venture out of safe harbors when it would be better to stay put. I believe this is especially true for us weekend boaters who squeeze our adventures in between a whole pile of responsibilities on land that, frankly, don’t give a crap if the sailing conditions for our 48º NORTH

return trip are beyond our levels of comfort and experience. As much as we would like to have the freedom and flexibility to extend our trips, there are bills to be paid, classes to attend, corporate overlords to appease, and the list goes on.

Many times, the enjoyment of being in a beautiful anchorage with my husband and family has been completely overshadowed because Sunday’s forecast was a big, looming monster waiting to devour me on the way back home.

Some of this fear is practical and serves me well. It’s true that sailors should know their limits and be weather-wise.

The problem was that my limits were far more limited than other sailors I know. I have always been very risk averse, but with my slow and steady approach, I can usually overcome my fear enough to reach my goals—working up the courage to rollerblade down the steep driveway like all the other neighborhood kids; facing my fear of skiing year after year to get to a nice, comfy intermediate level; persevering through stage fright as I gently built up my skills in performing and

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public speaking.

I’ve always been able to reach my desired level of proficiency, despite my fears. But sailing was somehow different. After living aboard for several years, and taking the boat out regularly during the warm season, my skills and confidence seemed to be stalled. Not only that, the anxiety had become truly debilitating.

During that Mother’s Day blow, we were on a close reach and the southern tip of Vashon was drawing nearer and nearer. We made a plan to ease the sheets, skim past the bottom of the island, and keep heading toward Commencement Bay on a beam reach. The wind had other ideas, however. The beautiful mess of glacier-carved land and water that is the Salish Sea tends to do funny things, and it was an unwelcome—but not completely unexpected—surprise when the wind suddenly changed direction and built to the point that we were overcanvased and very uncomfortable. Perceiving that I was completely out of my depth and that death must surely be imminent, I became totally petrified at the helm.

I was absolutely useless. No, less than useless. I ended up yelling at my husband, Andrew, who was just trying to help me get a grip in the most gentle way he could. He had to navigate the situation singlehanded, and it took me a full 20 minutes to regulate my nervous system to the point where I could stop shaking.

Quickly adjusting our heading and trim, and reducing sail meant we were much more comfortable for the remainder of the trip. Physically comfortable, anyway. Inside, I was a mess of guilt and shame. Could I even call myself a sailor if I was that afraid of sailing? I felt like such an embarrassment and a failure.

The sailing season was just getting started, and I realized that I had a choice. I could be absolutely miserable, dreading any winds above 15 knots for the next several months, not to mention in the years to come, or I could do the hard work of

The author's boat Muse is a great cruising platform.

Her challenges stemmed not from the boat, but from within.

Commitment to the cruising life led Samantha to work hard to overcome her anxiety.

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The author found it was better for her to handle lines than to be at the helm when she was most scared.

addressing the issue and changing my brain so I could reach my goal of becoming a more confident, capable sailor.

Before going further, let me say that I am not a therapist, and if any readers are struggling with mental wellness, they should definitely consult a professional. I am very excited about the massive transformation I’ve experienced, though, and I hope my story gives anyone else with sailing anxiety some hope for their own wellness journey.

Fear is a very hard thing to talk yourself out of because it doesn’t come from the part of the brain primarily responsible for higher level reasoning, the cerebral cortex. The fight/flight/ freeze instinct is exactly that, an instinct, and we share it with all other creatures that have a central nervous system. This instinct evolved long before our cerebral cortex gave us many executive functions, so it makes sense that often our fear response is not reasonable. I could understand this at a cognitive level, but that didn’t make my panic feel any less real.

I’m a life coach, so I already had an idea of where to begin, but I often find it helpful to reach out to my network of colleagues and process things with their support. After this incident, I was very motivated to put that resource to use. One lovely and skilled coach I worked with helped me to listen to my fear to find out what it was trying to tell me. What was the root belief that was driving the behavior?

As it turns out, the scariest part of sailing for me is when I feel like I’m out of options. I believe the boat is completely out of control and all hope is gone. I told you it might not be reasonable!

But I knew that invalidating those fear-driven thoughts would not make them go away and my coach knew it too. It would be nice if we could simply stop believing unreasonable things, but that’s often easier said than done. Since anxiety is a tricky beast that runs on instinct, it could care less about my intentions to simply stop thinking that way.

What I learned about my fear is that it’s like a scared animal.

I couldn’t reason with it. I had to accept it exactly where it was and honor it for trying to keep me safe.

But what about my goal of becoming a more confident sailor?

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I wasn’t willing to call it quits and walk away from this lifestyle I love, so I felt that the best option for me would be to gradually and gently change my understanding of what it means to be safe.

I had heard of exposure therapy before, but I had lots of previous sailing exposure and my experiences year after year weren’t getting any better. That’s when I learned about the gradual exposure technique.

In gradual exposure therapy, you gently move the target forward until you reach your goal, which is to eliminate the anxiety as much as possible. But to do that, you have to accept your fear exactly where it’s at without shaming it or trying to ignore it. Board-certified clinical psychologist, adjunct Professor at the Yale School of Medicine, and past president of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Dr. David Tolin, is a big advocate for this type of gradual exposure therapy. Dr. Tolin has seen huge success in the treatment of all kinds of anxiety disorders. He’s written over 200 peer-reviewed articles on his findings, but he also has a book called Face Your Fears for everyday psychology enthusiasts and anxiety sufferers like me.

Since fear can be like a scared animal, a related example can help illustrate how gradual exposure therapy works. If I had a dog that was terrified of boat rides but it was really important for me to get to a place where I could bring it along on weekend cruises, I probably wouldn’t just jump right in and expect the dog to get a grip. That would most likely result in many miserable weekends aboard and perhaps even a dog that became more and more anxious over time.

Instead, I would take the dog for a walk down at the marina.

As we moved along the dock approaching the boat, I would pay attention to any signs of anxiety that arose. If the dog got visibly uncomfortable as I tried to coax it on board, I would stop right there at the dog’s threshold of fear. Then I would take the semi-scared pup back up to the car before the melt-down phase, comforting it until it was calm.

There. We met our edge, we backed away, and nothing bad happened. See? Everything is okay.

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Heeling even with a double reefed mainsail. Samantha learned to pay attention to her adrenaline response and remind herself that though the fear is real, the danger usually is not.

myself, this moving target became evident. For me, taking the helm in moments when the wind is building past 15 knots and needing to make quick decisions about managing the boat and sails felt too close to that threshold. The key was noticing how my body responded in these types of situations.

That's when I started incorporating mindfulness into this exposure work—noticing my rise in adrenaline and reassuring myself that I am safe—based on the anxiety therapy practices of Dr. Claire Weekes, who taught her patients that although the fear might be real, the danger usually is not. Those who struggle with anxiety disorders, she believed, had overly sensitive nervous systems. According to her theory, the key is to notice how your body responds without being afraid of the response.

Could I feel the wind building, watch the inclinometer inch toward 15° or 20° of heel, and sit calmly with the stress hormones flooding my body? It was one thing to know my threshold. But it was quite another to meet it and simply welcome the physiological response.

I was desperate to keep moving my fear threshold forward and make the cruising lifestyle work for me and my family.

So, I went forward with the rest of the sailing season, this time equipped with a plan centered around gradual exposure therapy and Dr. Weekes’s anxiety management principles, and refined with help from my coach. These practices were effective at helping move my fear threshold and made an unbelievable difference in my sailing anxiety in just one season.

The next time, I would try to get the dog aboard and just have a nice picnic in the cockpit while tied to the dock. The time after that I might start the engine, but as soon as the dog was showing signs of anxiety, I would stop and back away from the threshold. Gradually that fear threshold would be extended. It might take a long time, but eventually the dog would be able to enjoy short boat rides and then full weekend cruises.

Getting very clear on my fear threshold with sailing was a top priority in my healing work. When I was really honest with

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"I still have a long way to go to be as confident and capable as I’d like to for my future sailing dreams. But now I really believe it’s possible, and I know that excitement awaits."

I made the following rules for myself: 1) Notice how my body is feeling. Am I calm? Or do I have adrenaline rushing through me? Am I meeting my threshold?

2) If I’m getting close to the edge of my fear, ask my husband to take the helm. I feel safer managing running rigging when I’m scared, so that’s what I planned to do.

3) Take deep breaths. Notice that I’m safe and nothing bad is actually happening.

4) If I’m still at my threshold, threatening to cross over into panic, do whatever I need to do to help the boat avoid any actual catastrophes, then let my husband know I need a few minutes below deck to get calm.

5) Again, take deep breaths, and notice that I’m safe. When the fear subsides, move back up into the cockpit.

Does it make sense to leave the helm or go down below if conditions are sketchy? Not necessarily, but it’s better than having a panic attack. And the truth is, there’s rarely ever an actual emergency. I just have to get my anxious brain to understand that, and finding a way to gradually, mindfully expose myself to sporty sailing is working. It really is.

Fast forward to the end of summer. We took a two-week cruise through Puget Sound, hitting seven different destinations from Poulsbo to Penrose, sailing almost the entire way. I had been practicing my gradual exposure plan since spring and, although I still felt a rush of adrenaline with every gust, whenever the wind caught the opposite side of the boat after a tack, or when the boat would lean into that first heel after raising the mainsail, I would take notice of how my body responded. The adrenaline would wash over me, I would take some deep slow breaths, and I would know that I’m safe.

And once I felt safe, you’ll never believe what happened next.

I actually felt a rush of excitement!

Okay, maybe you can believe it, but I couldn’t. My goal was to just feel okay with sailing, so it came as a delightful surprise 48º NORTH

that I actually felt great.

Toward the end of our trip when the wind was climbing toward 20 knots through Balch Passage and our reefing system was on the fritz, I didn’t panic. My husband and I calmly made any adjustments we could and changed our plans to head to a more protected spot. No freezing up. No shaking. In fact, I didn’t feel scared at all. Afterward, when I made the call to drop the sails and motor the rest of the way into Filucy Bay, I felt no shame. I just knew I wasn’t ready for 20+ knots of wind under the full power of Muse’s mainsail.

I still have a long way to go to be as confident and capable as I’d like to for my future sailing dreams. But now I really believe it’s possible, and I know that excitement awaits.

Samantha McLenachen and her husband, Andrew, live aboard with their children in Tacoma, Washington. They proudly own the newly opened marine repair business, Independent Marine Service.

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FEBRUARY 2024

MARINA DEL REY TO ASTORIA

by Tom Sims

HOPPING NORTH UP THE COAST TO GET A NEWLY ACQUIRED GRAND BANKS HOME

W

hen I found a 1988 Grand Banks 36 for sale in Southern California’s upscale Balboa Yacht Basin, there were a host of things I had to do to make her ours. For starters, I flew down from the Pacific Northwest, gave the boat a thorough look, and made an offer. From there, I set up a pre-purchase general boat survey, sea trial, and haul out—all the normal stuff.

Three weeks later came oil samples and a mechanical inspection on the auxiliary generator and the 210 hp Cummins diesel, which had 6,600 hours on it.

I flew back south for these and, after all the surveys were complete, I renegotiated the price. A few weeks later, the Grand Banks, Passage, was ours.

The big question now was: How do you get a trawler from Southern California to Astoria, Oregon? Answer: One day at a time.

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PREPARATION AND PLANNING When planning a voyage of this length, especially with a new-to-us boat, it’s key to take in as much information as possible about the boat and the most efficient route. The published weight of a GB 36 is 26,000 lbs and, with a single Cummins 6BT 5.9 main engine, its cruising speed is 7 knots at 1,600 RPMs with a fuel burn of plus-or-minus 1.75 gallons per hour (ghp). Most people run a boat like this at 1,800 RPMs, gaining a knot or so in speed, but it increases the fuel burn to 3.0 gph.

We had the typical safety gear aboard including lifejackets, flares, fire extinguishers, and an EPIRB. Passage is equipped with a Simrad G09 chartplotter/fish finder with radar and an AIS transponder on the fly bridge. I am a big fan of the AIS transponder for a slow boat like this, and I feel safer, especially

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Passage purchased and ready to head north.

at night, when other boats can see us and monitor Passage’s direction and speed. Commercial vessels are required to have an AIS transmitter, but some will disable it when fishing. It’s annoying when you are heading north up the coast in the dark and 300 yards on your port is a commercial fishing boat all a blaze in lights heading south with their AIS disabled while they process their fish with AC/DC blasting on deck.

Before we left on each leg of the trip we looked at parameters such as weather, FEBRUARY 2024

Passing Point Sur Lighthouse 22 miles southwest of Monterey.

sea state (a 4 foot wave height or less with an 8 second period would be ideal), tides and currents at the port we were leaving and the same at the destination.

For tides and currents, we considered the departure time of day and estimated our arrival time. It can be challenging to match up the currents and light conditions at both ends of the leg. I think it is very important to enter an unknown harbor in daylight, so you can see the bar conditions and surroundings. An example from this trip is when we arrived at the Columbia River Bar. We were there two hours before the tide turned and it was dark. So we bobbed around until daylight and waited for the tide to turn. If I had planned more carefully, we would have slowed down, so our arrival would have meshed better with the bar crossing.

In this case, we also needed daylight to start trolling for salmon, too.

We relied on the Predict Wind app for our wind and wave forecasting. The app allows you to move a cursor ahead in time and see what the waves will be doing in the next few days and see if they are getting larger or smaller. You can also move it along your route to inform your expectations. Along with Predict Wind, we looked at the NOAA buoys using various apps. I haven’t found any one app that I am crazy about, but they all mostly work.

Joining me for the voyage was a friend from college named Gus, and my brother Rob. Another friend, Kim, joined us for the last leg of the trip. I think a crew of 48º NORTH

three is the perfect size on a boat like Passage. There is plenty of room for everyone, and it’s nice to have three if there is an emergency, like if someone falls overboard; one to drive the boat and another to do the rescuing. With the boat staged in Marina del Rey and the crew ready, it was time to point the bow north and go.

A DARK AND STORMY START Hurricane Hilary arrived in Southern California on August 20, 2023, and we had a lot of rain while doing last minute preparations for our departure the next morning from Marina del Rey. We debated leaving on the morning of the hurricane; it looked like a good plan as long as the

hurricane didn’t change course. But not knowing if Hilary would stay the course, we elected to stay put. Sometimes the best course of action is no action.

Departing in the morning one day later than planned, the first leg to Santa Barbara took us about 11 hours. We reached Santa Barbara around 5 p.m. with beautiful warm weather and little wind. I would have liked to have stayed in Santa Barbara for another night but we were on a mission to get north. We left a little before sunrise for the next leg to Morro Bay, which was 102 miles. The seas were once again calm with a little wind, and we were treated to a beautiful sunrise over the mountains to the east.

Due to the distance between safe navigable ports, we cruised overnight on several legs. On these legs, we would arrive in the morning shortly after sunrise, rest up and depart early the following morning for the next port.

I didn’t like cruising in the dark and obvious things like crab pots, logs, rocks, and commercial draggers with their AIS turned off were serious concerns.

On top of that, there is plenty of time to worry when it’s 2 a.m. and you’re on watch, sitting in the darkness listening to the engine drone and wondering if the transmission is making a new noise.

“What’s that ‘tink tink tink’ sound? Or, since it happened once during the day, “Did the dinghy break loose?” As it turned out, the engine thankfully never missed a beat, day or night.

Despite our best efforts, we arrived at

Dolphins were regular vistors off the California coast.

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Morro Bay in the dark and followed the winding channel markers. We managed to find a buoy and tied up next to a dock full of sea lions that didn’t know how to keep quiet. They barked all night long, but that’s what they do best from what I have heard. The boats in the anchorage were so close together I didn’t feel like we could anchor and have enough room to swing. And because it was dark, it was nearly impossible to get a sense of where you anchored and the distance to other boats and potential obstacles.

Gus (L) and Tom (R) enjoy the sweeping ocean views south of Santa Barbara.

Motoring into Newport, Oregon under the Yaquina Bay Bridge was a big milestone.

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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA TO OREGON We left Morro Bay for the 103-mile hop to Monterey Bay’s Moss Landing before sunrise in fog, with a strong current flooding the bay, making it very difficult to stay in the channel. Years before, I had flown small aircraft and obtained my instrument rating. Piloting a boat in the fog and current is much like Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) flying when visual references do not provide safe enough information to operate. Conversely, at 7 knots rather than 120 knots, everything is in slow motion so you don’t get overwhelmed. Still, you have to believe the chart and the instruments, otherwise you will get completely disoriented.

Fortunately, our navigation was spot on and we arrived in Monterey Bay at dusk then made a quick turnaround the next morning for Half Moon Bay. Half Moon Bay to Fort Bragg was 139 miles and was the most unpleasant leg of the voyage. When we left the bay, conditions were great: calm, no wind. We encountered whales from Half Moon Bay all the way up to crossing the shipping lanes outside of San Francisco Bay. I was concerned about ship traffic, since we crossed very close to the center of the traffic circle. Fortunately, we observed no traffic in that area, zero. We considered stopping in Bodega Bay for the night, but relied on the description of the bay in Charlie’s Charts, which recommended entering the bay in daylight the first time, due to the narrow channel and currents.

It was also recommended to leave on a flood tide, so timing was an important consideration and it didn’t quite align.

Once we passed Point Reyes at about 6 p.m. the seas and wind started to build, and we were fighting a 1-knot current.

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Darkness fell and the swells grew to 6 feet or more and we were taking water over the bow that crashed against the windshield. We traded 1 or 2 hour watches throughout the night as Passage motored north, slogging along this way for the next 10 hours. We finally reached Point Arena about 4 a.m. North of the point, conditions improved dramatically and, by the time we reached Fort Bragg, the sea was dead calm. We arrived at Fort Bragg early on a Saturday morning as the fishing fleet was leaving to hunt tuna 35 miles offshore.

It was another early departure and we left Fort Bragg in the dark at 5:00 a.m. with calm seas. The most interesting part of this leg was Vandenberg Space Force Base. The installation is huge, covering about 14 miles of coast line, with numerous missile silos and large mysterious buildings. We arrived in Eureka at dusk, but by the time we wound through the narrow channel to moor with the commercial boats, it was completely dark.

From Eureka, the initial plan had been to stop at Crescent City, a 66-mile run, but

Sea lions made for noisy nightime neighbors. we decided to skip Crescent City because it would have been a long haul in and out.

Moreover, leaving there in the morning, with 110 miles to our next destination of Charleston, Oregon, we would arrive in the dark with a bar to cross.

So, we steeled ourselves for a big run.

In retrospect, we should have stopped in Crescent City or Brookings. We got

a late start because we needed fuel and Eureka’s fuel dock opened at 8 a.m., so we didn’t get going until 9:30.

Staying in Eureka for a second night would have been a possibility, but I was always concerned that the weather could change, we could get stuck for a week, and then I would lose my crew. We had already dodged a hurricane, afterall. As it

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Salmon fishing at the entrance to the Columbia River was a huge success for Kim (L) and Tom (R).

was, we ended up motoring for 25 hours, our longest stretch between ports, and crossed the bar to enter Charleston in daylight, ready for some R&R. HOMEWARD BOUND We lost Rob in Charleston — no, not overboard. He had a commitment that he couldn’t miss, so it was just Gus and me heading north to Newport. This was just a beautiful leg. We left at sunrise with a spectacular sky, flat seas, and no wind.

During our whole journey to Newport, we kept between 2 and 5 miles offshore with a stunning view of land and an easy run to the beach in the dinghy, if that was called for.

In Newport, we added a new crew member, Kim, who had a lot of Columbia River Bar experience having grown up working as a skipper on a salmon charter boat out of Warrenton. Kim thought we could catch some salmon once we reached the Columbia River.

We left Newport at 2:00 p.m., crossing the bar with no wind and no waves. As we progressed up the coast, the conditions remained perfect. I got up for my 4 a.m. watch, relieving Gus, and I was pretty excited to see the bright white light of the Columbia River Buoy flashing at me as I entered the main cabin. The buoy looked so close I was worried we might collide but, with Gus’s masterful piloting, it was never a concern. The buoy is 6 miles from 48º NORTH

the mouth of the Columbia River and 18 miles from Astoria. It was time to get the fishing gear out, prepare for daylight, and try our luck for salmon.

As the sun came up, we got our lines in the water leaving the boat in gear at idle. Running at 700 RPMs, we trolled at 3.2 knots according to the GPS and, just minutes later, Kim’s line was tight and he landed a Chinook salmon. Gus caught one next, and then me. In no time, Kim and Gus had landed their limit of two salmon each. I was still trying to catch my limit with one more when we ran out of bait.

Not giving up, I showed Kim a bag of commercial gear I had kept from my dory fishing days long ago. We dug around and chose a spoon with a Mustad 0/7 hook.

I dropped the spoon in the water and, just a few minutes later after only 10 line pulls, I had a fish on. It was very satisfying to have landed a fish with my gear from almost 50 years ago using a rod that was a gift from my friend John Rosenthal who had passed away about a year before.

With our fishing effort successful and complete, we crossed the bar and headed to Astoria, arriving 2 hours later without incident.

Mission accomplished! The 950 miles from Marina del Rey to Astoria on Passage had taken us 196 hours, with an average speed of 4.9 knots. We left Passage in Astoria for a few days before moving her

38

to Portland for the winter. We plan to run the boat up to Puget Sound in the spring to begin the next adventure.

Tom Sims started racing sailboats at the Willamette Sailing Club in Portland, Oregon in high school, spent a summer sailing a Cal 20 in the San Juan and Gulf islands, did a short internship with Bob Perry in 1976, fished a 21-foot commercial dory out of Depot Bay, and worked building steel boats at Marine Ways, Nichols Brothers, Kanppton Tugboat in Portland. In the last decade, he owned Sasquatch Brewery and sold it in August 2023. Now retired, he works on his boat and plans adventures on land and sea.

Gus racing a commercial fishing boat to Half Moon Bay.

FEBRUARY 2024

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RUNE

SAILS THE SALISH SEA

by Brian Holloway

I

n July 2023, I sailed my 16-foot sailboat 100 miles up Puget Sound as a part of the Salish 100. It was the most adventurous thing I have ever done. Only experienced skippers and boats under 22 feet could participate in the event put on by the Northwest Maritime Center. The seven-day journey began in Olympia, Washington, and ended in Port Townsend.

The purpose of the Salish 100 is to give small boat skippers a chance to test their cruising skills in a challenging environment, share knowledge, make friends, and enjoy the unparalleled beauty of the Pacific Northwest.

Although I’ve always had an interest in sailing, I wasn’t able to pursue it until recently. Southeast Idaho, where I grew up, isn’t known for its maritime culture, and finances also prevented me from buying a boat for a long time. I was able to invest in my interest when we moved to Spokane, which is close to Idaho’s Lake Coeur d’Alene and Lake Pend Oreille, both excellent sailing lakes. I consider myself an “advanced novice” sailor.

MY BOAT The first boat I bought, a 22-foot Catalina, was much too big for my experience level and I ended up selling it after a year or so. Next, I chose to build a sailboat. At 12 feet, it was small enough for my skill level and, when finished, provided an excellent sailing experience. After a few years on that boat, I decided I needed something with seats, so I bought my current boat: a 16-foot Pearson Hawk I named Rune.

Pearson Yachts only made about 200 Hawks in the early 1960s. Designed by the famous marine architect Carl Alberg, she has beautiful lines, lots of character, and is well built. I get lots of compliments whenever I take her out.

Rune is a lightweight daysailer at only 600 pounds with a 20-pound centerboard, and sails accordingly. I can take advantage of light winds but have to reduce sail when the wind gets over about 10 knots.

Rune was in rough shape at first, and I’ve spent several years

Rune is a 16-foot Pearson Hawk.

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New cruising pal, Doc, drove from Mexico for the Salish 100.

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FEBRUARY 2024

and a considerable amount of money making her both seaworthy and pretty. My biggest investment was new sails, which actually cost more than the boat itself, but the difference they’ve made has been worth it.

With a handful of other upgrades, including handmade mahogany rub rails, she’s a prettier boat than when she came off the factory floor.

small crab swimming along the surface of the water (didn’t know they did that). I also saw pods of porpoises.

The South Sound is much like Lake Coeur d’Alene with lots of inlets and mostly forested shores, so I felt comfortable. I put in a reef near Dana Passage because I thought the wind would be stronger there, but then shook it out as it was not necessary. Coming into Henderson Inlet, Clay anchored his boat and Doc and I rafted-up. Whenever a powerboat sped by, the wakes would knock us around so violently I thought something was going to break. Things settled down after dark. Just the same, it was hard to sleep that first night.

We missed a Salish 100 fleet clam bake that night, because we didn’t have a means to get ashore. Oh well, we dined on rehydrated goo instead.

Clay Wright's 22-foot S2.

Clay is a friend and mentor to the author, and helped him prepare for the Salish 100.

PREPARATION Clay Wright is a friend and sailing mentor, and we decided to sail the Salish 100 together on our respective boats. In fact, my ability to make this trip was entirely Clay’s doing. Not only has he invited me on his 22foot boat many times and given me countless hours of nautical tutoring, he also convinced the Salish 100 committee to let me participate in spite of my inexperience by promising to act as a companion boat specifically for me. Also, since Clay’s boat has several sleeping berths and mine has none, I could sleep on his instead of camping out.

The Salish 100 was slightly beyond my skill level and considerably beyond my comfort level, so Clay and I prepared for the trip for well over a year. Our practice included a handful of opportunities to heave-to and reef the sails, a procedure that would be critical on the longer trip. I knew I was extending myself by singlehanding a daysailer for a week on big water like Puget Sound as a relatively inexperienced sailor, but that was kind of the point. I wanted an experience that would push my boundaries.

DAY 2: HENDERSON INLET TO FILUCY BAY The second day varied between no wind and about 6 knots in the afternoon. It was very hot but beautiful. Around 2 p.m. one of the support boats, a 50 foot motor-sailer, cruised by to take a picture.

He yelled, “Hey, is that a Pearson?”

“Yeah,” I replied.

“It’s beautiful!” he said.

When a guy in a 50-foot yacht tells you your 16-foot boat is beautiful…now you can die.

Shortly after, the wind died and when I went to start my old Tohatsu outboard, it wouldn’t go into gear. It was not the best to begin with but had been working fine up to that point. Clay towed me toward Filucy Bay until the wind picked up again, and I sailed the rest of the way.

Without a motor, I was in trouble since we were headed through Tacoma Narrows the next day. With ripping currents, it can be dangerous. It was Saturday evening, I was 50 miles from the nearest engine dealer, and my only mode of transportation was a 16-foot sailboat, so buying a new one was impossible.

Fortunately, Mark Stone, a skipper on one of the support boats, had a small Suzuki outboard for just such an occasion. He

OLYMPIA We arrived two days early and put our boats in the Sound at Swantown Marina. It was the first time Rune had tasted saltwater since I bought her. About 80 boats registered for the Salish 100, some coming from as far away as Mexico, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Texas.

I was anxious, but reasoned myself through it. I knew I had a good boat, I knew I had the essential skills, and I knew what to do and when. I just needed confidence.

Clay and I met a fellow participant, Doc—who had driven up from Baja, Mexico—and helped him get his homebuilt boat, Petunia, in the water. From that time forward, we became buddy-boaters. Doc was a spry 78 years old and had lived a varied life, including owning a marine salvage company in Florida and managing a sailing school in San Francisco. For a short while, one of his sailing teachers was Bernard Moitessier.

Doc rafted his boat to Clay’s and mine for several nights.

Petunia was loaded with so much stuff Doc would spend an hour-and-a-half every night making space to sleep in the cabin.

Among his belongings, he had a sophisticated solar power system, which proved extremely useful since the battery packs Clay and I had bought were useless.

Rafted-up in Filucy Bay. Lovely except when powerboats made a big wake.

DAY 1: BUDD INLET TO HENDERSON INLET The first day provided perfect sailing with 8 knots of wind and water that was an unbelievable shade of blue. Several seals popped their heads up to see what was going on and I saw one 48º NORTH

41

FEBRUARY 2024

The breeze died approaching the Tacoma Narrows.

brought it over the next morning and I used it all the way to Port Townsend. Mariners are good folk. They respect independence, but they also recognize that sometimes things go wrong and, when they do, they are happy to help. When I offered to compensate Mark for the use of his motor, he refused saying, “It’s what we do out here.”

DAY 3: FILUCY BAY TO GIG HARBOR The third travel day was big, as we passed through the Tacoma Narrows. The wind was okay in the morning, then died as we approached the Narrows so we motored through, with water churning under the Narrows Bridge. Since I have a special fear of bridge abutments, passing within 50 feet of one should have rung my bell, but I was okay. That little Suzuki just kept chugging along and Rune never faltered even through the gnarly stuff.

Near the entrance to Gig Harbor the wind picked up, giving us about an hour of good sailing before we docked at Arabella’s Landing for the night. Gig Harbor is like Disneyland for boat nuts. The whole town is built around the marinas, and the boat culture is strong. The local boat shop hosted a barbecue for the Salish sailors, and even though it was just a hot dog and a Coke, it was amazing.

The forecast for the following day was a small craft advisory beginning in the late morning. That meant rain and southerly

Rune secured safely in beautiful Gig Harbor.

winds up to 25 knots—way too much for my little boat—and I’ll admit I didn’t sleep well that night.

DAY 4: GIG HARBOR TO BLAKE ISLAND We left early to try to beat the worst of the weather. Setting out with my foul weather gear on, I was prepared for the worst.

Our course took us up Colvos Passage and to Blake Island State Park, and the southerly winds pushed us along nicely. I had my mainsail and jib set wing-on-wing to capture as much wind as possible. But one challenge with a following wind is that you don’t realize how strong it is until you turn into it. By the time we exited the channel, the wind was more than Rune could take.

Turning 180 degrees to dodge the Southworth ferry, I hove-to and double reefed the mainsail. That, however, wasn’t enough.

Several other boats had dropped their jibs by then, so I decided to do the same. Rune sailed comfortably then, but the wind was howling in the rigging. It felt so good to duck into the relative protection of Blake Island Marina.

Fortunately for us, Doc was concerned enough about the forecast that he motored all the way to Blake Island and secured a place at the public dock. They let us raft our boats together for the night. Others had to anchor outside the marina on buoys.

Buffeted all night by wind, waves, and the wakes of passing ferries and freighters, it was a tough night for those folks.

Blake Island felt like a milestone for me. It was real sailing in real weather, and I was managing my little boat by myself quite well. I felt proud.

The thing about Blake Island was the raccoons. Fearless and wicked smart, they descended on the fleet as soon as we landed, making off with anything edible in a furry flash. I even saw one trying to pick the latch on Doc’s boat.

When the rain came in, Clay and I sought shelter in his boat.

The wind howled all night long, and the waves rocked the boat even in the protection of the marina.

DAY 5: BLAKE ISLAND TO KINGSTON This was our first day on the more open water of central Puget Sound and our primary concern was not being run down by a ferry. Some make speeds of up to 30 knots, very fast for any

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FEBRUARY 2024

Sailing wing-on-wing up Colvos Passage on the way to Blake Island.

vessel. Fortunately, the wind from the previous night’s storm was enough to scoot us past them at a good speed.

The other hazard in the larger part of the sound were ships.

Commercial traffic stayed mainly in the lanes farther east than we were sailing, but several Salish boats ventured too close and had to be warned to stay out of the way.

Since the winds were either southerly or easterly, the sailing was generally pleasant. Meals underway consisted of whatever I could eat with one hand. Arriving in Kingston, the fleet’s skippers were again treated with a hot dog barbecue, courtesy of the Port of Kingston, and it tasted great. I was exhausted and slept for about an hour after arriving.

Later that night, we ate at a bar and grill near the marina that had some of the best fish and chips I’ve ever tasted. By chance, we sat next to the skipper in the 50-foot motor-sailer who had taken my picture. He was super friendly and far more down-toearth than I would have expected from a young guy with a boat bigger than my house.

That night was magical. Several people had musical instruments, so folks gathered under a gazebo near the marina office to play and sing songs. They started with a Salish 100 song, and then played anything they could patch together, pulling up the music and lyrics on their phones and singing into the evening. As the sun settled on the horizon, the clouds in the western sky turned an amazing salmon orange. It was the best night of the trip.

overwhelmed, I hove-to and started taking in a reef, but then realized that the wind was blowing me ashore! I had to blow the sheets and start the motor quickly in order to avoid being grounded. That was a lesson: always give yourself adequate sea room to make adjustments.

I ended up putting in three reefs within about half-an-hour, two in the mainsail and one in the jib. Although that task is not particularly hard, climbing onto the foredeck of a 16-foot boat bouncing around on Puget Sound was boundary-pushing. I never fell off, but there were close calls.

Even fully reefed, Rune was struggling, heeling hard and not making headway. Whatever forward momentum she might gain from the wind was countered by the increasing height and force of the waves. Concerned that I was about to break something, I decided to drop the jib altogether, but it is very hard to sail to windward without a jib. It was a strange feeling to have tons of wind but to not be going anywhere.

To get past the point, some boats had reached all the way to the eastern edge of the Sound and the shipping lanes. Then, news of a southbound container ship broke over the radio.

Although I had really wanted to pass the point under sail, with the wind and waves solidly against me and a container ship headed my way, I decided to call the game.

Turning Rune into the wind, I had eased the sheets and was just reaching for the pull cord on the motor when my phone rang.

‘Not a great time,’ I thought to myself. It was a fellow skipper and new friend who had passed me a few minutes before.

“Without a jib, you’re not going to make very good headway.

You might want to just motor past the point or you could be out here all day.” Since skippers are careful not to critique one anothers’ decisions, I knew the “suggestion” was more of a warning and appreciated his concern. Even under power, it took the better part of 30 minutes to put the lighthouse at Point No Point behind me, and the waves made for a bumpy ride.

Past Point No Point, the waves decreased considerably, so I hoisted my sails again and reached northwest toward relative shelter. Although Rune was heeling, she was not uncomfortable, and we made good time beating toward Foulweather Bluff in wind that settled down about 10 knots. I followed several boats that had taken the same course and were a mile ahead of me.

Approximately 500 yards from Foulweather Bluff is a shoal marker. The bigger boats in the fleet went around it but, with the

DAY 6: KINGSTON TO PORT LUDLOW The route from Kingston was the most challenging day by far. Getting to Port Ludlow meant passing Point No Point, a promontory that hinders stronger winds coming from Admiralty Inlet, the waterway leading to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean beyond. Although the fleet timed its departure to take advantage of the outgoing tide, the wind was against us, blowing out of the north at 15 knots. The combination of wind against tide resulted in waves about 1.5 feet high—not a problem for the heavier boats in the fleet but a lot for Rune and me.

As I beat toward the point, the wind steadily increased.

In order to make as much northward headway as I could, I found myself coming about closer to shore. On one occasion, I tacked only 50 feet from the beach. Seeing that Rune was 48º NORTH

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Beating with a reef in the main near Point No Point.

FEBRUARY 2024

Rune might be a daysailer, but after a week on Puget Sound, she's a cruising boat now too.

Brian waited until he had completed the Salish 100 to don his new hat. He earned it!

tide up, some of the smaller boats went right through. I didn’t want to make another dogleg to go around, so I just kept going.

Although I had plenty of depth under the boat, the shallow water over the shoal meant the waves were significantly bigger than any I had seen, and they churned like a giant washing machine.

It was spooky, but what a passage! Wave after wave, Rune rose over the crest and fell with a crash, seawater splashing onto the deck and onto my face. It felt more like running a river than sailing.

Beyond Foulweather Bluff, the wind eased more, bringing us easily toward Port Ludlow. I set my sails wide as we passed one, two, then three boats. It had been a hard push for my little daysailer and I was among the last boats to come in.

As I pulled into the slip, one of the dock hands took my line and said, “Welcome. Well done, skipper.” Although I’m sure he said that to all the skippers, it rang especially true to me.

Managing my little boat in the face of challenging conditions, making important decisions at the right time, pressing on with confidence in spite of setbacks—all of it felt to me like a significant accomplishment.

Once in, the skipper who had called me earlier came up to me. “Dude! I watched you go through those waves over the shoal. It was gnarly! Your boat totally disappeared in the swells.

A couple of times I thought you had gone under. Then you’d pop up again a few seconds later!” So that was kind of a rush. Though I never felt like I was in danger—even amid the churning of the shoal—I see now why mariners develop strong feelings toward their vessels. A boat is a cocoon of protection for a mariner, keeping them safe from the mortal peril that surrounds them.

It’s a little scary out there, and anything that keeps the sea at bay earns a mariner’s unqualified adoration.

At Port Ludlow, we enjoyed another barbecue. By then, the 40-or-so skippers who had stuck it out that far were feeling great, sharing stories about passing the point, their boats, and sailing techniques. When I mentioned to one skipper that I had to motor past Point No Point, she reassured me: “Oh, there’s no shame in that! Point No Point is nothing to fool around with.

Lots of boats motored past it today.” That made me feel better.

The next morning as we prepared to leave, a great blue heron settled in the shallows about 30 feet from me. I watched him for a few minutes snatching a breakfast of minnows from the reeds.

DAY 7: PORT LUDLOW TO PORT TOWNSEND There was light wind for our final day jaunt up Oak Bay, through a small passage, and into Port Townsend Bay. The breeze died around 10:30 a.m. so we motored for a couple of hours. Since one of the boats in our company was having engine problems, we took it slow to make sure they got through the Port Townsend Canal.

At first it was all rather disappointing, then we got through the passage and into Port Townsend Bay. Port Townsend is very much a seaport, and working our way north through the bay it became very clear that we had graduated to “big water.”

The wind was northerly at about 10 knots and the waves were not as big as they were coming around Point No Point, so it was a pleasant sail. Rune sailed to windward nicely as we zig-zagged almost directly north, then east, dodging the ferry and enjoying the final leg to Point Hudson Marina.

As the ocean swell from the strait and Admiralty Inlet rolled beneath us, freighters passed by a mile or two to the north and the sun lit the waves in sparkles as far as I could see. At this point, I knew what Rune could handle and didn’t feel the need to reef. She was heeled hard over, but that’s where she was designed to sail and where she sails best. It felt great to be in big water on my little boat, perched on her beam and gobbling up the sea like some old clipper ship.

Once Rune was secured in Point Hudson, I reached into the cuddy cabin where I had stowed my Salish 100 baseball cap.

Though I’d been given the hat in Olympia, I didn’t want to wear it until I had finished. I wanted to earn that honor. Now, I took my old cap off and put the new one on. I had earned it.

I know this kind of trip would be small potatoes for many people but, for me, it was a big deal. I was not an experienced sailor and I did not have a heavy boat that could cut through the wind and chop like some did. Every day tested the limits of both my boat and my confidence, forcing me past psychological confines that life had set for me at an early age. Having proven those boundaries to be false, I feel now much like a new vessel—a new bottle into which I can pour new wine, a new perspective about who I am and what I can do—a new me.

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Brian Holloway lives in Spokane, Washington, and primarily sails on the mountain lakes of Idaho.

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FEBRUARY 2024

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FEBRUARY 2024

1 Different Drummer Charles Hill

Wauquiez C 40s CYC Seattle/ Sloop Tavern YC Score 98.2%

TOP

25

48° NORTH'S TOP 25 RACING SAILBOATS OF 2023

W

ow, what a year 2023 was!

Such great racing in every imaginable condition around the Salish Sea. And the 48° North Top 25 returns to honor the best performing racing keelboat teams in the region.

Participating in many events increases a boat’s likelihood of landing in the top section, and nine out of the top ten boats sailed more than the five events for which they were scored. These boats also sailed extraordinarily well, and did so very consistently.

How do we select these boats? The qualifying races for our Top 25 offer a

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good representation of keelboat racing in the Pacific Northwest, and include a mix of distance and around-the-buoy races, single-race events, and multirace regattas. Our scoring system is on a percentage basis, depending on the size of the class: 0% (did not finish) to 100% (first in class), where the event score = (Finishers – Place) / (Finishers – 1). Overall scores are an average of a boat’s best five finishes. There is no minimum number of races required to qualify. Multi-race events (like the Southern Sound Series) are scored as single events. Ties go to the boat with the greater average fleet size.

This year’s #1 boat, the Wauquiez C 40s, Different Drummer, is skippered by Charles Hill and represents Corinthian Yacht Club of Seattle and Sloop Tavern Yacht Club. The always competitive crew is a perennial Top 25 boat, but takes the top spot in our rankings for the first time since 2016 with a score line of four class wins and one second place in a class of 12. Perhaps not coincidentally, all of these scores were in distance or mid-distance races. Superbly done, Different Drummer!

Congratulations to every one of

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48° North’s Top 25 racing sailboats! It is always a privilege to present this list and we offer our admiration and appreciation for those in the racing community who live it and love it, and sail so well.

Photos courtesy of Jan Anderson.

TOP 25 QUALIFYING RACES SSSS Southern Sound Series CYCS Center Sound Series STYC Blakely Rock Benefit WVYC Southern Straits Classic CYCS Spring Regatta SYC Tri-Island Series CYCP Pacific NW Offshore RVicYC Swiftsure Anacortes Race Week CBSA Cowichan Bay Regatta BYC PITCH CYCE Foulweather Bluff CYCS Puget Sound Sailing Championship SYC Grand Prix Regatta OIYC/FHSC Round the County FEBRUARY 2024

2 Moose Unknown John Aitchison

6 Rush Phillip Dean

J/105 • CYC Seattle Score 98.0%

Jeanneau Sunfast 3600 Sloop Tavern YC Score 88.6%

3

7

Annapurna Iain Christenson

Creative Al Hughes/Shauna Walgren

Farr 36OD • Seattle YC Score 98.0%

J/105 • CYC Seattle/ Sloop Tavern YC Score 88.4%

4

8

Nefarious

Peer Gynt

Dan Randolph

Sara Billey / Paul Viola

Farr 30 • CYC Seattle / Sloop Tavern YC Score 93.3%

J/105 • CYC Seattle / Sloop Tavern YC Score 88.3%

5

9

Underdog Lek Dimarucot J/80 • CYC Seattle Score 93.3%

Cherokee Peter Stewart Cal 33 • CYC Seattle Three Tree Point YC Score 85.5%

10

14

Glory

Lodos

John Buchan

Tolga Cezik

Transpac 52 Seattle YC / CYC Seattle Score 85.0%

J/111 • CYC Seattle Score 78.3%

11

15

J aded

J olly Green

J/105 • CYC Seattle/ Seattle YC Score 83.5%

J/80 • CYC Seattle/ Sloop Tavern YC Score 74.9%

Chris Phoenix

Ryan Porter

12 Terramoto William Weinstein

Tachyon • Nicholas &

Riptide 35 CYC Seattle Score 80.0%

Cydney Leede • Farr 39CR •

16

Seattle YC • Score 73.4%

13

17

Elusive

Absolutely

Jeff Whitney

Charlie Macaulay

C&C 115 CYC Seattle Score 79.4%

Farr 39ML CYC Seattle/Seattle YC Score 71.4 71.4% %

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FEBRUARY 2024

22

18

Liftoff

Insubordination J/105 • CYC Seattle Score 71.3%

Jeffrey Pace J/105 • CYC Seattle/ Sloop Tavern YC Score 64.4%

19

23

Hooligan

Shrek

Lenny Rezabek

Jay Renehan & Chris/Fritz Lanzinger

John Hoag 1D35 • CYC Seattle/ Seattle YC Score 63.8%

J/111 • Seattle YC/CYC Seattle • Score 70.7%

20

Photo by Sean Trew.

Smoke

24 Panic

Steve Travis

Stephens/ Prentice/Cain

Transpac 52 CYC Seattle Score 69.7%

J/105 • Sloop Tavern YC Score 63.4%

21

25

65_Red Roses II

Mata Hari

Alex Smyth & Bruce Chan

Jeff Blyth Catalina 36 Sloop Tavern YC Score 58.0%

J/111 • West Vancouver YC Score 69.1% 48º NORTH

49

FEBRUARY 2024

DUWAMISH HEAD RACE

T

KICKING OFF THE 2024 RACING SEASON ON PUGET SOUND

he second race of the Southern Sound Series is the Duwamish Head Race, hosted the first Saturday in January by Three Tree Point Yacht Club.

It’s a mid-distance race starting off Des Moines Marina, heading north to Alki Point, east towards downtown Seattle to round Duwamish Head, then proceeding west across the Sound for a rounding of Blakely Rock before heading south back to the finish at Des Moines.

Typically, boats from the north and the south are delivered to Des Moines on Friday afternoon and early evening. There was a brisk southerly wind on Friday, so those coming from the north had a chilly wave-pounding delivery. Volunteers from Three Tree Point Yacht Club greeted boats overnighting in the guest moorage area, and invited them to a warm tent where some hot food was provided. I was down at the marina most of the day preparing our Cal 33 Cherokee for the race, dodging some frigid downpours and getting what I could done.

On race day morning, we had little to do to finish rigging the boat prior to leaving the marina. Our crew started showing up 48º NORTH

about 8:30 a.m. accompanied by some of those very cold rain showers. We got off the dock a little bit later than planned and hustled out to the start area.

At the start, the winds were shifting from the predicted southwesterly, oscillating between 160°M and 120°M at 5-7 knots. It was supposed to be a light flood tide until about 11:15 a.m. followed by a moderate ebb tide. We made our sail selections and contemplated our start tactics and overall plan for the race.

Our class got off the starting line cleanly, hosting spinnakers on port jibe just prior to the start. We made our way up the course with Ranger 33 Aurora and J/27 Zephyr maintaining position, all the while looking for signs of a southwesterly shift.

Behind us, S2 9.1 Chinook and a couple of others headed higher towards the west, with a slightly freshening teaser of a southwesterly. We held course patiently, as we were in a little bit of positive current going up the Sound. Halfway to Alki, the winds picked up to 10 to 14 knots and we briefly had a spinnaker staysail up flying.

That didn’t last very long as the winds got lighter and shifted farther southeast as

50

by Peter Stewart we approached the point.

The decision had to be made — could we jibe to starboard and continue to Duwamish Head under spinnaker, or did we need to use the big genoa? Gordon and Patrick got the genoa to the port foredeck in preparation as we closed in on the point. By this time, a few of the faster boats had passed us, so we had a bit more information to inform our decision.

We knew it would be a strain, and I had Gordon rig the reaching strut. We were able to hold a close reach with the chute pretty close to the mark.

We hoisted the headsail and dropped our kite early enough to prepare for a jibe around the namesake of the race, Duwamish Head. It’s a tricky place because there is current flow coming out of the waterway, often sending you right to left as you sail the last bit of the leg. In lighter winds, you need to be conservative on your approach to it, or you might not make it around (not that I’ve ever done that).

After a nice tight rounding of the mark, we were navigating a pretty direct course to Blakely Rock. We needed to approach Blakely with enough space to avoid the shallow areas surrounding it. Reaching across with our big genoa, some of the other boats were flying spinnakers, with many having trouble and rounding up. In hindsight, we probably could have flown our heavier, flatter-cut spinnaker, and made gains, but we were maintaining pretty good speed. We were holding onto the lead position in our class, so we felt pretty good about that.

About halfway across, we saw a southerly breeze from 14-18 knots and considered a headsail change for the upwind leg back to Des Moines. Some pretty dark clouds were approaching from the southwest, and even some small thunderstorms to the west and north. We switched headsails behind Restoration Point and came out on starboard tack with the J3. It turned out to be a great decision and the perfect sail for about 10 minutes.

Sailing back towards West Seattle, we started struggling and went from rigging the J2 to going back to the big genoa, as the winds decreased under 10 knots.

Thinking that we were finally seeing signs FEBRUARY 2024

Cheokee on their way to a class win.

of the southwesterly, and that maybe we had sailed out of it, we tacked out on port again. We had mostly good speed and were pacing with boats that are faster than us to the east.

As we continued, we found ourselves on the outside of a big lift, with wind shifting from 130°M to 090°M. We decided to roll the dice, hoping for a big shift as we made our way down the Sound on the west side. The tack back to starboard to get east again would’ve been such a bad course that we pressed on. Our long port tack on the west side looked good at times and bad at others, but we felt committed. Passing Dolphin Point toward Tramp Harbor in about 10

Ranger 33, Aurora, powered up in the freshening breeze.

knots of wind, a very nice shift came in.

We tacked Cherokee when we saw 150°M, and it kept clocking as we continued east on starboard. Eventually, we were lifted enough that we were easily clearing Three Tree Point, and eventually sailing above the finish. Tracking right towards the finish, we eventually were able to ease the sails and foot a little.

We finished with Chinook slightly behind us and Zephyr 43 seconds behind them. Nipping at Zephyr's heels was the Santa Cruz 27 Solitaire, who corrected just 7 seconds behind them.

Considering that it was early January with a potentially miserable forecast, it turned out to be a pretty nice day for

sailing. Boats that played the east side of the Sound fared better, especially those in class 2. We had a great day out there on Cherokee and were happy to take a class win.

The third race in the series is Toliva Shoal, hosted by South Sound Sailing Society and the Olympia Yacht Club on February 17. It is a very challenging 38.4 mile race that you either love or hate.

When the conditions are favorable, it can be one of the most rewarding and scenic races in the Pacific Northwest.

Full results: www.ssssclub.com/ southern-sound-series-racing/ Photos courtesy of Jan Anderson.

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FEBRUARY 2024

J/PODDERS AT /70 WORLDS THE ROOKIE EXPERIENCE

by Ron Rosenberg

Our hosts, the St. Petersburg Yacht Club knocked it out of the park! From the opening ceremony until final prizes were handed out, this club knows how to do it to a very high standard. Top notch race committee, and volunteers were simply amazing.

The sailing, racing, and learning experience was so incredibly rewarding. On board Mike Breivik’s FRAM-96, we were constantly reminded that a successful performance is merely the product of the level of preparation. We trained at home with our J/Pod friends. We practiced in choppy water. We arrived early at the venue with a well prepared boat, and a crew that desperately needed quality time on the water together to learn how to sail the boat well together, as a team.

Most of our competitors were extraordinarily experienced— more than a dozen Olympic medalists, 25-plus Olympians, 30plus world champions, and most of the teams in attendance were national champions in a variety of classes. Most anyone outside of those qualifications, including most corinthians, likely came up through top flight youth sailing programs, competed in high school and college sailing, and spent more than a few prior years racing J/70s at a high level. To suggest this fleet was deep would be an understatement. I can also tell you that there’s no question in my mind that we had the least experienced driver in the entire regatta. That’s not a knock in any way, that’s merely an honest and respectful reminder of who we are, and how quickly and efficiently one can learn the complex game of sailboat racing and improve dramatically when inspired and determined to do so. Mike Breivik is not only inspired and determined, but he’s an inspiration to many

L

ate in 2023, a group of J/Pod sailors from the Pacific Northwest traveled to Florida to race against 83 top teams for the J/70 World Championship. The PNW fleet is growing rapidly, but still comparatively young; and our local teams sailed well, learned a lot, had a blast, and even shared a new downwind technique with the international fleet.

The J/70 Worlds seemed to have it all—challenging but race-able wind conditions every single day, sea states from flat to choppy, lots of warm sunshine, and teams from around the globe who were all remarkably well prepared and very near peak performance.

FRAM-96 lit up after a windward mark rounding.

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FEBRUARY 2024

Whether or not you’ve ever started in an 80-plus boat one-design fleet, you would be impressed at the way this fleet approaches the line in such a refined, carefully calculated, precise manner.

cockpit running mapping software so we could always see where we were relative to the race course which was placed on top of a shallow underwater mesa surrounded by deep water channels. While the shifty wind largely dictated the best positioning, the flow of the underwater channels were also worth keeping an eye on.

others that have been joining us for practice and paying close attention to his rapidly improved performance since learning to sail in 2018 on his Beneteau 45, Le Reve. Ironically, our J/70 worlds crew are the same original crew from that Beneteau 45, Derick Vranizan, Matt Darbous, and myself.

RIGOROUS PREPARATION Our ramp-up preparation was solid, and served us well. We arrived ready to start sailing right away, about eight days prior to Race 1, with equipment that was ready to go.

We focused on our team first with boat handling as our top priority. We learned and practiced how to properly and legally roll tack, roll jibe, round windward marks and leeward marks smoothly, boat-on-boat blender drills for lee bowing and ducking smoothly, and starting drills. We refined our many downwind modes and our upwind high and low modes. We worked specifically with J/70 World and National Champs Will Felder (Empeiria) and Ron Weed (Savasana), two of the most experienced and thoughtful pros on the circuit. We worked hard to be sure that each of us onboard were contributing the most we could in every planned maneuver. Nobody was a passenger, ever. We worked on staying on the same page and always being present, anticipating the next move, maneuver, or play—as a cohesive team, as one.

We tried to streamline our onboard communications so we could maintain healthy communication loops focused on both our speed, and our strategy and positioning.

SPEED Great upwind boat speed is developed, rather than simply switched-on. Being able to consistently keep FRAM-96 in the groove takes a lot of work and focus. All four crew contribute.

We focused on speed both upwind and downwind, and all respective modes through carefully planned tuning with targeted partners and their outstanding coaches. In our case, we had arranged in advance to tune and train with two of the fastest teams on the planet: Brian Keane’s Savasana team (fresh off a win at the J/70 North American Championship) and Bruce Golison’s Midlife Crisis team (typically top three at any worlds they attend). Why would they bother to train with us? Because we show up on time, we work hard, we’re completely open,

A look at "Beast Mode" with the pole retracted and both tack and halyard eased. Its efficacy is not a secret any more.

THE RACE COURSE We did our homework on the venue itself, located on Tampa Bay. I had enough prior experience there over the years to know that it’s a complex racing venue both above and below the surface of the water. A shifty mix of inconsistent lanes of breeze often form the wind patterns there.

Each of our practice days, we kept an iPad velcroed in the 48º NORTH

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A DEBRIEF FROM ANDREW AND MALLORY LOE’S DIME Dime rounds a windward mark.

DESCRIBE YOUR EXPERIENCE OF THE J/70 WORLDS. The 2023 Worlds was a very well run, fun event with fantastic conditions. We finished where we deserved with no major errors or damage. Sailing with a team of friends is always fun, and we took advantage of the pool and tiki bar more than any other team!

WHAT DID YOU LEARN AT WORLDS THAT YOU WILL BRING HOME TO THE PNW J/70 FLEET? We were reminded again about the importance of boat speed. Teams often get hung up on the details of pulling sails up and down but, outside of major mistakes, that has little bearing on how you end up. Speed kills, as the cliché goes.

transparent, and honest, we share well, and we always find ways to contribute to our training partners. Oh, and maybe also because eventually we became consistently (a tiny bit) faster than they were not only upwind, but downwind too.

It also turns out we made some valuable advances while we trained hard with our willing and able Pacific Northwest J/Pod friends over the past few months. It was fun to share a few tricks of our own with our tuning partners and nice to know we could pull our own weight. Our J/70 J/Pod gang here in the PNW is quite special. One example is a new wing-on-wing technique we developed and code-named “Beast Mode.” For Beast Mode, we completely retract the spinnaker pole, and we ease the tack and halyard 1-3 feet each. I believe this stabilized the boat on wing, and geometrically presents the spinnaker on wing more square to the wind and helps to persuade our asymmetric spinnaker to simulate a symmetrical spinnaker by opening both leeches up to increase cross flow. It also greatly enhances the power of pumping to initiate surfing during up-range wind conditions.

We had been developing this technique among our J/Pod teams at our coaching sessions and testing it at our local regattas, but we kept this fairly quiet once at the Worlds venue. Only a few of our trusted training partners helped us to test and fine-tune Beast Mode. We thought it would be fast, but we didn’t really know how fast until Race 1 of the Worlds when we and our training partners deployed Beast Mode on the first run. We all gained 10-20 boat lengths on most of the fleet down that first run, but it wasn’t until the end of the first day that it clearly had become a thing. After the first day, I received a funny, telling text from team Savasana, “Hey Ron, Buddy, Friend… So sorry.

The Beast Mode cat is out of the bag. We passed 20 boats on a single run today.”

It’s pretty fun knowing that what we’re doing here in the PNW is on the cutting edge of one-design sport boat racing at the Worlds level. By the end of the regatta, dozens of boats were trying to master the nuances of Beast Mode, but we still had the advantage of a few weeks of practice.

If Beast Mode was our best downwind mode, then big breeze tight reaching was a glaring weakness. The top European teams and the most experienced American teams were truly impressive at full planing mode downwind. That’s a wind condition we simply don’t get a lot of during our summer racing season. We knew this going in, but we didn’t have quite enough

WHAT WAS YOUR PERSONAL HIGHLIGHT OF THE J/70 WORLDS? A huge highlight was our team’s resilience. Big fleet racing can be very humbling. In one case, we were hung out to dry on the wrong side and rounded the first mark in 75th, it would be easy to just cave and let it be our throwout. Instead, we were very aggressive on the first run and able to pick up 30 boats by getting free of the fleet.

Continuing the grind, we ended up sailing aggressively the rest of the race and finished in the top 20! Up to that point, we had been sailing too conservatively.

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Beast Mode made waves downwind, but full planing mode was somewhere Fram-96 saw they could improve.

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breeze during our lead up time, so we had to learn on the fly when it blew 18-20 on Race Day 2. By breezy Race Day 3, we got the hang of full plane reaching and found our groove in that high and fast mode.

It's exciting to see multiple teams from the PNW competing at such a high level, and having fun along the way!

STARTS AND MARK ROUNDINGS Whether or not you’ve ever started in an 80-plus boat onedesign fleet, you would be impressed at the way this fleet approaches the line in such a refined, carefully calculated, precise manner. Quite an advantage for the most experienced drivers and teams. It also puts a premium on planning your approach as well as your escape route if things don’t go well and you get shot out the back of the front row. I must say how refreshing it is to compete with a fleet of such highly experienced sailors, while the boats can get very close to one another, there’s very little actual hull touching even when things get congested at starts or roundings. Crew work is extraordinary, spinnaker sets are lightning fast, tacks and jibes are smooth as silk, and kites typically come down early and very quickly. At this level, teams are very well practiced.

half scores were quite a bit better than our first half. Our other PNW J/Pod teams performed remarkably well during this super competitive worlds. Mike Goldfarb’s War Canoe team (3rd at the Europeans last year) spent a lot of time near the front and schooled many of us on heavy air blast-reaching, ending up 51st.

And Andrew and Mallory Loe’s Dime finished an impressive 34th.

Friends, camaraderie, and a high level of mutual respect both on and off the water were strong themes. We’re not the only ones already strategizing on how to attend our next J/70 Worlds!

WORLDS WRAP-UP The Brits onboard Brutus won the regatta, and deservedly so with a team of five very talented sailors, including two Olympic Medalists, and an outstanding amateur driver (formerly an Olympic campaigner and pro Match racing driver).

For FRAM-96, we finished 38th, which exceeded our highest expectations and we enjoyed a nice progression as our second

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Photos by Hannah Lee Noll courtesy of the J/70 World Championship.

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