The Sloop Tavern Yacht Club’s “Race to the Straights” is the Pacific Northwest largest shorthanded race of 2012. Nearly 100 boats are challenged by thirty miles of strong currents, ship traffic, variable wind conditions, the use of only two or four hands, and diminished brain capacity, to sail Saturday May 5 from Shilshole to Port Townsend and then on Sunday, May 6 to return from Port Townsend to Shilshole.
The race is unique because each boat has its own start time based on its rating. The slowest boat started before 8:00 a.m., but Terremoto, with a PHRF rating of 39, started at 9:46 a.m. Bill Weinstein drove the boat and Mark Brink fulfilled the critical roles of flying the kite and preparing the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Because Terremoto was one of the last boats to start, Team Moto decided that to win that it needed to adopt a tactical theme: desperate recklessness.
Terremoto had a clean start and avoided boat collisions, a result assisted by there being no other boats in its start. Brink scanned the horizon with his binoculars, picked out the magnified colored specks of the leading boat spinnakers, and mumbled: “We’ve got to really heat up this boat’s speed.” Weinstein immediately associated hot coal walker Anthony Robbins, who said “In life you need either inspiration or desperation.” Devoid of inspiration, Terremoto desperately chased the puffs with its “Grapeade” kite in light air of six to eight knots and a flushing ebb tide. Most of the fleet headed east and hugged the shore offKingston. Rather than “follow the pack” Team Moto thought there would be a stronger breeze and a “river” of current in the middle of Puget Sound. Terremoto sailed “hot” in the light air, but was able to “soak” in the puffs that periodically blew down the Sound from the south. It was rewarded by passing at least forty boats by the time it passed the Bush Point mark near the south end of Whidbey Island at 12:17 p.m.
The majority of leaders continued down the east shore of Whidbey Island as the tide slackened. However, Team Moto, inspired by the raspy bark of a dog on one of the other sail boats that sounded like the word “idiots,” remembered the Chinese proverb: “A dog of desperation will leap over a wall.” Team Moto reasoned that the new tide could be neutralized by hugging the “wall” or cliffs of Marrowstone Island.
Terremoto reached to Morrowstone Island , and then became engaged in a jibing duel with several of the race leaders in the lee of the Marrowstone Island lighthouse. Rounding the lighthouse point, Terremoto was in fourth place and could see the finish line off Port Townsend in the distance. The wind continued to die and the negative current continued to build. The other boats headed into Port Townsend Bay, but Team Moto, realizing it couldn’t win the race by following the leaders, made an inspirationally desperate or desperately inspirational jibe to the east and was rewarded by collapsing its kite. Terremoto fought to finish in a half knot of air against a very strong negative current. Team Moto feared it would be pushed past the finish line and not finish at all. Fortunately, the leaders sailed in to a hole and Terremoto was able to drift to a weak puff that carried the boat across the finish line first.
Terremoto won the overall title for Leg On and won the cherished CSR Marine First to Finish Prize: A Free Haulout.(Steve, put reference to scanned shot of certificate, which will also crossreference to CSR sponsorship. The Saturday race was sunny and fun, although the unique race start bred desperate times and more desperate measures and left Team Moto frazzled and on the brink of the brink of insanity.
Desperate for a solution to win again, Team Moto reasoned that two Brinks on the brink were better than one, and Weinstein was beached in favor of Mark’s son, David. Terremoto had a late Sunday morning start and barely missed being stranded by a long ebb tide that left several larger boats stranded in the Port Townsend harbor. The wind was so light and the current so strong that most of the fleet was either anchored inshore off Marrowstone Point or sailing northeast.
Rather than raft up with the fleet at Marrowstone Point, Terremoto played the wind shifts and made a wide circle around Marrowstone Point. There was heavy current and very little wind. Fortunately, the tide changed to a flood and the wind came in from the north. Terremoto chose wind over current and stayed in the middle of Puget Sound. . As the wind pressure came more from the west, Terremotoacquired the pressure first and managed to sail directly toward the finish line. This proved to be the deciding factor for the day as Terremoto finished first again. According to blogger “Ballard Sailor” in Pressure Drop, this was the first time that any boat had finished first both days in the Race to the Straits’ eleven year history.
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