In a two day marathon race characterized by little wind, kelp, no wind, and more kelp Terremoto snatched defeat from victory not once but three times. Great credit goes to venerable sailor Doug Fryer’s Night Runner for fighting through a difficult race to win a well- deserved victory.

With a veteran crew of Mark and David Brink, Kirk Utter, Steve Brockway, Bron Miller, and Bill Weinstein, the boat won the start by squeezing between the fleet and the Committee boat. As the wind built to Race Rocks, Terremoto was able to fight off many bigger boats and was only overtaken just before the century old Race Rocks Lighthouse. As the winds lightened Terremoto dueled with its new sister Long Board, a new Bieker designed Riptide 35. By evening there was little wind and as darkness settled over the Terremoto the Swiftsure “lightship” was just a few miles distant, Terremoto was significantly leading both Lighthouse Classes 1 and 2.

Unbeknownst to the Terremoto crew, Terremoto had fouled its keel, sail drive, and rudder with a mass of kelp. As part of the crew slept, Kirk Utter and Bron Miller fretted with a boat that barely moved. It took nearly 8 hours to travel barely three miles, and only with early light was the entire crew roused to “floss” the boat of kelp and get it moving. Terremoto had slipped from first to last on a corrected time basis.

Weinstein again took the helm, the wind began to build, and Terremoto began a new duel with the entire Class 1 and 2, who had managed to catch up and in some cases pass Terremoto. As the boats approached Washington’s Cape Flattery Lighthouse on Tatoosh Island, both Classes 1 and 2 tacked off to sail to Canada across the Juan de Fuca Straits. Terremoto, realizing it couldn’t win a beat against these boats, chose to sail a reckless course through the shoals surrounding Cape Flattery and along the rocky coast of the northern Olympic Peninsula. With Kurt Utter holding his handheld GPS and the crew straining to see through the kelp infested waters for shoals, Terremoto drove on in the morning light. As several points, crew members checking for kelp were able to see rocks looming up to grab Moto’s keel bulb through the bottom portholes. The scenery was spectacular with the waves crashing around the boat and the seals belching at us as we skirted their rock perches.

Terremoto had to back down several times among the rocks to clear kelp. After a nerve wracking four-hour beat, Terremoto was rewarded with better winds. Team Moto chose to make a tactical diagonal ten mile reach across Juan De Fuca Strait and found itself in the afternoon to be handily ahead again of Classes 1 and 2.

For a second time Terremoto was in command of the race, but as it approached Race Rocks the wind died completely. It was shocked to find through its binoculars the entire fleet that had raced in the shorter Cape Flattery and Juan de Fuca races “parked” around Race Rocks. As the sun slowly went down, Terremoto tried 3 times to punch through Race Rocks, but each time in very light winds was pushed back by the currents. In retrospect, Terremoto should have sailed around Race Rocks and greeted the wind building from the south.

Finally, around midnight Terremoto was able to sail though Race Rocks and in very light air approach the mouth of Victoria Harbor. For a third time Terremoto had the opportunity to clinch a victory. With less than a half mile separating Terremoto from the finish line the wind again died. While Terremoto fought against the current to try to stay in the same place, the wind filled in from the south and the rest of the fleet caught up again. After nearly two days, Terremoto lost by a few minutes on a corrected basis.

The lessons from the race’s disappointments were profound. First, Terremoto learned it needed to create a new arsenal of weaponry to “floss” Terremoto from kelp. A frantic next two weeks was spent building a unique set of tools that later became known as the “beaver flossers” in the Van Isle 360 Race. Second, Terremoto was able to understand that going nowhere was going nowhere. Stated differently, it learned that if the boat wasn’t sailing well, it probably had kelp on it and needed to “floss” immediately. Finally, Terremoto learned that one could never be complacent, or as the crew came to understand, it needed to always avoid the “brink” of despair. Terremoto won its Swiftsure class in 2012 and it expects to be better prepared for 2014.