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Swiftsure International Yacht Race

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Rubato View Drop Down
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    Posted: 23 May 2007 at 08:15
This coming weekend will see the running of the Swiftsure International Yacht Race out of Victoria, BC, Canada. The premiere long distance sailing race in the B.C. and US Pacific Northwest area, Swiftsure has drawn boats and sailors from California, Hawaii, New Zealand and even Russia. The race is actually six different races over four separate courses.
 
A brief history, info on courses, boats entered, etc can be found on the official web site.
 
Two Hanse 400es are entered in the race this year; Rubato and Kerkyra. Although the original intent was for the sister ships to compete side by side on the same course; Rubato will be sailing the 100nm Cape Flattery race while Kerkyra will tackle the 140nm Swiftsure Lightship Classic race which ventures out into the open Pacific and requires life rafts to be carried.
 
Boats will be carrying GPS transponders to report position to the race committee and can presumably viewed real time on the web site over the weekend. (this didn't work very well last year but apparently it's new and improved). 
 
Race start is 10am Pacific Daylight Time Saturday May 26th.
 
Steve
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landlocked View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote landlocked Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 May 2007 at 08:58
Domo Arigato Mr. Rubato!
 
I wasn't going to tell them about the race yet in case it didn't go well for me
 
Now the secret's out and we have to live up the the good results that others have had with their Hanse's all around the world.
 
Well, if I drop off the forum for a few months you'll know what happened...
 
Seriously, though, this will be great fun, with 200 boats participating in the various races, some parties beforehand, and a forecast that seems to be shaping up.   Kerkyra's course will include many of the fastest boats in the Pacific Northwest as well as a 1967 America's cup challenger and a 105 foot navy training vessel.  Rubato will be up against a larger fleet with many boats having similar handicaps to the 400e, so Steve will not have as many excuses as I.
 
 
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Johan Hackman View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Johan Hackman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 May 2007 at 09:59
Winning is not the important thing - it's the only thing....

I wish you good luck.

Johan
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Abstinenz View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Abstinenz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 May 2007 at 10:33
Originally posted by landlocked landlocked wrote:

Domo Arigato Mr. Rubato!
 
I wasn't going to tell them about the race yet in case it didn't go well for me
 
Now the secret's out and we have to live up the the good results that others have had with their Hanse's all around the world.
 
Well, if I drop off the forum for a few months you'll know what happened...
 
Seriously, though, this will be great fun, with 200 boats participating in the various races, some parties beforehand, and a forecast that seems to be shaping up.   Kerkyra's course will include many of the fastest boats in the Pacific Northwest as well as a 1967 America's cup challenger and a 105 foot navy training vessel.  Rubato will be up against a larger fleet with many boats having similar handicaps to the 400e, so Steve will not have as many excuses as I.
 
 

Hi,
It happened to us. We will visit a "medium" one of theese days to get our fighting moral back Sleepy as we performed really bad yesterday in the local regatta. Windforce between 1 and 6 knots on a too small (one of our 500 bad explainations) up/down race track with 57 boats, we came in last in our group Cry.

Please give our Hanse a windforce around 10-20 knots and we will show them......
 
Have to do some research on Hanse light wind trim Confused

/Steen & Anne

  


Edited by Abstinenz - 23 May 2007 at 12:20
Hanse 342#436
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Rubato View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rubato Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 May 2007 at 17:21
I contemplated whether or not to say anything but I have high hopes for the race. In competition thus far with the boat, results have been disappointing to say the least. Too embarrassed to post anything here. There are 2 reasons for this; tuning/practice and ratings. As mentioned in previous posts, we can't point yet with our new foresail. Too much sag means we are dropping down on other boats, but the boat does have good speed. As far as ratings go, we've been racing using IOR ratings and the boat has a tough one - essentially fastest boat in the division. So although our line finishes have been improving we correct well down the fleet, to even last Embarrassed.  However, Swiftsure uses the PHRF handicap rule and our rating is more consistent with the results seen so far.  Now we just have to worry about picking the right side of a multi mile wide course, currents, etc....    not to mention staying out of the way of freighters in the middle of the night...
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Rubato View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rubato Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 01 June 2007 at 22:07
I'm very pleased to report an excellent showing for Rubato in the Swiftsure International Yacht Race.
 
As mentioned, of the 4 courses Rubato participated in the 100nm Cape Flattery course. So we went from Victoria to the Northwest tip of Washington state and back again.
 
Rubato came 2nd in Division, 10th in class, and 16th for the course, WOOHOO!!
 
The race started at 10 am in the morning with winds in the 10 - 12 knot range. The Cape Flattery race was the 3rd start and the first attempt resulted in a general recall - suited us fine, we were slow to the line. On the second attempt we had a fantastic start, about 3rd across the line near the starboard end of the line on a starboard tack. For the next couple of hours we tacked up the Canadian side of the strait with wind building to the 15 - 18 range. At this point we put in our first reef making the boat much easier to handle. By the time we reached Race Rocks (a lovely little passage with tricky current) we overtook some of the slower boats that were in the start ahead of us (25 minutes). Our speed was pretty consistent in the 7 knot range.
 
We continued tacking up the Canadian side until about a third way to the mark (around Sooke I think it was) at which point the leaders started to head out to the middle of the Strait of Juan De Fuca looking for better wind as the wind was dying a little on the Cdn side. We followed and then took it to an extreme seeing stronger breeze closer to the American side. This paid off as we made gains for the next hour at which point wind across the course started to subside - quite a change in pace going from the 5-7 knots we had been doing to less than 1 knot at some points. This lasted about an hour until the wind filled in a little heavier once again and slowly built to the 20 knot range.
 
Although there were about 5 boats with us on the American side, the majority of the fleet stayed in the middle of the Strait. We started to consolidate as we approached the mark and it became evident that those boats in the middle had not suffered as light conditions as we had which put them about a half hour earlier into the rounding. Rubato rounded the mark in daylight at approximately 8pm. Those of us that have done this race before are used to rounding the mark in the dark perhaps as late as midnight, so this race was going very fast, but the best was yet to come....
 
As we pulled away from the mark and hoisted the chute, things began to calm down a little on the boat. We shook out the reef in the main, had some lasagne that had been warming in the oven, a couple of crew went below for some rest.  We headed towards the Canadian side of the strait for one main reason - to get out of the shipping lane so we didn't have to worry about freighters and cruise ships in the middle of the night. We were on a port gybe for about 2 hours with speeds in the 10 knot range as the sun set and a following sea began to rise.
 
We executed a gybe in dim light conditions near 10pm. With the seas rocking the boat a little and with gusty conditions, the chute was a little unstable as we tried to keep it in front of the boat as the pole was moved over. Once the chute started to wrap around the forestay but with some sheet and guy handling we quickly got it flying again. We maintained a starboard gybe for almost 3 hours as the wind built to 25 knots with gusts over 30. I think it was around this time that we actually double reefed the main to get rid of some of the power. We saw the knot meter head over 14 knots a few times as we surfed down the backend of waves with stars overhead and a partial moon rising. It was a  real rush. I remember being at the helm and having to ask people to yell when talking to me so I could hear them over the roar of the water coming off the transom.
 
From time to time you'd see the nav lights of a few boats around you. If you listened carefully, you'd catch the sound of flapping sails as the competition had a hard time keeping things under control and would broach every once in awhile. It was interesting trying to estimate where we were relative to one another as depth perception in the dark is very difficult.
 
Quickly we found ourselves in the middle of the strait again, needing to gybe and head back through Race Rocks to the finish. With wind still in the high 20s we made a very smart decision. We would take the chute down instead of gybing it, we'd do a chicken gybe to go easier on the boom and goose neck, then raise the maxi jib for the port gybe home. It worked like a charm...  We only lost about 0.2 knot difference between the jib and the chute but the boat was much easier to control as we went through the passage.
 
We crossed the finish line shortly after 3am (about 12 hours ahead of what's normal for this race). As we headed into the Victoria inner harbour for our safety inspection we came upon a couple of boats that had spinnakers and sails ripped and wrapped in their rigging. This was a continued theme as boats continued to check in during the morning with one boat losing it's mast altogether about 8 feet above the deck - apparently the backstay broke.
 
All in all, I was incredibly pleased. The boat continued to have a light helm even in those heavy conditions. When she starts to broach, it's gentle and the recovery is equally as refined. As for my crew, 9 in total with 2 of them hadn't even raced with us or the boat before, they did incredibly well - sound decisions and very well executed.
 
Not bad for the first overnighter, I'm very pleased!!!!!!!!
 
Steve


Edited by Rubato - 01 June 2007 at 22:22
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Abstinenz View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Abstinenz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 June 2007 at 09:07
Hi Rubato.

Congrats with the very fine race result and thanks for the good summary.

/Steen & Anne  
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Johan Hackman View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Johan Hackman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02 June 2007 at 18:09
Congratulations Steve, and thanks for sharing! It was nice reading.

Johan
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les40 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote les40 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 June 2007 at 07:50

enjoyed your commentary on the race....congrats, sounded like you had a blast!

cheers

leslie

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Alex Faber Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 June 2007 at 09:40
Congratulations Steve!!!
The reading was almost as much fun as you must have had.
s/y eMotion (H430e #24)
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