Sea Weasel: 2009 English Bay Scramble Report

SEA WEASEL ready for battle.

The English Bay Scramble was one of the first yacht races we did on the SEA WEASEL when I first bought the boat. I had always liked it and found it to be a fun and challenging event. The after party was quite good too. This year I was involved in putting it on as the Fleet Captain. Up until the last minute I had planned not to race and let Curtis and Cheryl take the boat out while I worked on the Committee boat. However thanks to many volunteers in the club I was able to do the race. This turned out to be a good thing since my entire crew bailed on me (except for Curtis; if you cont him). So it turned out we were double handing the race.

Friday night we attended the Skipper's Meeting at the Maritime Museum and listened to Peter's "pearl's of wisdom" on how to approach the race. In a nut shell; there was no strategy; you can get screwed no matter which way you approach it. - Thanks Peter.

Skipper's meeting.

Niko in the chase boat taking photos.

you - "Hey where's all the crew?" me- "Curtis and I figured we could do better without them."

The day of the race Curtis and I headed out on the WEASEL into the Bay. There was little wind perhaps 4 knots NE, and a huge 11ft flood. We opted to run for Passage Island and get that often hellish mark out of the way. There was a reported 11 knot inflow near there so we thought we should sail for the wind. We also planned to reach south in a westerly that was expected to develop in the afternoon and round the PG Bell Buoy before doing our first S/F crossing. We would pick up the other two marks if we had time.

The start line with light wind and a ton of traffic.

The official video of the start sequence.

Spot the WEASEL in the thick of it all.

The start was the usual chaos but the light winds made it less deadly and we were in a good position to broad reach on a starboard tack across the line. The majority of the boats went south looking for tide relief and favourable winds. Six of us went for Passage and the promised winds. We hoisted the kite and were off like a herd of turtles.

Heading off to Passage Island.

In these light airs we made 2 knots until the wind shut off and we drifted in the back eddies out towards Point Atkinson. We stayed close to the back and even held off KRIKKIT and TIGER LILY for a time before they took off. It became unbearable as we watched the wind cruelly fill in hours later and take the lead boats first. The boats to the south did not appear to be doing much better than us.

With hardly any wind we drifted along with the kite up.

Curtis the navigator.

Finally the wind picked up from the SW and we began to move towards Passage Island at 5 knots. With the wind slightly ahead of a beam reach and with the tide hitting us we began to drift sideways. It became more and more apparent that we would not be able to clear Point Atkinson. We held off taking down the kite hoping the wind would veer around closer to the point. No such luck; we nearly grounded and did a messy bare away and gybe (if you could call it that) we tore the kite taking it down and made a messy recovery losing several minutes before getting back on course.

The hated Point Atkinson.

Now the wind was now filling in and we whipped around Passage Island and raced over to the mark near the PG Bell Buoy. We hoisted the kite for a rough run back to the Start Finish line. At that point we made the decision to play it safe and go to the West Vancouver mark and recross the S/F line. If we had time we would try and pick up the Kits Barge Buoy. With time not on our side we gave up at 4:45pm and finished the race.

Finally wind!

Ouch! - Please don't rip!

SEA WEASEL Finishing the race.

"Only one mark left!"

Following the race we had a pleasant sail to pick up the two race marks. On the last mark I picked up two different salmon lures tangled around the rode of the mark. It was awesome; I just got $30 worth of salmon fishing gear. With our final task completed we motored back home and proceeded to the after party that was well underway.