(Oak Harbor, Washington)- After a Thursday afternoon of sunshine and
breeze and an evening of music and food in the rum tent on the lawn of
the Oak Harbor Yacht Club, the racers aboard the 115 race boats
competing in Whidbey Island Race Week 2012 stumbled from their nearby
tents and returned to the waters of Penn Cove the morning of Friday,
July 20 for one final day of fun.The J/105s always put on a Corinthian show of good sportsmanship and solid competition and WIRW 2012 was no exception, with bullets sprinkled among the fleet, and daily awards going to almost each of the eight entries. But it was Jerry Diercks and his Pacific Northwest posse aboard DELIRIUM who walked away with the big win at the end. The three amigos campaigning Corinthian Yacht Club-Portland’s FREE BOWL OF SOUP (Doug Schenk, Eric Hopper & Matt Davis) took second overall with 24 points. And just one point behind stood Bellevue, Washington, based Erik Kristen and his JUBILEE.
In PHRF Class P2, representing Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, Jack Prentice and his crack crew of kids and adults aboard the J/109 DIVA took an early lead and never looked back (though they threw a rare fifth place in at the end of the week’s racing just to sandbag a bit). Third place was anybody’s guess, and in a suspenseful finish to the week’s racing—finally earning a bullet—it was S. Adam Korbin’s J/109, ASTRAL PLANE and his crazy Canadian crew from Royal Vancouver YC who celebrated their bronze win like partiers of an Olympic caliber. Joe James J/109 TANTIVY was fourth and the J/35 GRACE E sailed by Brian White was 6th.
Yet another tie-breaker was needed to decide the overall finisher in PHRF Class P3 with Bob Mayfield and Pat Nelson’s J/29 Slick taking second, with just ten points. Fourth was the J/33 CORVO sailed by Tom Kerr and 5th was Pat Denney's J/29 HERE & NOW.
In PHRF 8 class, the J/70 DA SPENCER sailed by Mike Pitt managed to hang tough, doing better race-by-race to earn a well-deserved 4th. Just behind in 5th was the J/80 TAJ MAHAL sailed by David Schutte with yet another J/80 SKYE ROCKET sailed by Bill McKinnon on 7th. For more Whidbey Island Race Week sailing information
