J/35c WILDFLOWER Ran For The Roses And Won!
(Victoria, BC)- Gear buster to drifter, the 67th Swiftsure proved challenging for its competitors. In 15 knots of wind the first two starts went off without a hitch, but Class 3 was recalled. Principal Race Officer Jennifer Guest postponed the start sequence to allow enough time to get all the Class 3 boats back for their re-start. By late morning winds gusted to 30 plus knots causing 25 boats to withdraw because of gear failure. Two boats were dismasted, and two experienced rudder failure. By late evening the winds started to shut down at the western entrance of the Juan de Fuca Strait, which, coupled with an adverse ebb tide, made for slow and challenging overnight racing. By late Sunday afternoon 66 boats had withdrawn, leaving just 26 sailboats still on the race course. As the 67th Swiftsure wrapped up, Chairman Bill Conconi was quoted as referring to this year’s race as unusual in its extremes, noting it starting with a bang and ending with a whimper, keeping with its tradition of unpredictability.In the face of such adversity and extraordinary challenges, several J sailors persevered to not only push through the first day of "condo jumping" upwind, but despite the current/wind "shutdown", prevailed to win or place well in their respective classes. As you read about last week, John Macphail's J/160 JAM sailed well to finish 5th in Swiftsure Lightship Classic Class. Tom Mitchell's J/35c WILDFLOWER got it going and won Cape Flattery Race Class 4- Division F! David McLean's J/109 ILLUSIONIST stuck it out and placed fourth in Cape Flattery Race Class 5- Division H and Tom Kelly's J/122 ANAM CARA was sixth in the same class. Lorenzo Miglioni's J/105 ALLEGRO VIVACE was second in Cape Flattery Race Class 5- Division J. For more Swiftsure Race sailing information
