(Victoria, BC, Canada)- Since DOUBLE TAKE arrived in Seattle around the
first of the year, the boat and crew have been on a path sailing toward
the the start of this year’s Vic-Maui Race. The boat got put back
together after its truck trip north from San Diego and got out on the
water a couple of times during January and February. In March, DOUBLE
TAKE sailed in all three of the Center Sound Series races. The spring
has brought more racing with the Tri-Island races and Swiftsure. For
Tri-Island Series, DOUBLE TAKE finished first in her class and fourth
over-all. The crew posted a third in the Flattery Unlimited Class at
Swiftsure.DOUBLE TAKE sails for the Seattle Yacht Club and is skippered by Tom Huseby. DT is Tom's second J/145, the first of which, JEITO, sailed in the 2002 Vic-Maui. DT is crewed by four returning JEITO vets, Tom, Brad Baker, Tim Larson and John Austin. Brad is the navigator and is competing in his ninth Vic-Maui. Joining the four vets this year are Ryan Helling, on his second Vic-Maui and three race newcomers; Jay Sharkey, ocean racer extraordinaire, Tom's youngest son, Max; and Tom's nephew, Nat Smith.
The race has start and you can follow their progress and live blog on their sail across the Pacific to Hawaii. Here's their initial blog entry-- fun reading. "With the first day under our belt, we are staring to settle into the routine and get our sea legs. After the months of preparation it is nice to be finally underway doing the race. Currently we are off the Oregon Coast at about the same latitude as Portland Oregon. We are about 70 miles off the coast and heading just west of due south, running under spinnaker at over 10 knots in close to 20 knots of wind. Life is good.
Here's
the race recap so far. Yesterday morning we were the first to leave
the dock and head out to the race course. I was feeling very confident
that we were well prepared and good to go. Well, best laid plans of mice
and men an all that. As we motored out I turned on the water maker. No
water! WTF? I couldn’t believe it! I have been testing the water maker
and making sure it was ready to go. In the end Jay and I got it going
again. I still don’t know exactly what went wrong, but we were able to
re-prime the system and make water. So far it has been making water
flawlessly (touch wood).The start itself was in a very light Southerly. We had a good head of steam across the line and there is a very good chance we were the first to cross. As we sailed towards race passage the wind did build and shift to a more westerly as I expected. We lead the fleet heading through race passage. Up the beat we quickly put on a healthy lead over our competitors only to have it cut down to near nothing by Terramoto as they found a bit more pressure in the middle as we went to the right. Later up the beat it was our turn as Terramoto sailed to close to shore and got on the wrong side of a shift giving us Healthy lead back. By the time we rounded Duntz rock we could barely see other boats. For the trip out the strait we saw winds ranging from near nothing all the way up to 20 knots. We cycled through the Lt. #1, #2 and #3. Sail changes went very smoothly. We have a good bunch of guys sailing the boat.
Once out in the big ocean things got interesting. The wind died and turned out of the Southwest. This made for lumpy uncomfortable sailing and a few of the crew got squishy (Ryan decided to feed the fish). Not to worry as everyone is doing well now. Sailing in the light air was frustrating. Kinetic who opted to sail further offshore hooked into some wind and actually sailed right up to our position. I suspect at one point they were first boat overall. Terramoto must of gotten caught in a hole because when I checked their position they were 8 miles dead astern. In the light conditions near Flattery we also managed to catch some kelp on the keel and had to do a backing down maneuver. I hate it when that happens!
The pain of escaping the flattery suck-hole eventually did end. We managed to get South and the wind slowly build. During our 10pm to 2am watch we hoisted the code zero spinnaker which was the perfect sail for the light air tight reaching. Just after the other watch came on we made the call to switch to the 1A spinnaker. Then at the next watch change we went to the work horse 2A. We have had a very nice day of sailing with winds mostly in the teens but occasionally reaching the low 20′s. I currently hold the top speed record at 19.3 knots. Hopefully that record will be broken soon!!
You may wonder who is on what watch. The "Red Team" is skipper Tom, Jay, Ryan & Nat. The Blue team is yours truly Brad along with Tim, John and Max.
I’m sure many of you back on dry land have been watching the race tracker. This time around we are allowed to look at it as well. I’ve downloaded the positions 3 times today. It’s becoming very apparent that in these conditions Terramoto has pace and are going to be extremely hard to beat boat for boat let alone corrected in these downwind sailing conditions. It’s a long race and there are a few navigational hazards along the way. All we can do is sail the boat hard make good decisions, navigationally speaking, and let the chips fall where they may." For more J/145 DOUBLE TAKE blog reading For more Vic-Maui sailing and tracking information
