Seattle Grand Prix Preview

(Seattle, WA)- Fun in the sun!  What everyone imagines when they think of the Seattle Yacht Clubs annual Grand Prix Invitational, right?  Following the most beautiful 70 degree fall weekend and falling on the heels of the well attended (if lightly sailed) Puget Sound Sailing Championships the Seattle Yacht Club Grand Prix invites boats from around the PNW that have won or podium finished in every type of race imaginable.  From distance races like Swiftsure and the Tri-Island Series to the mid-distance PNW races like the South Sound Series and Center Sound Series, to weekend rally races like Round the County, to shorthanded races like Northern Century and Race to the Straits and with a few buoy weekends and round the cans thrown in for good measure.  Grand Prix brings in racers off the podium of more races than you can count from a vast area of racing with over 500 different yachts competing over the year.

The IRC system is beginning to take a foothold in the PNW with a good showing from the big boat fleet and will hopefully, soon, trickle on down into the large group of Performance Cruisers that ply the waters of the Salish Sea both on the race course and through our amazing cruising waters.  But for now it’s just the big boats enjoying the IRC rating system and sporting some amazing diversity across the 6 boat fleet.  There is the all carbon J/145 performance cruiser JEDI, the radical TP52 Glory, and two “Fast is Fun” Santa Cruz 70’s Westerly & Neptune’s Car.  Who will take this class after battling it out over the 3 days of racing? That will be a tough call; Westerly’s been upgraded and training over the past year, Glory is back and running hard, Flash has that amazing crew work, JEDI has that huge asymmetrical spinnaker, and Neptune’s Car is always a contender.  The outcome will largely be dependent on the weather conditions and the course lengths and some seriously good tactical calls to take this pickle dish home.

The Seattle Yacht Club always encourages the one design fleets to sign up for Grand Prix, but this difficult move has been traditionally hampered by the invitational nature of the event.  But, try they do and with the tremendous turn-out over the year by the J/105 fleet, they may have a chance come race day, but if not it will be some great PHRF racing with the J/109’s, J/105’s, and J/80’s joining in with the other well sailed PHRF boats to create some solid racing divisions.  Now picking which boats will go in which class is difficult at this early date and, as expected, how do you pick who is going to stand out in a group invited to race because they stood out!  Unquestionably, the J/105’s are always competitive around the buoys but what if conditions warrant a mid-distance course? Then, all bets are off on that score!

Seattle Yacht Club also invites boats that have competed and won in cruising class races and so far, 5 boats have signed up for what’s traditionally been called a “White Sails” class.  Already signed up for this fleet is the J/133 CONSTELLATION. It is hard to imagine which way it will go.  Hopefully, a few more boats join the fray so the “White Sails” class can continue to grow in popularity.   For more Seattle Grand Prix Regatta sailing information