Remembrance Day Race – 2014

Flags at half mast at Brocton Point (Photo courtesy of Lesley Rigby)

Yes, we remembered. Those who have fallen, that we may enjoy the life we have, are indeed remembered in the best way we know how, by going right out there and doing things that they have made possible. In our case, it’s yacht racing.

At 11 AM we on the committee boat blew the horn several times to let the fleet know that the two minutes of silence was starting. Yes, we remembered. And we are so grateful that you have sacrificed yourselves so that we may enjoy life as we know it. Sorry people, but the cannon was not available this year as the Perihelion was unavailable due to a broken generator.

At 11.02 the horn blew again and then at 11.05 the start sequence began for a pursuit race. This means that the slowest boats start first, then at the allotted times thereafter, faster and faster boats gave chase.

Klatawa, a Gulf 29 with Doug Maclean and Leslie Rigby aboard had called to say that they were having trouble at the dock, so they would be late for the start. They Lied!! They arrived on time, in fact early, and we had to sound the recall as they were over the line early! This gave them the excuse to become confused, so they milled around behind the line, once they had turned around, tails between legs, to start again. the trouble is, they didn’t know when. A lot a waving and shouting got them started but by then the next boat was over the line. We watched them go, down wind, without a spinnaker, towards the Bell Buoy at Point Grey.

The course was a simple Americas cup set up, with one leg up hill and the other down, so one would think it was easy. But some found ways to think otherwise! After all, when you reverse the plan and make it a downwind start, people do tend to have mental fits and start to run around in circles shouting a lot!

Argosy, with young Alex (83 years old) was a classic example as he circled the committee boat asking what the course was, when he should go and where, and so on. He NEVER reads his S.Is.(Sailing Instructions) but we kindly put it down to “old timers disease” (and the drink) and passed on the information!

We had a great fleet out there (33 boats registered but there were one or two who didn’t turn up), with boats from 25-50′ and some seriously fast boats in between. Each was handicapped by the time they started, so the plan is that ALL boats end up at the finish at the same time. As this is almost impossible for the committee boat crew to handle, God is summoned to throw the odd spanner in the works and spread the fleet out a bit.

Jasmina not keeping up with her ‘chute!

Some boats chose not to fly spinnakers, or they just didn’t have one, as the wind was blowing anything from 6 knots to 20 knots and averaging out at about 13 knots at the start line. Further out on the course the racers told me on more than one occasion that it was blowing at LEAST 40 knots at times! Liars! But for sure there was the odd broach with more than one boat finding the big sail around their ankles and doing a donut before they got things under control (Jasmina! Yes, we saw you!). Many a tall tale was being told in the clubhouse after the race, you can be sure of that.

When the windward rail is in the water, you know something interesting is about to happen! This is Thursdays Child being a clever dick, but they still managed a rooster tail behind!

From our vantage point between the QC buoy and the barge buoy, we could see that the fleet bunched up a LOT at the Bell Buoy, which must have been fun, but the bigger boats certainly took advantage of the great breeze and roared off, leaving everybody in their wakes. But I have to say that Ben Rummen, our new Commodore, had a great race and was not far behind in spite of trying hard to roll the boat over on the downwind leg.

With ‘chutes doing all sorts of funny things, Windyfeat and Thursday’s Child duke it out.

While the fleet was at the Bell buoy, we on the committee boat decided to take advantage of the lull in proceedings to eat lunch. A really nice chicken dish on rice. Unfortunately the glass dish was too big for the oven, so it was decided to heat it up on top. A loud BANG ensued shortly thereafter as the dish shattered, making the meal useless unless you wanted to get on Americas Got Talent and eat glass. We didn’t, but enough bits and pieces were put together to make a good feed in the end. You see what we have to put up with while you racers are having fun!!

Finally, the fleet started to return, with, as I said, the big boats arriving first, flying along, hard on the wind to make the finish line with Excalibur taking line honours. It was a great sight. But as the principal of a pursuit race is for everybody to end up at the finish together, this was not such a success, as there was quite a gap between boats. But that’s racing, and they were close enough to keep us occupied, taking down times and so on.

At the start shown here Dominatrix was finally pipped at the post by Excalibur (left)

In the end Dominatrix was just 2 minutes and 1 second behind Excalibur in division one. In division two, things were a little closer with Talisman winning with Windyfeat 1′ 14″ behind and Thursdays Child just 8 seconds adrift. Now that was close!

Shogun finished not exactly smelling of roses!

When Shogun finished, they hailed us to thank us and set off for home. “Can you smell rubber?” I asked, not thinking he had been going THAT fast! (In fact they brought up the rear in Div 2). Sure enough, about 5 minutes later they called us up on the VHF to say that they were having “issues” with overheating, and would we stand by after the race if they needed a tow home. In the end, they discovered that a cooling hose had split and all they needed was a hose clamp and they were on their way. Well done Andreas for having a full stock of parts on the committee boat. We did indeed escort them in however as you never know how many blades off the impeller are wedged in the cooling system. He made it fine though.

It had been a brilliant sunny day, with GREAT wind and warm conditions (if you were in the sun) and what more could we ask for to celebrate the fallen on this Remembrance Day? Well, a warming drink or two in the VRC clubhouse afterwards was welcome for sure because once the sun got low, it really turned cold.

Evan Seys
s/v Perihelion

NOTE: All photos (unless otherwise stated) are by Richard So, with grateful thanks.