Whidbey Island Race Week News Friday, July 20, 2018 Friday...
Transcript of Whidbey Island Race Week News Friday, July 20, 2018 Friday...
Whidbey Island Race Week News Friday, July 20, 2018 Friday, July 20, 2018 Whidbey Island Race Week News
Above, after losing their mast in a club race last fall, Mark Vangolen and Hennry Reeve’s
Ocaam’s Razor crew maintains their principles by keeping it simple with a speedy, albeit
smaller, Farr 30. Jeff Janders, at the helm, had the added pleasure of seeing his Islander
30, the ex-Spar Trek—rechristened as Bart Vervolet’s Another Tack—make the trek from
Hood River to race again in Penn Cove after a decade-and-a-half hiatus
Above right, whether it’s a plane crashing into Penn Cove or fishing boats catching fire,
there’s always something to tell the folks about back home.
Right; waiting for the wind, the crew aboard John Aitchison’s J/105 Moose Unknown
supports true news and local journalism .
Below, hailing out of Seattle’s Sloop Tavern Yacht Club, Mark Jackson’s crew aboard the
classic Cal 2-24, Water Street, finds their groove.
Photo: V. MacFeidh
Above, the J/80s, now with their own one-design fleet at WIRW,
bond while waiting for Thursday’s wind. Once the breeze filled in
it was Morris Lowitz’s UpRoar who broke away from the pack
and charged ahead at the starting line.
Left, usually reserved for the sailboat racers, this year’s welcome
night blow (ask Ken Chin for
details), went to a spectacu-
lar spectator boat, the MV
Annabelle, a converted 1938
car ferry that’s now the home
to a doctor and her husband.
Below and right, Thursday theme night saw plenty of Gilligans, Gingers,
Professors and Maryanns partying on the island for three hours to the
Celtic-Latin tunes of Vancouver, BC’s legendary Paper Boys.
Phoyo: L. Tewell Phoyo: L. Tewell
Photo: V. MacFeidh
Whidbey Island Race Week News Friday, July 20, 2018 Friday, July 20, 2018 Whidbey Island Race Week News
T he clock said 2:20pm when the westerly finally settled in Penn Cove, but who’s counting? Race Week runs on island
time. The wind’s delay meant more time for making a run into Coupeville for a Bloody Caesar at the Front Street Grill,
a hoppy IPA and fresh steamed mussels at Toby’s, or a triple scoop from Kapaw’s Ice Creamery. Or perhaps a cat nap
on the bow, far away from the work world’s worries, listening to the chi-kee of a Kingfisher diving for its meal, or the
sneaky splish of a curious sea lion. Or maybe gazing at the fire-red trunks of the Madrona trees circling the west end of the cove
like a ruby necklace. However one chose to bide the time waiting for Charley Rathkopf’s CYC race committee to signal the start of
the first day’s first race, after 36 years it’s a wait that never gets old.
From Canada and California, Oregon and Idaho, and even Hawaii, 68 boats made the pilgrimage to sailing mecca for
Whidbey Island Race Week (okay, it’s a day shorter this year, but again, who’s counting). What counts is a glorious opportunity to
reconnect with old friends, make new ones, race hard, hone sailing skills, dance, eat and take deep gulps of fresh, clean Pacific
Northwest air. New this year is a NFS cruising class, a J/80 one-design fleet, and for a fifth or so of the fleet, this is their first WIRW.
After a week or so of hottish temperatures, Thursday’s cooler weather reminded the racers why they’re pros at layering,
bundling up in foulies only to strip down to shorts when blue finally appeared in the north sky later in the day. On the race course, a
swift ebb tide, beach currents and flukey wind shifts combined to make leads swap like cards in a fast-paced game of Go Fish. The
first hand has been dealt, three more to go...
Whidbey Island
Race Week
News © 2018
Editorial:
Vicky MacFeidh,
Liza Tewell
Photography:
Jan Anderson
pix.smugmug.com
WIRW NEWS 2018
Volume 36, Issue 1
WIRW News is sponsored by
www.CoriWhitakerHomes.com
[email protected] | 206.795.4361
Presented by
Above, WIRW veterans, David and Vernice Cohen, trailered their
J/90 across the prairies from Lake Pend Oreille to race in Penn
Cove, while Ashley Lund made the trek up from Portland to race
her Melges 24, Blur, in the sport-boat class.
Above right, Chris
Phoenix has assem-
bled a crack crew to
campaign Jaded,
making it a boat to
beat in the 10-strong
J/105 one-design
class.
Right and below,
after an iffy morning
of teasing south-
westerly breezes, the
wind clocked to east,
testing the patience
of the racers as they
waited for the fickle
wind to make up its
mind. The westerly
finally settled into
Penn Cove, though it
brought with it tem-
permental shifts.
THERE IS NO DRESS CODE
Below, Jan has no problem coaxing cheers and smiles from the Kids
Camp kids and staff. Now in its fourth year, the popular day-long camp
introduces children to the delights and history of the island and ends
each day with Opti sailing in the Oak Harbor Marina. This year, Jan is
pledging 100% of the sales of her Whidbey Island Race Week photos to
support Kids Camp
(so order lots!).
Photo: V. MacFeidh