West Vancouver Yacht Club celebrates the 50th Southern Straits Classic

Waiting For The Start

 

Apr 26, 2018

Photo Credit – Alex Anglin

The 50th Annual of the Southern Straits Classic Yacht race hosted by the West Vancouver Yacht Club on the Easter weekend was resounding success. The start line of all four courses was held off Dundarave Pier and the festivities ashore included a band, a pancake breakfast, coffee and cookies and even an Easter Bunny with a big basket of chocolate eggs.

Many of these races can be filled with epic sailing stories, but 2018 was a pleasant and enjoyable race with consistent winds and fair weather. The start was delayed for 45 minutes waiting for the westerly to fill in, but once it did, everyone agreed, that it was worth the wait!

On the 3 Classic courses, the boats saw between 12 and 16 knots all the way to Ballenas. From there the Long Course boats took off on a downwind stretch to T10. The full Easter moon was epic and all the boats saw it rise in the Northeast and it shone down on the sailors for most of the night. The first of the Short Course boats crossed the finish line at Point Atkinson at 4:30 am. Short Course boats crossed the finish line at Point Atkinson at 4:30 am.

Blue Chasing Jam Photo Credit – Russel Berg

Peter McCarthy’s newly acquired TP-52 The Shadow II was first boat home on the Long Course. Michael Schoendorf’s very well sailed Riptide 41 Blue finished not far behind to take the PHRF Overall win. Jam owned by Bill Fox really impressed on the Long Course; she took the ORC Overall win by a wide margin. They appeared to sail a flawless race, super-fast up wind and well worked light air on the last leg to get the win.

On the Medium Course, Ross and Marcia Macdonald’s X-41 DAIA took the line honors win (they were so fast upwind) but the experienced and always well sailed Shock 35 —Excalibur, skippered by Jason Vandergaag, took the Overall win in a very large fleet of 42 boats.

On the Short Course William Phillips CY 8.0 Incisor took line honors, but the irrepressible C&C 30 Silik skippered by Wade Harrogate prevailed once again to take the Short Course overall corrected time win.

Aboard Boondoggle Photo Credit – Tristian R Perry

This race is truly a labor of love for the West Vancouver Yacht Club. Mike Seper, the Race Chairman and his Principle Race Officer, Jennifer Ross, along with the 130+ volunteers deserve a high five! It takes tremendous energy to host 75 boats from as far away as Seattle and Victoria. But hats off to the sailing crews for racing hard, for up to 40 hours (starting at 10:30 am and some boats sailed right on through till 11pm Saturday) and then turning around to deliver the boats back to their home bases the very next day. And Easter Sunday was truly a howler. Sail Hamachi posted some great footage of their Juan De Fuca Crossing… fully reefed and flying…some races you win and sometimes you win the deliveries.

Sail on! Until next year, when we see you all again for another great Southern Straits Race!

Full race results can be viewed here:

https://www.wvyc.ca/racing/southern-straits/race-tracking-and-results

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