Round Salt Spring Island Race 2007

May 19, 2007, 108 Sailboats from all over British Columbia and Washington State raced in the 33rd annual Round Salt Spring Island race put on by the Salt Spring Sailing Club. Nick Hodson, the Commodore, can be proud of all the members that helped out with the multitude of jobs to make this event such a big Salt Spring success, year after year. Special thanks to Bryan Zapf, Nora McCloy and their committee for putting in a huge amount of time organizing the race and a big thanks to all the sponsors.

It is one of the premier races in British Columbia, and few will challenge our claim that it has the best scenery (Although no one had time to see it this year). The 42 mile route is very challenging with strong tidal streams and tricky winds rolling off the Vancouver Island mountains.

The largest unknown element in sailboat racing is the wind. Will it be strong? Will it blow at all? There was not a racer on any of the 108 boats that would say we did not have enough wind during this race. With sustained headwinds of over 25 knots, and gusts measured by some boats up to 40 knots, the beat up Satellite Passage between Piers and Saltspring Islands was very tough going. The smaller boats had solid sea water flowing over their decks as the waves rolled over them.

For conservative sailors it would have been time to find a safe harbour, but apparently this edition of the race had no timid crews; only two boat withdrew, and it had two torn sails and injuries. With the thought of glory and prizes dancing in their heads everyone bashed on, and the wind bashed back. The end result is that it will be a busy week for the sail makers in Sidney, fixing all the ripped and torn sails. I know our skipper will be in line in Sidney with new but already beat up sails.

Once around Cape Keppel the brave skippers hoisted their spinnakers and all was fine until the squalls hit just past Sansum Narrows. Several boats blew their spinnakers out in this area.

When we reached Vesuvius, I realized not everyone likes 108 sailboat tearing around the island, and a big thanks goes to the crew of the Bowen Queen who did their best to weave in and out of the boats.

At Southey Point (ironically at the north end of the Island) the boats all doused their Spinnakers to see what lay in wait in Trincomali Channel. Luckily "Captain BOB and his huge barge Hercules" weren't coming around the corner - that is never fun. For most of the boats, the direction of the wind led to one of the fastest reaches down Trincomali Channel in race history. Although the tide was flooding strongly against us in Captain Passage, there was sufficient wind this year to allow most boats to get through without difficulty. Then it was one or two tacks to get around Nose and Scott Points, and then a close reach back home to Ganges Harbour and the finish line.

This race will be fondly recalled for many, many years. Photos and results can be found at http://www.saltspringsailing.ca/

Some special notes to readers:
Caliente (with owner Ole Anderson, guest skipper Alex Fox, and Ole's regular crew on board) was the first club boat to to come in and won the first division and 2nd overall on corrected time. Ole says he has a new compassion for his crew now, after walking in their shoes for a change.
RB Bortz in Effervescence, a huge Cooper 41, who always says he needs "25 knots of wind to make my boat move" won't be saying that again after blowing out his head sail and having to change it off Cape Keppel.
Keith Simpson of Soul Dancer put his spinnaker pole through his main sail. Despite his main being well ventilated, he was able to record a decent time.
Patrice Pothier skippered his first race ever in his new boat Kathaem and had a great race.
Drew Thorbourn's Questo stood up to the wind and sailed a fast race.
Tony Meek won a prize for swimming (in his underwear) before the race to dislodge a crab trap from their rudder. We wondered if he was just trying to get a free lunch.
According to David Wood, his sons Josh and Dan sailed a great race and worked well together.
Imp's long boom was dragged through the water more than once in the gusts past Sansum Narrows. When they reached Vesuvius, Imp's crew looked back and were amused to see a clump of seaweed hanging from the end of the boom.
Bob Jones on Alacrity said they had a tough beat through the high winds and then a smashing spinnaker run where he passed everyone in sight.
Tony McEwen and Dave Howell in that green machine Saorsa were in their element in the high winds. They had all their sails up and flew by us with Dave talking (screaming) about what a nice day it was for a quiet sail. It was a sight to behold. Congratulations to Soarsa who ended up third in their division.
Larry Melious who sailed on Fandango said that it was a real workout. Despite the conditions, Suzanne Ambers managed to roast a perfect dinner for the crew, as is their tradition.
Jan Malherbe and crew came tenth in their division in their first go around the Island.
Stuart Farson in JJ Flash had a great race, coming in second in their division, only to rip their big mainsail when they took it down after they had finished.
Nora McCloy and Norbert Schlenker had their big boat, newly named Arbitrage, really going. According to the crew they had the sail of their lives.
The best quote of the day came from our starter Jim Ballantyne. He told me it was so windy at the start he could hardly hold the flag for the 4 minutes required. Thanks for hanging in there Jim, it would have caused a lot of confusion if you had let that down early. Next year we will see if we can get some kind of flagpole mounted.
By Scott Simmons