The race course took us through 4 or 5 “gates” of both wind and current where a boat could lose or gain 10 minutes by choosing poorly.
On the outbound day (Seattle to Port Townsend) Calypso had a 15 minute lead on Carmanah at Double Bluff (1/2 way time point). We chose to continue on the Whidbey Island side, Carmanah crossed to the Marrowstone Island side. We looked great for about 90 minutes until the westerly shift came through. That day we finished behind Carmanah by +-10 minutes. On Sunday, the return to Seattle day, Carmanah pulled out in front early on and lead us by 15 minutes at Double Bluff. They choose to head to the east side of Puget Sound. Two container ships in the VTS lanes forced us back towards the west side which turned out much better. We looked far over the stern to find Carmanah as we close reached to the finish. Sunday’s finish was exciting as Calypso was at max spinnaker reach (80 to 90 TWA) and just barely making the finish line. A spin out was expected if the wind built just a little to over the 15 to 16 we had. As the R2S is a pursuit race we were to be sharing the finish line with smaller sportier boats. A pack of 4 were locked in hand to hand combat just in front of Calypso. In the last 90 seconds or so the pack of 4 ended up beam to beam close enough to hold hands but fortunately did not stall at the line. I expect our 24,000 lbs. at 8.5 knots (frothing at the mouth and looking hungry) made a convincing case for getting across the line and out of the way. Earlier I did state this was my favorite weekend of racing on Calypso (+- 10 years of active racing this boat). Not to pile on but I bet it was one of the best in all my 40 years of racing up and down Puget Sound and Admiralty Inlet. 10 to 20 TWS, medium currents, sunshine and 70 to 80F and 117 boats all being raced single or double handed plus a ½ way party filled with racers knee deep in sea stories. Hard to beat. Martin Calypso 1970 C&C 43 Seattle [cid:D1BF9853-22F7-47FB-86F2-4115CE0BAF2F] From: CnC-List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Chuck S Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2013 4:30 PM To: CNC boat owners, cnc-list Subject: Re: Stus-List Calypso's epic race weekend Great write up. Really enjoyed the tactical explanation of using tides and avoiding wind holes. Chuck Resolute 1990 C&C 34R Atlantic City, NJ ________________________________ From: "DeYoung, Martin" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> To: "CNC boat owners, cnc-list" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Sent: Tuesday, May 7, 2013 6:07:59 PM Subject: Stus-List Calypso's epic race weekend http://www.pressure-drop.us/forums/content.php?3482-Epic-Shorthanded-Racing The link goes to Pressure Drop’s write up of last weekend’s STYC Race to the Straits. In more than 10 years of racing Calypso including this race 4 or 5 times in the past, last weekend’s race rates as the best ever. One of the things that makes this event special is all boats are single or double-handed. Competitors give extra allowance on crossings and mark rounding’s in consideration of the extra time it may take to maneuver. Old school sportsmanship was in evidence both days. The C&C connection is Calypso (43 hull #1) raced Carmanah (43 hull #2). Carmanah won the first day, Calypso the second and the series by a few minutes. Carmanah gets bonus points as they race as a “Jack & Jill” team and gave nothing away in sail handling or boat speed. After 43 years these old boats showed well upwind in 15 to 20 against many of the light weight sporty boats that require weight on the rail. We also did well against the other newer C&C’s from the 80’s and 90’s but a direct comparison is difficult as some classes were “no flying sails” and some “flying sails” C&Cs used a cruising spinnaker. Those pesky light sport boats did have an advantage gybing their asso sails compared to a double-handed dip pole gybe in 15 TWS. Calypso and Carmanah raced against each other when new as Arieto and Destination. The original owners spared little expense to obtain a slight advantage against the other. Both had their sterns bobbed to gain a slight IOR rating advantage in 1974. Today Carmanah has a semi-custom stern restoration that includes a swim step that will be handy when John and Donna take off on an extended cruise south beginning in several years. Martin Calypso 1970 C&C 43 Seattle [cid:D1BF9853-22F7-47FB-86F2-4115CE0BAF2F] _______________________________________________ This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album http://www.cncphotoalbum.com [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
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