The weekend was kicked off with a great dinner and party Friday night. It started with the America’s Cup Race on the big screen, with free beer and pop, and another of Jan’s delicious dinners. Our thanks to the kitchen crew.
The evening was topped off by the Brian Fiest Blues Band and dancing until the wee hours. They had a great harmonica player, the man who got the supplies for the party and served on a RC boat, Thom Abbott. What other hidden talents does he have?
The band was a great idea for the Friday night party. But they do not play for free. Judi Kruller and Dave Lakey set up all the arrangements and paid for the band. I enjoyed the music, and would like to have the band return next year, but find a way for the race budget to pay the band, not two individuals.
Update: The Race RC did find the money to pay David and Judi back. We want to thank them for the front money. And we want to thank the racers for coming in sufficant numbers for us to do so.
Cliff Cochran helped with getting the visiting boats tied up at Percival Landing. The Sea Scouts once again stood fire and safety watch.
Jim Thurman spent the entire evening behind the bar pouring beer for the rest of us, though not with out help. Thank you all.
T-shirt sales during the evening were great. Thanks to the Sallers and designer Sean Trew. We more than broke even.
In the morning everyone was there for breakfast as usual and the skippers meeting. The weather was just as predicted by Greg Sinnett: fog clearing, to sunny skies and light to non-existent wind. The race was postponed 10 minutes at the start due to fog. Judy Kruller, Principle Race Officer, got all the entrants started, despite fog and light wind.
The race was shortened at Lyle Point, making the race length 14.5 miles. Those who stuck it out, started finishing at 1830 and the last finisher crossed the line at 2200.
I would like to thank Bob Conrad, our OYC coordinator, for lining up the committee boat Slow Dancer, owner Gary Larson, and mark boat Per Vida, owner Moe Lovelace, to help the Race Committee start and finish the race. Bob also found a chase boat to help out with the race.
Mark Johnson handled the media for the race, from magazines to newspapers. Mark also had the photographers on the race coarse aboard Act II, Henry Brooks trawler, to take pictures. We want to thank the all the on the water volunteers.
Some skippers quit racing due to lack of wind and difficult currents in Dana Passage. A lot of those racers were back at the OYC Clubhouse by 1600, in time to get a hot bowl of soup and a cold beer as the America’s Cup Race started.
Our Club was well represented, both in entrants and finishers. Congratulations to Strider, taking the trophy for first to finish, and Flying Circus on being the first monohull over the line. See the results for more details.
While the Toliva party and race is a memory, I want to thank Olympia Yacht Club, the Toliva Shoal Race Committee, and all the volunteers who made it possible. From the first committee meeting months ago to the cleaning of the Clubhouse after the Race, it was a great learning experience and a lot of fun for me.
David Brown, Le Voilier
On behave of the Club, I want to thank David for organizing the event. It came off well. And we had fifteen boats more than last year. This is the first Series race to have a significant rise in attendance since longer than I care to say. Ed.
The Toliva party really started not when the beer was tapped but with another race, in New Zealand. Four o’clock Friday a crowd gathered at the clubhouse to watch the first America’s Cup Race. The wind had other ideas however. That race was postponed. Instead we watched a rerun of a Finals race. At least it was a closer race than any of the Cup races so far. I like sailing on TV.
As the race ended, dinner was ready. The proceeds from dinner, and Saturday’s breakfast, go to support youth sailing, the Corinthian Sailing Club It looks like we raised some money for them, as dinner was well attended. I guess the dinner was good. I waited for the line to shorten. Big mistake. When I looked again the food was gone. There were a lot of hungry people and I was told the food was good. Jan’s food usually is.
We drew more people than expected. Race attendance was up some 15 boats from last year, to eighty-one boats. And there seemed many more people at the party, but maybe they just stayed longer. We went through a couple more kegs than expected. Luckily we did not run out till midnight on Saturday.
After dinner there were raffles to attend to. Series Sponsor, SoundKeepers, was selling tickets. Then they gave away prizes donated by the secondary sponsors: West Marine, Cutty Sark, Anthony’s, and Patagonia. Winners were too numerous for me to keep track.
Further, the local high school sailing program was selling chances to win a spinnaker in a still up coming drawing. It will be made for your boat by Rolly Tasker and was donated by the Sail Outlet.
Then the band started, the Brian Fiest Blues Band with some classic blues guitar. Sailors were up dancing. Thom Abbott took harp in hand and set in for a couple of tunes. But all too soon the party had to end. We all had to get up early to race.
The Race started in fog. We powered out to the start by compass, but all we really had to do was to stay with the other boats. Dragonfly’s twin hulls and tall mast loomed impressively behind us in the fog.
The start was delayed ten minutes until the RC boat could see down the line. This threw off the timing for some boats in the later starts. They arrived late, prepared to start at a given time, rather than following the starting sequence.
The wind was light and we worked ourselves to the edge of the fleet looking for clear air. The fog was trying to lift. There were some thin spots, even some sunny ones, but the it stayed with us to Boston Harbor, about noon. Then the fog gave way to a beautiful, warm, sunny day with great views of the Olympic Mountains. There are photos in the Toliva Shoal Race Office.
We got a good chance to look. Our slow progress down the Sound started meeting with opposition; the current was starting to flood. We were still sailing, but we were no longer gaining ground. Most of the fleet spent a couple of hours in one spot, waiting for the tide to turn. At least it was sunny and warm, a great day to just be outside.
Here the fleet divided. About forty percent decided it was time to call it a day and were back by dark. There was a crowd at the TV for the Cup Race at 1600. There was beer and chips. Jan made same excellent soup, which was even better with a breakfast biscuit, and set out some raw vegetables with dip.
The crowd thinned out after the Cup Race, but sailors came straggling back all night as dropouts were replaced by finishers. The beer held out till late and there was food till well after the RC boat was back and we shut the club down.
The majority of boats stayed to finish and were rewarded. Some wind finally came in and everyone finished by 2200, even the Cruising Class. Most had finished an hour earlier. They were treated to great moonlight sail. The full moon came out about the time the wind came up. The sail from Johnson Point to the shortened finish at Lyle Point was beautiful in the moonlight. Several sailors have told me that those of use who bailed early really missed something.
What ever they chose to do, everyone I talked to had fun. It was a beautiful day, and apparently a beautiful night, just to be on the water.
Steve Worcester, Sugar Magnolia
Last weekend we took Butterfly, our 24 foot trimaran, from Corvallis Oregon to Olympia for our first race of the year. Toliva Shoal Race is race three of the South Sound Series. It goes out of Olympia, past Boston Harbor, Johnson Point, circumnavigates Anderson Island and the Toliva Shoal bouy, and return. That is the theory anyway. After the light air Vashon Race and the blow out at Des Moines it was a total toss-up what this race would be like.
We started in a cold fog right at 1000. There was just enough air movement to allow us to get in front of DragonFly, a gorgeously painted Formula 40 catamaran. The scratch boat at minus125. Then we drift over the line before anybody else. Things went downhill from there, racing wise. We went right when we shoulda gone left, or something.
But the fog lifted about noon and it warmed to a really pleasant drift and truly amazing scenery. I love racing under the Olympics. About moonrise we rounded Johnson Point for a great view of Rainier turning pink then purple, with a full moon rising beside it. Then the tide turned and the remainder of the fleet, that is us, got flushed down to the south end of Anderson Island, where the intrepid finish crew awaited, strobe blinking in the dark.
It was a long motor back against the tide, and with somewhat less than a prudent amount of gas in the can. Hey, it is sail boat, right? Yeah, if there is wind!
We made it back to the dock around 0200, tired but happy to be home. There was at least a pint of gas left in the can.
This year there were 6 multihulls and about 75 monohulls. 2 multihulls and 25 monohulls bailed out before the end of the shortened race. The Toliva Shoal Race Committee hosted a really great dinner and welcome party Friday, breakfast before the 0830 skippers meeting, and had an all night party running after the race. They did a bang up job of it.
Robert Williams, Butterfly, YBYL
I thought you guys did as well as you could with the conditions you were handed. Bravo on the RC judgment to end it at Lyle Point. We actually ended up with some really fun sailing in the last half hour or so when the southerly filled in and the moon was full. It maybe could have gone to Toliva Shoal given the ebb, but there were holes north of Lyle. We actually motored back to Tacoma in a northerly for a while off of Steilacoom to Day Island.
It was a beaultiful night. People should not have quit so soon.
I thought the band was great.
Ken Slattery, TYC