This year's race was so fast, it felt like a day regatta!
MadMax raced to Cape Flattery (our normal course), and completed it in 15 hours and 39 minutes!
The race began with a lousy start, but that start then had a total recall (yay).
We got our act together for the second start, and made the most of it with clear air at the pin (south) end.
We barely made any tacks on our way to and through Race Rocks, leading our fleet. Then, decided there was no benefit in hugging the Van Isle shore, and headed straight to Flattery.
Duked it out with Declaration of Independence as we approached the Washington coast, and fought them off :-)
Then the fateful moment...a black cloud...Declaration headed out in front of the cloud, we headed behind it to shore. Oops. No wind, and the fleet caught up to us as DI and Time Bandit headed to the mark ahead of us.
We regrouped, got our focus back, and had a fantastic downwind leg running with spinnaker all the way to Race Rocks. (Had some close calls as the wind built from 10, to 15, to 20, then 25 knots as we approached Race. The boats around us had gone to white sails, while we were still gunning along with spinnaker. What a ride!)
We tried to make it back to Victoria before last call in the bars, but 2:30 AM all is closed.
Final results have us as 2nd in division (a good result, since we had to make a bit of a comeback after the dreaded black cloud).
Another great Swiftsure!