Whidbey Island Race Week News Friday, July 20, 2018 Friday, July 20, 2018 Whidbey Island Race Week News

Above, after losing their mast in a club race last fall, Mark Vangolen and Hennry Reeve’s

Ocaam’s Razor crew maintains their principles by keeping it simple with a speedy, albeit

smaller, Farr 30. Jeff Janders, at the helm, had the added pleasure of seeing his Islander

30, the ex-Spar Trek—rechristened as Bart Vervolet’s Another Tack—make the trek from

Hood River to race again in Penn Cove after a decade-and-a-half hiatus

Above right, whether it’s a plane crashing into Penn Cove or fishing boats catching fire,

there’s always something to tell the folks about back home.

Right; waiting for the wind, the crew aboard John Aitchison’s J/105 Moose Unknown

supports true news and local journalism .

Below, hailing out of Seattle’s Sloop Tavern Yacht Club, Mark Jackson’s crew aboard the

classic Cal 2-24, Water Street, finds their groove.

Photo: V. MacFeidh

Above, the J/80s, now with their own one-design fleet at WIRW,

bond while waiting for Thursday’s wind. Once the breeze filled in

it was Morris Lowitz’s UpRoar who broke away from the pack

and charged ahead at the starting line.

Left, usually reserved for the sailboat racers, this year’s welcome

night blow (ask Ken Chin for

details), went to a spectacu-

lar spectator boat, the MV

Annabelle, a converted 1938

car ferry that’s now the home

to a doctor and her husband.

Below and right, Thursday theme night saw plenty of Gilligans, Gingers,

Professors and Maryanns partying on the island for three hours to the

Celtic-Latin tunes of Vancouver, BC’s legendary Paper Boys.

Phoyo: L. Tewell Phoyo: L. Tewell

Photo: V. MacFeidh

Whidbey Island Race Week News Friday, July 20, 2018 Friday, July 20, 2018 Whidbey Island Race Week News

T he clock said 2:20pm when the westerly finally settled in Penn Cove, but who’s counting? Race Week runs on island

time. The wind’s delay meant more time for making a run into Coupeville for a Bloody Caesar at the Front Street Grill,

a hoppy IPA and fresh steamed mussels at Toby’s, or a triple scoop from Kapaw’s Ice Creamery. Or perhaps a cat nap

on the bow, far away from the work world’s worries, listening to the chi-kee of a Kingfisher diving for its meal, or the

sneaky splish of a curious sea lion. Or maybe gazing at the fire-red trunks of the Madrona trees circling the west end of the cove

like a ruby necklace. However one chose to bide the time waiting for Charley Rathkopf’s CYC race committee to signal the start of

the first day’s first race, after 36 years it’s a wait that never gets old.

From Canada and California, Oregon and Idaho, and even Hawaii, 68 boats made the pilgrimage to sailing mecca for

Whidbey Island Race Week (okay, it’s a day shorter this year, but again, who’s counting). What counts is a glorious opportunity to

reconnect with old friends, make new ones, race hard, hone sailing skills, dance, eat and take deep gulps of fresh, clean Pacific

Northwest air. New this year is a NFS cruising class, a J/80 one-design fleet, and for a fifth or so of the fleet, this is their first WIRW.

After a week or so of hottish temperatures, Thursday’s cooler weather reminded the racers why they’re pros at layering,

bundling up in foulies only to strip down to shorts when blue finally appeared in the north sky later in the day. On the race course, a

swift ebb tide, beach currents and flukey wind shifts combined to make leads swap like cards in a fast-paced game of Go Fish. The

first hand has been dealt, three more to go...

Whidbey Island

Race Week

News © 2018

Editorial:

Vicky MacFeidh,

Liza Tewell

Photography:

Jan Anderson

pix.smugmug.com

WIRW NEWS 2018

Volume 36, Issue 1

WIRW News is sponsored by

www.CoriWhitakerHomes.com

coriwhitaker@windermere.com | 206.795.4361

Presented by

Above, WIRW veterans, David and Vernice Cohen, trailered their

J/90 across the prairies from Lake Pend Oreille to race in Penn

Cove, while Ashley Lund made the trek up from Portland to race

her Melges 24, Blur, in the sport-boat class.

Above right, Chris

Phoenix has assem-

bled a crack crew to

campaign Jaded,

making it a boat to

beat in the 10-strong

J/105 one-design

class.

Right and below,

after an iffy morning

of teasing south-

westerly breezes, the

wind clocked to east,

testing the patience

of the racers as they

waited for the fickle

wind to make up its

mind. The westerly

finally settled into

Penn Cove, though it

brought with it tem-

permental shifts.

THERE IS NO DRESS CODE

Below, Jan has no problem coaxing cheers and smiles from the Kids

Camp kids and staff. Now in its fourth year, the popular day-long camp

introduces children to the delights and history of the island and ends

each day with Opti sailing in the Oak Harbor Marina. This year, Jan is

pledging 100% of the sales of her Whidbey Island Race Week photos to

support Kids Camp

(so order lots!).

Photo: V. MacFeidh