Over the Memorial Day weekend I had the opportunity to crew on Lightning in the Swiftsure Classic, one of the premiere sail races of the Northwest. Lightning is a Sparkman & Stephens designed aluminum sloop that must have been a pretty exotic racer when she was launched in 1970. Her lines are graceful and classic, and the aluminum hull is incredibly fair, with no visible chines or wavy surfaces. The pedestal coffee grinders operated by two crew, with a third trimming the giant Barient winches, were a little intimidating—this is a boat that was built for yacht racing. We had a crack crew of J-24 racers, normally competitors in the active Seattle fleet, but banding together to tend Lightning for the 140 mile big boat course from Victoria out to the Swiftsure Bank at the mouth of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and back.

The amount of work and time that goes into prepping a large boat for a major race is pretty impressive. There were small leaks to be sealed, small repairs to be made, reefing lines to run, fittings to lubricate, lifelines to be tensioned and taped, lines to be marked, sails to be changed, provisions to be bought, and so much more. With about twenty folks including shore-side support, the work went pretty fast, but it still felt a little funny to be drilling holes in the cap-rail to mount blocks for a new genoa delivered the day before the race. As you’ll see, the new genoa, sadly, proved to be our undoing.

One of the simpler jobs in prepping Lightning was attaching the race committee-supplied AIS class B transmitter and its antenna to a stern rail. This was a pretty cool device. With it’s own GPS, battery and solar panel to maintain it’s charge, it automatically reported our position to any vessels with an AIS receiver within VHF range.

The online real-time race tracker used the AIS information to show the positions and courses of the racers, which was not only handy for family, friends, and interested bystanders, but also a real safety factor. After all, the Swiftsure Classic course is a challenging, overnight, open-water route that crosses shipping lanes. Knowing the immediate positions of all the boats would significantly speed rescue in an emergency, and ships entering the Strait would be able to “see” the yachts via their mandatory AIS equipment.

The Race

Saturday, the morning of the race, found the skies overcast, with a stiff westerly breeze, and a fairly gentle chop for the amount of wind. We motored out to the course and sighted the line. We were in the first start with the other big boats headed out for the Swiftsure Bank long course. We powered up the sails and got a nice, clean start, and were off. Lightning moved along nicely, her fine hull and long overhangs making for a gentle motion in the chop, with occasional sheets of green water pasting the crew on the rail.

We worked our way up along the Canadian side where the fleet found a nice lift near shore. As the breeze freshened (probably 18 to 20), we put in a reef, and put on extra layers to stay warm and dry. The boat felt good, and so did we.

The new, 140% genoa was a BIG sail, and a poorly timed tack could leave us with a lot of flogging sail to trim. And a slap from a whipping sheet could be a real injury. After passing Race Rocks, and with the breeze still strengthening, we took another reef, and while tensioning up the halyard one our crew yelped with pain. We all feared he’d had a serious injury, but luckily, it wasn’t so bad.

On a subsequent tack, we were probably still a little disconcerted from the commotion, and failed to notice the genoa hanging up on the windward spreader. As we started grinding, the spreader punched through the cloth where a spreader patch would normally be (on a brand new sail these reinforcements are usually installed after the first use to make sure of the appropriate location). Once the sail was finally on the right side and we were trimming it in, the whole thing just tore in half, with much of the canvas dropping into the water. I admire our Skipper’s attitude in this situation. One deeply felt expletive and a look of complete disappointment were all he allowed himself before getting back to the business of doing-what-needs-to-be-done.

A few minutes later we had the stricken sail back aboard and stowed below, and out came an old, wire luff jib. It lasted mere minutes, though, as the wire parted as we attempted to get enough tension on the luff for upwind sailing. We were beat. Sailing back to Victoria under main alone was subdued, a couple crew went below and minutes later started handing up big sandwiches in an attempt to use up our massive food supply. Back in the harbor, we made quick work of stowing sails, and proceeded to drown our sorrows in beer and rum.

While a disappointment for Lightning, this year’s Swiftsure made for some phenomenal racing conditions. The stiff breeze and relatively flat water allowed a number of the big boats to break the previous course record, with mighty Braveheart finishing in just over 15 hours, followed closely by Coruba, Neptune’s Car, Icon, and Mayhem. Coruba took first overall, though, on corrected time, her third Swiftsure win! So congratulations to all—we’ll see if we can’t give you a bit more competition next year!