SLEIGH RIDE to SOLOMONS
For several days before the start, the National Weather Service had been predicting northerly winds, anywhere from 5 to 15 knots. The current was predicted to flood until around midnight.
Nine Catalinas started at 1935 on port jibe with spinnakers. Snagglepuss, Swell and Pussycat favored the pin end and most others were down near the boat. John Ebell brought his “photo boat” Truancy out with a crew of supporters to watch the start.
Ducks was rolled by Jolly Mon shortly after the start, which was a precursor of several lead changes to come. Swell had a great start but lost a lot of ground while her torn chute was below being taped up. Pussycat lead everyone from the get go, sailing incredibly fast. They had a nice lead rounding Tolly and then held high down the Bay, staying clear of everyone. Jolly Mon and Ducks chased Pussycat most of the night but eventually lost track of them. Jolly Mon and Ducks had to work hard to pull ahead of Odyssey and Snagglepuss. Once they did, they found that there was a powerful (but invisible) bungee cord holding their two boats together. Most of the night Jolly Mon lead though Ducks pulled ahead twice and nearly ahead several more times. On Ducks we were waiting for Mike Rickels to ask for relief trimming the chute, figuring that would be our chance to pass and, hopefully, open a lead. However, “Iron Mike” never relinquished the spin sheet, trimming for all he was worth for the entire seven hours of the race. The breeze was up and down from 9 to 25 knots but predominantly in the high teens. Wind direction from N to NE. Jolly Mon and Ducks each rounded up a few times during the night but recovered quickly.
Somewhere before rounding R76, Ducks and Jolly Mon were flying along on a port reach at speeds of 8 to 9 knots, with Jolly Mon slightly behind on Ducks starboard quarter. With no warning, there was a rapid wind shift way ahead, making the chute problematic. After struggling for a few minutes Ducks raised the genoa and dropped the chute. Jolly Mon waited a minute longer and were rewarded with the wind shifting back aft and easing a bit. On Ducks we repacked the chute and raised it again as quickly as we could but not before Jolly Mon had pulled ahead on our starboard bow. From that point all Ducks could do was follow Jolly Mon into R76. As we rounded, Ducks cut the mark a little tighter than Jolly Mon and had their air after the jibe. Do you think there was any adrenalin pumping now? Jolly Mon rounded up several times crossing the Bay, losing ground each time but roaring right back nearly abeam of Ducks. There was a northbound tug and tow that we both crossed fairly easily, though not everyone was so fortunate.
Although Ducks was several boat lengths ahead of Jolly Mon at daymark #3, we had a tough time jibing the main for the left turn to the finish. The wind had piped up to 25 and gusting higher. Jolly Mon closed up after switching to their genoa and sailing wing on wing. We couldn’t see the pin due to the 63 bazillion candlepower spotlights being shone on us by both the signal and pin boats, so we sailed to just leave the signal boat to port, barely nipping Jolly Mon by 28 seconds! Julian, Jennifer, Mike and Chris, you sailed a hell of a race! When we saw “Iron Mike’s” fingers on Saturday they were still swollen like sausages! Ouch! To Ducks’ crew of Dave, John, Scott and Scott’s son Richard; it’s not possible to thank you enough for your perseverance and dedication!
One other casualty occurred when Odyssey’s spin pole folded during some extraordinary maneuvering to avoid tangling with the tug and tow. No one was injured, however.
This was the fastest Solomons race I can remember, being just a few seconds over seven hours flat. It was also the first I can remember where you could fly the chute the whole way! Order of finish was; Ducks, Jolly Mon, Makani Kai II, Catawampus, Pussycat, Snagglepuss, Swell, Odyssey and Redrum.