Better late than never...
It’s 3am and while most sailors are snug in their bunks for the night, yacht designer Alan Andrews is up and on his way to LAX in order to board a flight for the Sea-Tac airport. In just a few hours Alan will be jumping onboard his newly designed Andrews 28 and taking in a few days at the crown jewel of Northwest Racing; the vaunted 26th annual Whidbey Island Race Week.

Under new management this year with well known local Melges 24 racer, Lidgard sails rep and fellow ‘anarchist’(jibeset) Gary Stuntz taking over; the race week has again grown to over 120 boats and marks Alan Andrews first visit to the cherished Penn Cove proving grounds. As a veteran of many Race Weeks and other world famous races we took the opportunity to sit down with Alan briefly to get his thoughts on racing Whidbey for the first time….

Naturally our first question to Alan was his thoughts on racing in Penn Cove. “What a great place to sai,l” offered a very enthused Mr. Andrews “Stable winds, nice geography, and the chop is not too big…it all makes for an excellent place for sailing” stated Andrews. “I can really see why people enjoy sailing here; it is very beautiful as well”

And what about the fleets we asked? What were your thoughts on the boats in the NW? “Great to see the strong one-design fleets with the Moore 24’s out there, also the 105’s, & Melges 24’s, but also very encouraging to see some healthy handicap racing” was Alan’s response. “You really notice the overall size of the boats are very suited to racing in Penn Cove. Big boats would be tough to tack efficiently up the shoreline. There are lots of smaller boats involved and that is really refreshing. With smaller boats, there are more boats for the same number of sailors at the regatta and that means more skippers, tacticians and people intensely involved with the racing instead of just riding the rail,” said Andrews. “Seeing some of the older one and two tonners definitely brought back memories; a few of these boats originally hailed from California when I was a kid,” remarked Andrews.

Naturally we also had to ask Alan’s thoughts on his new Andrews 28 design that he sailed on for the last two days “It went great, it was really fun to sail, fast and the accommodations seemed to be really well received by everyone, Amazing to be winning on the race course and then an hour later relaxing below decks with 5 people without feeling crowded. I really enjoyed the boat,” summed up Andrews.

Of course, no Race Week is complete without a social side so we also asked Alan his thoughts on the off water aspects of Whidbey; his response was encouraging “Here is one thing that really sets Whidbey apart from other venues” stated Andrews. “The amount of camping near the site was unbelievable! I think it is great. To see so many sailors and competitors camping together; the camaraderie and interaction was really positive. It is such a friendly venue and I really enjoyed that side of it” bemused Andrews. “It was also nice to see so many families involved; That is really good for the sport.”

And not long after hitting the dock on Friday Alan was headed back off to the Sea-Tac airport in order to return home to compete in the Balboa Yacht Club’s annual Club Championships the very next morning. Such is the life of a busy and talented Yacht designer and sailor. Also on the drawing board for Alan is a new Class 40, a 45 foot cruising catamaran, initial work on a 70 foot racer, and a few commercial projects as well. Somewhere in between likely a few more hours of sleep as well. Our thanks to Alan for offering up some thoughts on racing at Whidbey.

We would also like to thank photographer Todd Martin from Photo’s By Todd for the photo. To see more of Todd’s great work at the Whidbey Island Race Week please visit Todd’s outstanding website. -Rudy Enzman.