Melges 24 Pacific Coast Championships

I am not a very good writer but here it goes.  I live about one hour south of Seattle and this is where my adventure begins.  I had my gear and boat ready to go and got a great start at 6 am on Wednesday the 12th  headed to the Melges 24 Pacific Coast Championships with a couple days for easy travel.  The newly designed Lidgard Sails we had developed for the Melges 24 had just arrived.  I needed to pick up the battens from RBS at Hood River, Oregon, and decided that the couple hour side trip would be a good idea.  I got down to RBS at about 9:30 a.m. where I was graciously invited to take a tour of the plant.  RBS, for those of you who don’t know, is a sponsor on Sailing Anarchy and make epoxy and carbon battens.  It was very interesting to see how they can plane down a batten to the size that is needed and then seal coat and stencil your name on them. A new computer system had just been installed and seemed to be working flawlessly.  I would recommend highly a tour to anyone who has a chance to go to Hood River and take one.  It will give you new appreciation for battens.

I left RBS at about 10:30 am with the goal of arriving at Lake Tahoe that night.  So there I was making great time down the freeway cruising on the back side of the Cascade Mountains when I stopped for gas.  In Oregon, gas attendants fill your tank up so I would walk around the boat and truck to make sure everything was all ok.  When I got to the right side of the trailer, it smelled like something was burning.  The gas attendant, at the same time that I am seeing the bearing on the axle shot, is saying, “I hope that’s not your axle.  This is a town of 40 people and you are going to be shit out of luck.”  Not what you want to hear.  Well, I had two options at this point:  drive on it or get a tow.  Drive on it seemed the cheaper of the two options so I asked how far it was to the nearest place to get help.  75 miles south in Klamath Falls was the reply.  Crap!  So, I got in my truck and headed south.  I figured what is the worst that could happen?  New boat! That might be ok.  I decided that I would check everything in about 20 miles to see how it was going.  Everything was still working and with a little luck it looked like I might make it into Klamath Falls.  I went anther 40 miles and decided to pull over and check it again. This is when I heard a crack and thump.  Now the axle was in two pieces and I was not happy.  MacGyver intuition took over and I got my jack out, jacked the trailer up, and, using a 2x4 found lying on the side of the road, tied up the axle with wire ties and duct tape.  I have always been a firm believer in the motto “duct tape and wire ties will fix anything”, but now I really needed it to work.  I carefully lowered the trailer down and it seemed like it was going to work.  I drove 15 miles per hour into Klamath Falls and got there at 4:30 pm.  I walked into a shop that was part of a popular chain of tire stores and said I needed help.  They came out, looked at the trailer, and laughed; not what you want to hear after having limped into town.  I told them I need to get to Lake Tahoe the next day and asked how it could be done.  I knew that the correct axle would take five weeks to get unless, by some chance, there was one close.  Sure enough the guy said five weeks.  I reminded them of my next day deadline and again asked what could be done to make it work.  There are hundreds of axles out there and there had to be one that would work.  Makeshift or not, I need to roll the next day.  A light went on for one of the workers and we came up with a plan that involved welding and getting rid of everything that I currently had.  We ordered up the parts just before 5 pm and they were to be in around 10 am the next day.  Great, at least I had hope that I would still make the event and, hey, it’s early; plenty of time to go drink and drink heavily at that.  I don’t know if any of you have ever been to Klamath Falls but there is not much to do there.  Luckily, “for a great night’s sleep”, I stayed at a Holiday Inn.  NOT!  Darn kids crying in the room next to me all night.    The next morning I checked that all the parts came in.  By 10 am all the parts where there but nobody that could weld.  I said I would do it.  We argued for a while and they finally let me start torching and welding what needed to be done. By 3 pm I was back on the road and headed for Reno.  I needed to pickup Emily, my first crew to arrive, at 10:30 pm at the airport.  I made it to Reno at about 8 pm and parked my boat and trailer at Circus Circus. I went in and gambled and drank for free for two hours.  Fortunately, I came out even on the gambling.  I picked up Emily and we headed off to the cabin we would be staying at for the weekend.

The cabin is located about a mile from Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows.  As we are nearing it I get a text message from my friend saying, “BEARS by CABIN!  No food in vehicles.  Lock Doors.”  Arrgh, isn’t nature wonderful.

The next morning we started setting up the boat.  Mike, my second crew member, arrived later in the day and we went out short handed to sail for a bit.  I think all that really got done was some swimming due to the 80+ degree temperatures.  Hey, we where at Lake Tahoe in crystal clear water and an altitude of 6200 feet.  Why not have some fun.  My wife, Brenda, showed up later that night to fill out the crew. 

Day 1 – Racing on Lake Tahoe started at about 1 pm on the afternoon thermal.  This was awesome due to the drinking done the night before.  We had a great time on day one.  4 races in 8-15 knot breeze.  Nothing impressive except for the last race of the day where we got 2nd place out of 18.  Not bad and expecting to do better the next day.  They put on a great dinner that night after which we headed off to the cabin to crash.  Oh, did I tell you what 6200 feet of elevation does to someone after a day of racing?….Thin air, and man-oh-man was I tired.

Day 2 – The start of a long day and night.  We had a delay at the beginning of racing with no wind.  We had decided that we needed to leave by 7 pm to make Whidbey Island Race Week back up in Oak Harbor, WA.  The wind filled in and we got off a race and placed 7th.  We started the last race of the day for the practice and hung a right for the dock.  We knew we where not going to be in the hunt and with a 14 hour drive through the night it was going to be better to get a head start on the second regatta.  We got the boat broken down and the covers on by 6 pm.  Brenda and Mike flew home while Emily and I drove north.

Classic lines heard in the middle of the night: “I don’t mean to disturb you but there is a deer in the middle of the road.”  “Is that rain? No it is just bugs hitting the truck.”  And as you take your turn trying to sleep.  “You Awake? Just making sure.” 

Day 3 – We arrived at Oak Harbor at 8:30 am on Monday.  Alex and Christina came on board for race week.  My wife was setting up our tents when we got there and everyone else helped set the boat up.  I knew we where going to have a chance to race against the Rocket 22’s again. This year they had 4 registered.  Last year at WIRW they had a rating of 126, now they where at 96.  We also had two Olson 30’s, a Sonic 30, Humboldt 30, J-27 and one other Melges 24 in our class.  The line was fairly square on the first race so we started at the boat end on starboard.  We had full speed at the start in 6-14 knots of breeze and lead the race wire to wire.  The other Melges 24, Olson 30’s, and Sonic 30 where all pushing behind us.  The Rocket 22’s where left in the shadows.  This was sweet revenge after a hard time sailing against them last year with a rating that was way off.   For the record I would like to say that the Rocket 22 is a great little boat and most definitely has it place in the market.  The PHRF rating most likely needs to fall in the 100-103 range for this boat to be competitive.   This year they sailed with asymmetric kites, last year they had symmetric kites.  The sailors who crewed the Rockets this year where all good sailors but needed more time in the boats to be competitive.  There where times when the Rocket 22’s would take off like a bat out of hell and you could see the potential of the boats.  The second race of the day went off and we duked it out with the other Melges 24 for the top two spots only to lose by one second at the finish.  Not bad for the day.  Off to the Tent party to drink Rum and Pineapple and, hey, why not lots.

Day 4 – The day started out with blue skies and temperatures predicted in the upper 80’s.  A great westerly breeze filled in Penn Cove and the races started right on time.  We had are hands full with the other Melges 24 on race one of the day but held them off to take another 1st.  The 2nd race of the day we had our challenges with a past national champion in the Olson 30 “Lunchbox”.  They got inside of us and kept adding time piece by piece.  We got to a point that the two of us had a pretty commanding lead.  We tried reaching all over the course to pick up speed somewhere but where unsuccessful.  Hell, what am I complaining about, we ended up 2nd on the race. There is a compelling theme at the end of every day; rum tent here we come…..

Day 5 and 6 – Great weather and great sailing.  We had wonderful starts and pushed out right away to get leads to put up 4 more bullets with two races per day.  I have won and lost many regattas in my years of sailing but this was one of which, when we needed a break or a shift, we just seemed to get it.  All cylinders where pumping and, at times, we just seemed to have an extra one.  Back to the Rum tent….again and again and again…..

Day 7 – The last day at WIRW. The day started out late due to low tides and no wind.   We got a race off and worked the shifts really hard.  It paid off.  We stretched out a good lead and nailed the last bullet. We went back to the dock and packed the boat up again for the next day of sailing. We had sewn up our class and it was all up in the air for winning the overall award now.  In years past it was up to interpretation of the race organizers on how they awarded the overall trophy:  very nice Chelsea clock. We had a record of 1,2,1,2,1,1,1,1,1 and the Melges 32 “Ballistic” had a 2,2,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 and it came down to who beat who last. Oh well, life goes on, right?  Always next  year.

Day 8 – We got up early on Saturday morning and drove down to Lake Union in Seattle to set the boat up for a National Points race One Design Regatta.  Got the boat set up and headed over to Queen City Yacht Club.   We had time for a good breakfast and then off to the race course.  The weather in Seattle never hits 100 degrees but they where calling for it over the weekend.  I have never before drunk so much water on a boat while racing.  There were seven races on Saturday with seven other Melges 24’s participating.  We ended the day one point behind first.

Day 9 – The wind was stronger today from the get-go and that was good for us.  The eight previous days of crew work was really paying off. We got seven more races in and moved into the top spot for the weekend. What a wonderful regatta with 14 races and warm weather to boot.    

In summary, you have to be crazy to do what we just did…. But, I think I would do it again….1,952 total miles driven, 29 starts in total, one hell of a sun tan, and lots of memories.  Thanks to Emily, Mike, Alex, Christina, and my wife, Brenda, for lots of fun and excitement.  Lake Union will always be a great fleet building spot because everyone has their moment to shine.

Photos compliments of Dan Weatbrook except the one with the boats sailing under kite. We were leading in that one which was taken by Dispursed, I snagged it from another thread.

Gary Stuntz, aka Jibeset