SEAS Cup

As the skippers met on the dock, the forecast and conditions seemed to foretell of an inauspicious beginning to the 2023 SEAS cup races for SEAS.  The forecast called for 5 knots of wind in Stephen's Passage, building to a possible 10 knots in the afternoon.  As all Juneau sailors know, this usually means it MIGHT blow 5 at some point during the day. 

Indeed, motoring down Gastineau Channel toward the Marmion Island starting point for the backside of Douglas race, the forecast seemed accurate.  The channel was grease.  It was flat calm, with teeny-tiny ripples near Marmion, but no indication of better breeze.

Well, 2020 sure has been a downer, but these sailor's aren't going to let that stop them from having some fun.  The board met, and discussed how, in light of Covid-19 and social distancing, to hold the 11th SEAS Cup season kick-off race.  So, they decided to kick-off the 2020 season by having a socially distant race.  Boats could only be single-handed or crewed by people who lived together. 

As the Saturday approached, the short-handed skippers began to look at the weather, and the forecast was calling from 10 knots and 2 foot seas, which every sailor in Southeast Alaska knows means:  "It might gust to 10 somewhere at some point."  So, the boats were expecting a long day of floating around alone on a lonely sea, a kind of metaphor for 2020.

Someone, Lori I think, mentioned that she had heard that morning that the national weather service was calling for potentially some westerlies later in the day, so the call went out over the radio, "Let's do the back side of Douglas".  It really is the only one of the three choices for the Skipper's Choice.  So, it was decided.  We were going to race from Marmion to Pt. Hilda and back.

Despite a gloomy forecast, the weather was actually pretty good for last Saturday's race.  The fog lifted, the rain didn't happen, and the wind steadily built during the day. Shortly after the start (thanks to Thalia for acting as committee boat) the race became a downwind spinnaker run to Point Hilda.  Haiku was first across the start line and led the fleet throughout the race, with High Noon running second.   Asterix very slowly pulling ahead of Thalia on the downwind run and both boats were slowly catching up with Hi

The following race report is from Sean Boily:

Leg One

Winds were very light early Saturday morning, and those at the pre-race Skippers Meeting discussed options for moving the start line up to Sheep Creek or Marmion in case it didn’t pick up enough to get the fleet out of Gastineau Channel. Optiminium served as Committee Boat and, finding around eight knots of breeze on the water, set the start line off Mayflower Island. Lyric-WR, Surprise, Thalia, and Tango all crossed over the line upwind on a starboard tack, favoring the Douglas Island, while Optiminium took a port tack towards the mainland and nabbed an early lead. As the boats neared Sheep Creek, Surprise crossed in front and would stay ahead out of the Channel, followed closely by Optiminium, Thalia, Lyric-WR, and then Tango.