2006 Thunderbird North West Regional Championships at Port Townsend, Washington, USA

Fifteen Thunderbirds made their way to beautiful Port Townsend Friday September 1, 2006 on a sunny day with a light North wind.  Eight boats came from the Seattle Fleet, two boats each from the Tacoma and Everett Fleets and one boat each from Bellingham, Victoria B.C and Port Townsend.  Most of us gathered for a dinner in town and many skippers went to bed early to be sharp for racing Saturday.  At the 10 AM skippers meeting regatta chair Dale Dunning introduce Jeb Binns the Race Committee Chairman, Rob Sanderson the Port Townsend provider of the race committee boats and Joe James the judge in charge of protests.  Joe explained that he was serving because Thunderbird alumni Ed Von Wolffersdorff had some medical problems and could not attend.  Dale thanked Jim Konigsfeld and Alyssa Farber for there organizing of the shore activities and Kemp Jones for getting the trophies made.  There were no changes to the provided sailing instructions.  All birds with their crews proceeded out in the bay for the scheduled 1100 hours scheduled start.

We had outstanding boats competing.  Rev a two time International Championship boat and winner of several regional championships with new skipper Gerry Roloson driving and former International President David New crewing.  Raptor a two time International Championship boat bought a few years ago by current skipper Ken Lane.  Predator the Australian built boat which won the 1995 International Championship in San Francisco bay with builder driver Bruce King is was skippered by Craig Burnell co-owner,.  Cool Breeze #1060 (the former Kulane) was 2^nd to Rev in last year’s Regional’s in Victoria, BC. was skippered by new owner John Edwards.

After about a 45 minute wait for wind to come in the first race was started in a light North wind.  Top Seattle boat Predator got free of the fleet and won the first race followed by Falcon, Rev, Barbarie, Thatuna, and Cool Breeze.  The Second race was won by Barbarie followed by Invader, Falcon, Raptor, Rev and Cool Breeze.  It was tricky picking the best tack for the most pressure and best heading which resulted in changing positions going up the weather legs.  Raptor won the last two races of the day and all boats headed to the moorage.  Beer was available near the dock ---$5 for a bottomless cup at Lil This Lil That restaurant adjacent to the moorage where a catered dinner of Halibut or beef was available.  Some of us were wondering where we stood in the scoring but had to wait until Sunday morning to get a copy of the standings.  After a great dinner and a few drinks most of us went to bed in preparation for tomorrows contest.

A few minutes before nine the Falcon crew was scrubbing the bottom with a PVC pipe apparatus with indoor/outdoor carpet attached.  A copy of Saturday’s scores was passed out to each skipper.  The sailing instructions allowed one throw out if 6 or more races were sailed.  The Saturday scores without a throw out    

were:  Rev 14, Falcon 15, Invader 17, Raptor 18, Barbarie 21, and Predator 24 with the rest of the boats having over 30 points.  To us on Falcon it seemed that any one of these top six boats could win.  We decided to sail as best we could and not try to hold any boat in particular back.  After more than an hour wait for the wind to come in we got off the first race in a light North wind.  Invader passed Falcon on the last run and held on to get first in the 5^th race followed by Falcon, Cool Breeze, Predator, Thatuna and Rowdy.   Marty Godsil did a great job of sailing Invader Sunday and won the next two races taking a significant lead over the entire fleet in winning the championship.  Marty thinks his Ulman main and Genoa are the cat’s pajamas but somehow this writer thinks we will all find more competition from proven skippers and other sail makers at the 2007 International Championships.

After putting our racing gear away we all joined the raffle and prize giving on the lawn at the moorage.  Alyssa Farber had various people pull tickets from the hat to get raffle prizes which included:

From North Sails---New sail discounts and discount on sail repairs plus two ditty bags to carry racing gear.

From Quantum Sail Design Group---New sail discount and discount on sail repairs plus two Quantum hats.

Seaview Boat Yard—Haul out

From Sandy Pratt—Two 11x14 inch photos of a 43 boat start of a 1975 TBird World Champ  race plus a 1983 and 1987 memorial International Regatta shirt.

From the Wooden Boat Foundation/Northwest Maritime Center for Wooden Boats a free admission ticket to their show next week.

Please make purchases from our sponsors.

Sean Trew of Pacific Fog took photos of our racing Saturday and Elizabeth Becker of seaportphoto took pictures Sunday.  All of these should be on their respective web sites.

Racing Awards were passed out to skipper and crew as follows:

5^th place Ken Lane in Raptor

4^th place Craig Burnell in Predator

3^rd place Gerry Roloson in Rev

2^nd place Sandy Pratt in Falcon

1^st place Marty Godsil in Invader

A special thanks to Dale Dunning for his leadership as regatta chair.  He hired Jeb Binns, CYC race committee chairman to do our regatta and got Rob Sanderson to supply race committee boats.  Dale also wrote the Notice of Race, provided the graphics for the program and trophies and salvaged the sailing instructions from a previous Port Townsend regatta  which required only minor modification.    

2006 NW Regionals Results