Photos of the Day: Shipwrights’ Regatta
February 6 – Pt. Townsend, WA
A summer-like day brought out a record
number of vessels and sailors for Port Townsend’s twelfth annual
Shipwrights’ Regatta. Saturday, Feb. 1, saw 51 sailing vessels
of all sorts galloping about Port Townsend Bay, and spectators
on the piers and hillsides enjoyed the halcyon conditions that
lured the fleet of shipwrights out for celebration.
The regatta is sponsored by the Wooden
Boat Foundation to foster camaraderie, competition and community
participation for the dozens of shipwrights along the waterfront
and the vessels in their care. For the purposes of the Shipwrights’
Regatta, “If you have ever so much as used a screwdriver
on your ‘ship’, join this fleet of shipwrights for a day that
reminds us why we do it.”
Photos Courtesy Wooden Boat Foundation
The tugboat Isswat served as race
committee platform, with Sea Scouts from the Wooden Boat Foundation’s
scout ship Falcon assisting. Conditions were mild
with a warm southerly breeze of 8 to 15 knots, a stark comparison
to the near gale conditions of last year. The 9.2-mile course
directed sailors twice past City Dock, across Port Townsend Bay
to round the old navy tower by Rat Island and on a reach to and
from Mid-Channel Bank at the entrance of the Bay.
The winner of line honors from last year’s
regatta, Pacemaker, led the fleet to the first windward
mark but was passed by some of more recent additions to the fleet.
The reaching legs provided opportunities for the less weatherly
vessels to regain distance lost on the beating legs, and local
knowledge of the currents figured into the strategies of the
vessels that performed well. Captain Pete Helsell, in deference
to the fleet of largely wooden vessels, modestly raised the point
that only in Port Townsend would the first fiberglass boat to
finish, his Spirit, be led by two wooden vessels.
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