Great Cross Sound Race

Last Saturday I raced in the Great Cross Sound Race, but in the reverse direction from the other racers. The venue was far less crowded so far as larger craft were concerned, and there was not much wind (maybe 5-10 knots from the north). The tide was ebbing (heading north), and the first part of the race the water was pretty calm with maybe 1 foot waves. The waves were not all from the same direction, and from the middle of the Sound to Bainbridge it was messy again. The boat wanted to steer towards starboard, even though I had adjusted the prop strut to turn towards port based on what happened at the race the previous weekend. There were many patches of floating weed, most of which didn't protrude down more than a couple of inches. Some caught on the bows of the boat and/or stabilizers, but it mostly washed off with the next wave.

My speed to Bainbridge wasn't all that exciting, reaching above 7 mph only on rare occasions and generally in the 6 mph area. I was taking photos at the start and from time to time, so this negatively impacted performance as well.

Upon reaching the buoy at Decatur Reef the camera got into an error state requiring me to unseal its waterproof bag, remove the camera from the bag, extract the battery, reinstall the battery, put the camera back into its bag and reseal it. Of course, this happened just as I encountered the first of the oncoming boats, so I nearly stopped while doing the more critical actions, and then somewhat slowly got things back together between the gaps of racers.

In years past I didn't get quite so far along the course before encountering the fastest racers, so I guess the boat is faster in equivalent conditions.


Upon reaching the Blakely Rock I found the boat ridiculously hard to turn towards starboard. I ended up with the right rudder deployed almost the entire return leg. Also, the waves caused the prop to ventilate quite a bit, approximately every second or third wave.

I think the reason for the rudder issues is the action of the wind on the boat race number, which is a wedge shaped coroplast placard taped to the rear deck, and wind against the dipping rudders. The pressure against both surfaces was causing the boat to turn north. The adjusted prop strut just made things worse for the return leg. Regardless, some drastic work needs to be done to get the steering to work better. It is really frustrating.

The winglets, which are now permanently glassed to the floats, seemed to work well. There were only a couple of times where I am fairly certain they kept me from capsizing. This was when some 2+ foot waves were encountered, and once when something weird happened on the water. There was a moment when something (wave? seal?) sharply pushed up on one side, completely out of the ordinary mess that went on previously and afterwards.


I finished the race with a fairly slow time compared with flatwater Cadence times for the same race, 1:23 or so vs. 1:15 a couple of years ago. Weeds were definitely more of an issue in the Cadence than in this boat. My place in the standings was nothing spectacular, somewhere in the 30's out of a field of 42. Of course, I was doing a lot more than just racing! I had quite a lot of energy remaining after the event, too, but just couldn't seem to apply it during the race. The agitated water and squishiness of the drive system in those conditions just didn't make for good results.

Launching and retrieval at Alki was OK. With the ebb tide I had to paddle (with hands or feet) to get to deeper water and get under way, with the prop bouncing a bit on the sandy bottom. The modified dolly worked quite well for taking the boat off the car top, getting it to the launch site, launching it, getting the boat back on it, wheeling it back to the car and putting the boat back on the roof. The modified dolly actually works better than it did when I used it for the Cadence.


Given the performance of the hull in rougher water I think it could be possible and advantageous to lower the seat bottom by one or two inches. The gearbox and cockpit floor panels could be lowered by the same amount. This would help lower the center of gravity. The fore deck could be lowered somewhat, though I did have a couple of waves that managed to slightly wash over the top.

Strictly speaking, having the seat bottom at or below the waterline would be even better, though this would require the hull to be wider. A venturi tube or drain would be needed if the boat were changed to be a sit-inside, too, but that is a minor detail.

Here are the photos from the race.

A photographer was on Blakely Rock. He took a couple of photos of me, along with the other racers.