A family affair at this year’s half-lap around the San Juan Islands.
The 2024 edition of the annual Round the County (RTC) race, hosted by Orcas Island Yacht Club and Friday Harbor Sailing Club, was eagerly anticipated as usual. The race always fills up with 120 boats in short order, with the majority signing on in the first few hours after registration opens in September. Skippers and crew look forward to the challenging conditions in beautiful scenery, with an overnight stay in Roche Harbor. This race continuously tests even the most seasoned sailors, but this year I noticed that there were a lot of kids on the course, too. Maybe more than ever before. Some of my friends brought their kids for the first time, including me.
With some conflicting wind forecasts and challenging tidal predictions for the Saturday start, there were a lot of discussions about how we were going to manage getting out of Rosario Strait while fighting almost three knots of current. At 6:00 a.m., the parade started out of Anacortes, with a string of red, green, and white lights making the channel glow until the sun rose. There was not a breath of wind to be seen. As 7:45 rolled around and the radio waves were open for boats to check-in, PRO Charley Rathkopf and volunteers kept eager racers in check as we stepped all over each other calling out our boat names and sail numbers. At 8:25, we went promptly into AP, with not enough wind to get the first fleet moving across the line. Aboard my Santa Cruz 27, Wild Rumpus, we ran the line so many times I couldn’t even keep track. Which side had less current? More wind? Better angle for the beeline to the beach for eddies? We couldn’t decide.
Eventually the outboard got tired of the low idle and we put up the drifter. Set backwards from the line at 2 knots or more, we swapped out for a kite. Charley called for boats to give it a try, to see if racing was possible. At least an hour after setting the kite, we made it across the line, if only for a moment! Seizing the opportunity, they tried to get off a start. However, only minutes later a decision was made. It was mathematically impossible for us to make it after a three hour delay. With racing called off, the second parade of the day was motoring through Peavine Pass and on to Roche Harbor for the evening. How civilized! A first in the history of the race, it was very kind of the committee to not make us suffer sailing backward in the rain.
On Saturday evening, the tent party on the dock was packed. Crews flocked to any dry place they could find, and eventually made their way to cabins and rooms at the hotel for a hot meal and a good sleep. My son Dylan did the race with me this year for the first time, and I had to apologize that I didn’t initiate him into the Roche Harbor spooky Mausoleum tradition. Our cabin was down the road and it seemed like too chilly a night for it. My heart was happy to see that Morgan Larson and the hardy crew of Bruzer made it up there.
Sunday arrived with a similar lack of wind, but a much better forecast and tide prediction. With coffee in hand and renewed determination, we set off for the starting line. Sailors were equally eager to check in on the radio and check out the starting line—120 boats in a small space bordered by grounding hazards and kelp beds is good mayhem! With a line set square to the course, you could make a case for starting anywhere on the line for more breeze or closer to the next point, but I believe that the pin end of the line toward Battleship Island was the right call. We started toward that end and joined the crowd of mostly J/105s on starboard, pointing the boat at a decent angle mostly toward Turn Point on Stuart Island, the first corner of the day’s course.
The Moore 24s More Uffda and Bruzer jibed over to port and took the outside route. Dan Kaseler was launched forward on the beautiful Jespersen 30, Myrrh, and the rest of us just battled it out taking turns with who had the breeze at which moment. Well, the outside paid off. And sometimes the inside paid off. The big boats rolled past, and then the wind did a 180 and everything changed. Swapping to big genoas, it wasn’t long before we had all the crew on the rail as we pressed toward the Canadian shore of Saturna Island in a 5 knot northerly. This was not in the forecast, but we were willing to take it. The current was with us and the breeze picked up. With tide rips and unexpected holes, many boats swapped position through this transition zone. Canada was definitely golden. Until it wasn’t! More and more boats were leaving the shore, but why? Maybe it was the 40 degree shift with better pressure at Patos Island, the halfway mark of the race. From Patos, you had to decide if you favored the shore or the Strait.
On Rumpus we swapped down to the jib and mostly favored the shores of Sucia and Matia on our way around the north shore of Orcas Island. The pretty schooner Sir Isaac was easy to spot moving along nicely on the shore side. But going out also made sense with the tide in our favor. Really both options worked, and there didn’t seem to be a lot of passing lanes in this stretch of the race. When we arrived at the final corner of Orcas it looked light, and the Peapod Rocks looked deadly calm. The big genoa went back up, and we took the late-tack long-route like many others. Looking uptoward the finish, boats looked pretty heeled over, but what did we know? Turns out, the breeze came on strong for the finish. Blast reaching into the finish with too much sail area, we somehow held it together. Round the County 2024 had a bit of everything and all the adventure we needed.
On board the Santa Cruz 27 The Banana Stand, Adam Yuret sailed RTC with his eldest son, Ben, for the first time this year. Ben and The Banana Stand each joined the Yuret family in 2011, and it was time for him to join the fray. Thirteen-year-old Ben has been actively racing in the Corinthian Yacht Club junior program for six years. This year after a spicy doublehanded Race to the Straits with Dad, Ben set his sights on completing his first Round the County race. Eager to do every job possible, he trimmed the kite off the start on day two and drove in increasingly spicy conditions upwind across the top of Orcas Island for over five hours, including a near collision, and a final approach to the Lydia Shoal finish line at dusk with winds gusting near gale force. Being the lightest crewperson, Ben also worked the foredeck, swimming in sails and waves, becoming weightless as the boat pitched in the building seas and disappearing in the whitewater that swept across the deck. Rumor has it that he can’t wait to do it all again!
Aboard the Hobie 33, Pip, there were also boys at the helm and all over the place, including swinging from the halyards and at the top of the mast in the Saturday boat parade to Roche Harbor. Pip raced with 5 adults and two 13 year old boys, Sean Kelly and Teo Gaffney, who also did the race last year. Both boys are junior sailors with the Parks Middle School sailing program at the illustrious Port Madison Yacht Club on Bainbridge Island. Pip almost alway sails with kids on board because, ”why wouldn’t you give the future the opportunity now?” They bring a positive attitude, dinghy skills, and a fresh set of eyes and ears. The boys enjoyed a shakedown sail and provisioning on Friday, joining the “big kids” for dinner at the Brown Lantern in Anacortes. Sunday saw Teo drive the entire course, with a max speed of 10.8 knots reaching into the finish. Sean was on sail trim and foredeck, and squirrel for takedowns. Both boys were positive all day, were great company and teammates, and certainly will be back for many years to come. They both went home with a list of 80/90s movies that the crew all agreed were “must watch.” I’m pretty confident many of them haven’t aged well! However, on Saturday night in Cabin 25 at Roche, they watched The Goonies and certainly loved that one!
I have such hope for the future of sailboat racing in the Pacific Northwest when I think about how many boats were multigenerational this year, and love to see (and be) a family sailing together. Myrrh took the top spot in Division 5 and second overall, and the Myrrh crew included Dan’s son Cascade. Anacortes-based boats Black Arrow, Ørn, Sonrisa, and Peggy Sue all raced with at least two generations on board. I’m willing to bet that there were even more families on the course that I don’t know. As the kids ran crazy up the dock in Roche Harbor, I thought, “Just wait, they’ll be beating us to the finish in no time!” As it should be. Thank you Orcas Island Yacht Club and San Juan Island Sailing Society volunteers for another great year of Round the County. See you next year!
Full results at https://roundthecounty.com/results/results.php
