Swiftsure 2023 start of Juan de Fuca race from start upwind slog into winds in mid 20's and gusts over 30kts (a Gale Warning was in the forecast) leading to a sail change from genoa to #3 jib and later a reef in the main. It was wet and bumpy crashing into wind waves and later ocean swells arriving into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It was a ball to start and end in Victoria.

Flying Circus is an S2 9.1 and this year we came in #2 and out of first place by just 20 seconds on corrected time, losing only to a Swan 46 more tailored to the high winds and big waves we experienced.

This video includes the start, the upwind work along the Canadian shore of Vancouver Island, through Race Rocks, and then a long starboard tack across the Strait of Juan de Fuca until we rounded the buoy outside Clallam Bay, Washington on the Olympic Pennisula.

Once we rounded the upwind mark it was a sleighride home with spinnaker flying almost the whole time without a single gybe. Our only mishap, caught partially in this recording, was the shaking loose of first the lazy spinnaker sheet and then the active, loaded spinnaker sheet. You see the kite flagging forward briefly, held by the tack line and the halyard as the wind was in the upper 20s and low 30s of true wind speed. We doused the asym (we used a pole, too) and put up the #3 until we could see it wasn't too bad in Race Rocks and relaunched the kite and had a spinnaker run all the way through the finish.

The driving by Eric Yaremko and tactician driver David Steffan was most excellent. We had nine on the 31 foot S2 9.1 sailboat but that was perfect for high wind sailing conditions like this race. Full crew all from Bellingham and representing the Bellingham Yacht Club (byc.org) owner/skipper Eric Yaremko - David Steffan - Colin Davidson - Sarah Drotning - Jon Hutchins - - Bruce Reid - Jonathan Knowles - Mark Hallett - Peter Hallett your humble correspondent