We arrived in Vancouver to meet our gracious host who proceeded to give up his entire apartment to us so we could set up camp Blackadder. Once base was established we went down to the RVanYC to pick up the sailing instructions and listen to the local expert Jason Rhodes give up all his top-secret knowledge on how to sail the Bay. Thank goodness that some of the possible wind directions he described didn’t blow in because the strategies were extremely complex. The fairly typical westerly filled in and the rain and stormy winds didn’t arrive as expected and we were treated to sunny skies and awesome racing.

Saturday broke with the required breakfast down at a little café on 4th Ave called Joe’s. It was a grand deal, and of course, close to KYC where I had Blackadder hauled out. The people at Kits were also most accommodating in helping us launch and retrieve our boat. After our breakfast feast it only took about ten minutes to throw the boat in the water off of the crane. We hoisted the main and set off to the racing area adjacent to RVanYC. At this time we were sad to see our DUDE Beer flag get shredded in the wind. It was piping up to around 16-18 knots and the swells coming into the bay were fairly big. Maybe surfs up.

There were five races on the Sat. and the program seemed as typical as ever. If you get clear air off the pin end of the line and bee line straight over as far as you dare against the beach, flop over to port and guess the layline right, you were smokin’. It is of course easier said than done, with everybody else vying for the left side as well. Upon reaching the windward mark the first time, fighting huge current, I had fears of duplicating a very silly act committed by a well-respected racer from the island. My rudder had indeed hooked the anchor line of the mark and was towed into the side of the boat. With imminent heart failure approaching, my eyes going blurry and my crew going silent, the line pulled taught and somehow popped off the bottom of the rudder. Awesome, we only need to do a 360 now. The downwind legs allowed for spreading out as the current that was ferocious at the windward mark carved a huge swath down towards the leeward gate. We managed a few great surfs down the swells that allowed us to pass a couple of boats each leg. We were still in it

There was a big BBQ at the club on Sat. night that we decided to pass on and instead go out on the town with our gracious host boat Daisy. By the time we sorted out where we were going, every hot spot for dinner was full. So we went back to the club and ended up having an awesome meal upstairs that we finished off with beer and billiards. Time for bed, as we decided late Sat night that we were now on a mission to WIN!

Sunday morning came without a cloud in the sky; however, the accompanying wind was also “without.” I guess the good thing here, was that we could take full advantage of the buffet style breakfast at RVanYC because we were under an on shore postponement. The AP flag came down about an hour and a half later, so we blasted down to the boat to set sail. The wind had picked up to 6 knots or so for the first race and continued to build up to around 10 or 11 for the next two races. The coolest thing happened about 1 minute after the start gun of the first race. I looked back to see that we were the only boat really moving and we had amassed by this time, about a hundred yard lead. What the heck is going on? We just followed our plans we came up with last night and went about our mission. It is easy to follow your plans when there is no one in front of you and we managed to break the finish line tape with a 4 ½ minute lead.

Too cool! With 35 other boats behind, you gotta like it. We had so much fun on that race that we decided to give it a try again. Another pin end start won and off we went. The breakwater at RVanYC was where we wanted to go and with no one in front, we could. Foley once told me that there are three easy steps to winning a race. Win the start, get in front, and then extend. He’s right. Too cool! We got the second bullet.

Now came the third race after an AP because the course needed shifting. We were thinking by now that our mission could come to fruition. Our heads were getting bigger than usual. The third start of the day however found Blackadder surrounded by every sailboat in English Bay, or so it seemed. We had a decent start going, but in our excitement we probably cranked the sails in too tight and we friggen’ stalled. Aaaargh! We managed to get our act together after a while but were too far back in the pack to catch the hot boat from Marina Del Rey who snagged third spot and we ended up sailing our throw out race. This still left us in a very happy spot as we clenched 4th place overall. I have to say that amid all the close action and furious competition, there were very few OCS boats and I think that protests were less than three. The racing was clean and fair and I felt that with the presence of rock star Ross MacDonald who won on Panique, it was neat to see that we don’t do things too much differently, just perhaps not quite as well all the time. I still recommend the trip across the pond to duke it out with the mainlanders as they do enjoy our company. I have met many awesome 242’ers from as far away as Marina Del Rey, Oregon and Alberta. Now there’s a commitment to our sport! Hope to see you all out next year and I am offering huge thanks to my crew of Robbie, Michael and Trevor who helped make that weekend so fun and to my wife Linda, who always makes them special.