Gusty wind conditions building to a small craft advisory created challenging sailing for the 40th annual Wooden Boat Festival Schooner Cup. A field of 15 schooners started the race, sailing a 4-mile course from inside Port Townsend Bay, out toward Fort Worden State Park and back. A general recall at the start and subsequent restart led several boats to attempt a port-tack start, with unfortunate consequences.

Sailing on port-tack, 74-foot schooner Mycia collided with starboard-tack 80-foot Spike Africa, with Mycia breaking her bowsprit by striking Spike Africa's main boom. Mycia then withdrew from the race and returned to Point Hudson Marina.

Sir Isaac, a 49-foot schooner owned by John and Ann Bailey of Port Townsend, has recently returned to the local fleet after a 10-year rebuild. In a surprise victory, Sir Isaac squeaked past local heavy-weather favorite Martha, completing the course in 47 minutes, 18 seconds.

Martha, an 84-foot schooner built in 1907, successfully completed the TransPac race last year, and is widely regarded as the favorite in windy conditions like Saturday's race. Martha came in second, finishing 3 minutes and 13 seconds behind Sir Isaac, at 50:31. Martha is captained by Robert D'Arcy of Port Townsend. Martha's crew reported having been heeled far over at several points during the race, with water in the cockpit, a rarity on the usually stiff schooner.

Red Jacket, in town for the festival, took third place, finishing just 3 minutes, 30 seconds behind second-place finisher Martha. Red Jacket, built in 1920 and homeported in Tacoma, is 72-feet long, and is captained by Terry Paine.

DRAGGING ANCHOR

Strong winds, a rising tide and a crowded anchorage caused a number of boats to drag anchor late Saturday afternoon. Jefferson County Sheriff's Office marine patrol personnel, Salish Rescue, and Wooden Boat Festival harbormasters worked together for several hours, retrieving and re-anchoring boats adrift, several of which were headed for the shipping lanes. A swamped sailing dinghy was recovered and beached, and two disabled vessels were towed into Port Townsend Boat Haven. By 4 p.m. Sept. 10, all boats were secured, and festival harbormasters returned to their task of getting the schooner fleet back into the harbor safely.

The many drifting boats on Saturday should serve as a reminder to boaters that changing conditions can affect anchor set, and to be sure to set adequate scope and use heavy enough ground tackle to safely moor their vessels. All of the boats rescued had short scope and grossly undersized anchors for the vessel size. Holding ground close off downtown Port Townsend is notoriously poor – vessels are advised to anchor far enough out to be well clear of eelgrass beds, and to be mindful of rising winds, especially from the south/southwest.

(Libby Wennstrom, Leader reporter and arts editor, served as a Wooden Boat Festival volunteer harbormaster.)