Minutes before the first race of the three-race Classic Mariners Regatta was about to start on June 1, there was a complete 180 degree shift of wind. The clear sunny skies made for a peaceful day on the water, but a tough one for sailboat racing as race organizers scurried to move the race marks in favor of the new wind direction. But after just a small postponement, the race was on and 11 classic yachts, four “A class” boats and seven “B class,” made their way twice around the marks in the Port Townsend Bay. Scott Walker t-bird, Tzieu, crossed the finish line first, Sir Isaac second, while the schooner Martha and Pacifica were neck-and-neck, finishing third and fourth with only seconds between them. The wind gods smiled upon the racers on Sunday, but the tides and currents made proper scheming necessary to make it to the finish line first. Sunday’s race course had the sailboats going out to a mark at Fort Worden, a tricky endeavour thanks to a minus-one to plus-eight tidal shift that began to flow harder as the race began. “Yacht racing is like a three-dimensional chess game,” said Robert D’Arcy, director of the Schooner Martha Foundation. “The goal is to keep yourself between your opponent and the next mark.” Blocking the wind from another boat and creating a lot of disturbance for their sailing makes for an entertaining race, as what’s called the “cone of doom” can cause a boat to fall behind. In the second race, the Pacifica and Martha started neck-and-neck, but the Martha took a gamble for an alternate route, and fell behind. Pacifica came in first, with Sir Isaac following, while Martha and Tzieu came in shortly after. In the B class, Windsong fared well, with Able following shortly after. But for the entire fleet, the race organizers scored Linun Younker’s Hakoom top points overall.