Sailing the Northwest

Raingear…. check!  Food for your three-day cruise… check!  Sunglasses for that rare glimpse of sun…. check! Fire extinguisher and visual distress signals…. what???

Before going out for your first cruise of the year, make sure you have all of the Coast Guard required equipment on your boat, and that it is all is up-to-date and functioning.  We usually carry ours in a separate bag conveniently located in the boat for quick access.

Here’s what you need:

1. Current vessel registration
   Your numbers and decal must be properly displayed on the hull of the boat .
2. Washington State Boater Education Card
   A Boater Education Card is required if you are operating a boat with a 15HP or higher engine. You can apply for your card from the Washington State Parks Department.
3. Personal Flotation Devices (PFD)
   All vessels are required to have at least one USCG-approved Type I, Type II or Type III life jacket for each person on board (here are some tips on Choosing the Right Personal Flotation Device).  In addition, you must have at least one Type IV (throwable) personal flotation device if your boat is longer than 16 feet.In order to qualify for this requirement, your life jackets must be:
   • U.S. Coast Guard approved (look for USCG approval number)
   • in good and serviceable condition
   • readily accessible
   • the right size for each of the passengers on the boat
4.  Fire Extinguisher (Type B)
   You are required to have a Type B fire extinguisher on board if your boat:
   • has an inboard engine
   • is more than 26 feet long
   • has permanently installed fuel tanks
   • has enclosed living spaces
5. Sound-producing device(s)
   You must have a sound-producing device on all waters.  For most boats, this means an air horn or whistle, whether it be mouth, hand or power-operated.  If your boat is longer than 65 feet long, your vessel must carry a bell in addition to a whistle or horn.
6. Flares or other Visual Distress Signals (VDS)
   All boats used on coastal waters must have USCG approved VDSs - usually flares.  These are usually red flares, and it is recommended to carry both the hand-held and arial types.  You are required to have at least three flares that are not past their expiration date.
7. Navigation Lights
   If you are operating your boat between sunset and sunrise, you are required to display navigational lights from the bow (red & green), mast (white) and stern (white).

**Update 4/14** Don’t think you’ll ever be boarded on Puget Sound? Check out this story about a recent Coast Guard boarding at Point No Point on Navagear, and then re-read this list to make sure you have the latest required gear on your boat!

Thinking about buying a sailboat? Or do you just not want to make a fool of yourself anymore when you go sailing with your friends? Today marks the beginning of an informational series on Sailing Schools in the Pacific Northwest. 

If this is the year you want to learn how to sail, this series will let you know where you can do just that!  Here is part one of the list of sailing schools we’ll be covering:

Anacortes Yacht Charters
Boats: 22′ to 40′
Costs: $250 to $850 + $20-$59 for certification
Email: info@ayc.com
Phone: 800.233.3004

Description:
Anacortes Yacht Charters has a full range of instruction available to put you at the helm of your own bareboat…even if you are just getting started.

• ASA Sailing School options available to fit your individual needs.
• Anacortes Yacht Charters extensive fleet allows the benefit of the best boat choice for each course.
• Our San Juan Islands are ideal for new boaters to develop their skills as they explore the areas’ many anchorages. These sheltered waters offer a variety of conditions to further your confidence and enjoyment.
• Anacortes Yacht Charters is offering those who attend our ASA Sailing School, an immediate membership in their Captain’s Club. As a Captain’s Club member you will gain special discounts on AYC and Mooring’s charters as well as other great benefits.

Bellhaven Sailing School
Boats: 32′ to 38′
Costs: $270 - $1,365 + $20-$59 for ASA Certification
Email: bellhaven@bellhaven.net
Phone: 360.733.6636

Description:
Bellhaven offers a broad range of sailing courses which emphasize practical, hands on experience on the water. All courses are designed so that students gain practical hands on experience through patient, professional instruction. All courses are certified by the American Sailing Association.

Center for Wooden Boats
Boats: Variety of 14′ to 26′
Costs: $325 to $360
Email: cwb@cwb.org
Phone: 206.382.2628

Description:
The Center for Wooden Boats offers several programs to improve your sailing skills in traditional boats. Our goal is that everyone knows how to sail comfortably, by instinct, by himself or herself.

CWB has two distinct learn to sail programs: SailNOW! and One-on-One.  They recommend group lessons for beginners through their award winning SailNOW! program.

Discovery Sailing School
Boats: Pearson 40′
Costs: n/a
Email: captain@discoverysailing.net
Phone: 206.972.7517

Description:
Discovery Sailing’s mission is to offer the finest quality sailing instruction and skippered charters in the Pacific Northwest of Washington State and British Columbia, Canada. 

Your instructor is Captain Dennis M. (Denny) Thompson. He is a Coast Guard Licensed Master and holds an RYA Yachtmaster’s certificate in Great Britain. He has logged over 65,000 ocean miles including three transatlantic and two transpacific passages and has fifteen years of teaching experience.

The yacht is an offshore equipped Pearson 40 with all the U.S. Coast Guard safety equipment. The accommodations below feature a rich, spacious teak interior with sleeping for six.

Elliot Bay Yachting Center
Boats: 34′ to 36′
Costs: n/a
Email: candis@yachtlease.com
Phone: 206.285.9499

Description:
For three days you and three other students live aboard one of our well appointed motor yachts, immersed in the details of yachting. You will be at sea, at the helm and challenged to the fullest be a program that is customized to your skill and knowledge level. You finish your training with a challenging simulated adverse weather exercise - a blind passage.

You’ll learn: yachting nomenclature, boat systems, seamanship, line handling, knots, Rules of the Road, basic vessel maneuvering and safety, close quarter maneuvering, trip planning, navigation, weather, tides and currents, propulsion, anchoring, docking and refueling procedures.

Course Includes:

• Comprehensive 3-Day “hands-on” working school on a luxury yacht
• Course Materials
• All Meals
• Power or Sail

The official marine mammal of Washington state - the orca whale - received protection from Governor Christine Gregoire last Friday when she signed House Bill 2514 to create a 300-foot “vessel-free” buffer zone around orcas.  The law provides the Department of Fish and Wildlife with enforcement tools to better protect the endangered Southern resident whales.

After listing the southern resident orca whale population as depleted in 2003 and endangered in 2005, the federal government identified impacts from vessels as a significant threat to these marine mammals.  It is unclear from the bill what punishment violaters of this new law will face.

Local environmental group People for Puget Sound hailed the decision - along with  state funding of a year-round rescue tug to be stationed at Neah Bay - as good for the whales.

“Thanks go to bill sponsors Sen. Harriet Spanel and Rep. Dave Quall and to San Juan County Commissioner Kevin Ranker for their hard work on getting this legislation passed,” said People For Puget Sound policy director Bruce Wishart. “The state has done a good job in stepping up in orca protection when the federal government hasn’t.”

The bill also specifically called for education to assist Washington state residents on how to reduce the risk of disturbing this whale population.  So be on the lookout for information at local marinas, boat dealers and upcoming boat shows in the coming months.

photo by: David J. Fred

The bowline is a simple knot used to form a fixed loop at the end of a rope, and is one of the more essential knots you need to learn. Since the loop does not move once completed, you can use it to pass over a post, cleat or other object. You can also first pass the line through a ring or other object prior to tying the bowline knot.

When teaching the knot, I would always use the common mnemonic associated with the bowline knot. If you imagine the end of the line as a rabbit and the point where the knot will begin as the trunk, the mnemonic guide goes as such:

1. Create a “rabbit hole” - a small loop at the point where you want the larger loop to begin/end on the line.
2. The “rabbit” then comes up out of the hole, around and under the tree, and then back into the hole.
3. Tighten the bowline knot

The bowline is a very strong knot under load and, unlike many other knots, is very easy to untie even after it has been loaded.  The one disadvantage with the bowline knot is that with certain types of line (non-pliable or rough line) or under certain load conditions (especially when it is shaken over a period of time), it may loosen up and become untied.

You’ve always wanted to learn to sail. You are almost ready to sign up for that sailing school but your fears keep holding you back. Well, no more excuses.

Maybe you don’t know how to swim. Lots of sailors can’t swim. The chances of you going in the water are small because only the small dinghies have much risk of tipping over. As long as you are not sailing alone and the boat is decent size, there is little chance of going overboard. Plus you will have a life jacket and the you will make sure your crew is practiced in crew-recovery procedures. Not knowing how to swim is no excuse!

What about seasickness? This is real but it is not a valid excuse. Lots of sailors have it and deal with it. There is medication available to ease it but another way to deal with it is activity. Busy yourself with sailing the boat. If you are not sailing at the moment, find some other activity. The key is to keep your mind occupied and the seasickness will not have a chance to take hold.

Think sailing is only for the young and strong? Think again. Whether you are 75 years old, 5 feet tall and 100 pounds, blind or in a wheelchair - you can learn to sail. Modern sailing vessels and equipment are available that enable just about anyone to sail with ease and excel at it too.

Is money an issue? You think you can’t afford sailing? Sure people can and do spend gobs of money. But it is not required. Sailing lessons are available by the hour at reasonable rates. Be sure to go to a certified commercial sailing school. You don’t have to own your own boat. Joining a sailing club is a great way to enjoy year round access to a boat without the expense and hassle of maintaining your own boat.

Another way to sail cheap is gain some skill and go out sailing as a crew member. Boat owners know the importance of having a good crew. Your skill and reputation will open the door to many sailing opportunities.

Maybe you like the idea of sailing but it all just seems too complicated. Well, it doesn’t have to be. Sure there is equipment that you will have to learn how to use and language that you are unfamiliar with. But it’s like anything else new. Take it a little at a time. With each new thing you learn the whole process looks easier and less complicated. It will be no time at all before you will be wondering why you ever thought you couldn’t do it.

Whether you dream about a tranquil sailing vacation on the lake, the freedom of an ocean sailing cruise to the Caribbean or maybe challenge of sailing race or two – there really are no good excuses. Sign up for that sailing school today and start after your dream.

contributed by Peter Shannon

Racing sailors know how frustrating it can be when, during a race, they have to change course not because of shifting winds but because other non-racing recreational boats, ferries or freighters, oblivious of the race, insist on crossing ahead of them. Similar situations arise during so-called “log races” which are, in spite of all the talk about high fuel prices, still quite popular among motor boaters on Puget Sound, Lake Washington. and the Strait of Georgia.

Sailors vary widely as to what they think about motor boaters. Many sailors consider these fellow boaters of the motoring kind as people from a much darker side of the world, often up to the very moment when they finally switch themselves to a “stink pot” due to high age or spousal preferences. Regardless, there are many sailors who would not mind to accomodate motor boaters if they just would know why it might be important for a motorboat captain to maintain a given course and speed.

That is where log racing comes in. “Racing” is meant here not as speed maximizing behavior but as a contest between navigators honing their skills of estimating the effects of winds and currents as well as the knowledge of their boat. Speed through the water is usually a constant in the sense that the skipper identifies it before the race and then estimates how long it takes for the boat to cover the distance between two marks as well as for the course as a whole. Ultimately, the skipper with the lowest percentage estimation error is the winner of the race. There are first, second and third winners in overall ranking in addition to ranking within (speed) classes. Results below 1% are generally superb and — for obvious reasons — easier to achieve on Lake Washington than in Rich Passage. Talking about Rich Passage, it is probably no accident that the historically largest and most popular of these log races is the “Heavy Weather” contest run by the Bremerton Yacht Club since the 1930ties on a Saturday or Sunday in mid-February (This Web page also documents the fact that log races around here are not mere contests on the water, but also social events in the Clubhouse).

An observer (referee) is assigned to each boat who makes sure that all speed, course and navigational rules of the IPBA (International Power Boat Association) are followed. Among the forbidden navigational tools are usually all watches, cell phones and SOG (speed over ground) devices such as GPS. After the end of the race, the actual “Contest Log” is compared with the “Predicted Log” for the determination of the error percentages.

The implication for the conscientious, tolerant and good-natured sailor are clear. When you see a string of motor boats followings each other at similar speeds between obvious markers, chances are you may “do good” by for once giving up your sailor’s right-of-way and not getting into the middle of the contestants forcing them to change course. I guess, a good way of identifying log racers may be to use your binoculars and look at the skippers’ serious and determined race faces.

More about log racing can be learned by visiting this explanatory Web site. For a good way to study what is going on here in the Puget Sound area, go to the IPBA Upcoming Events page.

The $40 billion/year boating industry is struggling to stay afloat during what appears more and more to be the beginning (or middle?!) of an economic recession.  Between rising fuel prices and lacksidasical sales that have been dropping almost every month since 2004, the boating industry has been hit early with manufacturing layoffs, plant closures, and abruptly falling profits.  Already, the nations largest recreational boat retailer, MarineMax, has laid off 10% of their workforce as they saw their profits dwindle by an amazing 50% this last year.

Not to say this isn’t anything new, however.  In a time of recession, service industries are likely the first to get hit and the last to economically recover.  The powerboat segment (no surprise) seems to be hardest hit with gas prices making that daytrip even more expensive.  Illinois-based Brunswick Corporation, responsible for manufacturing over a dozen boat brands including Bayliner, has laid off 1,300 workers and cut its boat production by more than 10% after posting an $81.4 million loss this last year.

The Northwest has largely been insulated from the national economic downturn, but is showing signs of joining the general malaise as the Seattle housing market posted its first year-to-year price decline since 1991.  As consumer confidence continues its decline and housing worries persist, how will our area’s boating and charter industries be affected?

How has our economic situation impacted your plans for getting out on the water?

It is truly amazing how many racing opportunities sailors have on Puget Sound, and many of these opportunities have little to do with Seattle. Last time, we discovered racing in West Sound. Now let the incoming tide take us down past Gig Harbor and through the Tacoma Narrows. Believe or not, we found the SSSS, the South Sound Sailing Society which is “a boating club dedicated to sailboat racing and cruising on southern Puget Sound”.

Headquartered in Olympia and founded in 1971, the club hosts races, cruises, and sailing related speakers around the year. Most importantly, SSSS co-sponsors (with the Olympia Yacht Club) the popular Toliva Shoal Race which coincides with Presidents’ Day weekend in February and is part of the Southern Sound Series. The other three races in this series are: The December Vashion Island Race (sponsored by the Tacoma Yacht Club), the Duwamish Head Race (sponsored in January by the Three Tree Point Yacht Club), the Islands Race (March, Gig Harbor Yacht Club).

SSSS also sponsors both Spring and Fall afternoon race series as well as the South Sound Islands Series between October and December and the South Sound Inlet Series between January and March, in addition to Wednesday evening races, Jack&Jill Race and single-handed races, and a Spring Regatta (this year on May 17). In early April (this year the 5th and 6th) there will also be the “Maclean Memorial Races”, a two day event consisting of a race between Olympia and Gig Harbor on the first day and Gig Harbor to Olympia on the next (of course with a party in between!). Check out these races on the Web site.

Can this racing program compete with what is going on around Seattle or other parts of the Sound? One should think so!

Taking your first cruise in the San Juans? Or is it just time to update the contents of your chart table? Here’s a listing of NOAA charts for the Northwest that you can review online. These online charts allow you to zoom in and see great detail of your favorite anchorages or that tricky passage you haven’t tried out yet.

WWW.BOATBLUE.ORG is the Web site of The National Marine Manufactures Association (NMMA) which claims to be the “nation’s largest recreational marine industry trade association, representing over 1,600 boat builders, engine manufacturers, and marine accessory manufacturers”. Recently the Web site alerted the boating public to a recent court ruling that would require all recreational boats to get permits (re: pollution being dumped from commercial ship ballast water) by September, 2008—despite the fact that 99% of recreational boats do not have ballast tanks. The U.S. Senate has responded with S. 2766, the Clean Boating Act of 2008 which, however, still needs to pass and requires letters to your senators. You can read more about this both on www.boatblue.org and on bremertonyachtclub.org/bycNews08.html#alert2 where you find the corresponding alert coming from the Recreational Boating Association of Washington.