Algerine Passage Race results 2025-05-18
The Algerine race last Sunday was a success in every respect but one. Both trophy’s went back to the Comox side. It was kind of expected given that since 1970, out of 49 races completed, the Powell River side has won the cup only 6 times. Last year both cups, the Algerine trophy for 1st place corrected as well as the Credit Union trophy for line honours were both captured by Powell River. In this race Comox was well prepared for revenge.
Fifteen boats entered the race. We established a start line of 500 feet to give everyone plenty of room and the start time was to be 0900 hours GPS time. It was an honour start where if a boat crossed early it was honour bound to do a penalty turn and go through the start again.
It was a mostly clean start. Our course took us from the South Harbour to Comox. We would take Vivian Island to Port before crossing to the “PJ” Buoy off the cliffs of Comox which would be taken to starboard along with the bell buoy and the channel markers before entering Comox harbour. The finish line would be between the Goose spit lighthouse and a red buoy just off its' shore.
We had moderate North-west winds at the start and they held for a couple of hours allowing the fleet to round Vivian and pick a route to “PJ”. The winds soon died off leaving us floundering for an hour before the predicted southerly breezes began filling in. The more successful boats crossed over to the cliffs off Comox and apparently received a very favourable lift in the process along with sympathetic tidal currents. Those of us sailing south along the shore of Texada before crossing over suffered for every inch as the breezes couldn’t control themselves blowing this way one minute and that way the next while in between taking naps. Our spinnaker tried to keep up but just wrapped itself around our boat till we looked like a giant birthday present. Eventually though we picked up that southerly breeze and started moving quite smartly. Out came the spinnaker again and we could almost taste the pizza waiting for us in Comox. We flew by a couple of large sailboats and headed into the Comox bar gap at 5 to 6 knots with the winds picking up very nicely. By the time we hit the final stretch we were roaring along at 7 knots on flat water and starting to wonder about the take down. But that’s another story.
Balderdash and Seance were well ahead of us and Balderdash unfortunately came within 24 seconds of capturing line honours but was upstaged by Tom Gornell in his 24 foot J boat, Nyyak (PHRF 168). Seance and Balderdash had been trading the lead for most of the race but couldn’t out-race the Comox boats this time. Tenacious, a San Juan 24 (PHRF 219) skippered by Frank Denton took 1st place corrected. Bring Ice was also had a strong finish coming close behind Una in 5th place corrected. Our club is definitely improving. Next year we’ll do our homework more carefully and who knows what the outcome might be.
Special thanks to the Comox club for a well organized event this year. Also to Dr. Shawn Gosnell for supplying and manning the committee boat for helping us get the race off to a good start.
Results
