Youngblood | Wauquiez RDV

What a great day! We had 12 boats for the 29th annual Pacific Northwest Wauquiez Rendezvous, with friends, family, crews and visitors from BC to San Francisco, and Rob and Sue Jackson off SV Joyeux, our speakers from the Mediterranean! It was great to see Sweet Adeline with her new name and fun family. The new boat this year was Bob's newer Centurion 41, Harmony. Morning boat tours had crews checking out rigging to new engine installations, galley storage to headboards, swim-steps and soft shackles. Racing was a blast, we had wind this year, and I finally got to sail with Judy and Guy on Airfair. Jim from NorskVind did most of the heavy crew work, so I could take pics. While we beat Caelestis to the first mark, they water-lined us! It was notably a Centurion fleet, this year, with Earendel the committee boat, resetting the line, after we figured it out. Most of us were just trying to stay ahead of Ken on Seeker and that devious Steve on Black Rabbit! Appa was first to finish, with new sails, a light crew, and more boat out of the water than the rest of us, wow! It was nice to see Michael on La Volante Frances Jane, back from Mexico, cruising along with his dinghy on the fore-deck. Pat on his Pretorien, clearly had the fun crew, and Snow Goose powered up the course, on rails. Of course part of the charm of Port Townsend is sailing through the Classic Mariners’ Regatta. Back at the docks the R2AK boats were prepping, race stories were swapped, and soon we were off to dinner. With help from Coco, we had a fun raffel for a CSR haul-out, and then the race awards. Mike Locatell of Discovery Yachts, updated us on his new boat sales. Rob and Sue on the Hood 38, s/v Joyeux, who have spent years in the Mediterranean, sorted out Schengen visa restrictions, and shared stories from Tunisia to Turkey. That was a fun, long day and drive home - whew! As always, I try for shots of all the participants, boats, details, and race - check out the timestamps like Appa upwind as we passed. I really hope you get a little flavor, of what a great group of folks, the Wauquiez Rendezvous brings together each year. Thanks all!
(Click on a image below for a larger image "slide show" - arrow keys work well.)