BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – I spent the majority of a day watching the well-oiled machine that is a functional sailing team race in Bellingham Bay.
Sailing was a new experience to me, a person that spent the majority of their life near oceanic waters but didn’t have the particular urge to pursue the skill. Between the high barriers to entry that come with lessons, access to yacht clubs and sailing groups and the overall feeling of this isn’t “made for me personally,” I never thought to try sailing.
Pacific Northwest Media Group sponsored Bellingham Race Week this year, and I thought, “I’m game” when Event Producer Schelleen Rathkopf offered me a spot on a boat. I thought it meant I would be on the sidelines of a race day, monitoring the vessels from afar. When Rathkopf got back to us with the details, I realized I was going to be in the race.
I found myself aboard Absolutely on Tuesday morning, July 21, with 10 crew members of varying ages and backgrounds.
The thing I noted in common between them all was a quick smile and an overall feeling of ease in their excitement for the coming day. Excitement to be out on the water for the second day in a weeklong race event in Bellingham Bay. Most took off work or were home during summer break and chose to pursue their passion on the open water.
Absolutely is a heavier vessel than some of its competitors, which provides some benefits for speed when the wind is blowing.
Very little space on the boat is for lounging in comfort, however. A racing boat is meant to be sailed, with a focus on making sure the sails catch the wind and the crew needs to be able to move without tripping over extra stuff that you may see on a speedboat or something similar. I was a person that didn’t know the meaning of the word “jib” or how tacking worked, so I was mostly the observer to the human machine of a sail crew.
That meant the crew told me to sit at the back of the boat, or stern, until I needed to move for weight distribution. They called the aft area where the mainsail’s traveler attached to the stern and several other lines ran to support that sail the “triangle of safety.”
Ahead of the start of the first race, the skipper, Charley Macaulay toasted Absolutely and the crew. Later, he said he saw it done on another boat he crewed for and thought it was something good to start the day with. Peter, one of the runners, said “I will be their good luck charm” as we prepared for the day.
Leigh, Macaulay’s daughter, said to me as we passed around the bottle of Koloa Rum: “Sailors are very superstitious.”
As the day went on, I found myself moving around the boat, getting to know the crew while lending some weight when it was needed.
The crew got along well with jokes traded and an old camaraderie between them that made me think some of them knew each other for several years at least. The sailing community in the Puget Sound is small according to L.A., the pit crewmember, who also teaches sailing lessons at San Juan Sailing.
The youngest on board, Oliver, the bow crewmember, just graduated high school with sights set on going to the Cal Poly Maritime Academy in northern California this fall. He said his goal is to sail professionally.
He and Max, the main trimmer, joined the crew through the Corinthian Yacht Club‘s youth program. Max goes to school in Rhode Island, finishing his first year this spring.
Charley described how he found himself in the sailing world decades ago as he “got the bug in college.” He found interest in the physics applications that come with handling a sailing vessel.
Monitoring windspeed was a big part of the race day. Low wind delayed the start of the first race and, according to Charley, the vessel’s maneuverability was limited due to its size compared to smaller and lighter boats. The crew was constantly chattering on where the competing boats were as the kite blocked Charley’s view from the helm a lot of the time.
Shrek was the name of the top-placing boat from Monday’s races. The green “S” logo modeled after the film franchise on their vessel was sometimes hard to pick out against the more flashy designs on the water.
The course for the first race was SAZAZF, referring to the floats the boat would have to wrap around to complete the course. This route was nicknamed “sailing sausages” according to Charley as the race will loop around posts in the shape of a long oval.
At each point the crew would need to change the boat’s jib to a spinnaker and back to catch the wind, the team would work together to do quick, efficient movements that changes where the sails sit, removing or adding a different sail or tilt in a direction to lean into the turn.
Charley would yell “tacking! In 3… 2… 1!” and the crew would launch into action. I found myself at one point in the day on the main deck, sitting next to some of the rigging for the vessel. When Charley yelled “tack!” I began to learn that meant I need to move to the opposite side of the deck and watch out for a large sheet of sail coming with some rigging for my bare feet.
Apparently, there are a lot of toe injuries in sailing.
If he yelled “jibe,” I would hop to the back as fast as I could to be out of the way for the more complex maneuver. A jibe maneuver turns the boat in a downwind direction, placing the front sail in the opposite side and adjusting the rigging accordingly.
The second race was a SAZBZF, which meant a slightly shorter leg but still following the sailing sausage-shape. It ended abruptly and early as the wind had again died down, eliciting frustration from the crew that felt they could have done more work.
It was not the ideal conditions for sailing that day. The wind barely hit four knots most times until later in the afternoon when occasionally we saw upwards of five or the rare six knots. According to Charley, their class of vessel should not have competed in those conditions.
The crew expected two races to happen that day, but something changed and the race organizers called for a third race close to 3 p.m., which was also later than the crew expected to be competing that day.
The third race was the same route as the first race, SAZAZF, which meant they did the same maneuver at the end they started the day with nicknamed “The Canadian” as it was the opposite direction as the sailing maneuver called “The Mexican Takedown.”
It was all in good fun to be out on Bellingham Bay during one of the hottest days this summer, despite the not-ideal conditions.
During the short breaks between races, the crew sat and ate sandwiches made by Sandy, Peter’s wife, that included turkey, cucumber, Havarti cheese, cherry preserves and a secret ingredient. The team passed around water, cans of Rainier beer and bags of what they called “boat crack”: graham crackers with honey and brown sugar covered in chocolate with pecan pieces.
When it was my turn to try the boat crack, I took a small piece and L.A. said “I will wish I grabbed a bigger piece once I tried it.”
She was right.
Meanwhile, Charley talked about his time participating in Race Week, including how he has sailed all but two years since it began in 1983. He’s operated his own vessel the majority of that time, starting with Katrinka Finklesplatt for the first decade, taking some time off, then four years of crewing other boats before taking “Kat Splatt” to race week through 2008.
The Absolutely on the water was not the first one the Macaulays owned. As Charley called it “A-1” was on the water after Katrinka Finklesplatt left their lives until its mast broke mid-race in 2015. The second Absolutely has been the vessel-of-choice for Charley since then.
Leigh is six months pregnant with her second kid and said this week was likely her last time sailing before she has to stay on dry land through her due date. Due to her condition, she manned a different station than normal, working aft as a runner and away from some of the action.
Leigh said that when she and Kali, the mast crewmember, first started dating, he had to pick up sailing if he wanted to be a part of her life. Leigh and her sister Sheila grew up sailing with their father and this marked Sheila’s first year not participating in race week since she was 12 years old. Sheila put together this year’s crew, however.
Scott, the only Bellingham resident and a trimmer or grinder, had lived in Anacortes for years before moving to Fairhaven recently.
Lena, the spinnaker trimmer onboard, talked about how she needed to leave work early on Wednesdays to sail, which spurred L.A. to note how working at REI was a boon for sailing as she was able to take the time off in the past for races.
Steve, a trimmer or grinder, was assisting in connecting a consult for his plumbing company, which made him the only one that was working that day (except for me).
Though the team came in third on the finish line every time and it was a bit of a bummer after coming in second on Monday, the crew of the Absolutely was in good spirits knowing the weather was working against them and being on the boat was what really mattered. It would have been nearly impossible given the wind conditions to overtake Shrek in time.
Everyone on that boat that day wanted to be there. They chose to pursue their passion and found themselves with fellow humans operating a vessel that needed to be taken care of, with sometimes astronomical costs for repairs or maintenance (a mainsail can cost up to $30,000 to replace!).
I think I’m going to take up sailing one day.
Whatcom Wanderings is a personal essay series about experiencing and reflecting on events that are unique to the region. The events covered may not always happen in Whatcom County, but the perspective will be geared towards Whatcom interest.
