1998 SOCKS

The Seattle Yacht Clubs SOCKS regatta was held last weekend off of Shilshole marina in Seattle.  SOCKS stands for Seattle One-design Centerboard Keelboat Series, and had boats ranging from Opti's to Olson 30's racing.  Four local 505's showed up to race on Saturday, despite 20-25 kt. winds from the north and a ebb tide building nasty tall, short period breaking waves.  Just the right size to stick the launcher tube right into the wave in front.  The surfing was fun when it worked though!  Carl Leede and Shipley/Shipley made it to the start line in time for the first start and had a fun filled trip around the course where each of the two boats capsized once (Leede at the windward mark and Shipley/Shipley gybing for the leeward mark).  All four boats were milling around for the second start, but when the gun went off Athmann/Moser's main tore in half in a big puff and von Grey/Hamsher's mainsheet block ripped off of the boom.  At some point Carl Leede's rudder broke (I'm not terribly sure when, I was a little focused on keeping the centerboard pointing in the appropriate direction with limited success), and supposedly on the way back to the dock with the broken rudder Carl's crew decided for an unknown reason that swimming is better than sailing, allowing Carl to practice his man overboard drills with a less than totally functional rudder.  The I-14's loved watching the fun.  At the third start Shipley/Shipley were the only 505 left, but this was not to last.  Gybing for the leeward mark proved to be too much for the rudder, leaving the boat turtled and waiting for rescue.

After licking our wounds and fixing our boats we showed up on Sunday with the water barely riffled with wind.  After ghosting out to the start line, watching the 49ers and I14's start, just to be called back as they stopped moving somewhere before the windward mark, and doing the great dinghy drifter for another hour and a half, the committee boat postponed the race until the afternoon.  The wind built to a steady 3-6 kts out of the north in the afternoon letting us get in 3 close and fun races before dinner time.  The first start had one end greatly favored, causing a close start for three boats, with the fourth (Athmann/Moser) deciding wisely to avoid the mess and start in clear air.  At the windward mark all four boats were close together (which continued to be true for the other two races as well) with von Grey/Hamsher leading.  When the kites were hoisted though von
Grey/Hamsher's chute magically separated into two halves for some reason that nobody can figure out.  For some reason we were started 2 starts after the laser fleet (6 minutes) for the last two starts, making for some fun roundings of the leeward mark with 50 odd lasers. Many thanks to SYC for running the race, and for Werner who handled 8 odd classes of dinghys beautifully, so that nobody ever waited long for a start, and most especially Paul von Grey and Sue Athmann who did all of the work getting boats to come to the regatta, and designing one of the coolest sailing shirts I've ever seen.
 
Results
Saturday
 Sunday
1
 2 3 1 2 3
Shipley/Shipley 1 1 DNF 1 2 2
Leede/?  2 DNF DNS 2 3 1
Athmann/Moser DNS DNF DNS 4 1 3
von Grey/Hamsher DNS DNS DNS 3 4 4