Walker Rock Race
The Saltspring Island
Sailing Club held the annual Walker Rock Race on Sunday April 1. Nine
boats started in light wind and under beautiful sunny skies. The course
was to Walker Rock, located in Trincomali Channel between Galiano Island
and Walker Hook, and back again. The first boats to Scott Point were Caliente,
JJ Flash, and Fandango. Unfortunately for Fandango, the fine print in
the race instructions call for leaving the Welbury Spar Buoy to port,
which of course they didn’t do. When informed of the infraction,
they sailed all the way back to undo the rounding, but lost much time
in the process.
The spinnaker run to Walker rock was a real treat and a site to see; big
colourful sails billowing out in front of each boat as they roared down
the channel. A Coast Guard hovercraft was tied up to Walker Rock, and
was showing the “Diver Down” flag. We noticed them hauling what
looked suspiciously like a crab trap on board when we went by. At this
point, Caliente and JJ Flash, the fastest boats in the fleet, got away
from the rest of us. The remaining boats all headed back to Nose Point
in a concentrated clump, which made for some enjoyably tight racing. In
a very impressive bit of sailing, Fandango had made a miraculous recovery
(after rerounding Welbury Spar) to share the lead of this pack with Imp.
After the pack rounded Nose Point, we all stopped for a spot of no wind
at Scott Point, and the tide began carrying us back out into Trincomali
Channel. Soul Dancer then gave up the race and proceeded to attack the
rest of the fleet with their “Orange Cannon”, a hair spray powered
device that in my opinion should be classified as a Weapon of Mass Destruction.
(If you want to know more about this type of device, google “Potato
Cannon”) Final Dash made a nice break from the pack, only to stop
again. I believe that is when they too gave up and started to motor home.
In the end, the five boats remaining all got away from the wind hole,
and by the time we were back in Ganges Harbour, the breeze had built to
over 10 knots, and we had an exciting beat back to the Sailing Club. All
of this took between 4 and 6 hours, depending on which group of boats
you were in.
What a great way to spend a gorgeous Sunday afternoon!
By Greg Slakov
Results are as follows:
