The Van Isle 360 is a biennial, 580 nautical mile point-to-point race circumnavigating wild and rugged Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Sailed in ten legs, the course provides inshore, offshore and overnight sailing through some of the most stunning and challenging waters on the planet.
The VanIsle360 is using YB Tracker to make it easy for us to follow the race. On your mobile, download the YB Tracker app, or on your desktop, go to the VanIsle360 website and scroll down on the front page until you see the Load the Tracker button.
These live updates cover the second half of the race, for the first half: VanIsle 360 First Half
Quick recap of the first half: VanIsle 360: Fun or Serious
New Results! We don’t often get results on a layday, but the VanIsle 360 has delivered excitement event without any racing. There was a skippers meeting yesterday and somehow an agreement was reached to recalculate some of the races. You can see the official notice on the notice board here.
New Results through Leg 5
Div 0: The Shadow II (1, 1, 3, 6, 3) 14pts (Dark Star also 14pts)
Div 1: Blue Jay III (3, 4, 2, 2, 3) 14 pts
Div 2: Joy Ride (2, 2, 1, 1, 1) 7 pts
Div 3: Spyhop (3, 1, 1, 11, 1) 17pts
June 6, Friday, Port Hardy to Winter Harbour, 69.8 NM, 0930 Start
CORRECTION: I used to call it Winter Harbor — but clearly as this is Canada, it should be Winter Harbour!
0630: A quick weather update from Bruce Hedrick: Looks like it could be a great one. Light-med air beat to Hope Island and the Nawhitti Bar, then a close to beam reach to Cape Scott, then a nice run in 12-18 knots to the finish outside of Winter Harbour. The off-the-wind machines will love this.
TP 52's around the course in 8.5 hours, the Swan 42 SC in 9 hours.
6 June 1200 HRS
0830: One hour to the start. Here is a video of Dark Star going over the Nahwitti Bar in 2015. Could be similar this year.
0930: Here is the prestart scene in Port Hardy this AM. Big hole at the start. Everyone trying to figure out what headsail to use. Thank you Marcus Reichert on ‘Spyhop’ for the report and these great pictures.
1000: And they are working their way out of Port Hardy harbor and into the breeze. ‘Mist’ had a very good start and is leading the charge. ‘Hamachi’ has recovered from whatever caused their retirement yesterday and is hanging with the 52s in the front. Here are some pictures from shore from Lois Gilbert including one of schoolkids on the dock watching the race.
1100: The boats are out of Hardy Bay and into Goletas Channel with the leaders almost to Balaklava Island (there must be an interesting story about that name…). ‘Smoke’ is in the lead, ‘Mist’ not far behind.
YB Tracker screenshot from 1100.
I don’t think we are going to be getting very many pictures for a while as the cell towers are rare in these parts. Here is a cellphone tower map for the race area. Don’t worry, it’s not that you are reading the map wrong, there are no cell towers in this part of the island. Two in Port Hardy, four in Coal Harbour, none along the way, and none in Winter Harbour.
1300: The boats are almost to the bar. ‘Smoke’ and ‘Mist’ have a bit of a jump on the others.
YB Tracker screenshot from 1300.
1400: As expected, we are not getting much in the way of pictures or stories from onboard the boats while they are out in the wilderness. The tracker is still working well, and ‘Smoke’ is still out front. To pass the time, here are some pictures of ‘Dark Star’ from prior days. We have not had many pictures of ‘Dark Star’ because our most productive photographer was on ‘Dark Star’! These are from Esther Goodell, who is sailing on ‘Mist’.
1600: The TP52s are around Cape Scott. ‘Dark Star’ next and then ‘Free Bowl of Soup’. About 25 NM to go to the finish. First finishes should be around 1900.
YB Tracker screenshot from 1600.
1800: ‘Smoke’ was first boat to finish.
1930: ‘Hamachi’ is having a great race and will be the first Div 1 boat to finish. ‘Joy Ride’ in position to be the first Div 2 boat to finish. ‘The Kodiak Express’ is currently the closest Div 3 boat to the finish, but ‘Spyhop’ has split considerably offshore and is definitely in a position to finish first. As usual, Div 3 is going to be the race to watch. With 17 miles to go, this is going to take some time to play out. The sun is going to set up there at 9:36, a full half hour after it sets here in Seattle. So it looks like the Div 3 battle will play out right at sunset. I hope someone gets some pictures!
June 7, Saturday, Layday today, next start is 0900 tomorrow.
Until then, keep sending your pictures! (to jaycleon@yachtracing.tv)
These photos in overnight from Kathryn Huse and the race committee standing watch for the finishers at the Kains Island lighthouse.
And these photos also in overnight from Marcus Reichert. It looks like it was a spectacular day for rounding the top of the island.
Kathryn Huse of the Race Committee stood watch at the Kains Island Lighthouse until the very last finisher — before midnight last night. Thanks for the great photo Kathryn.
Results through Leg 6
Div 0: Smoke (2, 3, 4, 4, 2, 1) 16pts
Div 1: Phoenix (4, 3, 5, 3, 1, 1) 17 pts
Div 2: Joy Ride (2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1) 8 pts
Div 3: Spyhop (3, 1, 1, 11, 1, 2) 19pts (Tie with The Kodiak Express I think)
More great pictures of layday action in from Kathryn Huse. Thank you Kathryn!
June 8, Sunday, Winter Harbour to Ucluelet, 138 NM
0810: The start is in less than an hour (0900), Weather at Solander (end of Brooks Peninsula) reporting ENE 31 knots at 0700.
1030: The start went off as planned a 0900. These pictures just in from Kathryn Huse from the lighthouse. Special thanks to Milt Magee, the lighthouse keeper, pictured here.
The 1030 position reports on the tracker has ‘Dark Star’ significantly out front making 15.3 knots and just passing the end of Brooks Peninsula. As Bruce predicted, it is likely to be a record setting year for this leg. 120 NM to go for the leaders. Solander is still reporting ENE at 30 knots (right where ‘Dark Star’ is) and a bit farther down the track, the Brooks South buoy is showing 25 knots NNW - so no one is going to be slowing down any time soon.
1130: Quite a big split developing. We may be referring to the “innies” and the “offies” for the rest of the race as ‘Dark Star’ is leading a group heading inshore and ‘Smoke’ is leading a group offshore. Clearly we will not know which pays for many hours, but they are probably 10 miles apart already, so someone is going to benefit from this big leverage.
YB Tracker screenshot from 1130.
1300: ‘The Shadow II’ has taken the lead. ‘Smoke’ gave up on the offshore route and joined back with the innies. ‘Phoenix’ and ‘Freja’ have taken up the offies position. ‘Joy Ride’ is going with the idea that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The South Brooks buoy has not updated its wind reading since 1000, and Estevan Point is showing NW 10 knots at 1200. So it could be getting lighter.
YB Tracker screenshot from 1300.
1515: Six hours in and ‘The Shadow II’, ‘Dark Star’, and ‘Smoke’ are all past the half way point. The wind reports at Estevan Point have built steadily and at last report (1400) showed 15 knots NNW. Sixty miles to go for the leaders and six hours to sunset. It will be interesting to hear about the sea state tonight.
YB Tracker screenshot from 1515.
1700: It is blistering hot in Seattle and the VI360 boats are blistering fast through the course. The tracker is now predicting the leading boat, ‘The Shadow II’ to finish in about 3 hours. 40 NM to go.
2100: ‘The Shadow II’, first to finish at 2019. ‘Dark Star’ has 9nm to go and ‘Smoke’ has 19nm to go. It is anyone’s guess what happens on corrected, but ‘Hamachi’ is leading Div 1, ‘Joy Ride’ on Div 2, and ‘The Kodiak Express’ on Div 3. The next start is June 11 and 0900, so there will be plenty of time to wrangle the scores. Great sailing everyone.
Results through leg 7
Div 0: The Shadow II (1, 1, 3, 6, 3, 4, 1) 19pts (again in a tie with ‘Dark Star’)
Div 1: Phoenix (4, 3, 5, 3, 1, 1, 1) 18 pts - on a roll!
Div 2: Joy Ride (2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 4) 12 pts - the results for Div 2 do not look complete, but it is unlikely that ‘Joy Ride’ were displaced
Div 3: The Kodiak Express (2, 3, 2, 9, 2, 1, 1) 20 pts - also not sure if the Div 2 results are finished.
June 10th, Layday in Ucluelet
Sleep, then dry stuff out, then do boat projects, then walk around and see what everyone is doing, then go fishing! Here are some great pics from Marcus Reichert on ‘Spyhop’, some from the last leg, some around the harbor.
Here are some more from Joe Bersch on ‘Dark Star’. Never miss a chance to bag a lingcod!
Racing resumes June 11th at 0900 for the 99 nm leg from Ucluelet to Victoria. The HRRR forcast for the La Perouse Bank Bouy at start time tomorrow calls for NNW 23 to 31 knots. The next buoy along the course is the Neah Bay Buoy, and it is calling for NNE 4 to 13 knots. This is when we need Bruce to give us the what’s what!
(Continued from Part 1 here)
(Followed by Part 3 here)
The VanIsle360 team is doing a terrific job with their facebook group. All kinds of pictures and videos.