Category Archives: Sailing

Photo of Seventy48 Boat Race Start in front of the Foss Waterway Seaport in Tacoma, Washington.

Seventy Miles of what in 48 Hours?

Photography, Sailing, , , ,

Last summer I met a guy named Jesse at Blake Island while he was the “cruise director” of Salish 100. We talked about doing some photography for the two races he also runs. The Seventy48 and the Race to Alaska or R2AK. I got back in touch with Jesse this spring and we hatched a plan for me to cover the race.

While I hadn’t done any professional sports photography in years, I wanted to cover this race like I was working for a news agency. The Northwest Maritime Centre, the organizer of the race, wanted photos in as much real-time as possible during the race. So this was a great fit for a crazy photographic adventure that would suit my two passions photography and being on the water.

What is The Seventy48?

SEVENTY48 aka 70 miles in 48 hours.
Rules are simple: no motors, no support, and no wind. That’s right. HUMAN POWER ONLY. Pedal, paddle, or row. We don’t care. It’s up to you. (And this is a boat race. Leave your 10 speed-towing-a-canoe idea at home.)  ~ Seventy48 Website

Ben Lobaugh in his Minto rowing across Commencement Bay near Tacoma, Washington
Ben Lobaugh in his Minto rowing across Commencement Bay.

Also after I told Ben Lobaugh about my crazy plans to photograph the race. He decides to enter the race with his 8-foot Minto! You can learn more about Ben’s race on his blog post.

The Gear

Since I didn’t have any recent professional gear to cover the race. I asked my friend Ted Peters if I could borrow his old Sony a6000 and an 80mm – 300mm. My current laptop was anything but mobile I also borrowed an eight-year-old Macbook from my nephew and grabbed a bunch of SD cards and a decent data plan for my iPhone 14 Pro phone.

The Boat

While I didn’t know what boat I was going to be on Jessie would assure me he’d get me mobile on the water for the race, Little did I know I was going to be on a 13-foot open-air tender for most of the race. While I had an engine and Captain Dan driving. I felt a little kinship with the competitors.

Robert Dall working on his laptop from a boat in the middle of Commencement Bay in Tacoma, Washington.
Filing images from the start of the race from a laptop on the water.
Captain Dan

The Start

Watching 128 teams outside the Foss Waterway Seaport gather and then start was thrilling on such a beautiful night (Yes the race starts at 7:00 pm, yes that is in the evening). The weather wouldn’t be this nice all weekend so as the old saying goes you gotta shoot when the light is right! Also and unknown to the everyone involved in the race. The Lady Washington was moored in Tacoma for the night and made for a great backdrop to the start!

Team from the Seventy48 race kayaking on Commencement Bay with Mount Rainier in the background.
Mount Rainier also made for a stunning backdrop to the start of the race.

While I had sailed out of Tacoma with Ben before and I had been to Vashon Island in my 20’s I had never seen the Colvos Passage side of the Vashon before. As the sun hid behind the Olympic Peninsula the field started to stretch out and twilight started to fall we saw each team slowly turn on their night running lights one by one. It was something that I witnessed but couldn’t easily photograph so it was an experience to be had and to be remembered.

As Colvos Passage opened back up to Pudget Sound we raced to find the leaders of the race. Their tracker position isn’t in real time so we had already passed their position and still couldn’t find them in the blackness of night. We did find a small white light against the undeveloped blackness of Blake Island State Park. Living up to their name The Beasts from the East were certainly hauling ass up the sound.

The Other Boat

My accommodations for the night.

Once we had gotten to Blake Island we found our sleep accommodations for the night. It was an old wooden sailing boat that was originally launched New Zealand. It had crossed the Drake Passage, at least once, if not twice, from what I remember. She then made her way up to Alaska for several years before finding her current owners in Puget Sound. Hearing the history of this boat was amazing.

The Stories

Jeremiah Bonsmith of Team Daddleboard takes a nap under a picnic table at Fay Bainbridge Park during the Seventy 48 Race. (I am pleased to report he finished the race)

One of the reasons I was attracted to photography was the magic of film and the intricacy of the cameras. But really, it was capturing people’s stories of life and adventure. This race was no different. We left Blake Island early and went up to Fay Bainbridge State Park where we found a number of competitors who had stopped for a quick break before continuing.

I found Jeremiah Bonsmith of Team Daddleboard. He was laying out all his gear on a picnic table. (I am paraphrasing our conversation)  Everything is soaking wet, The headwind is a lot harder, and I wasn’t making a lot of progress. I am gonna let everything dry out have a nap and see if I want to continue.

I returned some 15 minutes later and he was asleep under the table and I got this great photo. It really told his story I thought. I never saw him again, but I am pleased to report that he did complete the race. (Jeremiah if you are reading this leave me a note in the comments I’ll get you the photo)

The Marine life

The Port Townsend welcoming committee

The animals I saw on route were amazing. I saw Harbor seals at the start line in Tacoma, Porpoises jumping in Admiralty Inlet Bay and the Sea Lion welcoming committee at Port Townsend who wasn’t impressed that I was on her dock LOL.

 

The Finish

There was a beautiful rainbow that appeared over the finish line on the Saturday evening.

Arriving to Victorian seaport of Port Townsend and the Northwest Marine Center I set up my base camp in Helen Keeley Boathouse.

Fellow Canadian Audrey Standish was all smiles at the finish line of the Seventy 48.

The range of emotions from competitors that were completely went from dogged determination to finish, weepy to see loved ones and one Audrey Standish from the aptly named Chucklewave who was laughing from ear to ear upon arrival.

You can’t capture everything on a race of this magnitude you just have to capture of variety of every type of competitor and stories that peak your interest.

The Party

Team Sculling Chinooks getting there tie cut for the Seventy48 NeckTie Party.

The next day I was asked to cover the Seventy48 Necktie Party. This was a new event for the Seventy48 as it becomes more of it’s own event then a tag on to the R2AK. The length of the neck tie depends on how much of the race you completed.

Conclusion

There is a lot from the career as a photojournalist I didn’t enjoy. Tragedy the most. But I did miss the adrenaline from shooting sports and meeting a deadline. The Seventy48 let me scratch that itch.

The town of Port Townsend was beautiful and I enjoyed a walk through the historic downtown getting dinner at the Nifty Fiftys Soda Fountain which was quite welcome respite. I also got the chance to see the historic Tally Ho in the final stages of her rebuild.

Please enjoy the rest of the photos in the gallery below.

 

Laser Sea Monster

Laser Sea Monster, painted by Kevin Mcevoy

I was pleasantly surprised to see myself in local artist and sailing buddy Kevin Mcevoy painting. He was kind enough to present me with a print. Thanks Kevin! I love it!

Boat Ownership

Sailing, , , ,

After years of borrowing a laser class sailboat from the Snake Bay Sailing Club, The old club shut down and sold all the boats to members of Sunshine Coast Sailing Association SCSA.

This has great increased the number of boats we have sailing out on the water on any given day to 13 and it great to see the old SBSC boats out on the water again!

Metal fatigued goose neck
Metal fatigued goose neck

I was also able to acquire the boat I was borrowing for a number of years and as soon as I took ownership of it, stuff of course started breaking.

“Boat is a hole of which your pour money into.”

But it’s so much fun and worth the maintenance and upkeep.

The rivets popped on the gooseneck during a race and then a the metal gooseneck crack after 40 years of use.

I found that my mast step was also leaking which is an indication of frail mast step. I did pour some epoxy down the tube which stopped the leak but it didn’t resolve the entire problem.

Mast Step total failure :-(
Mast Step total failure 🙁

During our yearly Poise Cove Regatta I was hiking out and reeling in the main sheet on route to the first race of the morning. Five seconds to the start and I heard a crack and the mast fell. Later inspection revealed the mast step had major fatigue. I don’t believe

reinforcing the mast step would have resolved this issue. As unhappy and expensive as a

mast step replacement is. It will be a solid replacement.

I also decided to replace the sail with a practice sail since the original one showed it’s years of wear. Since it was a practice sail and not an official laser class sail for

Laser sailboat don't have names they have numbers. I gave this practices sail number 503.
Laser sailboat don’t have names they have numbers. I gave this practices sail number 503.

racing.  I could choose any numbers I wanted. In talking with Ben Lobaugh about which numbers to choose we joked about using the http status codes the most well known one being 404 which is file or page not found. Then we though what about 402 which is payment required. Which is quite appropriate for the sport of sailing.

We ended up deciding on the code 503 which mean “Server unavailable” This usually means the server has temporary stopped accepting request or it too busy.

Applying this to terminology to a human it could also mean. “Bugger off I am sailing” I will be back later.

To me sailing is a leaving all of the technology we use every day on the dock. Grab your tiller and and your main sheet and have some fun all the power you need will be in the wind.

Old rivet hole so used rivets couldn’t fit anymore, so we flipped the mast and drilled new ones.
Shiny new gooseneck in comparison to the old mast.

 

I went to Seattle for a week of sailing with my friend Ben Lobaugh. I participated in:

• The Footloose Disable Sailing Association
• The Monday Night Ballard Cup Series II crewing on Breeze
• zzZippety Doo Dah haul out and painting
• Shilshole Bay Yacht Club Liberty Bay Raft Up!

To say I spent my entire summer vacation on a boat would be completely accurate.

Snowbird Series

Robert Dall standing infront of a Columbia 21 at the Footloose Disabled Sailing Association

Footloose and fancy free

Sailing, ,

I was invited to Seattle by Ben Lobaugh for what I called a Super Sailing Weekend in Seattle.

Ben had told me he volunteers at the Footloose Disabled Sailing Club and if I wanted I could come down to help out as well. The entire venture sounded great so I packed my bag  and came down for the weekend.

Sailboat used by the Footloose called a Access Dinghy
Access Dinghy / Photo Footloose

The thing I really liked about the association was they really made it accessible to everyone possible no matter what your disability and each sailboat is slightly different configuration but all were completely accessible and very stable and unable to tip over (or in sailing terms turtling).

The Access dinghies were similar to lasers just much LESS tippy and the participant sat side by side with the skipper.

The 2 Martin 16 other boats the participants and skipper sit front and back of each other.

Martin 16 sailboat with electric winch of the footloose sailing club
Martin 16 sailboat with electric winch / Photo Footloose

The skipper is a volunteer with the association and is completely experienced with the boat. They are there to assist the participant, whether that be teaching them how to sail, co-piloting the boat or just along for the ride while the participant  controls everything.

Paraplegics easily operate Access dinghies with a joystick. While quadriplegic can operate the Martin 16 which are equipped with electric winches and can be operated by either a hand joystick, neck joystick or the or a sip and puff method commonly used by quadriplegics.

The two Colombia 21 that are part of the fleet are larger boats and can hold up to six people. They also have a skipper and at least one crew member to help rig the boat. My job was to helping the participants get on and off the boat along with grinding the winch on the jib.

For those with limited mobility Footloose has two davit hoist system with a hoyer sling to transfer participants from wheelchair to boat and back.

It was a real pleasure to volunteer on a beautiful sunny saturday out on Lake Washington. I I didn’t know but from the water  you can see Mt Rainier to the south and Baker to the North. It was beautiful!

It felt great to give back and learnt a little bit more about sailing slightly larger boats as well I hope I can do it again on my next trip to Seattle.

Volvo Ocean Race 2014 Fleet Credit: David Ramos/Volvo Ocean Race

I’m sailing around the World… from my computer

Sailing, ,
Every pink dot is another player in the Volvo Ocean Race Virtual game. The fleet is splitting the Canaries.
Every pink dot is another player in the Volvo Ocean Race Virtual game. The fleet is splitting the Canaries on October 15th.

Last year I was talking with one of my sailing buddies about the Volvo Ocean Race and he said there was a game that you could play side by side with the real competitors last race.

I kinda forgot about it until the Volvo Ocean Race started in Alicante, Spain over the Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend. I was day late but I did start with some 71,000 other players online my user name is CoffeeRob. You don’t see all 71,000 boats on your screen unless you choose the satellite view. But you do see a couple of players around you, ones your about to pass and the virtual leaders of the race.

Your boat, a Volvo Ocean 65, is exactly like the ones the real competitors are racing and you can upgrade your basic two sails to an extra 5 pro sails (It’s a paid upgrade by well worth it). Your sailing using real weather data, the same the competitors use. Which means their isn’t any other crew to sail your boat while your asleep! The map interface shows you your heading and trajectory with current wind conditions which helps you plot your course. You can upgrade and use the auto pilot which has a bunch of options available.

Your displayed in red, friends/competitors in green other boats are in white.
You’re displayed in red, friends / competitors in green other boats are in white.

The fun thing I find about this game is that it’s all strategy and you don’t need to constantly watch your boat. You set you course and go about your day. Check in at lunch or your afternoon coffee break make sure you haven’t run aground.

I have also found a couple other Canadians (Including WhiteWings who is in the leading group) that are racing and you can tag friends and/or competitors you have made keep track of them as you progress.

It’s been great fun so far. I just never though I would go to be worried about my virtual boat running aground as I sleep.

See you in Gothenburg, Sweden in June, 2015.

Update January 18th : Their are now some 170,000 players in the game. Not all of them actually complete the stage. But you can watch an amazing time lapse by Andreas Heydecke of the second stage below.

Laser Sailing: If your butt isn’t wet you’re not doing it right.

Orcas in Porpoise Bay

Orcas (killer whales) in Porpoise Bay in the Sechelt Inlet on Good Friday April 18, 2014
Orcas (killer whales) in Porpoise Bay in the Sechelt Inlet on Good Friday April 18, 2014

I went out for the first sailing of the season with my buddy Martin in the Sechelt Inlet and shortly after left the marina we saw three orcas swimming in Porpoise Bay back up the inlet. It was certainly a good Friday to go for a sail.

(Taken with my iPhone)

Elliott Bay Sailing

Elliot Bay, Seattle sailing. Photo by Jason Alexander
This awesome photo is by Jason Alexander who took it while I was sailing with my friend Ben Lobaugh on Elliot Bay in Seattle, Wash.