I received this email from Frank, this morning: As you know, we decided not to race in the Oregon offshore. This decision was made at 0600 Thursday morning. All the crew members were in agreement not to participate in the race. We had been monitoring the weather for the past 30 days and watching the trends for the offshore race course.
We knew that the race was going to be fast but that implied that the course would be challenging. We were looking at weather predications from NOAA that included up to 40 knot gusts, 20 to 35 knot sustained winds, five foot swell at 9 seconds and nine foot wind waves from Grays Harbor to the Strait. The boat was not the problem, it was the crew that I was concerned about. We could expect one critical boat part failure, most of us getting sick, and possibly one or more serious injuries. Only three crew were experienced in heavy weather sailing offshore. Our average crew members age is close to 60 years old. Two members being over 70 years old and one less than 50 years old. Three women and 5 men on the crew. A majority of the crew is new to offshore racing and have never experienced the conditions that were predicted for the time of the race. Although we all wanted to race, it was obvious to all of us that if we experienced the conditions that were predicted we would most likely regret the decision to go. Making the decision not to race was very hard for me but deciding to go and being responsible for a crew members injury would be even more difficult to endure. For our boat, for our crew, the decision not to race in the predicted race course conditions was a good one. The crew delivered the boat back to RCYC. Nice cruise up the Columbia River. Stopped at Rainer over night. Averaged 6.7 kts through the water and 4.1 kts over land. We are already preparing for next year. Alan Bergen 35 Mk III Thirsty Rose City YC Portland, OR
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