Tim Rann expects a major battle as he races around Vancouver Island this week.
But whether that battle is between the Schooner Cove team and those of two similar yachts or between him and the weather, tides and currents, remains to be seen.
The Nanoose Bay resident is putting his 45-foot yacht, Amazing Grace, through her paces as he competes in the Van Isle 360 yacht race.
He isn’t doing it alone, however.
“We have a crew of 11,” he said, laughing. “Sometimes it’s like herding cats.”
In all seriousness though, Rann said he has assembled a crack team that he hopes will enable him to sail Amazing Grace to at least a very strong finish in the field of 41 yachts.
“We have a very tight team,” Rann said. “We’ve been sailing together for a couple of years now and we’ve done the Swiftsure and Southern Straits races. There is a nice dynamic there.”
Not all 11 will be on board at one time, he noted, with members switching on and off, depending on their schedules and the needs of the trip.
“We’ve got seven going all the way around, along with a couple of crew changes,” he said. “I’m in for the whole thing though.”
On top of the crew on the water, Rann has a team set up to follow their progress on land.
“We have a small van that will do all our servicing and shopping, along with a 27-foot travel trailer,” Rann said. “That’s where we are going to prepare all our lunches and have breakfast for the day.”
The race, which circumnavigates Vancouver Island on a gruelling, 580 nautical mile course, draws all kinds of yachts, from monohulls like Amazing Grace to catamarans and trimarans and from as far away as Vancouver, Washington State and Portland, Oregon. Amazing Grace is the only entry from the Oceanside area, although Francis Walsh and his yacht, Cu Na Mara, call Nanaimo their home.
“We have about a 50/50 split between Canadian and American races,” said race director Wayne Gorrie. “The caibre of sailors is higher than ever. We’ve got two or three on the water today that are crewed by Olympic sailors, medalists all. Two of the boats are owned by two Olympic sailors and crewed by extremely good sailors as well, so the calibre of racing is really high now.”
The race set out Saturday from the Nanaimo boat basin and the teams tied up overnight at French Creek, before weighing anchor and sailing on to Comox, Campbell River, Telegraph Cove, Port Hardy, Winter Harbour, Ucluelet, Victoria and back to Nanaimo.
The first day of the event, Gorrie said, was virtually ideal.
“It was awesome. If you didn’t like being out there today you don’t like sailing,” he said.
“There was a perfect wind out of Nanaimo — strong to begin with but easing up a bit but it was a really great sailing race.”
It’s the second half of the race, along Vancouver Island’s wild west coast, that keeps Rann up at night.
“The offshore legs from Port Hardy to Victoria are challenging,” he said. “There’s wilder weather and bigger seas.”
One of the other major challenges will be navigating through the notorious Seymour Narrows, located just north of Campbell River. This narrows has some of the strongest currents in the world, at times reaching as much as 16 knots. The area is so dangerous that organizers determine the race dates by when sailors can expect a northbound ebb early in the day.
Although he said the Van Isle 360 is by far the most challenging race course on the west coast of North America, the first leg, Gorrie admitted, is pretty much a shakedown cruise.
“This is one of the easier portions, kind of like the bunny hill of the race,” he said.
“There are several legs that could be hardest, but it depends on the weather.
“Navigationally, Victoria to Nanaimo is toughest because there’s no route, so you can sail anywhere you want. It’s a night sail and there are many options for routes. The two offshore legs, from Port Hardy to Winter Harbour and Cape Scott can be challenging and Winter Harbour to Ucluelet as well.”
Because there is such a wide variety of ship designs and hull speeds, the crews will be split into divisions, but there are two boats in particular Rann is keeping his eyes on — Joe Da Ponte’s Opus and Warren Hale’s Turicum, both from Vancouver.
“There are a couple of boats of very similar design and era to us which is going to be our direct competition,” he said. “It’s going to be tooth and nail.”
Anyone who would like to follow Rann and his team can do so by visiting TelusVanisle360 where they can access a tracker link that follows the race 24 hours a day.
“We all have our individual blogs on there as well,” Rann said.
Amazing Grace is sponsored by Fairwinds and Windsor Plywood.
