Bremerton Heavy Weather Feb. 14. 2026
The weather during the week leading up to this last contest was just ugly. By Wednesday, I was considering skipping the event all together. But Carolie kept insisting that I should go. Sure, she could insist, she wasn’t going. But what a weekend it turned out to be. Just the way I like it. No wind, no rain and Tewasi was on top of her game.
We moored at the Tacoma Seaport dock on the Foss Waterway and were driven to the Totem YC for a welcoming dinner.
Saturday, the contest started at the Tacoma waterfront grain elevators. After a one-mile trek to the West our course took us to Browns Point, then Tahlequah Ferry Dock on Vashon Is, back to Pt. Defiance, turned North and headed back to Spring Beach on Vashon, over to Pt. Richmond and down to Gig Harbor. Although we didn’t have wind, we sure had current. The water was ebbing
at the North end of the Narrows at 5 knots. This current ran straight into the lazy currents of the Colvos Pass. I swear I saw a 6-foot-deep whirlpool along Sea Cliff. My seconds of error was so large my 40-year-old handheld calculator could not do the math. In the end it all ended well.
Saturday night Gig Harbor YC hosted the awards dinner. Due to cost constraints, IPBA no longer hands out award plaques. Instead, bottles of wine are used for the awards. Because this weekend was a two-fer contest, there was wine lined up on the awards table from one end to the other. I think this was thought necessary due to the contestants’ results. But just remember, everything that starts well normally ends well, and so it did.
Jim and Linda Anderson scored well in both the Totem YC contest and the Gig Harbor race. Jims M/V Fidalgo is in the slooow boat class and finished first place for their class in both contests. (I won’t print their score as it would probably embarrass them.) On the other hand, I won’t print my seconds of error either, but the outcome should impress some skippers. Don and my son Chris navigating in our M/V Tewasi finished 2nd Over-All in the Totem YC / Jack Hyde contest and we finished 3rd Over-All in the Gig Harbor YC rally. What fun.
There were 14 vessel contestants with 13 finishing, and one left behind on the Puyallup River sand bar in Tacoma.
The next contest will be held in deep water starting at Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island on May 16th. Want to have some fun? Join us in a little competition around Blake Island and have dinner at the Queen City YC Out Station afterwards. Call either Jim Anderson or myself and we will show you the ropes.
Don Larson, 360-340-8478 or captdonlarson@gmail.com
Jim Anderson, 253-312-2967 or jidalgo47@gmail.com
International Power Boat Association
Don Larson, Power Boat Regatta Chairman 360.340.8478
Jim Anderson, IPBA Regatta Race Chairman 253.312.2967