91 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

This weekend. It’s incredible how low profile this event is now compared to 30 years ago.

[Mike K.]

It’s also not marketed.

[Victoria Watcher]

Well, it’s a free event to watch (the start) but yes certainly more fundraising could happen.

[Victoria Watcher]

It’ll work out. It always does.

[mbjj]

I went to school with the guy who's in charge (at least he was in charge last year). Nice guy. I think the paper did a feature on him last year. 

[Victoria Watcher]

As the Royal Victoria Yacht Club prepares to welcome competitors for the 81st running of the event, a recap of the 2025 edition is in order.

We hope competitors from last year will return to defend their victories, or claw their way back onto the leaderboard in 2026. We also look forward to welcoming back past competitors from prior years, and those new to Swiftsure.

Last years numbers (95 boats) were consistent with past trends; we hope to increase these numbers in 2026.

• Swiftsure Lightship Classic 7 boats
• Cape Flatter
• ORC 37 boats
• PHRF 11 boats (6 J-105s)
• Juan de Fuca Monohulls 18 boats
• Juan de Fuca Multihulls 4 boats
• Inshore Racing 7 boats
• Inshore Cruising 11 boats

The Cape Flattery ORC class continues to grow, and with 37 boats spread across four divisions, providing arguably the most competitive racing. The J 105 fleet may disagree.

 

https://www.swiftsure.org/

[Victoria Watcher]

CHEK News to broadcast, livestream 2026 Swiftsure Yacht Race on Saturday

 

https://cheknews.ca/...turday-1325794/

[Victoria Watcher]

Only 4 boats participated in the long (138 miles) Swiftsure race.

 

1 finished, 2 inbound, 1 dropped out.

 

Looks like they had 75 or 76 boats start.  17 or so dropped out or did not even start.

 

Almost all the Cape Flattery (101 miles) and JDF (75 m) boats are finished.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 May 2026 - 02:19 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Last years numbers (95 boats) were consistent with past trends; we hope to increase these numbers in 2026.

 

 

No, was around 80 or so.

 

 

Robot:

 

Historical Context

 

Participation has fluctuated significantly:

• Peaked at ~440 boats in 1981.
• Often 150–200+ in the 1990s–2010s (e.g., 206 in 2016).

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 May 2026 - 02:21 AM.

[Mike K.]

I was downtown on Friday night. You’d never have known it was Swiftsure weekend. I didn’t see any hype or marketing whatsoever.

[Victoria Watcher]

Who won?

[Victoria Watcher]

Who won?

 

Dan Sinclaire was past Swiftsure Bank when a water ballast pump suddenly stopped working in his sailboat, the Mach II.

 

“One side of the boat was in the water all the way up to the U.S. coast,” said Sinclaire, first-place finisher in this year’s Lightship Classic, the Swiftsure International Yacht Race’s 138.2-nautical-mile marquee race.

 

“Without water ballast, we had to really power down that sail, otherwise the boat tips over.”

 

Luckily, conditions this year were ideal for swift sailing, said Sinclaire, who has participated in about 20 Swiftsure races since the 1980s.

 

“The winds were smoking … the seas out there were monstrous,” he said. “I’m going to suggest 15-feet [waves] at one point.”

 

Sinclaire and his crew were ready to break records — at one point, they were two or three hours ahead.

 

But trouble struck when the Mach II’s spinnaker “totally blew up into little pieces” while going upwind, he said.

 

“All the guys — we had only 12 on board — 11 were dragging the sail back into the boat. We needed to save the halyard, and of course, the halyard was 50 feet out,” he said.

 

It was an arduous 45 minutes before they could put up another spinnaker, setting them back another half hour.

 

But the wind was on their side, and they pulled into the finish line around 1 a.m. Sunday, just an hour off the all-time record.

 

https://www.timescol...nishes-12326541

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All that trouble and they still won.

 

https://www.swiftsure.org/results/

 

Of course there was only 3 ships finished in that race. 4 entered, 1 dropped out.  The next two ships came in 11 hours and 20 hours later.

 

Seems like more than half the boats this year had black sails.  That must be the new thing.

 

Robot?

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 26 May 2026 - 01:19 AM.