Not often do I get to deliver the same boat twice. I delivered this boat after another Oregon Offshore 10 years ago. “Bums Rush” is a very fine example of a real NW classic. Built and owner finished Cascade Yachts yard was located in Portland Oregon where they have since proliferated from all over the world. Following the success of the other Portland based boat “Raindrop” and her claiming overall honors in the 2008 Pacific Cup this Cascade 36 was stripped down to be an offshore racing machine. She had just won the Oregon Offshore and my crew were heading to beautiful Victoria BC to bring her to Astoria where she could be sailed the rest of the way up the river by her owner.
My crew on this one were friends. Lane was coming from Portland and is someone I have known for about 15 years and the rest of the crew were a young couple looking to sail their Westsail 32 to Mexico in the coming fall. Skooter and Yuki were very excited to get out to sea and learn what they could for their upcoming passage south.
We grabbed some provisions and gave the head a cleaning..a crew of 6 or 8 will pretty much destroy a cheap Jabsco head in a 3 day race. It was the same on the J109 I brought back from the same race.
Provisioned up and a forecast showing settling seas we were glad to be able to have a civilized motor out the strait before the shot down the Washington Coast.
A fill up in Neah Bay and we were out.
It didn't take long for Yuki to begin to question her offshore sailing dreams as it seemed that she was going to be sick the whole trip. Scooter has an abundance of energy and was happy to take up the slack on the watch they shared. Lane, thoroughly medicated, seemed to be totally unfazed by the motion this being his first time offshore as well. Some dooolfins an the usual whale sightings later we were apouching the bar. I was at the help and a strange vibration started to come from the propshaft. I pulled out my Gopro and it had lost its charge and i didnt have the old school USB charger in my kit. Not a great place to be having to jump overboard to cut something free from the prop. I put it in natural then reverse a few times and the sound goes away.
Turns out it was a piece of plastic wrapper that fishermen use is huge quantities and that gets blown overboard regularly. The owner after running up the river notice a vibration and being the owner of a boat yard hauled the boat out. The feathering prop must have been effected just enough for an oscillating vibration to work the strut loose. Apparently the wood backing plate for the struts hardware had rotten through which was a big part of the damage.
NOTE: you need a gopro on a stick for these situations and it needs a card and a charging cord.