The sailing gods smiled on Whidbey Island Race Week.

Friday’s gusts in Saratoga Passage capped a week of mostly excellent racing conditions, providing a strong finish to what is considered the premier sailboat racing event in the Pacific Northwest.

“We’ve had a really good breeze everyday,” said Charley Rathkopf, the event’s primary race officer on the water who took over event ownership along with his wife Schelleen in 2014.

“A couple days we couldn’t start on time. We try to start at noon, but we’d have zero break at noon. But we kept the faith and Penn Cove delivered. We ended up with 17 knots by the end of the afternoon.”

The 33rd annual Race Week featured 69 sailboats comprising nine fleets in big boat racing that began Monday in both Saratoga Passage and Penn Cove and wrapped up Friday in Saratoga Passage.

Rathkopf was starting the 11th race of the series Friday afternoon, figuring it would be the event’s final one for 2015.

“It used to be even if we had seven we would be really happy,” he said.

Sailboat racing enthusiasts were able to enjoy an intimate view of the action from the Coupeville Wharf every day but Friday.

Rich Hays, a novice sailor from North Webster, Ind., who was in Coupeville for an annual family vacation, watched Tuesday from the wharf with his wife and children.

“This is great sailing,” Hays said. “It’s not often they can get in this close.”

“It’s very cool in Coupeville,” Charley Rathkopf said. “Coupeville is a great location to let people watch.”

The Oak Harbor Marina and Oak Harbor Yacht Club hosted the event, which also added a Kids Camp this year and a new youth sailing competition over the weekend.

About 40 smaller boats, including the youth sailors, participated in the weekend racing.

Vickie Chambers, hot dog vendor and owner of Coupe’s Last Stand near the Coupeville Wharf, said she looks forward to the event every year.

“We just can’t wait,” Chambers said. “Every year is so cool. This year is a little bit different. There’s such a fabulous wind that they’ve been busy racing.”

Charley Rathkopf called this one of the better years of racing conditions for Race Week. He’s been involved as a race officer or race committee volunteer every year since 1997.

Sailboat racers from throughout the Northwest, including British Columbia, converged on Whidbey for the week’s worth of competition and post-race entertainment.

The 69 boats this year were an increase of seven over 2014, the first year the Rathkopfs from Seattle took over the ownership and management of the event.

They purchased the event from Gary Stuntz of Clear Ahead Marine Production in Oak Harbor. He owned the event for seven years.

“We’ve had 110 and 115 boats,” Charley Rathkopf said. “We’re really looking forward to building that up.”

That would suit Val Hillers of Coupeville.

She visited the Coupeville waterfront for a pedicure Tuesday then took her time admiring dozens of colorful sails that dominated the seascape in Penn Cove.

“I don’t know anything about sailboats,” Hillers said. “But I love the look of them as they move over the water.”