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2007 Race ReportsRace 16 - Cowes To Cherbourg RaceReport from Longue Pierre, Class 4, Return from the Dark side :-) Well, we wondered if we would be accepted back into the fold after having spent so much time racing with the club that allows advertising. We had even had a practice run for our return to JOG having done the other club's Cherbourg race two weeks earlier. The crew of Longue Pierre needed two Cherbourg races to end the season, having not made landfall in France since the JOG St Vaast race. Dinner was had motoring down Southampton water, this was pork in ginger, which was made for the Fastnet but not eaten due to our early return home. Now to the race, it was good to see many of our rivals on the startline. We went for the inshore start along with Paddiywack and just cleared the fleet. We started on No3 and quickly changed up only to find the wind built rapidly and required us to change back again. Breakout and Only Just showed their windward ability and led at Bridge buoy. We had a good tussle with Zest all the way to Bridge buoy rounding just ahead of her. It was clearly now time for our secret weapon. Dianne has spent the season developing the recipe for Longue Pierre flapjack. There were mutterings from the crew when one of the owners commented we should ban it, as it was too messy. Many helpful comments have allowed the perfect recipe; this is almond and cherry flapjack. Anyway, back to the crossing, we went for a track close to the rhumb line. We had planned to put a bit more east to allow for the predicted dying wind but wanted to not get too far away from our rivals. We had a fantastic sail changing up to the large headsail then about 15 miles from Cherbourg the wind died rapidly and seemed to be swinging to the North. This was just long enough for us to get the kite rigged when a shift to the South gave us a true beat to Cherbourg. Our final track is shown on the plot. About 3 miles from the finish we spotted Andy's J just ahead and Zest coming in from the west. We all made very slow progress to the line with Only Just first across the line followed by Zest. That lifted spirits on board as we then realised this gave us the point's series, Thanks Andy. Anyway, thanks again to JOG for another fantastic season and thanks for the comments on our season at the JOG party. We followed the party with lunch and dinner in Cherbourg, a bit of sleep then a perfect sail home, kite from just north of Cherbourg to the top of Southampton Water. See you all at the dinner. Report from Arcsine, Class 3 We had been looking forward to the final offshore of the season and were secretly hoping that we could finish it in a good position. By the time Kathy had raced back from the Boat Show where she had been trying to sell yachts we dreamed of, the 460, to unsuspecting members of the public, the rest of the crew had got everything ready. We were so organized that we reached the start before the first start and had much too much time to decide on which headsail to use. We finally decided to go for the number three and approach the line on the traditional starboard tack. After our best start of the season we tacked on to the lifted port tack and sped away with the faster Class 3 boats. We kept up with the faster boats and were still in touch by Hurst. It was strange sailing out towards Bridge buoy in the dark and we realized it was the first time this had occurred during the season. Knowing that it should be a short race and we wanted to be competitive, the hot dinner was cancelled because the galley was on the wrong side of the boat. We were, however, able to eat the sandwiches, avoiding a mutiny from certain members of the crew. We sped along on a close reach and were soon in the first shipping lane. We changed mainsheet trimmer a few times so that fresh arms could wrestle with the sheet as they continually trimmed. As the night wore on one member of the crew was heard to mutter something about 'going off watch'. This weakness of character was quickly stamped out and it was made clear that all the crew would be required to be on the rail for the duration. In order to reinforce the no-sleep policy, the helm helpfully arranged for the crew to be regularly soaked with cold seawater. This worked until the early hours when the helm realized that not only was he dozing off, but that the entire crew were suspiciously silent, except for a gentle rhythmic snoring from one or two of them.
Still no gas so breakfast was beer and crisps, quick snooze before we all staggered over to the Cherbourg yacht club party, another great gathering and time to catch up on those 'stories'. The sail back on Sunday was an absolute delight as we welcomed on board our latest recruit to the team, George. He proved rather silent but improved invaluable as we relaxed on the return journey and he helmed faultlessly through the building seas. Many thanks to all the JOG shore crew, see you at the dinner. Report from Magna Carter, Class 5 As is often the case, the race to get to the start line on time proved to be the most exciting and challenging part of the entire race for Magna Carter. We'd had work done to our engine and it took a little longer crawling around in the stern of our boat (only accessible through a tiny locker in the cockpit) to open everything up again. We left ourselves just 2 hours to get over to the start from Gosport and as our engine is truly "auxillary" this was no mean feat. We like to think our start was rather stylish in the circumstances. We passed through the gate, switched our engine off turned towards the start line and then heard a gun. Was it the 5 minute gun or our start? (Our US ebay purchased VHFand handheld don't get the JOG race channel so it wasn't that clear.) We held back for a couple of minutes more and then crossed the line. At least we managed to cross it in the right direction. Rule no 1: Rule no 2: Rule no 3: Rule no 4: Rule no 5: Rule no 6: Rule no 7: Rule no 8: Our thanks to Peter, Sandie and the start team for a super last race of the season. Cherbourg looks so much better in the sunshine. I am also pleased to report that the wine travelled well - 12 hours on the donkey was worth it. Only 25 weeks to the next race! Ex-Bounty Hunter and Asymmetric virgin's report from J-Fever, Class 3 After the St Peter Port cruise on Bouzouki, I decided to forgo her luxuries ( DVD player, real log fire, hot and cold running servants ) and try to seek out the asymmetric JOG racing experience on J-Fever.
Initially, the boat seemed very similar to dear old Bounty Hunter, but the differences slowly became apparent, with no spinnaker pole on the foredeck to trip over, and mysterious ropes disappearing into the cabin and over the bow. I decided that to try and understand their function was going to be a lot easier under sail, so ignored them and settled down to making up the night watch sardine sandwiches as we motored down the Hamble. As we arrived off Cowes, another difference from Bounty Hunter became immediately obvious. We were so early, that we saw the Class 5 boats going through their start sequence, instead of seeing the Class 3's going through theirs, and hoping we would get there in time to join in. The weather at the start was grim, with dark clouds suggesting rain, reminding us how early night falls at this time of year, and a westerly wind with enough strength to force us down to a #3 genoa ( a good thing, as last time I had tacked an overlapping genoa in a JOG race, it was on Olivia Anne IV ). Our start was OK, and we set off westwards down the Solent, long port tacks and short starboard ones, running with the tide. Myself and Young Ian took turns in grinding the genny, rather more often than we would like, but slaves to Martin, calling the tacks from behind his not-quite-lightproof-curtained nav table, which vaguely resembles a railway station photo-booth. Finally, with two last tacks, and a slight overstand, we arrived at Bridge buoy and set off for Cherbourg with sheets just cracked. At this point, while a lamb stew was bubbling on the stove, I went below to mix the Pimms, so thoughtfully provided by Frances to stop me feeling homesick. A slight variation of ginger beer instead of the lemonade was tried by most of the crew, and judged a success. I'm sorry that I forgot the mint, but it was a bit bouncy down there! Food arrived shortly after, followed by a rather strenuous change from #3 to #2, during which the foredeck acquired a slight injury, and a not-so slight bout of seasickness. According to the wind instruments, it then gusted up to 33 knots, but as we were not really overpowered with full main and #2, we assumed that it was the electronics that were at fault, and carried on regardless. The clouds rolled back to reveal the moon just setting to the west, an impressive array of stars, and the wind gradually easing, causing another sail change up to the #1. At 0300, our watch was relieved and went below and, with only about 16 miles to go, the wind started to fade. Shortly after I had dropped off to sleep, I was awoken by the sounds of a spinnaker being launched, and was torn between going up to help and be initiated into the mysteries of asymmetric kites, or going back to sleep. I chose the latter and the next disturbance was the thing coming back down again, followed shortly afterwards by some tacking. I later emerged, blinking, into the daylight to see JBellino just approaching the finishing line and Cougar and Arcsine close to us. A few gentle tacks later, we managed to sneak in and finish ahead of the latter two, on elapsed time at least, and headed into the marina. A sun kissed breakfast of coffee, croissants and a very fine omelette in the little cafe rounded off the morning nicely and from there we watched Rodney's country cottage making it's way sedately into port several hours behind us, with their crew emerging looking neat and rested, as if they had just spent the night in a 5 star hotel, which I suppose they had, really. Thank you to the JOG team for putting on a great series, as usual, and I hope we will all return again in 2008. Report from Whistler, Class 5 With the Skipper the only Englishman on board Whistler, it was something of a relief that our rugby team weren't playing until Saturday afternoon. Once again numbers were sub-optimal as a result of the Stig's continuing indisposition (surely they could have unlocked the handcuffs by now) and Tim's participation in a Coastguard training exercise - but with the return of Vee and Sal defying medical orders, we were in business… The start was interesting, with Xara and ourselves coming in from the pin end, aiming to block out Imperator, who seemed to be trying to duck the line from a long way above it - we strangely lost sight of them after that and it was only when we arrived in Cherbourg we learned that they had set off in the wrong direction! We tacked off down the Solent, with Xara creeping ahead and Electron hanging on behind, in murky conditions which deteriorated as darkness fell and the wind built through Hurst. Having shaken out our reef, in our efforts to locate then round Bridge we ended up cutting it fine over the Shingles, where we were pleased to crack off and set course toward Cherbourg. It started off rather roly, worse still when below decks where head, stomach and boat all seemed to be going up and down out of sync, but we soon settled down in nice reaching conditions, with the occasional wave perfectly timed to catch Slippery as she tried to light up! Once again the Grey Panther demonstrated the strength of his stomach, with a display which exceeded the memorable scene outside the bar in "Team America: World Police" (for those who know what I mean). Distracted, we were late to change from the No:3 to No:2 and, after having a few problems with the hoist, were almost taken roughly from behind by Electron, who had not anticipated our rapid deceleration! Knowing that we couldn't let them get too far away and potentially leapfrog us in the overall points table, the Skipper concentrated on helming in the dying breeze, dropping low to pass our rivals, but with the wind continuing to drop they came back at us, and as dawn broke were upwind and closer to the finish. As we closed the line and the wind built again we clawed back some of the deficit but were unable to pass and the two of us finished well behind Xara who had obviously enjoyed the conditions! The run ashore was not long (for some of us at least!) and it was soon time to motor home across a flat sea under a starry sky…ahhh… The end of a memorable season - thanks as ever to the JOG team for some great racing and après-racing in 2007! |
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To keep the crew amused (and to wake them up) we changed from the number three to number two genoa, and then to the number one. Saturday dawned and the crew suddenly felt hungry again. No excuse could be found to delay this time so Rocco started preparing dinner (or was it breakfast now). Argh! The gas appeared to have run out. All efforts to overcome the problem failed and more sandwiches were made. 
Our crew this weekend consisted of Tim, Frances, Adrian, Young Ian and Not-Quite-So-Young-Ian, myself, Phil, another Prima refugee from the temporarily wingless Oz Privateer and Martin ( does every boat have a Martin, who forever feeds the crew with hot drinks and always does the washing up ??? ) 
