2007 Race Reports

Race 7 - The Hamble Estate Agency, Yarmouth-Cowes Race.

Report from Whistler, Class 5

Whilst sitting breakfasting in warm sunshine, with the papers spread before one is a lovely way to start the day, it highlighted that once again the wind gods were guilty of uneven product delivery!

On top of that The Stig wasn't having a good day - a poor start, disagreeing with the Skipper and sporting a hair-do that looked like an escapee from the cast of a 30's horror film - and we hadn't even reached the first mark!

We picked a few boats off before rounding it - although it was difficult to concentrate due to the live action commentary being relayed from another boat who seemed to have the PTT button on their VHF jammed open! We eventually spotted the culprit by matching the words to what we could see… I'm sure you know who you are!

The Stig redeemed himself with the call to go towards the mainland side where we made good progress until the wind died and we kedged for a while (or rather used the kedge to reduce our speed backwards) before retiring to allow the London based crew a decent chance of a few hours at home before the start of the working week.

Oh well, there's always next weekend!

Report from J-Fever, Class 3

It was a glorious day for relaxing in the sunshine on a boat, and that is exactly what we did. Approaching the start in an unhurried fashion J-Fever was very safely the correct side of the line, but not far from the rest of the fleet. Our passage to Hampstead Ledge proceeded just as planned, aiming for the maximum tide we arrived toward the front of the fleet, rounded the mark and announced our presence to the world with the largest and pinkest of our spinnakers. Set to the east by the tide we decided to stand across the Solent and gybe on the line for the next mark, which we did in a steady breeze and began to close it quickly.

Then we made our greatest mistake; some half of the distance from our gybe to the mark we began to discuss our rounding of it, providence was tempted and struck a vicious blow. The wind ceased. Our continued attempts from this point to make progress were hardly linear as may be seen from the screenshot of our track, and it was with regret that we heard over the radio some of our companions deciding that those lawns needed mowing, and that the promise by the race committee of the opportunity to do so might not have been reliable. Shortly afterwards a bit more breeze appeared with a larger southerly component and the change to white sails was brought about. So it was that we rounded eventually just aft of Tearaway Too who had worked the mainland shore, something we did not follow their example in since by the time its advantage became apparent (with the untimely loss of the wind being more definite) the process of crossing would have guaranteed our place behind them. Crew who had been arranged to enhance the colour of their skin were forced to their feet and the spinnaker rose again amongst some consternation from the command team about the gybe on which it was set, the bowman/navigator remains sure that they had agreed this decision in advance...

In any case it paid off and cross-gybing with Tearaway Too put us back ahead, a position which we held as we zig-zagged down the main channel to stay in the tide. The leg between NE Gurnard and E Bramble provided a fine opportunity for more lunch to take to the deck and more relaxation in the sunshine to take place; a peaceful interlude which ended with a short gybe for the mark. A simple and short beat took us to the finishing line, via the avoidance of Snowden, and we completed what had been a most enjoyable weekend's sailing. Many thanks as always to JOG for the organisation of the weekend including an excellent meal on Saturday night which was enjoyed, to excess in some cases, by all the crew.

Report from Moondog, Class 5

A very taxing race in terms of concentration and tactics. We missed the Saturday race due to air consistently getting into the fuel system having just fitted a new pick up pipe that was bent to pick up from the middle of the tank. We concentrated too long on the joints we had remade however eventually we checked joints that we hadn't touched and to our great delight the engine then ran without a missed beat. Sorry to have left you all to battle the strong winds on Saturday!!!

For Sunday's race we left Cowes about 06:30 and arrived at the start just as the first boats were coming out of the harbour. As there was no tidal difference along the line we plumped for the favoured pin end. Good start just on the leeward hip on Blazer, nice to see both Laser 28s first to cross the line (we think, Alchemist may have been
In the front rank as well). We immediately tacked out towards the middle of the Solent to gain clear air. Soon after Blazer tacked with us and we realised Blazer was pointing miles higher but we were sailing slightly faster but not enough to hold what we were losing on pointing. OK until three quarters up the beat when Blazer who was well clear ahead tacked onto our wind and still gave us dirty air. Instead of doing a clearing tack immediately we persevered in her lee and lost significantly as the rest of fleet closed quickly. Kites up for all after rounding Hampstead ledge but with a failing wind and strong tide (we had managed to get to 0.3 mile from Solent Bank) we decided to head for the mainland shore before all forward motion disappeared. This looked awful to start with however and we ended up over a mile from the mark however once in close to the shore we started to work our way slowly to the West and watched the fleet in the middle of the Solent drop back fairly rapidly. Eventually the wind started to swing to the South and with the telltale ripples on the surface of the water the sea breeze started to fill in between 12:00 and 12:30. White sails out to Solent bank with a few class 3 and 4 boats and got round the mark as first in class.

Spinnaker run from there to NE Gurnard then East Bramble. Towards the end of the run our speed started dropping and a Sigma 33 seemed to be closing fast. We rounded East Bramble then set off on a lovely tide induced wind beat to the finish with speed over the ground around 7 knots. Fortunately the Sigma 33, Shadowfax, didn't close anymore and we managed to get line honours in Class 5 and first on handicap.

Lessons learned: we really will have to get this boat pointing higher and the classic cloud formation along the shoreline of small puffy clouds in the morning really does mean a sea breeze will establish itself albeit not very strongly on Sunday.

We obviously enjoyed the race as we won but there were many moments of 'is this the right thing to do' and keep loose don't choke when in the lead.

Many thanks to the race officers for hanging around for our late finish.

Report from Tearaway Too, Class 3

Morning arrived an hour (at least) too early. We prised ourselves out of warm beds, put the heating on and had a bacon roll, 2 coffees and readied for the start. Lighter airs so no dramas today!

Pity the main would't go up and a hoist up the mast 15 minutes pre-start to saw off the head of an errant bolt coming out of the mast track saw the skipper distracted and a little line shy (500 yards at least). Still the back of the fleet is a stunning site!

What a lottery! Turning round Hampstead saw us go from the back to the front and the fleet split in two, some north and some south. We headed for the mainland side to have a little more space and in the hope of a little more wind. Big hit to get over there but we kept moving forward and managed to stem the tide and make some progress. A shy kite reach is probably the best point of sail for assym boats so we could't complain but how frustrating to inch along doing your best to avoid ferry gliding into anchored fishing boats, lobster pots, racing marks, cruising boats etc.

Mental note, buy an up to date chart. Solent Bank ain't on ours so we were pleased to have the coordinates but still doubted the navigator!

We had a couple of goes getting out there in a massive tide. Gliding across didn't work with the kite so we white sailed it. First attempt looked really good with 4 knots of true wind but it went light again and we tacked back. Navigator said " told you so". Tried again as the wind was shifting and lifting us and almost made it. Tacked, tacked back, waited for a Sigma to tack but got bored and tacked anyway, dipping a stern but still with enough tide gauge to avoid denting the boat and, finally, away down tide!

Typically, the wind filled in a bit with up to 12 knots as we headed back east but by now the tide was turning foul! Typical! So progress was still painful but at least we had good boat speed. J Fever pulled steadily ahead with what appears to us to be a positively glorious kite and Swallow just kept getting bigger. We were very sorry to roll No Doubt but had little choice. We couldn't run any deeper and maintain speed and were doing our best to hang on to J Fever but we went low again as soon as we could. Justice soon prevailed as the wind went aft and we had to jibe across their stern to lay the mark and that left us behind Swallow , No Doubt and J Fever. Oh dear! Our best racing sails also left us going 5 degrees lower as we hardened up for the finish! Never mind. Sun shining, 10 knots of breeze, great big tide under us, lunch served and cold drinks all round.

Writing this, we don't know quite how we did on handicap but we definitely enjoyed ourselves! Thanks to all the Team for both races and giving up your weekend for us. See you in Deauville, all being well with fixing the mast track, new deck leaks we discovered on Saturday and an ever growing job list of things to fix!