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2007 Race ReportsRace 8 - Cowes - Deauville RaceReport from Arcsine, Class 3 Arcsine's crew was ready to leave Hamble in good time for the race but where waiting for Roco our mast man who had all the food. When he arrived we quickly got it stowed and decided not to tell Kathy (Skipper) that he'd managed to strap or tie everything to his bike for his trip down from London. We got a reasonable start from the Royal London line to windward of most boats and reached down the Solent continuously debating weather the asymmetric kite would set and even then would it be faster than the Genoa. We arrived at bridge in a good position and gybed for St Catherines. We had decided it was better to avoid the tide down the back of the island and position ourselves further to leeward and ahead of the fleet. Once we had gybed off after St Catherines we had dinner and were treated some some of Rocco's Italian fare. The meal was very filling and Phil (Pit/Nav) had to finish off 3 other crew member's portion before realising he couldn't then manage his own. The tactical plan appeared to work well and we were grinning form ear to ear when the wind swung to the North East in the early hours of Saturday morning. The winds were light and shifty and before long we were reaching under white sails. We were using AIS for the first time and found it very intuitive and immensely reassuring as we passed through the shipping lanes. As we passed through the West to East lane the fog filled in and we deployed the radar reflector. We just had the home straight left now but hadn't considered that the wind would fail us. We sat with no wind for 3 hours and eventually took all the sails down to avoid damaging them. When the wind filled back in again it was from the west. We set the big kite and powered down wind for the rest of the race towards the finish. On the way Sarah (Bow) notice some splits near the foot of the genoa. This damage probably caused by the slatting sails was repaired in sittue on the fore deck. Finally a tired crew brought Arcsine across the line only to find that the engine was not circulating cooling water. Pat (trimmer and general boat fixer) found that the impeller had broken and so changed it. Still there was no water coming out of the exhaust. Kathy decided that we were going to have to sail in as far as possible and only use the engine to reach a berth. After warning JOG 2 of our mad plan on the VHF and finding that we would be able to come alongside J Fever, we hoisted the no.4 and dropped the main and sailed in. A nice bit of seamanship from all the crew. We only used the engine from the harbour entrance and found the berth alongside J Fever. The trip back must get a mention. We decided to leave at 8am on Sunday to get as far across the channel as possible before the wind filled in. Most of the day was spent reaching in a south easterly or motoring when the wind died. At about 7 pm the wind started swinging to the north and increasing. We hoisted the no.4 and sailed close hauled with good speed until about 10 miles away from the forts. By this time the wind was blowing 35 knots and the no.4 was too much for the boat. Sarah and Phil went forward to drop this and set the storm jib. After half an hour of snags the storm jib was set and we set sail for the forts. We had to tack a few times and were averaging about 40-50 degrees off the wind although the tide was making this worse over the ground. We reached the forts at 2.00 am and Kathy handed the helm over to Phil. After 5 hours at the helm and facing into the gale, Kathy needed to warm up. Sarah having warmed up after getting soaked on the bow helped on deck while the others went down below for some shelter. When the wind was up around a force 9 Arcsine forged along at nearly 7 knots. Remember that this sail is no bigger than a laser radial sail. When the wind dropped in the lulls to less than 30 knots the boat would not hold course and the speed dropped to about 2 knots. Pat took over the helm at Hill head for the final approach to Hamble supported by Peter (Main trimmer) and Paula (Jib trimmer) who was on her first offshore race experience. Despite keeping a good lookout they all found it difficult to spot the smaller marks outside of the main shipping channels so Phil conned them in from the nice warm and dry nav table. Arcsine coped very well with the conditions and showed that she can sail well to windward under a small headsail. We have yet to try the trisail but were able to tick 'testing the storm jib' from our Fatsnet prep list. Report from Paddiywack, Class 4 The Island Youth Water Activities Centre exists to offer watersports opportunites to young people from the IOW.So, Mike Acton (Skipper) and Leanna Hill (1st mate) were pleased to welcome a full crew of youngsters aboard Paddiywack. Kieron (17), Kirsty (15), Heather (14), James (14) and Laurence (14). All but one had sailed Paddiywack before but most had not raced across channel or even sailed at night. It was a shame to see so few yachts on the class 4 start line, even more of a shame to note that they were all bigger than us. We decided to set the spinnaker off the line despite it being quite shy down to the Needles. It was tricky holding on to it at times and debatable as to whether it was better than using the genoa, but it made for some fun on deck and an extra challenge for the chef! It was good to get onto an even keel as we bore away at the bridge buoy in company with "Jackdaw" from class 3 and "Blustery Day". "Longue Pierre" was already stretching out a lead with the Sigma 38's "Dragonfly of Bosham" and "Monet" just behind her. A good force four from the NW meant a run towards Deauville at hull speed, not ideal when our hull is just under 32 feet long and all of the boats around us were 38. We set off on starboard opting for speed over the ground with the tide taking us SW. Just after midnight we decided to gybe as the tide turned, it looked like the other boats were carrying on so we thought our best chance of doing well would be to try something different. The wind started to drop a bit from about 2 in the morning and we made a mistake trying to sail too deep. The spinnaker collapsed and with messy waves we managed to wrap it around the forestay instantly. No amount of coaxing from the deck would free the knot, so up the mast went Leanna. For a time it looked as if she was going to be wrapped up with the spinnaker as well, but it was eventually freed sorted out and rehoisted.
At 10 in the morning we had a team conference. It was put to the crew that we could opt to retire and head for Cherbourg 35 miles downtide or continue towards Deauville (still 56 miles away). Unanimously, our young crew opted to continue the race and around that time the wind began to fill in. The spinnaker was rehoisted and with building breeze we were able to surf at ever increasing speeds. At 6.37pm (bst) we crossed the finish line, tidied up the sails and radioed in. We were really pleased to finish and there was a great sense of achievement among the crew, we were even more pleased to then discover that we were the only boat in class 4 to finish and were therefore the winners of class 4. Of course one of the reasons for the retirements must have been the impending weather. We had sailed over with the intention of departing first thing on Sunday to try to get back to Cowes before the weather system came through. It became apparent that the chances of getting all the way back were not good and the prospect of 35-40kts of headwind in the early hours of Monday persuaded us to remain in Deauville until the system had gone through. It was all part of the adventure though and we enjoyed the hospitality of the town and the Yacht Club. We particularly enjoyed the prize giving and the interest of all of the people that we met there. We had a glorious sail back with a tight reach all the way to Bembridge ledge followed by a motor down the Solent in the early hours of Wednesday. All of our crew had the time of their lives and are hooked, they will all be back for more cross-channel racing. Mike Acton, Skipper Paddiywack
The bank holiday traffic created its usual problems for the crew of OMG on Friday afternoon but with the help of trains and Taxis we managed to depart from the Royal Southern with an hour and a half to go before the start of class three. We had two new crewmembers on board from the Corinthian sailing club who were more used to sailing dinghy on the Thames than something the size of OMG but they soon learnt their way around although the Heads remained a mystery throughout the weekend. This being of the Lavac variety. We managed a reasonable start with J-Fever just behind and to windward of us and most of the other boats closer to the Island shore including Cougar. Arcsine was also close in behind us. The close reach down to bridge was exciting with positions changing rapidly as the erratic breeze gradually filled in from the northwest. We just managed to hold on to the two leading boats as we approached bridge buoy and annoyed the foredeck crew by changing our minds about which gybe we wanted to be on for the spinny gear after the mark. We finally settled on starboard tack and made our way out into the Channel with a 15kt NW breeze. Dinner was consumed in peace for a change. Jbellino and J-Fever were sailing slightly higher than us with their asymmetrics and we were trying to sail as deep as possible while following optimum wind angle instructions from our B&G electronics. Most of the fleet now appeared to be by the Island shore apart from a few boats including Cougar who were out with us. We continued on Starboard tack for some hours watching the two J boats fighting it out and eventually when we thought we had travelled far enough south gybed onto port tack. The sailing was lovely with a gentle breeze and the spinny pulling well. As the night wore on the wind faded gradually and we lost sight of all the competition. A few hours after sunrise we sighted a large fog bank ahead of us and after much discussion held our course towards Deauville. The return started at 0445 to try and get home before the wind backed to the north and blew a hooley. This we managed to do with the first part of the trip sailed in a southerly. This then backed slowly to the southeast and then continued over several hours to turn to the east. It increased in strength from about 12Kts off Deauville to 32Kts by the English coast. The only problem on the way back was the failure of the starboard spinnaker halliard with the storm spinnaker set but it was quite windy. Luckily the foredeck crew managed to get the spinnaker back in the boat before it became a sea anchor. Many thanks to Peter and his team for a fantastic race and a blast on the return. Report from J Fever, Class 3 This is a report of three parts…………too long but it was an unusually eventful weekend! 1. The race: A degree of gloom descended on the skipper mid-week when the forecast suggested yet another dead run for most of the race. Dead runs are not J Fever's (or is it her crews?) strong point of sailing by any yardstick, let alone IRC! Spirits lifted a little when closer examination of the forecast indicated that there could be some angles to exploit - the expected shift from NW to N-NE and the stronger winds to the west. Spirits fell again when the race officer, not unexpectedly, decided to set the west going course. Setting off from the English coast 20 miles further west was not going to be helpful! Nor was a crew member having to pull out at short notice due to "problems at mill" and another suffering from a virus infection which left him considerably below par. Nevertheless morale was good as we rounded Bridge and set course for Cherbourg, enjoying an excelled pasta dish which Barry had prepared. We soon lost the lights of most of the fleet except for J Bellino, which seemed to be heading for Alderney rather than Cherbourg. Still no sign of the expected shift as we cleared the up channel shipping lane, but to be fair to the forecast, time (0400) was not quite "up". We decided that it was definitely time to gybe. J Bellino had clearly come to the same decision and gybed as we prepared to do so. Almost as we gybed the wind changed and we had a good angle and speed for Deauville - for a while. The wind then fell very light, visibility deteriorated and we lost sight of J Bellino. For 2 -3 of hours the sails slatted with the wind down to 3 - 5 knots and we were conscious that we were still off Barfleur with the whole of the Seine Bay to cross and with the tide turning against us, the bowman mentioned the kedge……… thank goodness for Neaps! When it came back the wind was NW and soon backed to W, giving us another dead run to the finish! Consequently as we crossed the line a little way behind Jahmali we were surprised to see only J Bellino stooging around. 2. Entering Deauville: With a number of jobs to do and a restaurant booking the skipper rashly (but very slowly) led a group of boats into the harbour entrance at the scheduled lock opening time. As we approached, the depth shallowed very quickly from 1.5 m to 0.8 and despite going hard astern we grounded briefly. Our change of direction must have concerned J Bellino and other boats astern but fortunately we all managed to turn without any collisions. Just after we completed the turn the engine lost power and black smoke appeared from the exhaust. As we drifted towards the beach the crew extracted and set the kedge which fortunately held immediately. Sharp eyes on J Bellino had spotted the problem and radioed offering assistance. As J Fever was in shallow water we decided to sail off into deeper water before picking up the tow from J Bellino. All went well and we were very grateful for J Bellino's offer of help and skilled execution of the operation, bringing us alongside the berth, escorted by a Deauville YC rib that Peter Chartres had kindly organised. The skipper tried starting the engine later in the evening and it ran fine in neutral which was a relief. At 0730 in the morning he donned a very old and rather small wetsuit to inspect the prop, expecting to find it enveloped in green fish net which J Bellino had noted floating near the harbour entrance. To his amazement the prop was clear and on checking the drive forward and astern all seemed well. In retrospect some green net which the skipper had seen near the stern of J Fever as we lay to the kedge was probably the cause of the problem but had freed itself as we moved on the waves. 3. The Return: Throughout some 50 years sailing dinghies and keelboats the skipper has always made a point of attending the event prize giving and so it was with great regret that we set off at 0900 on Sunday having checked the weather forecast and discussed the options. Nevertheless we left the "skipperess" to represent us (which she apparently did in a very liquid fashion). With the wind forecast to go northerly we set course a little east of the Owers. As we closed the coast we heard an imminent gale warning for Wight and the wind went very light. Just after a line of cloud passed overhead the northerly arrived and within minutes the anemometer (which we don't entirely trust) was giving a true wind speed in the 30's. We had a fast reach along the coast under No 4 and 2 slabs in driving rain, lousy visibility and increasing wind strength. After entering the Solent the visibility improved but the wind continued to increase with frequent readings in the 40's and a couple in the low 50's. Thanks to all the clubs and people involved with the organisation. It will certainly be a memorable weekend! |
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Then the wind stopped and the fog came down. We had not quite got through the shipping lanes by this time which was slightly disconcerting, especially when a large ship did appear out of the fog not too far away. As it got light we caught sight of "Domaine" and a little while later we noted them give up on sailing and aim their yacht back towards England. An hour later we came across one of the Sigma 38's also heading back towards England.
Report from Old Mother Gun, Class 3
This, in retrospect, was a foolish thing to do and we should have tried harder to avoid it. There was a gentle breeze around the edges of the fog but inside the fogbank, nothing! We couldn't see a dicky-bird. We spent a couple of hours regretting this decision before the south westerly sprang up that we had been anticipating since three in the morning. As the wind built up we again experienced some wonderful sailing conditions with a flattish sea and a good breeze from the SW. This propelled us rapidly towards the finish line behind SX Girl and J-Fever.