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2008 Race ReportsRace 2 - Cherbourg to CowesReport from Longue Pierre, Class 4 Just to prove how little faith some of the crew have in our sailing
abilities, one of them jumped ship 10 minutes before we left the
marina. His excuse was that he thought we would not be back in
time for him to make an appointment in London on Monday afternoon,
but we think he just wanted to sleep off his hangover on the ferry! Although the start had the expected light airs, we were pleased
to find that once out in the Channel the winds were generally
much better than most forecasts had suggested, and we even needed
the heavy No.1 later in the day. We decided we wanted to be east
of the course which is where Zest was pushing but more of that
later. We maintained the usual Longue Pierre culinary standard
by taking afternoon tea with an excellent tarte de pomme (just
to wean Deb & Will off the flapjack). The last couple of miles were really nail-biting, with tricky
decisions about how far to go inshore to avoid the strong tides
while running the risk of losing the wind. Off Norris even 100yds
further out made all the difference between being stationary and
making 3 Kts over the ground. Approaching the finish we had a
series of gybes, very tricky in light airs when everyone was tired.
It was quite encouraging to finish with no other boat in sight
in front of us, which meant either that we had done very well,
or someone else had chosen a better course across the Channel
and were miles in front. Only after we finished did we confirm
which one by telephone! Word of caution to others, we are currently trying to find out
why our navigation software caused us problems, although we went
back to paper we had left the computer running. Somehow the plot
recorded for our track from about 10 miles south of St Catherine's
is about 6 miles ENE of our actual course. At the time Peter finished
us the computer put us on the RORC line at Gillkicker. We would
be interested to know if anyone else has seen this type of error
which could have been very serious. Our results mean we have a rather biased and rosy view of the
weekend, but in spite of the usual stresses caused by light airs,
the sailing was really interesting. It was also great to get to
France at last for some great food. Thank you JOG. Report from Oz Privateer, Class 3 The return race started in very very light airs and could have
ended up as a bit of a mess had skippers and crews acted in anything
other than a civilised manner. (Well done and very much in the
spirit of JOG). Essex Girl was the first boat to sprout wings and accelerate
off in the light airs causing a great deal of envy amongst the
crew who coverted the rather nice sailing she sported. The crew settled into a good routine whilst the wind held, however,
this did not last for ever and as we approached the IoW the wind
went all over the place resulting in lots of floppy spinnaker
in the channel slop. Eventually the wind returned enough for us
to make head way into the Solent where we discovered that we were
with J Feaver, Just So, Essex Girl and Arcsine who went past us
whilst we had a senior moment (or was it a blond moment? - no
it was senior!!).
Thanks to all the race officers our sponsor and every one who took part in the weekend's racing. Report from Tearaway too, class 3 After the very fine reception in the yacht club, not enough sleep on Friday and a run ashore for the evening, the midday start still came round early enough for the whole crew and we were grateful that it was not the usual 8.00 am rush. Forecasts examined and much discussion between boats we hoped for a fair breeze from the south east. That would be a running start with an easy sail home but with the prospect of some lightening and northerly changes as we neared the other side of the Channel. The dolphin visit pre start lightened the mood! We ghosted round the start line in fear of imminent attack by the French Navy but managed to avoid getting any more reminders from the Port Control. We managed to find a line of breeze to get us going reasonably nicely and, for a brief spell, at the front of our class until Floating Voater found her pace and took off, higher and faster. With early winds just east of north east we binned the forecast! The return was a test of patience and stamina. We had winds from north, north east, south east and, probably, everywhere else, changing in direction and speed in a most unusual frequency. Maximum gust 26 knots and patches of calm with a base wind of about 8-10 knots kept up our attention and even freed enough for short periods of using the spinnaker. Our eventual landfall was not Bembridge ledge but the Nab. I know what you are thinking, wrong race, but we went there for the least adverse tide and a fair tide for an hour back towards the Forts, This paid off as we were pretty much right in the front of most of our class and rounded No Man's Land Fort before heading in a little to get out of the tide which was by now running foul. Sadly there were, at that point, no boats sat in wind holes to give us the clue that inshore, out of the tide, was not the place to be and we watched in excrutiating agony as boats caught us, passed us and took off from just a few hundred yards away out in the tide were they shouldn't have been! We were caught helplessly and felt like crying! All that hard work and we lost an hour or more to boats that were behind us! We even rotated in the tide and pointed the wrong way for a time before eventually making it out far enough to get into the, now obvious, breeze line. The crew just managed to stop the skipper from sacrificing himself to the wind gods and persisted to the finish, in breeze, strong adverse tide, kite up and down the pan! Even packing up the boat was miserable with drizzly rain and
grey skies. Everything wet and we couldn't even fold the sails
on the dock. Still, there is always the next race! Report from Rapscallion, Class 5.
After having recovered from the previous night’s acquaintance with draught Leffe Brune and half a bottle of Pussers’ Rum (shared by the whole crew I should hasten to add), there was a strong sense of déjà vu with respect to the wind. Except that this time the forecast had the wind from varying directions and not much of it to come later. Still, we got away without problem and out into the Channel proper. In no time at all the wind died and we started drifting to the west – the worst possible scenario. It was hard work to get the boat moving and the VMG was, well, shoddy. The plan, and I use the word advisedly, was to get north as much as possible and give us a fighting chance once the east going tide kicked in. It never works out just quite how you want it to, and it was a long hard slog towards “Ocean Safety”, and we tacked to port just after midnight. Two and a half hours later, and 8 miles SE of St Cats, we tacked to stbd to keep us going NE with a good angle later to tack towards Nab Tower. Passing Nab at 07:00 and No Mans Land fort at 08:00 we expected to be finishing at @ 10:00. Until, that is, when we got to Old Castle Point at 09:50 and the wind completely ‘naffed off’. We weren’t the only ones, with Equilibrium (again!) and Jaquann in the vicinity. It was at this stage that the ‘Romford Navy’ came out to play, with their wash killing stone dead any attempts to get moving. I made a mental note to include some form of Rocket Propelled Grenade launcher for our next trip, but I’m a tad concerned about the weight penalty!!. It was immensely frustrating to see the line but not able to get over it. Finally we crossed 1hr 20 minutes after reaching Old Castle point. We got 7th place again, which is at least consistent, but we re-learnt a valuable lesson; that ‘Tide is King’.
Many thanks to Peter and the race team for all their hard work and look forward to the Cowes-Yarmouth race where we’ll try to remember to bring our JOG flag along.
Report from Persephone of London, Class 4 The race back promised to be a concentration tester! With light winds expected the whole way back I was sceptical it would be a good one for any of the Sigma 38's. The start was another with a strong port bias and all well behaved. Persephone and Longue Pierre were on the right with Monet going very well to the left of the course as we escaped the outer harbour and headed home. There was a very strong westbound tide outside the harbour and the class 5 boats who started half an hour earlier were slipping way off to the lee. We entered a drag race with Longue Pierre. Monet started lower but soon joined us, LP and the other Sigmas heading higher, stemming the tide to a degree. For us it was a case of increasing the apparent wind speed and
keeping pace with Longue Pierre rather than any inspired navigational
idea. The wind worried us though. Every now and then complete
holes appeared and we simply stopped. As the afternoon wore on,
greater consistency developed and the wind increased so we were
able to power the boat up and in the late afternoon we caught
Longue Pierre and passed her. Within an hour or so the wind went
hard left and we hoisted the spinnaker in very light airs and
lots of lumpy chop so it was next to impossible to keep it filled.
Our course had been 030 to 040 but now we had a problem. To keep the sails pulling we needed to steer 050 and with the tide now flooding we were to make almost no vmg. Then the wind went further round and we split gybes with Longue Pierre and headed back on 025, on port quite fast for a time. Darkness fell and we saw no other yachts at all. The wind continued to clock round to the west and it was back to white sails, as we came in to Bembridge Ledge, just in time for the adverse tide to really get going. With 3 knots of wind and 2.5 knots of tide against we had no option but to kedge for about an hour. Gradually we began to see other yachts lights appearing and if they could sail, we could sail. The first to reach us was a class 3 Mynx, but in amongst early lights were our friends Longue Pierre because as the dawn broke, there they were just to the lee of us as we crept past Ryde Sands. As we fought against the fierce flood tide up the Solent, they had slightly stronger wind and were able to take the advantage to finish more than an hour ahead as we crept past the scenery at an agonising 2 knots over the ground, sometimes slipping backwards! Finishing seconds ahead of Breakout in class 4 and Imperator of class 3, we felt we had worked hard for 2nd in class on the return leg. Marta was second Sigma 38 followed by Monet and Dragonfly. Report from Electron, Class 5 What a sensible time to start a race! Eleven in the morning. Fantastic, why can't it always be like that and various other comments - all very very positive came not only from Skip but others too. The start was again a very light airs affair. As Skip stooged Electron near the start team in "his favourite spot" Electron was hailed by Aquila: "Oi Electron, you're in my spot" said George. Skip replied: "It's my spot, I got here first" To which George grinned and said: "But I always start there" "I'll fight you for it" said Skip and grinned too. George grinned back and as it transpired, there was plenty of room for both boats to drift over the start! Electrons start was slow and boats at the other end of the line managed to find more breeze. By the outer harbour the positions had reversed and Electron romped out into the channel. The race back was long and hard. The breeze was quite variable and competing in a second overnight race so soon after the race out was exhausting. Skip was also feeling very sorry for himself because he had man flu! (poor Vickie had to put up with his whining all the way across). Still, he and Vickie persevered and found themselves entering the Solent in good company with Xarifa and Imperator. Off Ryde Teresa decided she had had enough of being in Electron's dirty air and the there proceeded to be a luffing match between the two boats after 18 hours of racing. Xarifa got the better of the dual and slowly pulled away. "Norris - I bloody hate Norris" muttered Skip as he and Vickie struggled to keep the boat moving in light fluky airs and strong foul tide. Still, the boat slowly continued forward and with a third of a mile to go to Snowden all was looking good. Then a sheep (or ship to the uninformed) charged around the corner. It's bow wave knocked Electron for six and by the time all was sorted and forward momentum regained Skip was saying: "Not bloody Norris again!" All that hard won ground had been lost and Electron was "out of the race" Now, neither Skip nor Vickie is the type to give in so they continued to battle. Past Snowden at last - hurrah! And then onto the finish - Which was a somewhat slow but graceful affair. Thank you to the race team for all their efforts. Rescheduling the race was the right thing to do and everyone had a great weekend. Authors note: Skip would like to also thank Vickie for her efforts
over the weekend. He would also like to apologise for the extremely
flat batteries on the return trip which meant the boats auto pilot
was unserviceable - it was a long dark night and he promises to
get it fixed for the next offshore!!
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The
race up the Solent was nip and tuck with the boats going in out
of the tide loosing the wind allowing us to get past them only
to find ourselves becalmed off Norris Castle. Our last ditch attempt
to gain ground on the boats that past us resulted in a gentle
grounding off the Royal Yacht Squadron resulting in 15 minutes
of backing the sails to reverse Oz back into deeper water. Once
we were free we were able to take the back eddy up to the finish
where we heard a welcome hoot from Peter and the finish team who
had been waiting since the early hours for our arrival.