St Peter Port

Moojo (we think) was slightly ahead and Andy announced that he wanted to finish no further behind & preferably in front of them. We took him at his word this time as it turns out.

Approaching Yarmouth, we passed With Alacrity who had kindly parked themselves on a ledge briefly to warn the rest of us to avoid it (such JOG chivalry), and then had to do a very swift headsail change as it became clear that we weren’t going to clear the pier.  So with Fiona prostrate on top of the sail on the foredeck looking out for lobster pots and un-used moorings, we slalomed ski Sunday style between the moored yachts in a series of short tacks that kept everyone in the cockpit busy and warm for a while. Then back up went the code zero as we headed for Bridge buoy.

Around Bridge and time for another headsail change, it was a busy race for the bow pixie. The masthead kite went up and Emma & Fiona decided that now was a good time for a rest. Well, the theory was a good one at any rate. An hour or so later, we re-appeared, having done a spinnaker drop and pack from our bunks and rested, if not slept, as best you can with a winch grinding over your head. Pandie and Andy headed below, leaving Chris on the helm, Emma on main and Fiona on kicker, until we reached the Casquets.  Which wasn’t very long as we were flying along, whooping as the boat speed climbed, peaking at 19.9knots just as Pandie got up and helped the boat dynamics by parking herself on the transom. Team effort! We saw a few big ships that looked hesitant as something small, going very fast, hurtled towards them but luckily missed them all without having to come too far off course, albeit that did mean we got a very good look at the stern of one from not very far away.

With the Casquets rapidly approaching and Chris still valiantly holding on to the helm with an enormous grin on his face, we dropped the kite and went back to white sails whilst we dealt with the lumps and bumps of the over falls and waves around the Casquets. Fiona provided added entertainment from the bouncing foredeck getting wet re-running spinnaker sheets and re-rigging the kite ready for hoisting again for the approach to the finish. With sunrise we noted a few boats behind us, and then...something in front!  It turned out to be JFever, which amused us as we’d said early on it was going to be a good J race (at long last) and that JFever should do well.  Andy got up, Emma and Pandie headed down below and grabbed about 30 minutes rest before we had to get them up (or move them, getting up was the easier option!) to drop the kite and hoist the code zero again.  So with the finish in sight and us gaining on JFever, what happened??  Someone decided to park a dirty great big cruise ship in our way as a temporary obstacle.  That wasn’t in the sailing instructions. We had to dodge the pilot boat and best guess where they were going to moor her whilst holding our nerve and avoiding some of the rocks on the approach to St Peter Port.  It was probably more of a problem for those behind us as we just managed to pass her as the anchor dropped. Then the final dash for the line & time for a well deserved glass of fizz or two (entirely respectable given breakfast had been taken some hours earlier). What a race!  We were one exhilarated but very tired crew.

Post Script: The return leg....

Given the forecast of a lary westerly going northerly we opted to leave ASAP after the prizegiving to make the most of the good going, even if it meant fighting the tide.  This turned out to be a particularly good call as we (much) later discovered we have a faulty fuel gauge and the 7/8 of a tank we thought we had gurgled, spluttered and ran out rather quickly once the northerly kicked in, and we turned the engine on to help us with our pointing. Oh dear. So no respite for the soggy crew on the rail, we needed the weight up. Archie the autohelm got a little overwhelmed by the 4m swells, so Chris did another valiant stint on the helm almost all the way to Bridge  (another 15.5 knot boat speed grin on his face!), with a brief respite when he was finally co-erced into giving it to Fiona for a bit so the claw grip could relax a tad. Waves washed down the boat, and spray flew over the mast, Fiona and Pandie took it in turns to act as the stanchion cushion for each other as the water scudded us left down the boat. Emma will now be known as TJ (two jackets) after getting through two life jackets on the way home, which made us giggle if nothing else. No engine meant for a long slog up the Solent against a lot of tide which by that stage we could all have done without.  Fiona helmed, Chris navigated, Emma had finally given in to the cold and popped below where she was out of the wind at least, but it certainly wasn’t drier, as she announced she was sitting on the floor in a bath of water. With water sloshing in our boots, we were all pretty cold by the time Calshot light appeared ahead. Just as well it was dark so that no one could see Chris, Pandie and Fiona swap between the Chicken Song, Aga-doo and YMCA in a  bid to keep vaguely alert and warm-er. Andy had caught some sort of bug and spent the entire trip below, albeit we did get him up for valet parking services under sail as we came up the Hamble river. Emma & Pandie magicked some energy from somewhere to carry out a slick series of very short tacks across the river, and no sooner had we tied up, there was a great deal of striptease going on on deck / pontoon (by which point we were all so cold and wet we didn’t care if anyone was watching), a lot of rummaging for some drier clothing and sleeping bags. The boat didn’t have a dry inch anywhere so the pontoon turned into the dorm for some!  A memorable weekend for sure.

Report from Cerulean, Farr 395, Class 3

For the first time ever all crew were early to the boat and we finally

had the time to calibrate our instruments. Somehow our compass had

become 90 degrees out and apparent wind was 15 degrees out. We'd been

sailing this way for so long we'd forgotten how valuable it was to know

at a glance where you are sailing and with what angle of wind. We could

never be accused of paying too much attention to the instruments.

Tim from Red Zeppelin (nee Substitute) had also come aboard for a

training day with us and had noted (amongst other things) our rig was

very lose - "a sack of spuds" I think were his words. So with modern

instruments, a tighter rig and on-time for the start we were ready to

race like we'd never been before!

Most class 3 boats headed for the north shore so we followed. Our

tighter rig and Tim's trimming suggestions seemed to pay dividends and

we were able to move through the fleet into 2nd behind Thunder. We

eventually raised our #3 reaching spinnaker and pointed for Hurst

overtaking Thunder as she climbed closer into shore. We were happy with

our course and were working our way back into the shallow water when the

pole-out line released itself. We had to bear away to grind the pole

back out giving up valuable height. No sooner had we got the pole out

than it happened again....grrr. More height lost, more speed lost and

now we'd dropped into the stronger adverse tide. We'd now fallen back

behind J-Fever, Thunder and Floating Voter.

From Hurst we had to fight our way back up to make Bridge. Floating

Voter gentlemanly and generously gave us plenty of room (they could have

forced us up since they were under white sails) since we were right on

our limit and it was going to be very tight. We only needed another 50

yards until we could round and ease sheets when the damn pole-out line

broke! We had to bear away again missing the mark, drop the kite, sail

back to Bridge where I think Tearaway Too gave us room (we were in a

spot of bother with a leg caught on the foredeck). Finally we rounded

under white sail and pointed to St Peter Port. Not much more to say

than once we'd settled ourselves it was a lovely blast under a beautiful

night sky - oh and J-Fever gave us all a lesson!

We left St Peter Port at 9:45am Sunday morning to maximise tidal

advantage and avoid as much of the forecast northerly as possible.

Although more lively than I would have liked we made excellent time with

2 reefs in the main and the #3 jib. We were tied up in the Hamble by

10:30pm Sunday - very wet and very tired.

Race Report from Girolle – Class 5 (Double handed).

We pondered tactics before this race: should we start under white sails and go towards the mainland shore in order to get out of the tide? We decided on the simple option: put the asymmetric kite up at the start and keep it up as long as we could. As we are double-handed we like to keep sail changes to a minimum. The wind angle was a bit marginal at first, and we kept having to dump both the main and the kite as gusts came through. We certainly couldn't edge over towards to mainland shore (as most of the fleet did) in order to get out of the tide but the extra power from flying the kite seemed to pay off.

We had a good race down the Solent, neck and neck with Whistler and Black Diamond. We followed Black Diamond, who were a couple of boat lengths ahead of us, into Hurst narrows whereupon the wind died. We both started going backwards and meanwhile, Whistler overtook both of us by staying close to the spit.A couple of minutes later and the wind returned and off we went. Black Diamond went over towards the island in order to get out of the tide, we carried on in a straight line towards Bridge as we didn't want to take the kite down. By the time we got to Bridge we'd managed to get into second place behind Longue Pierre although by then they had disappeared ahead into the night.

We carried the kite for another hour or so and then dropped to white sails as the wind backed and strengthened. Fortunately the wind stayed steady during the night and we each managed three hours down below. Luxury! Helen took at first off-watch at midnight and we swapped over at 3am. A wonderful bright moon illuminated the sea and we had a great sail,

By 6am it was my watch again by which time we were rounding Casquets. Helen went below to get some well earned rest. It was time to enjoy the lovely sailing breeze and the sunshine. It was also time to hoist the kite again – at which point I remembered that I hadn't packed it when we dropped it the previous night! A hurried ten minutes followed, packing the kite, getting it onto the foredeck, launching it and dropping the headsail, all while “George” steered. .

As we approached Platte Fougère the tide was running against us, so we followed what must have been Cerulean, keeping out of the tide as much as we could until the finish line. By this time Helen was out of her bunk and helming again. We managed to avoid the anchored cruise ship, crossed over the finish line, dropped the sails and headed off into St Peter Port marina for beer and breakfast.

At the prize giving we were somewhat (very pleasantly) surprised to walk away with so much glassware, generously donated by the sponsors.

We left St Peter Port at 8am on Monday morning, Girolle got back onto her Hamble mooring at midnight. It was a long but very enjoyable weekend.

Many thanks to the Blenheim Group for sponsoring the event, and thanks to the JOG race teams at the start and at the finish. Tim

We were looking forward to this race having two other J120's for competition. A perfect start, balmy sunshine, a nice breeze, also the Skipper did a good job getting to the line. The wind was in the west so no frantic kite hoist and pit could relax on the rail swopping holiday tales with crew members as we edged across the tide to the mainland shore. The wind freed a bit and talk of kites began, blue? Orange? Tearaway Too already had hers up and Thunder 2 ahead of us was obviously preparing something. So up went the orange reacher. At times this was a bit tight on the wind, but we managed to carry it and stay out of the tide. But Thunder 2 crept to windward as well, and proved that their code zero goes closer to the wind than our spinny. It benefited them little as we eventually stalled enough to drop under their stern and sail through their lee without getting out into the tide. “Our code zero” became the crew joke of the race.

We were treated to a wonderful sunset/moonrise. The sun went down a lurid red as an orange moon came up behind us.

Despite being too close on the wind for the orange job we hung onto it on the principle that to do nothing is better than wasting time doing something unnecessary. We think we were the first of class 3 out of the Solent. Wonderful clear night and a bright moon by which to trim.

The relief of being able to free off ten degrees or so was relatively short lived as the wind headed a bit and built. Skipperene was heard to opine that the main was doing nothing and we would be as fast under white sails, but was firmly overruled by the rest of the crew on the above do nothing principle. So we kept the orange kite up and sailed as close as we could manage. Helming certainly made up for all those missed gym sessions whilst we were away on holiday. (“I wonder how their code zero is doing now?”) We were forced to white sails for a few miles to get round the Casquets, and then up with the orange kite again and head for the line. Fear struck as we sailed down the Little Russel in decreasing wind. Another classic park up finish? But no. Back to white sails to keep out of the tide (again) and within the distance off the fort for the finish, and a welcome blast from the horn. A warm sunny day in Guernsey beckoned.

Many thanks to Tony and Margaret for getting out to finish us, and to the starting crew, and to Guernsey and the Blenheim Group for the splendid party and prizes on Sunday.

Report from Red Zeppelin, Salona 37, Class 3

The preparation for this race involved plenty of food, getting the main sail back from North Sails where it was being modified to match Red Zeppelin’s mast, which has different bend characteristics to Substitute’s 3 spreader rig and collecting Red Zeppelin from the boat yard where she had had some remedial work carried out on the sail drive gaiter.

  Due to the spring tide we had to depart from the Beaulieu River a few hours prior to out 1930 start, as we left the river at approx 1530 there appeared to be plenty of wind and we hoped at that time for a relatively quick passage out of the Solent, how wrong could we have been!

  Jo had prepared a fantastic Thai chicken curry for the trip out, as we were a little short handed we decided to eat the meal prior to the start in Cowes, after an enjoyable meal, we suddenly realised it was Jo’s birthday meal that she had prepared and cooked for herself and others (sorry Jo next year I will make it up to you).

  At the start of the race we made the decision to head over towards the mainland shore to get out of the tide and use what wind there was left to the best advantage. As we approached the Beaulieu shore we could see that the wind was rapidly dying close in and opted to stay on out a little, which at first paid off, however, our move soon bought us into a large wind hole where we sat for ages and watched Tearaway 2 and J Fever sail off in to the sunset. The wind eventually returned and we stated the long process of catching up.

  Just prior to Hurst we nipped over to the island shore to get out of the tide, it was at this point our troubles started, first the wind shifted and we had to get the asymmetric (which had been usable in the light winds as high as 40deg apparent) down, then Oli spotted a small lobster pot, which was being dragged under by the tide slipping under our bow, The only evasive maneuver we could take was to spin the boat towards the shore. Clear of the lobster pot we needed to tack out back into the tide unfortunately at the point of dong this we went aground on the mud. All attempts to sail off were thwarted by the tide and slight breeze pushing us father up the beach and the only option that we had was to start the engine and reverse off the mud, hence our retirement.

We missed rather a nice weekend in Guernsey but we did avoid a long slog back against a chilly wind.

Thanks to the race officers for their hard work and we hope to see you all in Cherbourg. .

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