St Vaast race report by Tom Newsom and Ella Nieper, Javelin J/105

6th April 2025

The skies were sunny, as the spot of high pressure evaporated the clouds, a westerly wind accelerated the light breeze around Egypt point. The start of the race posed an interesting first decision as it was a downwind start, stemming into the tide. Either hoist early away from the line with room and gain boat speed, but risk misjudging distance to the line, or hold the line on a reach and hoist as you bear away onto it. With Alacrity had a perfect start with full boat speed in the center of the line so away from the strongest current but with room to head up. For us we hoisted a little late but had clear air, ahead of those who misread the distance. 

In Class 3 we were the only asymmetric which made for tough gybing battles as everyone else could point deeper. So we set off across to Lee on Solent for more space to manoeuvre and less stress double handed. Those near Osborne Bay struggled a little with its wind shadows, however, Sailfish and With Alacrity found a good line. By the middle bank we found a positive current and stronger winds that helped us get ahead, as well being one of the faster handicapped yachts in class 3. By the Forts we had taken a lead which diminished as we entered into a wind hole as the wind turned 180 degrees to the East as predicted – the wind that would take us all the way to France. The hole grew behind us, as the sun set. On the front edge of the new wind, was fog. Finding the East cardinal mark of Bembridge Ledge became harder in the dark. The moored gas tanker became an orange glow.

We knew we would have to bear away to hit St Vaast but waited for better visibility to hoist the A5. After 30 minutes of waiting somewhat impatiently the visibility improved. With Alacrity had beaten us upwind and taken the lead. We furled the jib, bore away and hoisted. At night it went smoothly, despite a tight wind angle the East going tide set us above course. Reaching on the J105 is great – averaging good speeds and tracking nicely. On the AIS most of the fleet tracked more East than us, we covered a little but it brought us off our routing and the rhumb line – and we were asking ourselves why sail further? Again a symmetrical boat can’t sail such a hard angle, and we were conscious to avoid the strong tides running westerly around the Cherbourg peninsula when we arrived there. Possibly if stronger winds had blown through, the height would have nicely be converted. After a careful crossing of the two shipping channels and having a 5 mile lead with 20 nm to go, it became apparent we may get line honours and it was our race to lose! As the winds had remained light and we had taken enough height to cover the fleet, at daybreak we hoisted C2 to sail deeper and faster, after a few mistakes due to tiredness we were flying nicely. As the counter current became stronger we pointed higher to punch through, however we slowed down letting the fleet compress behind. Near the finish the winds lightened from land effects and oncoming thunderstorms. Fortunately for us we made it through the finish before the hard rain and variable hot wind, unfortunately not in time for the lock gates!

Looking at the results, the weather had favoured class 3 fleet and double handed sailors. Ideal for our first double handed race.