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So the first night was a long beat around the back of Belle ile where I seemed slow and lost a few places. In the early hours I spotted the wind-clocking round and hoisted the zero before the boats around me. Up to this point the pilot had been ok but not great, it finally gave up and stopped AGAIN.

I had a challenging peel to the big kite with no auto helm but when I was set it worked well. I got into a line of boats mainly the series all plodding one behind the other not really fighting for position but just soaking to the mark, after a while I got frustrated and heated up hard and headed away from the pack miles offshore, and gybed back in, late in the afternoon, a bit worried about the gamble. It paid off and I had made back all the positions I had lost over the night. It felt good.

We rounded at the south point of the course and started the long beat up north around Ile D’Yeu and into the second night. I was holding my position well and pointing higher than the boats around me. I made the decision to tack over early and a big group came with me and went offshore. It was a bad call. I should have followed the coast and then the island for as long as possible and rounded tight like the local guys.

I finally had to get some sleep, and its easiest to balance the boat to self steer up wind. When I woke up I couldn't see any other boats at all. I had seen lots going inshore and it crossed my mind that everyone else had heard there was a shortened course at the bottom mark (as was disgust at the briefing if the wind report didn't improve) and they had caught a tidal gate while I was asleep and gone home. It was dawn so I kept going on my course and waited for morning.

As soon as the sun rose the wind shut off completely. More drifting in zero wind and with the extra stress that I was the only one still out. At lunch time I was going crazy thinking I was either dead last or on my own out in no wind. I had a good talking to myself and decided I had 2 choices, head in or go all the way in little breeze on my own. I decided to give it my all and keep working hard to keep the boat moving and if it meant days of extra sailing on my own then that fine, it would be great training. I also had time to go below and have a good go at repairing the much simple back up pilot that also hadn't worked. Success, I had a Baxter (the pilot) back again. I got some more sleep on deck now the boat could steer and waited for the breeze to fill in. Around 1600 I felt the breeze and was up like a shot. I had a great evening beating round Belle Ile, then reaching to Goix. At both islands we were to report to the light house to relay our positions and that we were okay. I asked if they had any news about the shortened course and cheekily if many boats had passed. They explained there had been a lot of confusion about the course but we were still racing and that I was doing well and up in the first half of the fleet. It was a huge boost and I sailed as hard as I could for the rest of the night to catch anyone I could on the way back down to Pornichet. By morning I could see lots of boats again and started to pick them off as we beat back home in light wind and big swell, painful but Night Fever is fast in the light stuff, so I guess its good for me. Then around 30 miles from home it happened again, as the heat rose the breeze died. I concentrated as hard as I could to keep the boat going while others had stopped, and chased any little puff I could see. It work, I overtook the group I had found, the wind clocked again and allowed us to put code 5's up, it was a really tight angle so the boat started moving fast in such little breeze. Coming to the finish with only a few miles the breeze dropped completely and the windex was doing the horrible thing where it swings round and round as there is no apparent wind but I kept the code 5 up and used it as a wind seeker, I had a horrible last couple of mile where I could see the finish but couldn't soak to it for fear of losing any momentum and stopping. I crossed just ahead of the group, but still had no real idea of position.

I as towed into the marina to not find many boat. Great maybe 20 ahead of me so well in top half of the fleet. I reported straight to the office to find out I was being protested. I ended up with a time penalty for having poorly visible nav lights, very disappointing as I lost some place in the results (especially because they had a nav light check and I passed but they were poor when I was having power problem with the pilot the 2nd night). So on the up side I was happy to not be thrown out of the race and keep my qualifying miles. And still ended up in the top half of the fleet.

2nd Outing

Wow what a tough race, lots of short tight legs so no real sleeping time.... so very tired now.

I had a dream start, got the exact position I wanted on the line. I promised myself I'd take it easy but got the dinghy competitiveness as soon as the start sequence started. I went hard left for the breeze off the line and the locals all went right to the beach and tide (local knowledge again), I ended up in the top few to the top mark, felt good to beat the top end boats, but the tables turned as we rounded the mark for the first power reach, we all hoisted zeros, the new boats canted their keels and I disappeared down below to pump water into my ballast tanks, by the time I came back up they were gone. So I had a few strange hours, a head of all the production boats but behind the new weapons on the way up to Birvideaux.

It closing time in marina office so I'm getting booted out, to be continued tomorrow!

Race Number One

Race number one turned out to be a very long 150Nm with super light wind and a lot of local knowledge.

A late course change the morning of the race and then a shortened course at the started made for a high stress start to the race. We were working out the course as we went into the starting sequence, which is never fast... So we ended up in bad breeze going over the line and had to tack away. We had a productive beat before bearing away and hoisting the lager kite, The Whomper. We had a great long reach up the inside of Ile de Gouix, weaving our way up through the fleet and getting into a respectable position. Then we had an error, pushing hard and trying to beat the French guys in their own backyard we went to close to the Island and touched the bottom. Very nerve racking but no damage, we carried on and got back into the race.

Then the wind stopped, we had a short down wind and a lead group managed to open a gap, we were just behind in a small group, the rest of that day was spent looking for wind on the horizon and keeping very still trying to get to the top end of the course at the Glens.

We turned the corner around midnight and started upwind with a little more breeze. It was a light but pleasant morning keeping our strong position. We then reach plateau de Four and took the corner very wide after our close touch early on and allow a small group to sneak inside before the long beat to the finish. Then the breeze stopped at midday, 0, nothing!

Finally after some painful hours we had a little breeze from behind and spent the rest of the afternoon gybing from side to side at huge angles trying to build some apparent but not getting much closer to the finish. A few of the other boats went pole right back, dead down wind and just pointed at the finished which worked for them but not on my boat, so a couple more snuck through, very frustrating but every boat has its conditions. We finally crossed the finish line slowly at around 6pm.

So a hard tactical race which required a lot of local knowledge, but we sailed well and had good boat speed, a good starting point, we ended up with 18th out of 40. Lots to work on but a good learning curve.

Time to leave Lorient already...c

Today I got the final jobs done onboard, with lots of help from my co-skipper Ryan Finn who is taking part in the Demi-Cle with me.

The boat is ready to sail and early tomorrow we set off on first short sail across the bay to Locmiquelic. In the afternoon I have the boat inspection for the first race. They are very strict at the beginning of the year, so finger crossed everything is in order.

Then we base there for a few days to get in some training and final tweaks before the big day on Saturday.

In The Water

Its been a long time coming but finally Night Fever is back where she should be, back in the water.

I've been down to the Med to earn some much needed cash and now back getting ready for the first race next weekend. It hasn't all been plain sailing, had some unforeseen problems but there all on the way to being sorted and the boats actually starting to feel ready to sail and not like a building site.

The first race, the Demi Cle starts from Locmiquelic (just across the bay from Lorient) and is a short 150 Nm dash South to Pornichet. Its a 2 handed race (crewed by Ryan Finn, USA) and is more of a feeder race for the Pornichet Select that starts the following week, which I am also entered into.

I will get some photos of the boat in the water over the next few days and get them up online, but for now back to the work list.