Thumbs Up From Classe Mini

I have had my 1000Nm qualification confirmed and am now official able to take part in the Azores race and next years transat. What a relief!

I had an interview on local radio Solent on Friday. I have had some problems up loading the link after the show was removed from Podcast but now there is a link to You Tube. The Link to my segment is on the right or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSOUOHOpNdY

The Mini Fastnet

The Fastnet is done and what a great race, the first event of this season with proper breeze and a big fleet.

I was sailing Keith Willis also from Lymington. We set off with close to 80 boats on the start line and a beat out of Douarnenez bay in medium breeze. We had great leg sticking close to the Northern shore. Next we cracked off and headed north inside Oussant Island and main land France, just beating the tide.

It started to rain and was very obviously the start of predicted low pressure front, meaning big breeze was close. As night fell the we began the beat across the English Channel and the breeze kept building. As the wind increased we took more and more reefs until it got the max of around 34 knots, with very typical English Channel short step waves. Not comfy in a downwind 21ft rocket.

We had a few breakages in the night, the main halyard block exploded, we got a rip in the main sail head which meant we had to take reefs earlier than I would have normally liked to and the biggest problem was snapping the jib halyard fitting and losing the halyard inside the rig. I went up the mast to try and resolve the problem but there was nothing I could do, so we ended up using the fractional spinnaker halyard to hoist the jib. This worked sufficiently but crossed over the PBO rigging and had potential to chafe through the forestay and drop the rig if we did not change sides during every tack. This made tacking a very slow and long process, drop the jib, untie the halyard, tack, re-tie and hoist. Not racing stuff. Due to this we were pushing the tacks as long as possible, this meant we went to far North and missed a valuable wind shift, so in real terms sailing more mile than we had to and giving away a lot of positions at Wolf rock off Lands End. Unfortunately this changed our whole race, which we didn’t find out until later.

We entered the Irish Sea and headed for Fastnet, the wind slowly shifted and dropped, to allow us to go full sail, to zero and finally the spinnaker. We approach the rock in light breeze, rounded and went back to the jib before the wind shut down. We managed to keep up some pace unlike many boat around and claw back many positions. The wind shifted and allowed us to put up the Spi again and was due to build. As it was so light all we could do was head south, rather than SE to sail round the wind hole. We were happy with this as forecast was for the wind to build back to 30 knots from the NW, which would allow us to keep the Spi up all the way home and fly back.

The breeze did build but only got round as far as North. We had some great hours sailing in perfect mini condition, 26 knots breeze, big kite, surfing waves 16 knots boat speed. But the forecast let us down and went back to the NE and dropped meaning we struggled to get back to rum line and hold the Spi.

As we got to French side of English Channel the breeze dropped and we got ready for our final night. I had seen a group of 5 boats ahead in the distance and made it my mission to get home before them.

The return course went outside on the West of Oussant before heading back into the bay of Dourenez. With the code five then zero we managed to get all 5 boats through the night but it did involve a lot of hard sailing, patients and no sleep!

The last 15 miles in the bay turned into a light wind beat, and finally less than 5 miles away from home with the finish in sight the wind shut off completely. We ended up very slowly creeping towards the line and finally crossed t around 9am Friday morning, with a strange sail configuration with the main and jib goose-winged on the opposite tack to catch the breeze.

When we got back there were more boats home than I hoped. I went and I started up the race tracker and analysing the race straight away. The long tack north in the big breeze had cost us dearly. Not just the extra miles on the corner but the knock on effect was that we just missed all the good breeze, the boats just ahead, had good wind all the way to Fastnet and had rounded and got the forecast big downwind conditions all the way back.

A good lesson to be learnt! The best news for me after the Fastnet is that I have now completed more than necessary mileage for the qualification process. So as soon as I get confirmation from Classe Mini I can start preparing for the Azores on the 1^st of August.

I'm getting ready for the Fastnet. There is a great turn out, 72 boats here to race, in the photo you can see how they've packed all the little racce boats in a small fish port.

Today we have the Prolog, inshore small race. Really for the guys with big sponsors to for a media day, but also a good chance to do some final checks and tests before tomorrows big start.

I had a fun day yesterday, the mini Transat Mare.de, has just chartered a Class 40 for the Route de Rum. He needed to take some media photos of both boats so I went out on the mini. Its a great boat, one of the newest and top in the fleet. It was perfect mini conditions for downwind and was great fun flying past the 40 with the Spi up.

For the Fastnet start tomorrow there is a race tracker again, the address is http://www.winchesclub.com/minis650/fastnet650/FR-25-1-1--

The MAP

An idea of the tides at Pointe Raz that we race through.

Some close racing contact as we approach the first upwind spreader mark, (I'm not sure the guy in the red boat really understand the race rules, barging in on Port tack....)

Another light and shifty race, I'm starting to wonder how the bay of Biscay got it reputation!

It was a hard race, light out of the Bay of Douarnenez. I went right for wind and many went left inshore for the tide, but we all ended up at the Raz at the same time, trying to fight 6 knots of tide in light wind, it was like a boat car park!

Many guys dropped anchor, but I persisted with trying to make any gain, and it paid of as I was one of the first to break free. Then there was a tight reach south through the night. In the early hours the wind shifted to a beat. In the night when I went for a sleep I got a fishing buoy around the keel and it took almost a hour to get free and involved a scary experience, getting wet.

The whole next day we beat South East round Ile de Groix to Birvideaux light house. As I rounded the bottom mark there was a 180 degree wind shift which meant beating all the way North West back home. I'm sure the mini is all about surfing down waves in big breeze.... not this season, roll on the Transat. The wind filled in at night and I went hard west and had a tough, proper offshore sail and made some good distance, although some of the locals had a sneaky trick up their sleeve and snuck through a shoal area and cut off miles!

I just missed the tidal gate to get back through the Raz, which meant another tough fight but this time it was a lot rougher. A group of us took it in turns to have a go at breaking through the passages wave and current, finally I was the first to get through. All though it was scary at time and very close to land it was really exciting and a great feeling to get through.

The final sail back down the bay was great, finally some down wind sailing with some breeze, I went for the wrong kite to start so was fighting had with 3 peels but had some great speed and surfing.

I finish 12th Proto, not a great result but with all the problems I had I am still happy. I had technical problems, including electronics melt down, water-ballast pump breaking, and my encounter with the fishing buoy. And to be honest I made some debatable decision.

Next week is the Fastnet, I'm really looking forward to it and think it has the potential to be the race of the season. The weather is unfortunately looking light again. This is a double-hander and Keith Willis also from Lymington is traveling out to sail with me.

MAP

I'm in Douarnenez now preparing the boat and doing the security control checks for my next event that leaves tomorrow, Thursday 3rd of June called the Trophee Marie Agnes Peron or as all the English speakers call it the MAP.

Its a strange event as we are all here for the Mini Fastnet that starts next week, this is really a warm-up/training race. The important thing is to finish with the boat in good condition for the Fastnet. But saying that as soon as we start I'm sure it will be full on.

The weather is looking light and variable.... There's a surprise!

To track the race you can go to http://www.winchesclub.com/minis650/map/FR-25-1-1--