Thanks and Dark Shadow

Firstly I want to say a huge thank you to Laurence Caille, she has been an absolute star helping Ryan and I before and after the Azores, feeding us, washing for us and letting us use here house. Its made life so much easier and taken all the race stress away.

Now I'm back to the Wally. I'm stuck in the airport in Nantes until 7am so thought I just add a picture if Dark Shadow to show the contrast of the sailing. Its crazy the Mini would fit on the foredeck of the Wally and ropes I use as halyards they use as lashing to tie bits up in the container. Its a different world.

I’m back in the civilised world, well France anyway….

I’m sad to say I’m disappointed with the race back from the Azores.

I got off to a great start in very light breeze I managed to keep with the front few boats. Going into the first night I decided to opt for a shorter course more on the rhum line than the routing had suggested. This paid off and the 2^nd day I was in 2^nd position with a long gap behind. But in the second night as the breeze came up my problems began. Through the night all 3 spinnakers I have ripped! The worst thing was that it wasn’t down to human error or trying to push to hard, they just started disintegrating.

So I had another 6 days of downwind sailing with no spinnakers, trying to soak down with a code 0. It was very painful; especially knowing the rest of the fleet would be flying along.

I changed my tactics and tried to sail the best route to be most I range for the 0 but it was hard with the wind direction.

I was sure I’d be one of the last boats back but I ended up doing okay somehow. There are still boats coming in. I’ll find out official results soon.

Now, some busy days packing the boat away on the trailer and getting it ready to take either back to Lorient or the UK. Then off to Dark Shadow in Sardinia for the Maxi Worlds.

On my way back!

So the holiday is over and we're heading back to France tomorrow.

The weather is looking in a great direction, mainly reaching and downwind, but it is looking very light at times with many wind holes along the route. The general plan is to stay North of rhum line to try and get the edge of the good breeze.

The routing predicts a 26th finish. I'm feeling very positive, its defiantly a race for the newer prototypes but some hard work and no more breakages, I think I can do well. Top 10 here I come! Next blog from back in France!

Return weather

The weather is looking great for the return leg. The Azores high is normally very stable meaning the return sail is against the trade wind beating back to France. For the mini that's slow and boring, but it looking like the high changes on the 17/18th and could give us a lot of reaching maybe even some downwind on the way back.

Not the fastest conditions for Night Fever but happy for a good forecast. Its great news because I need to have Night Fever back and packed away by the 30th so I can head to Dark Shadow.

The repairs have all gone according to plan, sails are back and I even have a new jockey pole (made from the end of a wind surfer mast). We have the prologue race today here where we take out some local guys on our boats, its a good chance to test all the repairs.

I made it.....

So leg 1 is complete and I'm enjoying the sunny Azores!

What a race, so many highs and lows!

I had a great start off the line in around 20knots crossing the line in the top few but had no time to take on ballast for the short 1 mile upwind leg (they start us upwind for safety), so got knocked having to spill wind with a tippy boat.

We rounded the mark, next stop Horta Azores. Out of the Bay of Biscay was perfect conditions for the big code zero, which I left behind because we have an 8 sail allowance and my code 5 covers almost the same wind ranges. So I wasn't overly fast coming out of Biscay, but thought my time would come rounding Finisterre with more wind and the 5.

We rounded the corner of North West Spain and I went far South to try and get in the big breeze and catch up some positions. It was going great and I was sailing hard and fast, but the breeze kept building. I had around 25-30 knots so reduce to the medium spi, as soon as it filled it exploded in 2 pieces. So I went to the code 5. It was great. The boat was going well and was very stable so I got some much needed sleep. I woke up with the boat in mid broaching laying on its side, I went on deck to find the code 5 in pieces, a missing jockey pole, the spi pole at the wrong end of the boat and dragging in the water and the push pit unattached. So begun a 4 hour period of repairs by night. God bless head torches!

The repairs went well and I got the boat back together but the big problem was I now had no medium spinnakers which were the sails I'd need for the next 3 days. It was very painful and played strange trick with my mind knowing I had to sail for so long on the wrong sail and let the fleet disappear into the distance. I was patient and changed my tactics to allow me to go a future route but fly the big and only spi all the way to the islands. It worked well, everyday by radio we get everyone distance to the finish and I was rapidly catch and overtaking boats.

Arrival to the islands was interesting, I had spent a lot of time on routing for the race but not much time on the routing through the islands, so I went for the simple tactic that it would be faster to sail a little further but stay on the windward side of the island as they are towering mountains. It worked well and ended up being the fastest and most common route, the only thing I did differently to most was cut inside 1 island as I thought there would be wind acceleration due to the wind angle. There was but then a period of choppy light breeze in the lee so think it made little difference.

I ended up finishing where I had hoped I would without the breakages, with the other old protos but ahead of the series boat. I actually beat many boats I was not expecting too. Considering all my drama's I'm relatively happy.

What I learnt and what I happy with; I need to be more conservative on the longer races and take down more sail as the breeze comes up, especially if I'm sleeping with the pilots on, its all about being consistent. I need to make more planning for the whole route not just the tactical side. And mentally you can't let problem get you down you have to be positive and work to your strength.
I was very with my tactical decisions, especially after my breakages to get the most from the boat. And its nice to know I can sail fast when I need to and take out miles from the faster boats.

The guys from Horta have been so helpful with repairs, the marina manager even said "Don't worry your problems are now my problems and everything will be fixed". Just what I wanted to hear. So a week to relax and prepare on the islands then hopefully an uneventful return trip but it looks like it will be upwind!