Closure.....

2009 came and went, and although I watched the start at the squadron I had no plan to participate in the race.

Since then Colette and I have moved to Cowes to reduce the amount of commuting I'm doing to go racing. Its been a good year on the water on both Brevity the Swan CS42 I'm pit on, and Philosophie IV the Beneteau 40.7 I do trim on. Recent results have been a class win during Cowes week on Philosophie IV, 1st in IRC 1 in the RORC offshore channel race on Brevity and becoming national champions in the 40.7 Nationals.

I digress this blog is about the Fastnet and last time I posted it was August 2007 after we'd failed to complete the course with a mainsail failure off the Eddystone in 40+ knot gusts in the 24 hr delayed event.

So in 2011 I was on the start line on Brevity with a great crew who have sailed a lot together this season and who know we can do well given the right weather. This last point is noteworthy, CS4242's do well in sub 20kn conditions particulary sub 10kn where we can be at hull speed whereas others in IRC 1 are struggling.

On 14th August conditions looked favourable with some light southwesterlies to begin with becoming northerly as a blustery trough blew across the fleet in the Celtic sea.

We started at 1230 in the IRC1 fleet and were ahead of Baraka GP another CS42 most of the way to the needles. At this point the fleet split with bigger boats favouring an offshore line, whilst the smaller boats chose to stay in the favorable tide (and rough overfalls) off St Albans head and Anvil point. Initilall we planned tob take an inside route through the race at Portland but the wind shifted putting us on a layline for start point out of the worst of the tide in the race. By this time Baraka had got quite a long way ahead, our last view of them being as the sunset approaching the light at Start.

We initially started to run a 3hr off, 3hr standby, 3hr on watch, but this changed to 2hr periods which worked well. As the sun rose on Monday we were passing the Lizard and with the forecast suggesting a Northerly as we approached the Fastnet rock, we chose a westerly route from the Rhum line and started pounding into an increasingly lumpy sea with 10ft peak to trough rollers with chop on top. As the day progressed the wind increased from 16kn to 35kn and by early evening we had 1 reeef in the main and the no4 jib up whilst we reached across the Celtic Sea. we were seeing 8.5kn upwind, and by midnight we'd had to pull in a 2nd reef in the main as we saw 31kn spikes in the breeze with tough confused seas.

As Tuesdays morning sun burned through the greyness, the winds started to fall and swung to the North, leaving us a final beat to the rock. We passed in company with Moana and then cracked the sheets to fetch the Pantaenius spreader mark before hoisting the Assymetric A4 to head back for the Bishops rock. Glorious sailing conditions through the rest of the day and night had us pealing to the A3 arriving at the Scillies and Bishop Rock lighthouse around midday on Wednesday. Our hope was for a reach to Plymouth, approx 70nm away, but the weather gods were against us as the breeze swung to the East meaning we had to start a 14 hour beat to the finish. To starboard we could see Baraka meaning we'd recovered a huge deficit on the leg from the rock, and within 2 hours they crossed our bow heading towards the Lizard whilst we stood on offshore on port tack which proved to be an excellent decision as those boats which went in shore ended up in light breezes and foul tide. By 4pm we'd dropped the watch system in order that everyone could concentrate on hiking the boat for the last few hours to the finish. The Easterly brought some cold wind, so those not driving rotated along the rail eventually raising the Eddystone light at midnight. As we approached plymouth sound the tall cliffs made the wind more fluky and bringing some drizzle, but finally it was all over as 'Ocean 1', RORC's finishing line blew its horn at 05:54 on Thursday 18th August, in an elapsed time of 3 days, 17 hours and 24 minutes. In IRC 1 we came 15/47, and overall were 38/247 finishers.

So that was it, 4 years after I'd planned to complete a fastnet I eventually got round with a great team of friends and closed an open chapter at last :-) Guy Shelbourne 22nd August 2011

FAST-NOT!!!

Sat 11th August

All goodbyes said and done at home it was time to head off for Southampton. The forecast on Friday didn’t seem to suggest too much to worry about, but this years weather has been fickle and produced some great boat speed but usually in wet conditions, so I had more kit with me than usual, to try and keep the wet out and the warmth in. Two of the best buys for the campaign were the Gul Auckland sailing jacket and salopettes which although unlined have kept the majority of the wet out (a little sweaty at times) and the Seal Skinz socks which being totally waterproof have kept my feet warm and allowed me to wear sailing shoes instead of boots much to the crews appreciation!

Arriving in Hythe I took the pier ferry over to Southampton and arrived in Cowes on the Red Jet around 5pm. Venomous was over at the GBR yard moored alongside a 60foot plus power yacht which brought out the lemming in all of us as we had to leap a 5ft gap between it and the dock!! Just one more risk to add to the growing list of potential hazards ahead of us, the main one I was to find out as I climbed on board being a nasty twin low pressure weather system off the West coast of Ireland.

Half of the crew were already on board, but it was apparent by the beer cans and relaxed outlook that something was going on that I hadn’t heard about.

Charlie (of the unpronounceable surname) explained that at the skippers briefing, RORC had postponed the race start by 25 hours, giving us a new start time of 1245 on Monday. The reasons given were the expectation for 40kn+ winds but of more concern a rough confused Celtic Sea off the Fastnet which the MCA had indicated would result in more cries for help than they could cope with and that additional equipment would need to be procured at RORC’s expense. For this reason RORC had made the decision to delay ensuring that as they said ‘all boats were within reach of a south coast port when they decide to retire!!” Obviously this wasn’t the news I’d wanted to hear after all the preparation we’d been through for the last 5 months, but as one of the bigger boats we should be in a better position than most to continue.

It was decided that we’d rig and provision the boat on the Sunday and sort out the necessary sails for the trip. The rules allow any number of headsails but only one main, which can be repaired by the boat crew (ie no outside help) but if changed will automatically incur a retirement. With the news we’d got shore leave, a few of us headed off for the remnants of the Cowes week beer tent and later to China China for some food, we were all tucked up by midnight on Venomous ready for an 0930 wake up call to start the boat preparation. Our two playboys, Jo and Charlie had been given the nod and managed to get the train to turn round and take them back to London (don’t ask me how) and Jim and Mark were also able to get an extra day with their families so all in all the delay was working out well for most.

Sun 12th August
By 1000 most of us were up and about, Ollie was hoisted up the mast for a visual inspection of the mast head, and fittings as well as fitting the staysail forestay. All of Venomous’ main sails were pulled out of the lock up and given a close scrutiny to decide which to take. Some debate suggested a Dacron sail may suit the extreme conditions expected but in the end a heavy full carbon/Kevlar main with one reefing point was chosen. Our newest crew member straight off the recently dismasted Pindar Open 60 set about rigging the reefing line pennants in the boom, which required the skills of Tessa Sanderson to launch a batten like a javelin the full length of the boom with a mousing twine attached. After the partial success with the javelin a contraption of 5 battens taped together was inserted into the boom and eventually the line appeared to be threaded through the clew and onto the reefing apron.

Other jobs included boat provisioning, waypoint setting into the deck computer together with safety line/lifejacket checking and Derek determined to fix the leak in the heads.

By around 5pm we were all done so headed off for a drink and something to eat. In Cowes there were lots of crews wandering around bemused by the anti climactic atmosphere on the high street which had the air of an out of season seaside resort. Skandia Cowes week was over, the stalls were being dismantled, the bands had packed up and yet there were over 1,000 visitors still waiting for the main event!! Very strange.

Monday 13th – Race day

Up at 0900 for a shower at Shepherds Wharf marina. I met up with Rob and Chris at the Cowes Yacht Haven for breakfast who were looking forward to racing on Bear of Britain but probably not sleeping for the next 5 days (theres only two windward bunks on Bear!!). The day started with strong sun and a light wind blowing from the Needles. In expectation of worsening conditions I’d started on the Stugeron early as it seemed had 50% of the rest of the crew.

By now we had our full compliment of 18 crew and with final provisioning completed, we slipped our lines just before midday and headed down the Medina into the Solent. With some of the slower fleets already started it was an impressive sight with 300 boats stretched from the Bramble Bank down towards Yarmouth with the 3 huge Maxi’s, Leopard, Alfa Romeo and Nimrod dwarfing even us on our 60 foot boat. First order of the day was to parade in front of the RIRC safety vessel with the storm jib and storm tri sail rigged. This done they were dispatched to the sail locker and we prepared the main ready for hoisting. With full main up we tacked and gybed between the Royal Yacht Squadron whilst we heard on the VHF the monotonous tone of the race officer counting down the various start times for each fleet sounding like the the guy off the civil defence advert ‘I am the last voice you will ever hear, do not be alarmed’. Gun after gun went off until with 10 mins to go Jane called the preparatory signal and with #2 heavy jib up we positioned ourselves at the Bramble bank end of the line alongside Alfa Romeo and Leopard. With helicopters hovering overhead we hit the line but the massive sail area of the maxis blanketed our route ahead taking power out of sails leading to a quick tack for clear air. Steadily we progressed up towards Yarmouth alongside Venom, Dereks old Vovo 60 which we would have done the Fastnet in if it wasn’t for the purchase of Venomous. As we approached the Forts we stsrted to see the beginnings of a retreat with 2-3 smaller yachts deciding the sea state was too much for them and deciding on an early shower. Estrella Dam one of the new Open 60’s also decided to return preferring to save the boat for less taxing conditions.

By the needles we were well into the middle of the fleet of slower boats where the sea conditions had built up with periodic crashes as we fell off the larger waves however being on starboard tack hard on the wind lessened the motion. We made good boat speed at around 8 knots VMG up wind in about 12 knots of breeze. After a couple of headsail changes as the wind first died off then increased, Mark decided to put in a reef as the afternoon wore on so all hands made raedy with the main to pull in the equivalent of about 6 foot of sail, cleating off the new clew and then tightening the main halliard. All went well with Formidable 3 about ½ mile behind us closing fractionally, but the more upright stance of the boat now increasing our speed further.

At 6pm the first watch went down below for 3 hours of kip, during which I had my first opportunity to drive the boat. The wind speed started to increase from 11knots to 16knots, however its still wasn’t that strong and the sea conditions had improved so off Portland we hoisted full main again and we were powering along on a course 270 for Eddystone light at about 12knots. There were still a lot of boats visible there appearing to be two schools of thought, those who hugged the coast line to stay out of the tide, and those who took the direct line like we had.

Dee and Jane at around 8pm did a great job of getting curry up to the on watch party by which time a few rain squalls started to come through, and the expected weather front loaded with extreme wind could be seen rapidly approaching, I think at this point Derek said ‘What are we doing sailing straight into that!!’ At 9pm I went down below ith 5 other crew for 3 hours of zzz’s but the sea state had started to build such that it was difficult to stay engaged to the pipe cot, so it just became a case of getting as much rest as is possible when you are being rolled, left right up down on a 2 second interval.

At 11pm there was a loud crash quickly followed by the shrieking of winches and drum of feet on the deck head. Apparently the wind had picked up to over 35knots so Derek and mark decided it was best to get the main down totally. Not being on deck at the time I can only imagine the Herculean task involved in controlling that much flogging sail but somehow with great difficulty the main was lashed to the boom which was lashed to the deck. Coming up on deck at midnight the rain was lashing down with the wind howling in the stays, with white teethed waves rolling past regularly lit up in the powerful beam of the Eddystone light off the Starboard quarter. Looking at the 20/20 clocks for our course and then the faces of those on deck I realised that the inevitable retreat had begun and we were heading North for Plymouth.

Its very difficult to explain just how I felt at that point, theres no doubt there was a great degree of relief because even under headsail only we were crashing along at over 11knots in a very confused sea however although nothing had been said I felt this was the end of our Fastnet. All that we had worked for, the dream of rounding the famous rock, the disappointment from those at home and my friends who had supported my challenge, meant I felt devastated by this seeming failure. Still there was job still to be done so by 0130 we passed the Plymouth outer breakwater, and headed for the Queen Annes Battery Marina, arriving 3 days earlier than expected having completed only 100 miles of the 608 mile course. RORC officers and marina staff were on hand to show us to a berth big enough for Venomous, where we arrived the second boat into Plymouth after one of the Open 60’s. We were closely followed by a succession of boats appearing out of the fog of war exploding out in the Plymouth sound.

Work started clearing away the sails on deck and packing the main and jibs into their bags. The damage to the main seems to have been done from the headboard (holds the main onto the halliard) chewing a large section out of the cloth below it and at the same time cutting the bolt rope which is why the sail was so difficult to bring down. With the boat secure most of put on what dry clothes we had left and slept until about 0830 at which time QAB was deemed full, and was directing boats to Sutton, Mayflower and marinas further down the river.

Even though RORC had sowed the seed of retirement in most skippers minds they weren’t prepared for the influx of boats at such an early hour, however by 0900 they had breakfast being cooked in the club house and the bar open (even though it seems the beer tent had been raided during the night by unknown thirsty sailors).

Looking around it was clear the relief but sense of loss on most of the sailors faces and feeling similarly empty, I decided I didn’t want to hang around Plymouth any longer and with Dee, Charlie and Bob, hired a car back to Southampton to collect the kit we’d left in Cowes and our thoughts. I guess it was all put in place when the faceless voice at the GBR yard gate asked ‘shouldn’t we be out sailing’? Quite.


Epilogue

So was it worth it? Yes, to experience big boat sailing is an adrenaline rush whatever your final goal. It also makes you a better sailor in the long run, as theres nothing like racing to improve your sailing ability. Also I met some great people who I hope I’ll sail with again, you know who you are.

Would I do it again? When I left Plymouth I said definitely no, but 2 weeks later I realise I cant not do 2009. We didn’t complete the task, and that’s not something that easy to live with so in mind its just on pause and the play button will be pressed in April 2009 for the next one. By that time maybe Leopard will be taking paying guests!!!!

Channel Race Ends with Venomous Bullet!!

L - Ollie, our bowman, breakfast call! R - Ready for lift off!!

L - Estrella Dam, a new Open 60, OCS'd the start R- Old Venom

L - The Author trying to look serious R - Happy days, with Jim, Joe and Charlie

Sat 28th July

Choosing to arrive on Friday evening to ensure a good night sleep before the days racing meant 6 of us managed a good meal and some beers in the Island Sailing Club and an opportunity to hear some of Dereks war stories, to be expected after 40 years big boat racing. I’d have particularly liked to have seen him chainsawing the deck off a perfectly good 45’ racing yacht at Cowes yacht Haven simply because on handicap the hull was no longer competitive!! Now that’s dedication to winning if I ever I saw it!!

Having fuelled up on strong coffee and pancakes at Tiffins it was time to get to the GBR yard to meet the rest of the crew. Notable absentees were Jane and Mark, however replacements were provided in the shape of two different Jane and Marks!! I’m intrigued whether Sandra and Derek could find a replacement Ebernezeh!! We were also joined by Dee to whom we were all very grateful for the unending cups of tea, biscuits, crisps and the ever present donuts and sausage rolls.

Having stepped on board, Ollie was immediately sent up the mast to attach the stay sail deck stay, I’m not sure who was more traumatised him by the altitude or me having to keep up with Roddys pace as we ground him up the mast in top gear! With preparations made we motored out to join the rest of the fleet at 9am.

First order of the race was to parade in front of the committee boat with our storm jib up. Apparently this is just a formality since under no circumstances would we ever hoist such a flamboyant (brightly striped orange) sail practically because the boat will behave better in a strong wind without, and cosmetically it clashes terribly with the new paintwork!

Todays race was going to be a sprint. After the start of the Royal Yacht Squadron, we would be beating to the needles and then heading for a point 40 miles West, rounding the E Shambles cardinal off Portland. Then heading generally South into mid Channel to the RORC Offshore Buoy 15 miles South of St Albans Head, running to the Ocean Safety Buoy off Selsey Bill before closing onto the breeze to leave Bembridge Ledge to port, through the Forts to the Finish at Royal Albert Buoy off Gilkicker Point, an approximate distance of 146 miles.

The wind was generally expected to be westerly 16-20 knots with a fold expected in the late evening where the winds would become more southerly upto 30 knots as a weather front passed through before returning westerly. As it turned out the front arrived early ie 9pm and the winds averaged over 20knots for most of the race with up to 35knots in the small hours of Sunday.

Dereks son Mark was tactician for the day, so armed with the Deckman tablet PC and with Jane providing race start commentary he drilled us through sail set and boat trim. Initially there was some discussion as to the best end of the line to start, the mid solent end appearing to give a better wind angle for the Needles, but having less favourable tide so in the end we chose an inshore start with code 4 headsail. With seconds to go before the gun for our class start at 1030 we were well places, windward of the fleet within 3 boat lengths of the next boat sailing along the line. Just before the gun, we were headed by the next boat pushing us marginally over resulting in us being called OCS with the new Open 60 Estrella Dam. This meant we had to go back and restart which we duly did, although Estrella chose to ignore the recall and thus ended up with a DNF at the end of the race.

With work to do we were all hiking hard, although Venomous goes well on a beat and so we were soon overtaking the fleet in company with the open 60s, Volvo 60’s, and Formidable (who always seem to be somewhere nearby). ICAP Leopard the Farr 30m with over 35 crew on board was well past all everyone by the time they reached the Needles, we had the Open 60’s and Volvo 60s close by as we tacked past the Hurst forts. Martin taught us how to improve our tacking techniques, by speeding up the ‘cut’ where you spin the working sheet off the winch as the boat crosses head to wind on the next tack, to the point where we were getting from one tack to the next in 2-3 boat lengths.

With the sun out we were all hiking hard on the rail, seeing 10-12kn SOG in moderate seas and 20kn of wind as we closed the E Shambles marker (approx 50 nm from the start). We changed the code 4 for a the jib top as we started to bear away for the cardinal mark and then the fun began.

With the next mark the RORC Offshore buoy about 30nm, and the RORC safety mark 40nm further again we would have 70nm of asymmetric sailing mid English channel in 25-30knots of wind providing up to 20knots of boat speed!! As the A2 Kite went up, the acceleration was amazing, Venomous lifting the bows as she stated to surf down waves whilst those behind started to catch us up and then fall by the wayside as the boats speed increased. To steady the boat we also hoisted the stay sail, which increased our speed even further, rapidly overhauling Pindar (Volvo 60), and streaking away from Formidable. The extra speed kept Derek busy on the wheel with only slight inputs needed to direct the boat around wave tops and on course. It was as close to being on a 60 foot roller coaster you can get. All the steady rolling motion you get on a normal boat disappears to be replaced by small rapid direction changed overlaid on a huge sensation of forward speed a bit like water skis. Exhilarating. Unfortunately just as we were settling into the sleigh ride, the asymmetric kite tore from the tack line so all spare hands went forward to bundle it through the hatch. This introduced us to another technique called letter boxing where the sheet is led through the gap between the boom and the mainsail, so that in strong winds when dousing a kite you are able to keep it under control as it is pulled down and through the slot created at the foot of the mainsail.

Luckily it was soon to be Dereks birthday so with a resounding chorus of happy Birthday to you his birthday present, a general purpose mast head A2 kite was hoisted which enabling us to continue blasting our way to the RORC Ocean Safety buoy. We got there around 2100, leaving us just over 25nm to go to the finish. Down came the staysail and the Asymmetric and up went the #3 as we headed NW for Bembridge ledge. The weather front arrived early, with a steady drizzle as I took over from Derek for a stint driving on a course of 285M. the wind really started to pick up such that the main sheet trimmer was having to release the sheet on a regular basis to allow the helmsman to stay on course, although the situation was helped by everyone getting out on the rail again regardless of the weather conditions. Around 10pm we came past the Nab Tower light which seemed incredibly close as we passed to starboard of it, heading for the dim lights off the port bow provided by 6-7 ships anchored off Bembridge ledge waiting to get clearance by Solent VTS to enter Portsmouth or Southampton ports. As we continued on our course through the forts the dim light of a buoy off Gilkicker point came into view followed by a flashing orange light some way off to port… our finish line. We rapidly closed the distance and were welcomed by a sharp toot on the fog horn as we finished just after midnight at 0009. Elapsed time 13 hours and 39 minutes to do 146 nm giving an overall average speed of over 10.5 knots!!

With our work done, down came the headsail which the foredeck crew efficiently flaked into its sail bag whilst the main was dumped unceremoniously onto the deck to be tended to on the dockside. With the engine on and a good lockout kept for unlit racing markers we motored up to Cowes and after mooring up, got the battens out of the main, flaked and rolled it into its sail bag and headed for our respective bunks either on Venomous or Incisor.

Sunday 29th July

Around 9am I headed off for the red jet having checked the result.

1st in the SZ class (known in racing circles as a bullet) by over 20mins and 9th on IRC overall. An excellent days sailing and setting us up well for the Fastnet to come in 2 weeks time.

Total miles raced to date 743 nm of which 583 qualify for Fastnet entry (the rest were on Bear of Britain for the aborted Myth of Malham race.

RORC Cowes-Dinard-St Malo race

A study in helming

Above- L-R Derek, Ollie

Left - Jane

Jim grinding out the sea miles,

The crew driving Venom hard,

Charlie navigating with the road atlas!

Above L -R Our domestic paradise, Alderney race with the WW2 pill box

Friday 13th July 2007 - Fastnet qualifying

My day started at 0355 when the alarm went off!!! I was on the road by 0430 nursing a cup of tea in the travel mug cruising down empty motorways and A roads. I arrived at Hythe by 0630 and after finding nothing open for a coffee or bacon butty, got the 0640 ferry to Southampton which meant I managed to get the 0715 Red Jet to Cowes getting in just as the crew who had arrived the night before were getting up from their kip on Incisor. We all then grabbed breakfast at 'Tiffins' in the Yacht Haven and then met up on Venom who was moored opposite Bear of Britain.

Preparations were under way with victualling (food stowage to land lubbers), course laying (thats Tom Tom these days, although ours is called Mark Mark) and general tidying (translating to removal of anything unnecessary, and no that doesnt mean me!!).

This weekends course was one of the longer ones with our IRC SZ class start at 1000, heading West to the fairway buoy off the needles and then choosing a course to keep you West of all the rocks off the Casquets and Channel Islands, past Les Hanois and into Dinard/St Malo.

We left the pontoon just before 9am having rigged the necessary lines for the asymmetric and motored past the ISC where we hoisted the main. The forecast suggested a confused collection of weather fronts passing through, with wind generally coming from the SW increasing from 10-20 knots. The expectation was for the wind to become more Westerly, so to counter this our plan was to sail to a longitude intersecting the channel vessel and then start heading south.

0955 - We were powered up with a No2 jib driving too and fro along the start line with Mark and Debs counting us down whilst Roddy (fresh from a ducking on Bounder) and Martin called the shots on the sail trim. Looking behind us we saw Bear had a problem with her Main (it transpired it hadnt been repaired since the last time it was used and had battens sticking out of the pockets!!) and was well off the start line.

0959 we were in good position with 40 other class 0 and SZ boat carving each other up, and with the 1000 cannon we were off on port tack heading for Yarmouth as we overtook the yachts that had left before us. For most of this leg we were chasing the Open 60 Artemis, and were being chased by the Volvo 60 Pindar. Off Yarmouth Pindar caught a crab (actually she tacked it seemed without transferring all the water ballast) and stalled, giving us a good lead ahead of them as we passed the Needles. Striking out into Channel we were sailing on the same course and speed as Formidable whose skipper as a former fastnet winner we felt would guide us as to when to start heading South. Bear of Britain had patched up her main (having started under Jib alone!!) and was making good speed . In the distance Artemis dissappeared over the horizon, whilst we settled in to our routine with everyone not involved in trimming, driving or catering sat out on the rail, in what had turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. Around this time I did a stint on the helm practising steering to an apparent wind angle by instruments. Initially I found this very difficult with the course fluctuating 10-15 degrees off the chosen reading, however after Dereks suggestion of driving from the leeward wheel and being able to watch the jib telltales as well, my driving became less erratic and a little smoother.

By 7pm we were heading South and had passed the channel light vessel, with only a couple of other boats in our vicinity. The wind started to pick up and swing round so we were sailing on a close reach, with a few squally showers mixed in to make it uncomfortable for the people on the rail. On top of this the sea state combined with the direction we were sailing led to some of the crew feeling quesy (no names to protect the innocent particularly as one of the afficted was wearing the sea bands on his wrist that I had said cured my nausea!).

By 10pm jane had kindly got the dinner going and by 11pm the crew who fancied it were tucking into spag bol and pasta. At this time my early start was catching up with me so I grabbed 20 winks down below coming up just as the headsail was being changed from the heavy Code 4 to a Jib Top as the wind had freed and we were more on a reach. The wind had picked up to around 25knots with boat speeds estimated around 13knots due to the log needing calibrating (Another job on Dereks list!!). Mark and Debs were calling off the course and distance using the portable Deckman, a nifty tablet PC that wirelessly linked to all the instruments giving course steered, SOG, dist to waypoint etc.

Saturday 14th : Having passed Les Hanois buoy we were steering a course leaving the channel islands on our left which in the small hours with low visibility due to the rain showers gave an eerie feeling of being trapped as the various lighthouses flashed all around you.

With 30 mins to our ETA, we saw a green nav light off our port bow racing towards the orange flashing light marking the port hand end of the finish line. Turning on the radio to call in our name we heard it was Formidable, we'd sailed 164 miles virtually together with them finishing only seconds ahead of us! Artemis crossed ahead of them leaving us third over the line having beaten the other Volvo 60s and the multihulls. We crossed at 0431 with Bear finishing 30 mins later and amazingly considering their poor start and repaired mainsail Chippie manged to grab 1st place in the IRC SZ class.

Since we hadnt managed to do any qualifying races up until now we'd decided to immediately turn round after we crossed the line and head back for Cowes thus giving us a total passage of around 320 nm (300nm being required for fastnet qualification). We settled into a watch system 3 hours on 3 hours off on the way back, I stayed up on deck having grabbed an hour earlier and watched the sun rise around 0500 bringing Bear into view flying her union jack spinnaker. We hoisted a Fractional assymetric but were soon overtaken as Bear headed further East towards the Cherbourg end of the Alderney Race.

We arrived at the Race around midday in bright sunshine and headed close inshore to Alderney to stay out of the tide as much as possible. We made up good ground on Bear overtaking them as they maintained a mid channel station. Unfortunately our ruse failed to pay off as we pressed onto the North side of Alderney where we encountered the infamous rip. Even under Assymetric and with 12knots of wind we began to slow down until even after a number of gybes we started moving backwards just to the West of the WW2 German pillbox. The speed of the tide and the whirlpools and overfalls created are amazing to see, although not to Dereks liking when all of a sudden the depth guage read 1.1m (measured from the surface) not so good when you've got just over 4m keel beneath you!! We put it down to the cavitation around the hull from the whirlpools and had another cup of tea!!

By this time Bear had escaped the worst of the Races grip, and we were left no alternative but to switch the engine on and motor out. We then continued motorsailing until about 10pm when we lowered the main as there was no wind, bagged up the the headsails after removing the battens and stowed them below. Thanks to Debs for warming up the curry, very welcome news, the only thing missing and seemingly on most of our minds was would we get in for last orders!!

Sunday 15th. Unfortunately after routine checks, Derek realised we were short on diesel and so had to reduce revs on the engine. Approaching the Needles fairway buoy around midnight we unbagged the mainsail, and No 2 jib, inserted the battens and entered the Solent through the Hurst forts under sail in very light winds. Luckily we had the last of the tide helping us through just as the engine coughed for the first time. We continued under sail heading for the Island side until the tide turned and the wind dropped. Just as we were debating where to anchor, I looked to port and saw the silhouette of a familiar yacht ghosting up the middle of the channel. A call on Dereks mobile confirmed it was Bear and within 5 mins they were following us as we switched the engine on to see if we could make it to Cowes. Very quickly the engine died so we were taken under tow. Unfortunately the tide reduced our towed speed to just over 1knot SOG which would have meant a 6 hour tow into Cowes, so we decided it would be better to drop the hook off Newtown and for Derek to go back to Cowes on Bear so that he could bring Diesel back in his RIB. The hook was assembled and with transits checked, Martin kindly agreed to take first anchor watch whilst the rest of us tumbled into our bunks.

Derek was back within a couple of hours and after the engine was bled Venom was up and running again leaving just the simple matter of pulling up the hook. No matter how much we drove over it, pulled with the RIB or from above the RIB, it wouldnt shift so the decision was made to leave it behind buoyed so that it could be recovered when the tide turned. Unfortunately after shortening the rope between the anchor and the buoy, when it was released the tide dragged it under so that all that ws left to do was get a GPS fix and come back later.

We arrived back at Cowes around 8am were dropped off by Dave in the RIB since Venom would need another 4 hours of tide before she could clear the chain ferry chains to her berth and headed for a shower and bacon butties, thanks to Jim. Final result was Bear 1st, Venom 2nd in class, and overall IRC 85th and 90th respectively. More importantly we now had the qualifying miles needed for the Fastnet. Derek told me later that they had gone back as the tide turned and managed to pull up the anchor.

Guy Shelbourne 23rd July 2007

Round the Isle of Wight weekend 22-24 June

Neil and I turned up at the Sunsail office in Port Solent to find Andy and Sandra already there. Not long after Jim Bradley and his wife arrived all the way from Houston beating Paul, Max and Chris aho had travelled at least 100 miles!!

Sent off to shop with Sandra and Andy, I realised my beer rations budget was seriously under estimated as Sandra kept popping up at the end of each aisle with another box of Carlsberg export!! Arriving back at the boat the stores were loaded aboard and with Neil having inspected the boat, a Sunfast 37 with the thoughtful name of "Sunsail 49", we headed off to Shepherds Wharf marina in Cowes. Turning into Southampton Water we hoisted the main, raised the supplied #2 genoa and after passing through the small ships channel we beat up the Solent towards Cowes.

The Sunsail Sunfast 37's are pretty good considering they get hammered by charters. Apart from a dodgy depth sounder, and the fore peak being a bit damp, (sorry Chris hope the rheumatism is OK now!!) the berths below are generous, and sleep 8 in reasonable comfort. On the water she sailed well close hauled evn if a tad under canvassed with the #2 which was too small for the aft genoa sheet cars but too big for the ones we were using so it was diffuclt to flatten the foot of the sail. Comprehensive coarse and fine main sheet adjustment together with a decent length mainsheet traveller helped tune out the worst abuse the main sail had suffered in previous years. Fitted with 3 reefing lines we removed the top most as it was collapsing the leech a bit too much. Supplied for the race was the standard Sunsail spinnaker, soaking wet I'd like to think due to it just having been washed but more likely from a fishing trip!!

We sailed on past Cowes for a short while as we wanted to try the chute out before the race in the morning. After a little while figuring out how to run the sheet and guy, and which winch to use for the spinnaker hoist we were running back down to Cowes showing 8knots on the clock in about 16knots of wind. After a good drop in front of the Royal Yacht Squadron (couldnt have been more public if we'd messed that one up), we motored into Shepherds Wharf marina to raft up as the outermost boat of 6!! to be fair the only compalints were from the inner thigh brusing sustained from climbing over 6 pairs of guard rails!! I'd brought along a pot of chilli which went down well with beer and wine.

Now you may be wondering why the photos so far of Venom a Farr 60. Well due to the delays in getting the yacht I am doing the Fastnet on Windward Sailing had being given clearance to sail her for the RTI with her requiring only some interior work done later in July to be signed off as fit after her coming together with a car and the ground after being blown off her cradle in Florida prior to being loaded onto a ship bound for UK.

So, feeling a bit of a traitor, I left Sunsail 49 at 0330 in the morning for a 0400 liaison at the GBR yard to meet the rest of the crew who'd be taking Venom out for her maiden voyage with new owners.

At 0450 with Derek on the helm and Mark calling the shots we were under main and #1 tacking amongst some famous racing boats vying for a good starting position. Mark had informed us that this would be a training session to get to know the boat, 10 mins later I was wondering what would happen if Mark decided to go 'racing'!! With a minute to go Mark had Derek feathering Venom 100yds from the line with Panthera and one of the clipper yachts to Windward and Leeward of us. Seeing the opportunity to squeeze the TP to windward we slewed hard to port then to starboard forcing the TP to round up then managing to find some clear air we were through like a rat out of an aqueduct. ICAP Leopard had chosen the Royal Yacht Squadron end of the line either to keep out of the scrap or more likely to enjoy being the subject of the flotilla of photographers boats. With up to 17knots on the nose we beat up to te needles staying in the top 3 up to Yarmouth when the flying seesaws (the Vovo VX40 catamarans) came shooting past (one helmed by Dame Ellen), after which as we freed off throughb the Hurst forts, the TP52's got into their stride and overtook us. Past the needles we launched first one fractional assymetric, then a mast head one (some slight mix up in understanding which needs no further discussion Sandra tells me!!). With good boat speded we were at St Kats by 8am and held the kite to Bembridge ledge ready for the reach back up the Solent. Behind us there was a good battle brewing between Bear of Britain and Chernikeef 2 (virtually identical Farr 52's) even though Bears brand new spinnaker had eventually to be cut free after trawling it for a time around the needles. Heading round No Mans land Fort we started to punch some tide bu held on making good ground against the Volvo 60 and TP52 'Red' ahead of us. We arrived at Cowes just after 11am completing the course in 06:08:46 putting us 15th in class and 137th overall. there were over 1800 boats in the fleet that set off so this wasnt a bad result for Venoms maiden voyage.

So what happened to Sunsail 49? Theor start was 0610, and to all accounts they got a good start with Jim and Andy calling the tactical shots and claiming a few scalps on the way down to he needles. the good work continued after they raised the chute the only fly in the ointmnent being Sunsail 33 which tacked over them around Ryde causing a bit of a birds nest with the genoa sheets wrapped around the spinnaker pole. They completed the race 5 pints after I did in 09:09:21 coming 14th out of their fleet of 60. Excellent.

Full celebrations afterwards with food and beer in the Duke of York pub, followed by dancing apparently (according to Chris, Andy and Sandra) at the Yacht Haven whilst the rest of us climbed into damp sleeping bags around midnight.

The following day started slowly, luckily only one sad muppet rafted inside of us feeling the need to set sail before 10am. It was also a bit wet the only benefit of which was I realised my oilies were only fit for sponging out the bilges and not suitable for venturing into the Irish Sea. Looking around I realised Max looked the smuggest so have now got an excellent set of Gul 'skins'. After sailing down to within a mile of the Nab tower we then decided we'd rather be somewhere else so were tied up in Port Solent by 4pm and heading home by 5pm. All in all an excellent weekend. Guy Shelbourne June 26 2007

Myth of Malham race aka Bear and Curry evening

Friday 25th June (Bank Holiday Weekend)

Arriving at the Duke of York at 8:30pm, most of the Bear of Britains crew were there, with the remainder arriving on the first red jet Sat morning. I had joined Bear for this race for two reasons. 1. to get some more offshore racing experience even though the miles wouldn’t count towards my Fastnet qualification 2. I’d been overtaken by Bear so many times in the Solent it was too good an opportunity to miss out on sailing one of the most well known racing boats.

Getting down to business before the food arrived, 'Chippie' aka James Gair (probably only to the tax man) produced his laptop with the best estimates of the weather conditions for the next 3 days. NOT GOOD! A low deepening South off Ireland was going to race down the Channel during the weekend with good sailing conditions for the Sat race, but hellish strong winds on the nose (40kn+) for the trip back.

The race course was: start 0850 at Cowes yacht Squadron, head West to the Needles fairway buoy and then South to France passing the Casquets, and the Channel Islands to port to finish at St Quai Potrieux, West of St Malo. This course provided a nominal 160 race miles.

Saturday 26th June

Arriving at the dock we were met by the Racing Academy crew, Tank, Alex, Henry (make like a coffin) and Phil (Minister of the Interior). Having set up the A sail lines and stowed our belongings we headed out through the fairway and got the Mainsail up followed by the Medium Jib. Our plan was to follow the race track until we felt the weather was starting to close in when we’d peel off West towards Dartmouth and head back to Cowes via the Portland race.

Not exactly on the gun but powered up we crossed the start line amongst around 50 other yachts and headed for the needles. Halfway there we lost a halliard up the mast when setting the Asymmetric so Henry was sent up to retrieve it followed not long after by him almost MOBing when during the A2 drop the guy got wrapped round his leg dragging him down the deck. Chippie took the honourable decision and put his camera down to retrieve his crew, but in hindsight it would have made good video!! By this time we had overtaken all the fleet but 'Yani', passed the Fairway buoy and were managing our 3 hour watch system. We were heading much lower than the chasing fleet however round 4:30 pm, we crossed the track of the leading boats at about which time we officially retired from the race and headed for the East Channel cardinal. Although the wind conditions hadn’t changed much (we saw around 10-13kn) you could see small clouds building up on the horizon to the West looking like a forest fire. Preparing for the worst we tried a jib peel which involves hoisting the new jib behind the working sail. Unfortunately we failed on two occasions to achieve this, resulting on the second occasion to a tear near the #4 jib bolt rope. We abandoned this technique and relied on bare heading the boat before the new sail was hoisted. Passing the E Channel buoy we then headed for the Channel light vessel as Chippie wanted to reminisce on happy days when becalmed one race he circled it twice whilst drifting in one 12 hour period!

Sunday 27th June

After passing the lightship we then headed North for Lyme bay and at some stage during the small hours whilst I had my head down the on watch crew warmed up the curry and then proceeded to have what seemed like a stag night party. One minute down below was ship shape and in racing fettle the next it looked like Baghdad! At around 3am the breeze had dropped to less than 7kn so with wind off, we put engine on as the tide around Portland Bill was pushing us west by around 2kn. By 5am the call came for the starboard watch to hall out the head sail which to Chippies dismay took 20 mins to hoist. After a debrief as to the differences between being on watch and off watch! we were woken up by Tank drilling us in a series of quick tacks up the Solent as we passed Yarmouth and Lymington. This is where Henry started to perform amazing dissappering acts on the bow, one minute he was on one rail the next he reappeared on the opposite rail without seemingly to have physically moved. Chippie managed to catch this amazing transition on video indicating an interim phase where he paused briefly between tacks to lie in a coffin like trance under the spinnaker pole! I didn’t realise the racing academy had Harry Potter as part of the core syllabus.

By this time it had started to rain so by 9 am we were tied up in Cowes yacht Haven and by 10am had stripped ‘Bear’ of all sails, personal belongings, curry pans and floor boards so the remains of the curry party could be scrubbed away.

After a debrief at 1230 in the Anchor I headed back home deciding not to sty and sail on the Monday as the back pain sustained earlier in the week was beginning not to respond to Max Strength Ibuprofen suggesting further exercise might not be a good thing! 45 boats did finish, Yani taking line and handicap honours in 15.5 hours. Full results at http://www.rorc.org/raceresults07/mythofmalhamrace/rau06.html

Guy Shelbourne 29-5-07

French Karma

Friday 4th May

Beating the Bank Holiday traffic I managed to get to Cowes for 6pm to find Jane and Derek provisioning Chernikeef 2 and Bear with a goodly supply of chocolate! Later on two ladies having travelled from Inverness joined us for the weekends racing un beknown to them meaning 36 hours of continuous sailing with no stops in Normandy for Croissants and Moules!! The highlight as they decanted their suitcase into a carrier bag supplied by Derek, was the appearance of a hot water bottle! We figured this could be deemed water ballast and might affect our handicap so sadly it was left ashore! You can be sure Sandra will add this to her list of items banned on board. Dinner was held at the Duke of York in the South African Embassy where the vast majority of 'Keefs' and 'Bears' crew turned up.

Around 1130pm Chris and I made it back from the Anchor to be faced by a small dilemma of where to sleep as only one berth was left. I chose to sleep on the light wind jib shown in the middle of the photo (not recommended), and decided at 5:30 am that since I couldnt sleep I'd head for the showers. We were scheduled to leave the marina around 6:30 since any later would have left us stranded in the marina at LW unable to get to the race start at 8:50am.

Saturday 5th May. If you've ever had your car stolen its how I felt when I came back from the showers. I got to the pontoon, looked around, decided I wasnt on the right pontoon, walked back, returned only to find the same empty berths. They'd only gone without me!! No worries I'll have a coffee and a bacon buttie before the troops sleeping ashore turn up to take the RIB to the two boats which are now gently parading up and down the fairway in front of ISC like two courting swans. 2 problems then faced me, a. Cowes doesnt wake up until 8am, b. cash, phone all on the boat. Around 7:45 bright and breezy the rest of the team arrived and we were ferried out to our repective boats, Chris did say he had wondered where I was!!!

With Derek on the helm we joined the fleet circulating around the Royal Yacht Squadron from the start. Our first task was to present ourselves to the committee boat dressed, overall in life jackets and harnesses (We wore virtual harnesses added using Adobe photoshop until Rob and Tom rocked up in the RIB with the real thing!). The forecast was initially for light winds with a period around lunchtime when 1 weather system would exhaust itself and be replaced by another hopefully immediately, which would bring very strong winds (yachtmans gale expected around midday Sunday). On this basis the course set was Start Trinity House/Cowes Mooring Buoy, East to Snowden, Horse Sand Fort, Owers buoy, Rustington buoy (almost opposite Worthing) and then South for Le Havre. Being in the SZ class we started last at 8:50. Bear feeling they were OCS went back and restarted giving us a good lead on them all the way up through the forts and to the Owers buoy. It was a great feeling for all of us as we powered up the race track overtaking everything in sight. The only boat that seemed to be holding its head up was the TP52 Fidessa Fastwave II. The winds at this time were giving us a boat speed around 6-7 knots using our light wind jib, which we struggled to pull into shape, eventually being passed by Bear to leeward. Heading for the Rustington buoy around midday we launched the Asymmetric spinnaker in winds that were becoming very fluky and watched the TP52 fall into a hole close to the mark leaving them with no choice but to douse the chute and hoist the jib again. We tracked out in Bear's direction and were impressed at the ease they made the mark rounding a good 10 mins ahead of us and 5mins ahead of the TP52. At this point we dropped the spinnaker and on a reach hoisted the medium jib, in anticipation of stronger winds mid channel. For the next few hours we maintained position, with the TP52 and Bear ahead of us and 'Yani' a Marten 49 just behind us. The wind stayed a steady 8-10 knots through the afternoon until around 6pm when we got a little more breeze which helped us break away from Yani leaving us a course midway between Bear which had gone west looking for wind and the TP52 falling off to the East in order to fly their kite. As night fell so did the wind so we headed slightly east in order to set the reaching assymetric which helped to get our speed up around 5knots but by midnight we wre striggling to maintain 2 knots. At this stage Mark, our navigator, was concerned our course was all over the place (which it was as we looked for wind), I can't remeber the number of times the hatch by my feet popped up followed by an insistent enquiry as to what course did we think we should be steering!! By 1am we were close to the finish and could smell the Gitanes smoke, but the wind dropped leaving us with an impressive 0.05 knots of boat speed. At this time Rob (our own Jamie Oliver) got the spag bol on and around 2 am in shifts we tucked in warming us up from what was turning out to be a very chilly evening. It took another 2.5 hours to get to the line being pipped at the last minute by Yani who stormed in from Port to cross a minute ahead of us. We crossed on 6 May at 03:31:15 giving an elapsed time of 18:41:15. Bear had crossed half an hour after the TP52 and 1 hour 10 mins ahead of us leaving them 2nd in class with us 3rd.

6th May 2007 Down came the reaching chute as we crossed the line and headed under main and engine back for blighty. At around 5 am the wind kicked in and Tom seeing 10knots of boat speed stopped the engine and got out the Heavy jib ready for what turned out to be a blitzing power reach back home. The wind eventually reached 20 knots with us seeing regularly 12-13knots of boat speed! At this speed the Farr 52 sounds just like a laser dinghy with a hollow sounding crunch as it punches through waves, unfortunately some of them getting into the boat such that every hour Charlie and Tom would wake up and dump 4 buckets from the bilges overboard.

We were in the Solent by 1:30 pm taking 10 hours to do the 70 miles. Although slightly overpowered it was exhilirating sailing making up for the benign conditions on the way out. By 3:30pm we were in Cowes and by 5pm having a well earned pint in the Anchor. 'Bear' is participating in the Myth of Malham race next Bank holiday with my next race being the Morgan Cup to St Helier on 15 June. Bring it on...

Guy Shelbourne 8th May 2007