PCC Spring Race #1

17th March 2007

HW on Saturday was at 1814 so race start was at 1714 with the latter half of the race being sailed at twilight. Aquila locked out from Portishead marina at 1630 with Andy on helm with crew of Sandra, Chris, Huw and myself. In the marina we could see it was going to be a wild evening and also with the England Wales rugby match meant that we were the only ones who ventured out for the race from Portishead. Passing the pier we got the full force of the wind, averaging 24 knots (F6) with gusts over 30 knots F7-gale 8) coming straight up the channel (WSW).

We motored over to the start line doing 7knots with just bare poles and the engine to find that only one other brave soul (Dave in White Spirit) had come out to play. I called Julia up on Ch37a who was OOD for a quick discussion on race conditions and she decided a course that took us from the start at the River Avon entrance past Portbury Pier to the Firefly buoy (taken to starboard) off Portishead Marina and then out into the channel for the 2.5nm leg to Denny Island (again to starboard) and back to the start line.

With the very strong winds we rethreaded the second reef into the third reef points and let out a handkerchief off genoa ready for the start. White Spirit had a storm jib with deep reefed main and on the gun was about 50 yds behind us as we crossed the line on port tack, punching directly into the rolling waves. To stay out of the current we quickly tacked onto starboard however with the waves now on the beam and the strong tide driven by the wind we were pushed back to the start line even though the Swash bank usually gives you some respite from the tidal stream. White Spirit made up some ground and was pointing well with her dedicated jib driving her through the waves. In this way we continued to tack towards Portbury pier with Huw and myself althernating the winching and sheet tailing. After 40 mins we had just cleared the pier and started to pick up the back eddy around west dock middle, White Spirit still within 100 yds of us as we played the eddy up towards Portishead Pier. Two quick tacks took us past Firefly where normally we would continue up towards battery point to get a good angle on Denny Island alllowing for the tide sweeping you up river, however we felt that with the wind direction and the way Aquila was driving hard into the waves we could just about make the island close hauled. Julia called us up at the 1 hour mark to check if we wanted to continue, nods all round so off we went. The windspeed indicator was now recording gusts peaking at 41knots with an average around 27 knots, definitely the strongest winds I've raced in at PCC, but with the sail configuration Aquila felt comfortable on the helm and was only washing the side decks in the strongest of gusts. At this point Huw kindly pointed out how relieved to be at home he'll be whilst I'm in the western approaches in the Fastnet race when he hears on the shipping forecast "Fastnet, Lundy, Irish Sea Gale Force 8, veering Gale force 9 at times, sea state rough to very rough!!" Boat speed was around 6 knots with SOG around 5.5 knots so Denny very quickly appeared on the nose, a little too high for comfort however Andy managed to pinch some out of our course and we got past with about 50yds to spare. White Spirit had pointed well and similarly cleared the island. Rounding to the North we gybed over to starboard tack and eased the sheets with the wind oscillating forward and aft of the mast. We let out some more genoa (having to sheet from the opposite side as one primary winch failed) lit the Tricolour and settled in for a wild beam reach back to Avonmouth. We were seeing speeds on the log up to 8.5 knots as we surfed through the waves aiming for the Cockburn light taking out a lot of ground between Aquila and White Spirit (incidentally lit up like a christmas tree). Aiming for the darkness between Avonmouth lighthouses and Portbury Andy pumped the tiller as the waves surged us along with our elapsed time as we crossed the line being 1hr 36 mins. We were convinced Dave would fly a spinnaker (perhaps 30kn+ is a bit too much even for him!) and he followed us in around 10 mins later. Leaving the River Avon the wind and seas had picked up even more and as it was on the nose we stowed the sails and punched for Portishead under engine. As we were passing Portbury pier the engine overheat buzzer came on (we had been at full throttle which still only gave us 1.5kn SOG) so we tacked off from the Pier with a small amount of headsail whilst the engine cooled before resuming course and getting some shelter inside the West Dock buoys. We locked back into the marina at 7pm all feeling a bit beaten up but pleased with our evenings performance.

Post race note: It must have been wild we didnt even have a beer on he way back.