Its been a long time in coming but I'm ready to go. To make an afternoon of it I decide to park in Hythe and take the ferry from Hythe pier to Southampton. Theres some history associated with this being the oldest surviving pier still running a narrow guage railway, quite honestly, today all I'm interested in is getting to Cowes as quick as possible.
Hythe Pier railway and ferry. L-R looking to seaward, landward with the engine, the Hotspur IV ferry boat
Deciding to get the Red Funnel Fast Jet passenger cat to West Cowes, I arrived around 4:30pm and wandered over to Cowes Yacht Haven where the Sailing Academy trainees were preparing 'Bear of Britain' and 'Chernikeef 2' both Farr 52's, the only visible difference being a beak of a bowsprit on Chernikeef 2. 'Bear' is a familiar site on the Solent having being campaigned for several years by Kit Hobday until he sadly died last year from cancer. www.ybw.com/auto/newsdesk/20060523095140ymnews.html
Through his and Peter Harrisons generosity they set up the Yacht Racing Academy together with UKSA each placing Bear and Chernikeef 2 under the academies protective custody and giving annual scholarships to up to 30 people, (16-24's) who passed the gruelling selection weekend, the opportunity to sail some of the most potent sailing weapons on the Solent. Even though the two guys I sailed with, Matt and Tom had only be on board for a few weeks they knew their stuff and together with 'Chippy' our crew boss and Ian our skipper we were soon 'jumping' the halliards and grinding the 'main caddy'.
Chernikeef 2 - L-R The huge carbon rig, the business end with bowsprit, Fantasy land
At the dock I met up with Derek, who runs Windward Sailing with his wife Sandra, in the middle of earning some beer money, by sending Adam into the marina behind a power boat whose owner had just chucked the boat keys in the drink. Adam did a good impression of hunting high and low for 10 mins without appearing to have much luck, but I think as he got cold he bobbed up keys in hand, much to the owners delight. A pony changed hands (Derek handling the financial aspects!) and beers all round! I'm sure Adam had the keys in his wet suit all the time!!
After 5:30 the rest of the crew starting turning up for beer at the Anchor pub where we heard the story from Derek as to Venoms fate in Florida. Lying in her cradle waiting to be transferred onto the cargo vessel for transfer back to the UK, a mini tornado hit, which tumbled a 77' yacht (chocked up on wood blocks) onto Venom which landed on an oil drum and a new car! It seems these saved her from being written off and now she's in Hamble Marinas boat shed for the 4'x8' 'alternate companionway' to be repaired which should take 6-8 weeks. Dinner was enjoyed at the Island Sailing Club after which we trooped back to the Yacht Haven to sleep on 'Incisor' Windward Sailings other race boat, a Corby 45.
Saturday 21st May
Up bright and early after little sleep, found a few of us littering the cafes in Cowes drinking coffee and fueling up on bacon butties. Meeting up at the pontoon by Bear and Chernikeef we were split up into two teams, Derek taking out Bear and Ian skippering Chernikeef, with Sandra keeping a watchful eye on her prospective Fastnet crew.
Ian briefed us on the various positions in the crew from bowman through to pitman, sewer man and pit bitch, through to sheet trimmer and grinder, main caddy trimmer and grinder to Helm. The part of the boat at the helm is called 'never never land' whilst the aft deck usually occupied by the navigator/skipper/owner(if its not raining) is called 'Fantasy land'.
After casting off into light winds and glassy seas we headed out of Cowes heading East through the flotilla of weeekend sailors up through Osborne bay on a reach towards Portsmouth. Bear had left some time before us and ended up near the Nab tower before hoisting the spinnaker to broad reach back, Ian chose to stay West of the forts where we had good breeze to practice the different techniques needed to sail the boat. I started as mid-bowman handing the carbon kevlar reinforced jib to the bowman who plugged the tack into the bow cleat, fed the luff through the 'monkey balls' and up the luff track and attached the halliard. With sheets attached the jib was hoisted leaving the foredeck to duck, trip, fall headlong through the jib skirt every time we tacked.
Chernikeef 2 - the engine room
Around 11am Sandra called for sausage rolls and doughnuts at which point with sticky fingers we swapped round and I had a couple of hours helming. In 12knots of wind we were sailing upwind at over 8 knots but other than the fact you are overtaking everything else on the water it doesnt feel that fast. Off Fawley Ian called for the spinnaker, actually called 'lucky' due to the number of times its been repaired, to which we attached guys, sheets and tack line ready for hoisting behind the jib. Unfortunately its time had ran out and the luff tore up the starboard side so it was dropped for the sewer rats to repack whilst handing up an alternative. Big boat assymetric spinnaker sailing Chippy told me started on Bear a few years ago but its been so successful that you'll rarely see symmetrics being used these days. Usually theres a small bowsprit and its customary to transfer the tack from the tack line to the pole, unfortunately today the poles cleat was broken so we just sailed with the tack line. I had a go at bagging the spinnaker which involves spending 10 mins down below in the equivalent of a sauna! Theres a line run from the bow to the stern of the boat on pulleys to which the head of the spinnaker is attached and run to the back of the boat. With it out of the way the tack and clew can then be gathered along the foot of the sail and tied up with wool before the same is done with the head so that when hoisted it doesnt 'pop' until the sheet is hauled to the stern quarter. Guess whose spinnaker was the only one to launch with a couple of twists in it!! Sandwiches and chocolate were handed around whilst continuing to sail with us wrapping up the day at Cowes for a debrief and excellent chocolate cake around 4;30.
After the housekeeping and a quick pint it was off to the Embassy room at the Duke of York for a three course meal including bread and butter pudding (makes for good windward performance on the rail). Cowes was heaving with hen parties and stag nights but the majority of us ignored these distractions and headed back to the comfort of our beds!!Pipe cots - all you need for a good nights sleep!
Sunday 22nd April
Getting a headstart on the Sunsail flotilla was the name of the game, so it was up at 7am to avoid the queues at the Yacht Havens showers!! By 9 we were all ready but we had to wait an hour before there was enough water to let the 2.5m draft of these Farr 52's clear the mud. As it was, we were running from stern to bow, and on to port to rock us through the fairway (a bit like race starts at Portishead!!) before we were in the main channel out of Cowes. The winds were much lighter but Ian sniffed out a breeze towards the West so we headed downwind under assymetric to learn the mysteries of spinnaker trimming and transferring the tack onto the newly mended pole.
L-R - Jib Sheet trimming, windward rail riding,
The 'Bear' approaches!
I spent the start of the day on jib and spinnaker trimming, and then switched to the bow, where Chippy ran through the complexities of assymetric guy and sheet cleating together with port/starboard halliard transfer even whilst still on the rail. Towards the end of the day we were getting quite slick with pole handling and caught up with Bear around Ryde for some friendly match racing to Cowes.
"On your marks...."
The first leg down to Osborne bay was a spinnaker set with 2-3 gybes during which we let Bear believe they'd get to the mark to first, but with some clever navigating and wind sense we overtook them with about 10 boat lengths to spare. The next mark was a beat which again having given Bear a head start we soon caught up and rounded first after which in company we spinnakered back to Cowes to finally drop the sails as the wind was dissappearing. The weekend finished with a debrief by Derek and Ian with plans set for the Le Havre race on 5th May where I'll be sailing on Chernikeef 2 (theres been some rearrangement of the dates so that we can do 3 RORC races on Venom when shes repaired, see revised Blog).
Guy Shelbourne 23.4.07
L-R: A good assymetric set, 'Behind You', You can run but you can't hide!
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