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