A study in helmingAbove- L-R Derek, Ollie
Left - Jane
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
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
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