Crew: Gareth Wreaden, Dave Trossell, Clem Jones, Dave Killey, Paul Mace.
Friday
Many preparations before the race – bought far too much
food, enough for the Fastnet! If it’s warm you don’t eat so much and an
abundance of nibbles is unnecessary. The pasta and cottage pies work well but
there is not too much demand for salads from the crew.
The week was a bit of a
drama as the crew kept on changing – in the end it worked out well as a friend of
Gareth from BT joined in to make a full team.
After the obligatory dinner at the Royal Southern (with
David Aspinall who was locked out) we set off in good time to get to the start
line at Cowes in good weather – force 4-5 from the South West. The start is a
very civilised 10:30am for our class so we didn’t have to leave much before
9am, which made a change.
Our start was the usual
rather cautious one surrounded by lots of highly competitive yachts so we still
end up in the middle of the fleet rather than the front but it doesn’t matter
to much as it’s a long race. There were over 200 competitors; many big boats
that started later than us make it interesting. After tacking close
inshore to gain the most from the tide we settled down to a great race to the Needles
following another Storm, both of us doing rather well.
Unfortunately at the Needles the wind got up and we needed to
drop down to the #2; after a slight miscommunication between the skipper and
the foredeck we ended up doing a tack change and almost hit the Shingles bank before
passing the Needles at 1pm. Ending up in very rough water we tried to get out of
it by going east initially but then realised that the rest of the fleet bashed through it to get west early on. Never mind, we carried on and when things settled down found we were towards the back of the fleet but reminded ourselves that with
our handicap that’s all we can expect. Crossing the channel was a long slog
through a very lumpy sea left over from the gale earlier that week even though
the wind has dropped to a 5. We just could not get the boat to go as fast as we
would like. It was very frustrating, like going through a mogul field but at least
we were holding our own with the boats around us.
I went below off watch for a short period after
dinner and when I emerged it was wonderful – the sea has flattened just enough to
be comfortable and the sky had cleared to show a mass of stars. Soon there was a
real sense of security as the three great lights of the Casquets dead ahead
plus Alderney and Cap de la Hague to port. We started to go faster and due to a
favourable wind shift were able to clear the Casquets in one tack giving us a
real advantage over those who went west first – we are back in the race with a
chance!
It was a very exhilarating
sail in perfect conditions to Les Hanois, lots of yachts about seemed to be
taking chances by going further in shore; night sailing at its best. As dawn
breaks the wind veered again and we were able to put the kite up; for a while all is well but
then the tide turned really foul. The next few hours are best forgotten, highly
frustrating. We seemed to be in the worst possible position to the west of the
Plateau des Minquiers – those ahead still seemed to have wind and were able to
creep over the horizon; those behind came up to us then stopped dead. For one hour
we only went a mile west then a mile east as the tide turns making no progress of
any significance.
Eventually, as always, some wind pipes up and we drifted on to
St Malo accompanied by several larger yachts; we were not the only ones in
trouble. The finish is not too easy to see from offshore but we trusted the Decca
and dead reckoning to go to the right spot whilst others mill around in the
wrong place. We ended up crossing the line
just after 3pm; the race officers were still there but clearly tempted to
retire to St Malo.
On goes the engine, sails down and a quick dash for the
harbour for dinner! It was great to see the walled city again and we entered in
perfect, sunny conditions feeling on top of the world – until the lock keeper
closed the gates when we are 100m away! – typically French!! To make matters
worse a big ship came out so we didn't berth until 7pm BST, 8pm local time.
Moored inside the marina we were close to the showers and
restaurants so despite the delays within an hour of leaving the lock we were
demolishing an enormous plateau de fuite de mare – Clem is an absolute
expert in this form of demolition. A split develops in the team Clem and I went on for a few drinks whilst the others returned to the boat – what stamina? After
a very quiet beer in an Irish pub ( the only one with any space inside) we too
succumb and retire gracefully although lots of other crews are hitting the town
in style.
Monday
In the morning we said farewell to Clem and Paul who returned by ferry then set off as soon as the lock opened at about 10 am on a hot sunny
day with a light Northerly wind! We started chugging towards the Iles des
Chausey but the ferry soon comes up behind us and nearly ran us down – we looked out for Clem & Co but they must have been in the cafeteria.
Later we tried to sail and
get up to about 3.5 kn, not enough for a long trip against the clock but enough to get us into a good position to take maximum advantage of the race when the tide
turned. Joy of joys, two dolphins then joined us for nearly half an hour. They rode
the bow wave, the stern wave; went alongside us, always as a pair in lockstep a
few inches apart. Sometimes, starting from a way off, they dived and headed straight for the keel moving apart at the last moment to go either side. They
came very close so there was a real feeling of being together with these
beautiful, intelligent mammals who were so obviously having fun with us. They were quite large – about 3m long with very broad backs; we took lots of photos
hoping some would come out well. After they left I lunched in style while the
others had sandwiches – its not worth bringing good food on board for a race!
Unfortunately the wind dropped and the peace of sailing without an engine had to
be broken if were are to get home on Tuesday, so we motored past Jersey.
Gareth was navigating to get some real experience and try
putting some of the Yachtmaster theory into practice. It was like that for all
of us once - he makes lots of mistakes although not serious and learns a lot.
By nightfall we were in the race doing almost 10 knots over the ground and popped out into the Channel like a cork out of a bottle. The crossing was uneventful;
we ended up making a landfall off Lulworth Cove (another of Gareth’s little
errors) I called Lynda over the VHF with a link call who had an attack of the
giggles when she realised where we were - much to Gareths embarrassment who was able hear it all together with the others over the deck speaker.
Its always a great feeling to return past the Needles after
a long passage and this was no exception. Soon we were in the Solent and drifting along in light winds with the Spinnaker up but making good progress as there was a
fair tide. We moored at 2pm, quickly sorted the boat out and went home satisfied
after a good trip, if not always sailing.
The provisional results showed that we came 16th
out of 31 so we were relatively pleased at first; unfortunately they re-worked
the handicaps and in the final results we were less well placed as a couple of yachts beat us on revised handicap but it was still a good result for us.
I Compared notes with the
skipper of “Red Alert” a Contessa 34 who
was also in the race and came in 4th. They really pushed it over the
rough stuff in the Channel but had the same sail plan as us - #2 with 2 reefs
in the main. They ended up constantly dumping the main and destroyed it as
a result. We must find a way of getting through such seas faster without the
costs they incurred! As a result they arrived at the Casquets about an hour
earlier than we did which was enough to get them through the tidal gate after Les
Hanois; they then arrived at the finishing line about six hours earlier – the whole
fleet was really spread out at that time with us in the middle.
A short time after the results were published we were
surprised to be invited to the prizegiving as we’d won a prize! This turned out to for the team from the Royal
Southern YC who competed in the Inter-Club Points Championship; we hadn't even
known we were part of it! Thanks to the outstanding performance of Tom and Vicky Jackson on “Sunstone” who had
come first in class and a respectable performance from the rest of the members
we’d won! In due time a press release was published and Meltem was reported in
the nationals, including the Times, what a surprise.
It’s a great race and it was fantastic to be able to compete
in it. We were very much in the race and with more practise we all felt we
could do better next time. The Storm we tussled with as far as the Needles came
in at about the same time as Red Alert in 5th place that shows how
the boat can perform with the right gear and tactics in these longer races.
