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Highlights:
Not being afraid to fly the bitch in high wind. Mike doing his stuff in the Marina (see downers). Gaining on a beat through tactics
Downers:
Mike doing his stuff in the Marina, Yuk. Broach Numbers 1 and 2. Breaking stuff quite a lot.
Result:
3rd on PYR and 4th on PER. Not too bad, considering the complete stuff ups.
Lessons Learnt:
Learn to love broaching. Always pass a mark according to the sailing directions for the race. The Bitch can be a real Bitch, especially in high wind.
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Pictured: Broaches 1 and 2, though thankfully Matt didn't get the really bad ones as evidence!
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Race 5 Spring Series. Long inshore. Friday 21st May
Wind 17 - 25 with gusts of more, Strong wind warning. North West.
You've got to hand it to him, he never gives up. This morning it seems Mike is recovering from a big barbeque, so it's the "I've got a stinking hangover, drank several bottles of top shelf stuff, feeling awful, but we'll show you how to sail anyway" routine at and around briefing time. Hamish is still out of the country so Freddy, our reservist, is sailing with us today for a long, 16 mile course up and down to South Pole. On board, rigging Jackal, we are met with the disgusting site of Mike throwing up into the Marina, blaming his weakness now on 'food poisoning'. Some people just can't handle their binge drinking....
We get out of the Marina quickly, lest Jackal's fast, clean streamlined hull be fouled, and hoist sail. It's certainly blowing today. That Seal has a half hour head start and streaks off down the course while we mill about on the line. Off we go - a good start and overhaul the others up to East Bouy, the top mark, in very fresh (near gale force) conditions. Tacking around and bearing off we find ourselves on a reach that's just a little tight for raising the Bitch in these conditions. No matter, we're pulling about seven or eight knots anyway. Getting down to Earth Station mark we come off the wind for a run to South Pole and now raise the Bitch. All goes well...
Beating back, we hug the reef, getting lifted all the way. But the water is lumpy with waves of about a metre in places slowing our boatspeed. Freddy is doing an excellent job catching all the spray, protecting the rest of us. There's then a run down to South Pole and again we set the Bitch, gaining on that dratted Seal all the time. We wonder why nobody else are flying spinnakers, and it's only after we turn at the top mark again after our second beat, that we understand why.
Starboarded by the Seal twice on the beat we manage to slip past at the mark and reach high to the Earth Station mark, in order to raise the Bitch early, scream away into the distance and win by a country mile. Bad mistake. Broach Number 1: a full rounding-up, boom in the water, shrimp-trawling howler (which nearly puts us on dry land). We recover and proceed quickly to Earth Station mark where we attempt to gybe past the mark to a new heading for South Pole. Broach Number 2: An even worse howler that sees us rounding up before the mark, deep water trawling this time. We even have good boat speed, flat on our side past the mark, missing it by a couple of feet from our mast tip. Trouble is, we're on the wrong side of it!
We let fly the sails. Jackal stays on her side. We dump the Bitch in the water and Jackal starts to come up, while the Seal sails past calmly, securely - obviously in total control, taking photos of our calamity. Now we're hauling in the wet 300 tonne sail, trying to get the jib out and tack over to bear off again and round the mark in the proper manner. The wind is gusting strongly to say the least. Caught by a gust of wind on the wrong side of the sail just while preparing to gybe (and before we've hauled in the main) and whammo, the boom crashes right across, breaking the mainsheet strop in two. So we round up again out of control with mainsheet and blocks lying on the cockpit floor.
This is not going very well for us.
A quick jury rig sees us turning back on course for South Pole without spinnaker and with a main which has also split in two vertically in the middle of the foot. And the Seal is in front of us again! Around South Pole we hug the reef once more, while the Seal tacks far out and we finish some 5 minutes ahead of her having made a huge gain on that leg at least. What a day!
Mike has retired with keel problems (though we all know it's his weak stomach). Polly nearly sank as she cracked her keel box in the rough waves. And we came third on PYR, fourth on Personal, though I thought we had perhaps done better. These broaches really do kill your time.... The good news is that Matt, on board the Seal, sent photos, so we've included them. Mainly for Mike, so he can keep laughing at us and forget his ultra-weak liver.
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