Race Report - 27-28 June

On Saturday, I was pleased to join Chris Torrens and his family (Oliver and Perdy Light) on Defender.

The Darings were also joined on Saturday by a Norwegian sailor from the Fredrikstad IOD fleet, who I had last met racing in Bermuda in May and to whom I had issued an open invitation to join us in Cowes on his way back across the Atlantic. Having made contact from Studland Bay on Thursday night, we made arrangements and Chris Preston's crew on Destroyer were gracious hosts.

Unfortunately I didn't identify anybody to write up Sunday, so you'll have to tolerate a short video courtesy of Stephen Dirou and a statement of results!

Saturday 27 June

Race Report Part 1 - Defender

The day dawned inauspiciously, with a fair flat calm. In the late morning an Easterly filled in, although the forecast was due for this to die and be replaced with a Westerly.

A course was published for an East-going start at the scheduled time of 1215, with a very conservative and sensible windward-leeward course between Royal London and the marks off Cowes Green, allowing for shortening at each transit past Cowes. However, the modest Easterly breeze faltered just before the start and the answering pennant was hoisted.

A second attempt to get underway was made 90 minutes later, as the Easterly breeze stubbornly refused to be replaced by the Westerly. The first mark was Goodall Roofing, on the Ryde Middle Bank. It was upwind and up-tide. The start line was skewed heavily towards the pin, with boats almost unable to cross on Starboard. Given all that, there was a premium on being on the line rather than behind it.

Destroyer and Defender showed their early daredevil approach by both actually being slightly over the line at the start, with Destroyer alternately chasing and pushing Defender up. Other boats started "cleanly", although many were some way behind the line.

As both boats cleared the line however, it became clear that it hadn't been the worst "tactic" and they remained comfortably ahead of all other boats as they embarked on a drag race from the line to the tidal relief of the shore on Port tack. Defender, who had ducked on Starboard to clear the line rather than tacking onto Port, seemed to have gained an early advantage by clearing herself at the biased pin. On Port, she was some way to weather of Destroyer and probably clear in the event of a tack.

However, Destroyer sailed with good height and Defender might have been in trouble if the wind had not lifted both boats as they approached the shore. Destroyer tacked, Defender also tacked upwind, and after a short interval both boats started approaching the shore again.

Both were in the mood for pushing their luck however, and one or two tacks later found themselves in trouble. Tacking nearly simultaneously at the far end of the Shrape, first Defender touched mid-tack and then, perversely, Destroyer touched shortly after tacking and heading back offshore. They later determined that they had found themselves inside a small spit coming off just short of Castle Point (Google Maps Link).

Every trick was pulled to try to get the boats off, including putting men over to heave her off, but even with the help of an energetic UKSA rib no luck was had due to the falling tide and contrary contours. The boats were secured, anchors laid and the evening high tide was awaited, with Chris Preston diligently choosing to remain aboard Destroyer until she could be recovered.

At this stage, out of the action, we watched the wind die behind us and eventually fill from the West. The fleet hoisted kites and sailed past us (some time later!) to complete the first leg. I now hand over to Liz Borrell of Diamond for the rest of the report!

Race Report Part 2 - Diamond

After watching Destroyer and Defender dice with fate, Diamond decided to take a tack back offshore in line with the Shrape pole - this proved fruitful.

We were feeling too lucky to be true but Dolphin was quick at our heels and the lagging boats were no longer lagging, but coming in hot with the westerly breeze - spinnakers up.

So now we played the fun game of “find the best band of breeze” where hopes were both dashed and re-found minute by minute. While we enjoyed the lead for a while, Doublet came out on top. While Dancer was speeding in close behind, we managed to overhaul them through nicking a bit of their breeze. At this point, I confess, I was distracted by a “hard to spot spinnaker” as we got shyer and shyer and I lost track of where the other boats were.

Diamond rounded the first mark after Doublet and Darius, closely followed by Dancer. We took advantage of our ability to do a handbrake turn and gained quite a bit of ground on the leaders.

Ed.: at about this point the race was shortened, and the boats would finish on their return through Trinity buoy.

Then came the decision of when to tack back out to stay in the now-turned tide. I believe that Dancer tacked first, followed by Doublet and then us on Diamond. Darius determinedly stuck on course into the island - but unfortunately found the tide had well and truly turned, giving us the chance to sneak by.

The lead three boats then came on and off the wind as it moved around to try and gain speed by slackening off. At one point Diamond managed to gain a huge amount but then decided to throw it all away as Dancer gained from a well-timed tack and lift. Doublet throughout held happily onto the lead. Diamond worked hard to try to claw second place back from Dancer, but to no avail.

All round - a lovely day on the water.

The second Saturday race was postponed and rescheduled, via an amendment, for 1115 on Sunday.

Sunday 28 June

Sadly, with a damaged forestay (presumably from towing efforts) Destroyer was out of action and a couple more boats opted not to race. The remaining fleet of seven started two races, at 1115 and 1245.

With stronger winds forecast from the SW, Flag Y was flown for lifejackets. Two similar races were held, starting with a beat downtide to CHS (just short of Egypt Point), before a run to Prince Consort; a reach up to the Brambles bank; a run along the bank; a reach down to the Ryde Middle Bank; and a beat home.

In the video below, it appears that Dreamer started well but the results show that Rob Bottomley's Doublet won both races, with Dolphin also showing well with a second and a third.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/2a3bf9_f6fb4a652d1d475b85f929a2fd1b15e3/480p/mp4/file.mp4