De Guignand Bowl 2005

After the last race Barney was kind enough to thank us for a "fantastic trip... never knew offshore racing could be so enjoyable ....previously thought it was a sport for lunatics"etc etc . Well Barney , if you had been with us this weekend we might have confirmed your predjudices , not changed them! The forecasts had been dire all week , but the low turned south at the last minute so I was expecting 18-25 knots of NE wind - in other words a nice gentle increase from the last race.But it was after all Friday 13th .

Our race started quite well in 25 knots of NE wind - but for some reason which is still not quite clear , only 4 other boats came with us - the rest of the fleet starting 10 mts later! We realised something was up at Gurnard - and it took us a full 15 minutes to beat back to the line where we tried again!The West Solent soon took on the appearance of a demolition derby , with one broken mast and many broaching boats all of which was at variance with our wind instruments which were showing an average of only 25 knots . The carnage prompted us to drop the kite for the gybes and by Yarmouth our main opponents were well within sight and we were feeling confident once more - until we looked up and saw a vertical split in the top 1/3rd of the main. Down it came - but at this stage we found the sail repair dacron had been left behind . Does anyone out there have the advertising contract for the new clear duct tape - because Im here to tell you we repaired our main with it and my fees for telling the world would be - well , the price of a new main?The course was a 25 mile leg on a dead run ( 220 mag ) from the Needles, then a beat ( against the tide ) to a buoy off the Nab , thence to Cherbourg.

Night saw us screeching along as low as we dared under full main and kite, rotating the helms to give as many as possible the feel for driving her hard at night downwind in the ever building sea. Conscious that the beat was going to be long and tiring , we had half the crew below resting , but 1/2 an hour out from the turning mark life began to get a bit taxing so I called for the full crew on deck to get the kite off. Oops , too late. While they were half in and out of their oilies we went into an enormous leeward broach with a huge explosion ( which luckily turned out to be the preventer block giving way) and lay on our side until the drills came to our aid ; vang off , guy forward a smidge, halyard blown , sheet on hard and the sail fluttering harmlessly over the water. OK -so it was pitch black , wind waves and flogging sails made communication further than 6 feet impossible and we were lucky to come off so lightly so we hurriedly hoisted the No 2 , slabbed a couple of reefs and took it in turns to pile on clothes and use the loo before the rapidly approaching beat. As we commenced our turn a red flare was spotted on our port beam seemingly close by , then another and another - all rapidly streaming down wind. There was some confusion before we appointed a radio operator and I ordered the main dropped and put Ben on the side deck with the spotlight whilst we made our way upwind at nearly 6 knots under the No 2. My guess is that there was deal of confusion in the fleet at this point as half of them seemed under our lee - presumably overpressed and reefing. When the mayday eventually came - ( it seemed an age) Jamie worked out that it was in fact 2 miles away and to our relief we heard that the MOB had been recovered, so it was main up again and on with the race. Meanwhile a chopper appeared and declared itself unable to effect a transfer whilst a cruise liner appeared to be aiding the rescue by making a lee.Through all this the instrument were recording 25 knots and whilst life was far from easy - with everything bladed and the genny twisted off we were smashing along at 6.5 knots .

We had decided on an early hitch inshore and sure enough an hour later we were rewarded by a 20 degree vear that allowed us to tack onto port and make within 5 degrees of the course. So far , so good - but there was just the small matter of a 40 mile leg against the tide.Dawn found us due South of St Cats , one crew hors de combat , rotating the rest of them below to the heated cabin , whilst those on deck shivered in the bitter wind which was now a solid 30. Our repair was looking decidedly ropey and the tear was enlarging , heading both north and south , so the decision to head for the Needles was not a difficult one. In fact , once we had slabbed to the 3rd reef and changed down to the 3, life was much more pleasant- and in retrospect we should have gone into cruise mode with small sails before making our minds up. I think once we had started to rotate the crew below we were always one step overcanvassed for the wind - and wonder if our instruments were under-reading or wether it was just my inexperience of racing in these conditions .Huge credit to Supernatural and the others for toughing it out. I look forward to reading and learning from their story.