bluQube Solo 1000 - 2008


 

bluQube Solo 1000 sailing race announces winners & awards
- Youngest in the field sweeps the trophy board
 
Bristol, 22nd July 2008 – The winner of the main prize for this year’s bluQube Solo 1000 race organised by Racing at Petit Bateau (www.petitbateau.org.uk) is Katie Miller (www.katiemillerracing.com), a 21 year old from Birmingham, currently studying at Solent University in Southampton. Although the least experienced in the field, Katie not only won the overall ‘Anna’ prize, but also won ‘Best Rookie’, ‘The bluQube Endeavour Trophy’ and ‘Best in Class’ with her boat ‘Hot Socks’, a Beneteau Figaro two. The coveted IRC Award was won by Nick Martin with his J 105; Diablo J.  The awards were presented by C.E.O of bluQube (www.bluqube.co.uk), Simon Kearsley in Camaret, France where the race finished on 12th July.
 
Katie is regarded as one of the UK’s most promising young sailors and was previously presented the Raymarine YJA Young Sailor of the Year Award in 2006 by Dee Caffari.   The bluQube Solo 1000 involves 3 legs (Mylor to Kinsale, Ireland – 185 miles, Kinsale to Santander - 525 miles and Santander to Camaret - 290 miles, covering a total of 1,000 miles.  
 
Of the twenty solo skippers that took part, ten were forced to retire. According to Katie some of the weather conditions especially on the second leg between Kinsale and Santander were the most challenging she had seen with 35 knot winds.   Katie commented after the race, “This was the most nervous I have ever been before and during a race. At one point during the trip to Santander through the Bay of Biscay I was really scared and at the time was wishing I was back on dry land. During this leg I went 30 hours without sleep, and managed to powernap for 20 minutes at a time for the rest of the journey.” Katie was nearly forced to retire after the 1st leg in Kinsale after her alternator failed and the batteries went flat, but fortunately project manager Mark Lamble drove all the way from Southampton with a replacement and replaced the faulty unit in the early hours of the stop over at Kinsale.
 
She continued, “Although the second leg was pretty terrifying, the final leg was worse for different reasons. There was very little wind and it was quite frustrating having to sit and wait for hours at a time. The wind then thankfully picked up again back into Camaret. The welcome party was overwhelming with my parents, race organisers Paul Pegg and Jerry Freeman of Petit Bateau and the race sponsors bluQube, all on the pontoon waiting for me. I was really ecstatic to get there in one piece. Overall there was a great camaraderie between all the contestants and I knew that, although at times I felt very alone, there were other boats nearby that I could call on if I ran into trouble and could talk to on the VHF radio.”
CEO at accounting software provider and title sponsor bluQube, Simon Kearsley who presented Katie with her awards said, “This was an incredible achievement for an individual with so little previous experience of long-distance solo sailing. Katie certainly came from behind after a disappointing first leg when she says she was really just getting used to the boat. The first leg at 185 miles was the longest that Katie had ever sailed, so winning the whole race was an incredible feat.   Katie has demonstrated unbelievable maturity and tenacity to beat some her rival competitors, some of which have a considerable number of more years under their belt. We wish Katie luck in her future as a professional sailor.” Katie has one more year left on a degree course in ‘Yacht Production and Surveying’ at Southampton Solent University.
 
Nick Martin, winner of the BluQube 1000 Solo IRC Trophy and owner and skipper of his J105 'diablo-j' commented, "I am absolutely delighted with my result. This was my biggest personal sailing challenge so far.  My main objective was to complete the race and second was to secure a top three place in IRC, so securing the overall 1st position under IRC was a huge achievement for me. I have completed many RORC two-handed races in previous years, including two Fastnets, but this took the challenge to new levels."  
 
Nick won the RORC 'Alan Paul Trophy' and came 2nd in the RORC Two-Handed division in 2007, having competed with fellow BluQube 1000 Solo competitor Barry Hurley. He also won the J Boat trophy, presented by J UK, for the lead J boat under IRC.  
He added, "The conditions became quite demanding, with gale force 9 winds experienced between Kinsale and Santander.   Two reefs in the main and a No.4 headsail suited 'diablo-j' well as we kept powering through. These waters are very different from sailing in the English Channel.  There was very little time for sleep and a 10-20 minute watch pattern was maintained throughout.  On the last leg, I thought I might throw away my lead by unfortunately sailing into a hole, but a later spinnaker reaching leg really helped regain lost ground as it suited my J105 really well.”
 
The most experienced sailor in the fleet Mary Falk (aged 62) (www.justgiving.com) was forced to retire during the second leg after her auto pilot stopped working and she lost all of her instruments. At 220 miles from Santander and 150 miles to Camaret, Mary decided to head back to Camaret. She commented, “My command of French is better than Spanish so I thought I would have a better chance of explaining what had happened to my equipment and getting it fixed in France. The trip back was pretty hairy though. Near to the continental shelf I had force 7 winds and enormous differences in depth.   Without my electronic chart plotter it was very difficult. Not only did I have to rely on my chart maps to avoid the rocks, I went 3 nights without any sleep - just as I was about to nod off, a wave would wake me.” 
Many of the sailors, including Katie have qualified and plan to take part in the Ostar in 2009, the legendary solo Atlantic crossing of over 3000 miles which starts on Monday May 25th from Plymouth and finishes in Newport, Rhode Island some 20 to 30 days later.
 

 

 

News courtesy of Rudi Polednik

13th July - Final Results
 With the race now finished, the full race results are available for downloading here.

Congratulations to all the skippers for completing the testing 1000 miles at sea. A special mention should go to Nick Martin (Diablo-J) for winning overall based on IRC ratings and Katie Miller (Hot Socks) for winning the Anna cup.

Katie was also nominated by the other skippers for the bluQube Endeavor award to recognise her achievements in light of adverse circumstances.

11th July
Late last night the positions on the Race Viewer showed Jbellino out in front, but not by very far, which must be galling for Rob Craigie having retired because of time pressures.

Then came 3 boats in a line: Hayai, Dinah and Hot Socks. The second line of 4 boats was: ROC, diablo-j, Home of Jazz and de Franschman.

Vela Fresca and British Beagle were at the back-the 2 heavier boats not enjoying the light conditions.

This morning there is little change except that the fleet is more space out and the middle order is about halfway.

10th July
The Race Viewer at 0900 BST shows Jbellino in the lead followed by Dinah, Hot Socks, ROC, Home of Jazz, diablo-j, Hayai, de Franschman, Vela Fresca and British Beagle who may be suffering in light winds and appears to be going more west looking for breeze.

I also noticed that SX Girl has left Brittany and is closing the English coast.

Towards the back of the pack but still going is Vela Fresca sailed by Neil Matson.

Breaking news from Paul Peggs
Just had sat call from Jbellino due to light winds all night and slow progress Rob has decided to retire from the race due to other commitments and started motoring towards Camaret at 0600hrs this morning to collect delivery crew. Speaking to Rob at 0900hrs I think he was already regretting his decision as the wind had just started to fill in and was currently in about 6 knots. This leaves the race wide open.

9th July
All 10 boats got away at 1200 BST in beautiful sun shine and a NE sea breeeze of about 7 knots. First across the line was Dinah followed by Home of Jazz. There was a beat down the channel before rounding Isla de Mouro and it was here that Jbellino took the lead fine reaching just to the west of the rumb line. He was followed by a leading group of Dinah, Home of Jazz, Hot sock and Daiblo-J.

One of the last boat to round Isla de Mouro was Bart on De Franschman and he took a very westerly option heading off at about 300 degrees flying his assymetric spinnaker obviously very keen to get into the expected new breeze from the west as soon as possible.

Two hours after the start all the boats look to be almost on top of each other on a heading of 340 degrees and to the west of the rhum line so clearly they want to be in the new westerly breeze early.

8th July
For the 10 skippers about to start the final leg of the bluQube 1000 Solo things don’t look too bad. They have mended their boats by day and partied by night but at midday things become serious again.

There is a low out to the west of Ireland but on Wednesday hardly an isobar across the south of the Bay of Biscay. In fact at the start there may be a gentle wind from the east. The shipping forecast gives SW 5/7 in the north of Sea Area Biscay but variable 3/4 in the south.

By Thursday the low should move south west and establish a south westerly airflow across the region with a cold front approaching. Late in the day the wind may moderate and it doesn’t look as though there will be more than 20kt.

There should be little change on Friday except that winds may moderate further. The winds will be aft the beam so it should be a better trip back up north than it was going south.

7th July
 Full results of leg 2 can be viewed at the Petit Bateau website here.
6th July
Nico says the reason he lost out in the end was having got a bit to the west he had to gybe to push the tide. He was now dead downwind so the apparent wind went down further and his downwind sails are really reaching sails while Jbellino had a big spinnaker up and had to gybe near the end. How frustrating that must have been for Nico and an adrenalin rush for Rob.

The finishing times so far-bearing in mind that some are unofficial- and some skippers are still asleep:

Position Boat Finish time
1 Jbellino 1655
2 Hayai 1730
3 Hot Socks 22 19 53
4 diablo-j 00 29 23
5 ROC 02 24 42
6 Dinah N\A
7 Home of Jazz N\A
8 Vela Fresca N\A
9 British Beagle N\A
10 De Franschman N\A

Everyone was talking about the strength of the wind and Nick on diablo-j spoke of a seeing 30+kt consistently with one gust of over 50kt before his instruments packed in.

The engine on ROC had failed so Desmond had to sail in to the pontoon. Just what he needed!

5th July
 Good morning on what looks like being the last day of the 2nd leg down to Santander. When I got up and looked at the race viewer things looked very similar to last night except that the 10 boats still racing had moved closer to the finish. The order then and now:

Position Boat Skipper
2 Jbellino Rob Craigie
3 Hot Socks Katie Miller
4 Diablo-j Nick Martin
5 Home of Jazz Martin Russchen
6 Dinah Barry Hurley
7 British Beagle Marco Nannini
8 Vela Fresca Neil Matson
9 De Franschman Bart Boosman

There shouldn’t be any surprises with the weather and these westerlies should blow them to the finish with Nico coming in within the hour and the rest following later in the day.

Fluffy and Outlandish are tucked up together in Falmouth, Q11, Beyond and Polynya are tied up in Cameret, Lightning is in port in Northern Brittany while SX Girl is making her way along the North Brittany Coast.

Latest News. 1030 BST After what may have been a navigational error by Nico on Hayai he is having to head due east along the Spanish coast back to Santander and it looks like a close finish between him and Rob Craigie on Jbellino.

Saturday afternoon

The first 2 boats have finished; Nico Budel on Hayai and Rob Craigie on Jbellino. Nico was at one stage quite a way ahead but replaying the tracker it is difficult to say who took line honours. I think it was Rob Craigie but the result should come through soon.

At 1200 today Katie had 58nM to go and was doing 7kt under her spinnaker. If that has continued she should be about 20nM out. She has already texted ahead to Paul asking him to order her a rum and coke. She has talked to Nick on diablo-j who has lost both spinnaker halyards and is under white sails only.

The Yacht Club checked out a weather buoy just offshore and there was only 4.6kt of wind from the north west which would explain the slow progress of the fleet.

Chris Elliot says he is in Cameret and OK after being hove-to for 12 hours in F8/9. Being at the back he would have got the full brunt of the wind.

Mary is safe in Cameret after a difficult night hand steering and navigating with no autopilot. Both her spare autopilots packed up.

Stuart MacDonald put into Cameret after power problems. After a good night’s sleep he plans to head home once there is a break in the weather.

4th July
The race viewer gives a fascinating view of what is happening out there. At 2215 the leader, Hayai, turned from starboard tack on which he was laying the course on to port tack heading 224 degrees instead of the 130 degrees he had been doing. By midnight they had all turned changed course as the SE wind came in-some going on to starboard tack towards the land and others joining Hayai on port tack out to sea.

This later course has 2 advantages: one, you are getting away from the land and giving yourself sea room and secondly, when the westerlies come in later today they will blow you into Santander.

Current weather conditions reported from a buoy near the fleet gives wind speed as 24kts which has built from 14kts in the past 3 hours, temperature 15C, a constant pressure of 1100hPa and wave height of 2.5m. These are testing conditions but not horrendous.

The maximum wind speed is forecast to be F7 veering west later. Later means after 12 hours ie this afternoon sometime.

At about 0700/0800 most boats were on port tack heading out to sea. The leading 3 boats appeared to be heading more westerly suggesting that the wind is starting to head them and if this is the case, then I would expect then to tack on to starboard as this is becoming the making tack taking them more directly to Santander.

They did start to tack soon after this and by mid afternoon the rest had joined them. Mary Falk was having autohelm problems and was lying ahull in F7.

At 1000 Marco was about 240nM from Santander. Thw wind was veering and had abated from 35kt down to 25kt but the sea was still very big and confused.

Stuart MacDonald has put into Cameret.

SX Girl is heading towards Ushant but I don’t know why.

Lightning, Juliette and 107 are heading back into the channel and I’ve just been told that 107 is heading back to Falmouth and can expect strong winds.

3rd July
 The start was in 12 kts of breeze from the SW. Glen Ward in 107 took an early lead.

Bart Boosman had to return to Kinsale with a fuel pump but restarted.

Henk Bulthuis is making for Falmouth with spreader problems.

By 2000 on Wednesday Nico was in the lead.

Kate Millar’s partner mark had to drive to Kinsale with a new alternator which they fitted through Tuesday night.

2100 on Wednesday Glen Ward in 107 reported problems with the hydraulic pump in his self steering but was trying to fix it.

0700 3rd July Graham Wilkinson on Outlandish had to retire with autopilot problems.

It looks as though Jerry Freeman is also heading for Falmouth.

1400 Thursday and looking at the tracker it would appear that Glen Ward has turned for home.

At 1400 Thursday the positions look to be: Hayai, Jbellino, Q11, SX Girl, Dinah, Hot Socks, Juliette, Home of Jazz, diabolo-j, ROC, Beyond, Vela Fresca, Lightning, British Beagle, Polynya and De Franschman.

It now looks as if 107 is making for Cameret.

It still looks as though the low will move into Biscay by 0000 Friday bringing increasing winds from the south and we should be able to see its arrival by the fact that the fleet will no longer be able to lay the course to Cameret but will have to beat and then tactics will come into play.

2nd July
Well the big one has started! The low off Ireland has moved much further north and the front has moved through giving them a westerly wind force 4/5 with the possibility that there may be a leftover sea from the previous strong winds. The whole fleet is sailing a course just to the east of south which is taking them straight to Santander but I don’t think it will last.

Kate Millar on Hot Sox has gone into the lead with the rest in a following pack. At 1500 on Wednesday as best as I can judge, the race order is: Hot Sox, SX Girl, Outlandish, Chill Out, ROC, Juliette, 107, Diablo-j, Beyond, Q11, Dinah, Home of Jazz, Fluffy, British Beagle, Lightning, Polynya, Vela Fresca, Hayai, and de Franschman. Good to see that Hayai has joined the race for this leg. If I have missed anyone it is because they are closely bunched.

The next 24/36 hours look to be reasonable however a high over Spain will move up into France giving southerlies in 48 hours. Friday morning a low will move into Biscay giving stronger winds but it will quickly move north and then winds should moderate and turn into the west.

1st July
Tuesday’s Shipping Forecast for Fastnet is southerly winds force 5/7 decreasing 4 later. The fleet can spend the day lashed to their moorings getting jobs done and then having a good meal out in Kinsale.

The Class 1 and Class 2 Results give the order in which the boats finished and the time they took to complete the course.

  Class 1 Elapsed Time
1 Jbellino 27h 6m 56s
2 S X Girl 28h 15m 45s
3 Chillout! 29h 4m 0s
4 ROC 29h 38m 33s
5 Beyond 29h 55m 58s
6 British Beagle 31h 30m 55s
7 Polynya 34h 39m 24s

  Class 2 Elapsed Time
1 QII 27h 44m 0s
2 Outlandish 27h 54m 49s
3 Dinah 28h 34m 44s
4 Hot Socks 28h 49m 17s
5 Diablo-J 28h 56m 26s
6 Juliette 29h 1m 45s
7 Fluffy 29h 41m 58s
8 Home of Jazz 29h 45m 0s
9 Vela Fresca 30h 14m 41s
10 De Franscham 31h 45m 0s
11 Lightning 32h 50m 10s

The IRC Results cover any boat that has an IRC Rating based on expected performance of that boat. A boat’s elapsed time is multiplied by its rating to give a Corrected Time.

  IRC Rating Corrected Time
1 Outlandish 1.021 28h 29m 59s
2 Dinah 1.026 29h 19m 18s
3 Diablo-J 1.015 29h 22m 28s
4 S X Girl 1.041 29h 25m 16s
5 Juliette 1.014 29h 26m 8s
6 Jbellino 1.093 29h 38m 14s
7 Beyond 0.991 29h 39m 48s
8 Fluffy 0.999 29h 40m 11s
9 British Beagle 0.944 29h 45m 1s
10 Chillout! 1.034 30h 3m 17s
11 Vela Fresca 1.021 30h 52m 47s
12 Polynya 0.901 31h 13m 32s
13 ROC 1.063 31h 30m 35s
14 Hot Socks 1.094 31h 31m 50s
15 Lightning 0.975 32h 0m 54s

Looking forward to the start on Wednesday the complex low should have moved to the north west of Ireland giving 15/20kts of wind from south of west with an occuluded front approaching from the west. After the front has passed, the weather will be much more favourable with the wind moving north of west and moderating. This more helpful wind direction should continue through Thursday but start to turn into the south early Friday.

30th June
The fleet of 20 boats all got away in 12kts of SW breeze. First across the line was Nick Martin on Diabolo-J at the pin end closely followed by Mary Falk on Q11. Considering all the boats are single handed everyone was very keen to get away with a little bit of barging at the committee boat end of the line.

Looking at the photographs of the start the water looked quite flat but they were in the lee of the Lizard. Katie and Mary seemed to be leading and looking at the tracker, were always in contention.

The weather seemed to be as forecast so the fleet were beating into the wind as far as Land’s End and were pretty well bunched at this stage. After the turn they were able to sail straight for Kinsale with the faster boats starting to pull away. Jbellino was in the lead with Q11, Dinah, Hot Sox, Juliette and Outlandish hot on her heels.

The leading boats were arriving by midday and the rest coming in through the afternoon. From the tracker it looks as though the wind went into the north west and the stragglers had to beat in but I don’t think this can be the case.

Orvieto seems to have turned back at Land’s End and made for Plymouth and Odette of Hamble retired 20 or 30nM later.

An account of the 1st leg by Paul Peggs
After a week of strong SW winds which made it difficult for many of the entrants delivering their boats from Holland, the Solent, the East Coast, Scotland and Newcastle it was good see 20 boats take the start line just outside Falmouth Harbour on Sunday 29th June for the first leg of the Petit Bateau 2008 BluQube Solo 1000 to Kinsale in Ireland.

First to cross the start line was Nick Martin in the J105 Diablo-J closely followed by Mary Falk on QII Open 35. With a stiff time penalty for anyone being over the line, all the fleet got away cleanly. As the fleet close reached down to the Lizard Rob Craigie’s J122 took the lead followed by QII Diablo-J and the 2 JOD 35’s of Graham Wilkinson’s Outlandish and Barry Hurley’s Dinah. Also amongst the leading group Noj White’s X37 SX Girl.

As the fleet rounded the Lizard Outlandish cut in very close to the rocks and managed to take the lead. It was a beat going across Mounts Bay with a number of place changes but the same group led around Lands End; again Graham on Outlandish cut it close to the rocks and going inside Longships Light House he was hailed by a small fishing boat who had caught on a cable about 20 m from a rock. Outlandish was asked by the Coast Guard to stand by the fishing boat until a lifeboat arrived and Outlandish was later awarded 1hr 6min redress.

It was then a fetch across the Celtic sea with no real place changes until the morning when the wind backed and spinnakers could just be set and a decision had to be made whether to go to the east or west of the 2 gas rigs of Kinsale. Some boats-SX Girl and Chill Out-tried to go through the middle only to be chased away by the guard ship.

The first boat to cross the line at 1236 was Jbellino in 27hrs 7mins followed by QII 38mins later. In the IRC class first boat was JOD 35 Outlandish and 2nd was the other JOD 35 Dinah.

The first leg had been in ideal conditions but the 2nd leg to Santander looks like the fleet could be in for some tougher weather. Meantime, as always, we have a great welcome at Kinsale YC.

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