SORC

Channel Week 2010 - 22 Start - 22 Finish

Channel Week 2010 - 22 Start - 22 Finish
Channel Week 2010 - 22 Start - 22 Finish
 
Leg one Lymington to Alderney - 65 miles
7am on a grey damp morning Steve Homewood on Molly 2 started the fleet of 22 yachts just off Lymington beating into 12 knots SW breeze. After leaving bridge buoy in the Needles channel to port the white sails fetch to Alderney was an easy day for the faster boats. With the ebb and flow of the channel tides most boats were looking at a reach straight into Braye Harbor but got caught out 5 miles off by a local eddy and had to put a tack in. The second half of the fleet bizarrely got left behind just south of the Needles bobbing about with no wind for an hour or so. At 10.05 it filled in again and all got to Alderney safely, lighter evening breeze and tide against making slower finishes for class three yachts and all bar one in time for supper at The Boathouse.
 
Class 1   Solan Goose, SX Girl, Jbellino, Ding Dong, BluQube
Class 2   Psipsina, Fastrack, Diablo J, Dinah, Truant
Class 3   Penrod, Wee Bear, Santana, Restless, Aquilo
Overall  Psipsina, Solan Goose, SX Girl, Fastrack, Jbellino
               
Leg two Alderney to St Peterport – 22 miles
Setting off into 12 knots SW once again the fleet all needed just one short tack out through the Swinge before heading south to Guernsey. With a "Channel Islands” west to east tide it was soon apparent that it was not possible in one tack. Some opted to tack early and get the height and sail towards the better pressure out to sea; others sailed on south falling well below the rumb line. To add to the dilemma a few black cloud formations passed over with temporary wind shifts and pressure to help or not depending where you were! The star of the day was Katie Miller on her Figaro 2 BluQube who sailed on south then was lifted all the way to the finish line – never tacked! By mid afternoon glorious sunshine and afternoon breeze brought all the fleet in by 1500 and a good supper enjoyed by all at Guernsey Yacht Club.
 
Class 1    Jbellino, Solan Goose, BluQube, Ding Dong, SX Girl
Class 2    Psipsina, Fastrack, Diablo J, Ninjod, Dinah
Class 3   Penrod, Santana, Wee Bear, Aquilo, Dragonfly
Overall   Jbellino, Solan Goose, Psipsina, Pernod, Fastrack
 
Leg three St Peterport to St Quay – 49 miles
At 7am with less than 5 knots of breeze the fleet motored at five and a half knots south towards St Quay. As we went Rob Packham on Southerly 110 Star Dancer offering a helping tow to the Mini Prim’Avel and carrying out fleet photography at the same time. By 9am there was enough to go so a downwind start was organized (basically one boat sails slowly downwind and the fleet must cross behind). In the final two minutes as Race Director Peter Olden on his Achambault 35 Solan Goose of Hamble had the fleet all in place – many with spinnakers set - the wind picked up a couple of knots and Solan Goose “flew” off too quick -  aaah that’s not meant to happen !!! After some well managed instructions over the VHF this was quickly re attempted and the fleet was off - none crossing the Goose! (Morale of the story -use slower start boat!) It was fair all round and not dissimilar to the Grand National start with frisky horses all twitchy to go. It was a gloriously sunny spinnaker reach all the way to St Quay, through a virtual midway waypoint in case it was needed to shorten, with wind building to 12 knots. Many had close private battles – Andy Oliver on Mini Pogo Prim A’vel, Mike Saqui on Mustang 30 Restless and Jerry Freeman on borrowed  Capo 30 Santana within 30  boat lengths each vigorously defending their positions (think Sigma 33 luffing matches!!!) for all but the last couple of miles finishing in that order on the water.
 
Class 1,  Jbellino, SX Girl, Solan Goose, Ding Dong, Q11
Class 2    Psipsina, Diablo J, Truant, Dinah, Fastrack
Class 3   Wee Bear, Restless, Santana, Dragonfly, Prim’Avel
Overall   Jbellino, Psipsina, SX Girl, Solan Goose, Wee Bear
 
It was the first time visit for SORC at St Quay – what a joy! The 1000 berth, all tides, well protected marina was easy to book, had a huge stretch of pontoon completely cleared for us and help to take lines and a little rib on the water to also direct and assist on arrival. SORC skippers are all capable of parking their boats but this kind of welcome was unprecedented. Marina manager Jean- Michel then organized restaurants for both nights, held a drinks reception for us on the pontoon with his staff, gave all skippers Tee shirts and convened a press conference with National Radio France which Race Director Peter Olden and SORC Veteran Mary Falk attended – this was aimed at promoting St Quay Marina and SORC Solo sailors stopover in St Quay. Skippers enjoyed the lay day visiting the quaint French town and half played cricket with proper bat, stumps and bails etc on the beach, much to the bemusement of locals. All enjoyed a fantastic meal at Via Costa (go there) - a stunning beachside restaurant 15 minutes walk away. We will be back and cannot recommend the place and people highly enough – gets the SORC five star rating!
Hmmm…. then weather forecast for the return trip to Brixham became the issue! SW 15 to 20 knots with a NW front passing through mid channel between 20.00hrs and midnight increasing to 24 knots possibly gusting to 27 knots. All the weather sites looked at and most agreed. SORC racing does not set off in more than 25 knots actual or forecast so this one was right on the limits and it was across channel at night. The routing showed that by staying on the wind and going high of the rumb line early on then being pushed below it in the middle while north westerly yachts would be then lifted as the wind returned SW and eased at the finish – no tacking needed. Race Director made the call that following the Met office forecast, that the race would go ahead while reminding all skippers by group text and at the briefing that it was each skippers choice as always to sail or not.      
 
Leg Four St Quay to Brixham - 107 miles
Setting off most with full mains and No 3’s into 14 knots on port tack the cloud went and the afternoon bought more wind blue sky and sunshine. It was all as anticipated the NW front came through the wind increased and it was a tough sail on the wind port tack all the way. The wind eased back to SW at about 1am, most yachts finished in 10 knots or less. Carl Wilcox on his immaculate projection 962 Wee Bear took the very responsible decision to have the reach of his life and early evening bore off returning to Guernsey setting off again in the morning arriving in Brixham at 6-30pm just in time for supper at Brixham Yacht club. The boats with good autopilots allowed skippers to shelter below – some went to bed!!! - Smaller boats skippers had a long very wet night on deck.  
 
 Class 1,   Solan Goose, Jbellino, Ding Dong, SX Girl, Q11
Class 2    Psipsina, Diablo J, Fastrack, Dinah, Truant
Class 3   Penrod, Star Dancer, Restless, Katy Laura, Aquilo
Overall   Solan Goose, Psipsina, Jbellino, Ding Dong, SX Girl
 
Leg Five Brixham to Weymouth- 50 miles
Race Director banned spinnakers until the after start (hiss boo!) for fear of an Asymmetric pole ending up through some ones topsides in the 20 knots SW breeze reaching start. It was just possible to fly a spinnakers with apparent winds at  95 to 115 degrees  then it just got too tight and the wind increased occasionally gusting 28 knots – after an hour or two most did a dozen broaches and then carried out “interesting” spinnaker drops and reached on under white sails. Yachts all recording speeds between 12 to 18 knots including Robin Hyde on his Mystery 35 Katy Laura!  Down the long waves across Lyme Bay it’s amazing how fast you can go without the weight of six or eight crew on board! Getting the inside line at Portland around the corner dead downwind to finish was the way to go, a few of us misjudged it getting swept by on the tide and into the cauldron of rough water before turning north. Top boy – youngest in the fleet, Paddy Cronin on Psipsina HOD 35 borrowed from John Lodden showed just how good he is sailing the whole way with spinnaker up and taking line honors easily winning again IRC overall – incredible. Quite a bit of damage was incurred in this race by various boats but all parties managed to get everything sorted for the last race.
 
Class 1   Ding Dong, Solan Goose, ROC, Q11, BluQube
Class 2   Psipsina, Dinah, Diablo J, Fastrack, Truant
Class 3  Penrod, Wee Bear, Restless, Santana, Katy Laura
Overall Psipsina, Ding Dong, Dinah, Diablo J, Penrod
 
Leg six Weymouth to Lymington – 38 miles
The fleet set off at 11am dead downwind in 15 knots and glorious sunshine. Ding Dong quickly establishing a lead heading deep towards the shore off St Albans to avoid the adverse tide. Others went down the rumbline or higher with asymmetric spinnakers. Inside boats gained and the wind increased to 17 knots allowing the symmetric spinnakers to almost lay the course across Christchurch bay to North Head buoy. Ding Dong never looked back finishing 20 minutes clear of the next boat. Half an hour later the wind dropped to 10 knots which with now favorable tide giving low and frustrating apparent wind speeds to the finish – that’s racing!
 
Class 1   Ding Dong, Solan Goose, ROC, Q11, Jbellino
Class 2  Dinah, Truant, Psipsina,
Class 3  Restless, Santana, Aquilo, Star Dancer, Wee Bear
Overall Ding Dong, Dinah, Truant, Restless, Solan Goose
 
Overall IRC positions for the Series with one discard:-

Pos
1
Psipsina
HOD 35
Paddy Cronin
2
Solan Goose
A35
Peter Olden
3
Ding Dong 
Stewart 37
Chris Rustom
4
Jbellino
J122
Rob Craigie
5
Dinah
JOD 35
Barry Hurley
5
Diablo J
J105
Nick Martin
7
SX Girl
X37
Noj White
8
Fastrack VII
Sunfast 32
Nigel Colley
9
Wee Bear
Projection 920
Carl Wilcox
10
Penrod
Ben 31.7
Herve Dupriez
11
Truant
HOD 35
Stephen Thomas
12
Restless
Mustang 30
Mike Saqui
13
Santana
Capo 30
Jerry Freeman
14
QII
Pocock o/o 35
Mary Falk
15
BluQube
Figaro 2
Katie Miller
16
ROC
Konoinsdijk o/o
Matthew Lingley
17
Ninjod
JOD 35
Paul Brant
17
Aquilo
Ben 31.7
Simon Mitchell
19
Dragonfly
J92s
Luke Bond
20
Star Dancer
Southerly 110
Rob Packham
21
Prim'Avel
Mini
Andy Oliver
22
Katy Laura
Mystery 35
Robin Hyde

 
 
 
So by 6pm all 22 yachts were tied up back in Lymington for prize giving and supper at Royal Lymington Yacht Club – a testament to the skills of skippers and preparation of their yachts during some testing and exhilarating sailing enjoyed by a great bunch of friends.  
 
Next SORC race Nab Tower 19th September – get your entries in fast – new plan is to have party in Cowes the night before the race (RSYC booked with alternative event).
 
 
Pictures on Face Book page “Solo Offshore Racing Club”
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