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We now have a definitive answer – 2!
When, after our Fastnet crew get together last weekend, Simon asked how
many people were booked into the JOG race to the Nab tower, I replied
‘none’. His reply? ‘What? Why
not? It’s a great race and only a few hours – I know,
do you fancy doing it double handed?’ , I of course said yes!
So we waited to see what the weather was doing this weekend: We
had a cut-off date of Wednesday, and a maximum wind speed of about 20
knots (T). So, on Wednesday, we thought it was feasible, and I
duly entered (thanks to Peter Chartres, JOG secretary for letting us
enter late!) By Friday, it was looking like we were to have a
little more wind than expected, but still looked possible, so I drove
down to Haslar after work on Friday – we had a quick discussion
and look at the tides, a few beers then an early night (well it was for
us anyway!)
The two of us got up at 05:30 for the motor across to Cowes, lines off
at 0620 (lovely new blue mooring lines). In hindsight, getting
over there on Friday night may have been a better option, but then
there would have been the lure of the pubs! It was nothing short
of cold on the motor over – were we wondering what on earth we
were doing? Yes – it did cross our minds!!!
We passed through the gate with the mainsail up – and 2 reefs,
because by now, we had a steady 25 knots of breeze and some rather
nasty looking clouds in the Solent. With the tide running from
west to east, we decided on a sensible approach to the 08:40 start
– continued out to the west then with about 4 minutes to our gun,
we gybed: at this point, we still only had the main out and
figured that once we were on course, we’d pull the gennoa
out. With the wind behind us (the forecast was right at north
westerlies), we started the race and the run along the Solent,
remaining closer to the land than the rest of the fleet who opted for
the other side of Ryde Bank. Weird. It was fairly gusty and
there were a few spectacular broaches – so I was eternally
grateful for our white sail option. We were, however, keeping up
with the fleet at about 11 knots over ground, which was more than
satisfying!
The course took us through the forts, and once through, the tactics
were to sail really deep then gybe in plenty of clear water so that
once round the Nab, all we needed to do was harden up – it was
during this discussion that a yacht about half a mile in front of us
had an enormous broach and just didn’t pop back up again for
ages: this was the first indication that there was a little more
wind out there! With about 2 miles to the nab, we had a slight
change in wind angle, so goose winged the gennoa which meant that it
was only the main that I had to contend with on the gybe –
perfect! The manoeuvre took place without any fuss – almost
textbook like in fact! Before we knew it, we were at the Nab,
which I think is the most daunting and scary looking thing on the
Solent. We took the correct option of standing on a little so
that we had plenty of water and were not in any wind shadow.
So, we hardened up. By now, my shoulders were beginning to ache a
little but that thought soon disappeared when we realised that the wind
had just increased even more – we now had a constant 28 knots
across the deck, gusting over 30, but Lutine trucked on through.
With constant dialogue, we chatted about how the boat felt:
following this winter’s work, a couple of ‘buffers’
have been replaced at the top of the rudder stock – Si commented
on how responsive she now felt, as well as very slippy through the
water but this was where we missed the other eight bodies on the rail
– we really needed the weight as the short sharp chop did not
have any backs to the wave and whatever we did, we just stalled coming
out of them. This was incredibly annoying as we were beating into
the wind at between 7 and 7.5 knots at this point.
It was a testament that we had sailed well to this point, because we
were up with Pi-Squared, Esprit and Change of Course, all double
handers – this was, after all, my first time without a large crew
on Lutine, and the other boats are used to it! Then, Change of
Course, a C & C 11.5 meter (a whole 5 metres smaller than Lutine!)
did exactly that – they were trying to reef down, but their auto
helm looked like it failed, as they suddenly turned and headed back
towards the Nab! We sailed fairly close to the shallows, then
tacked: fairly easy as the main was left in position, and all I
had to do was release the loaded winch and pull in on the other.
It worked perfectly and we hardly lost any speed through the
tack: this was going really well! Another couple of tacks
(with only one where the sheet caught around the main halyard winch, so
needed releasing), and we were back near the forts: we stood on a
little further than the other yachts for a better line.
With the tide running with us, Simon had calculated the angles
perfectly, and we had an amazing beat back up the Solent, overtaking
some of the class 5 yachts (we were class 3), but better than that,
were able to point just as well as a reasonably new J92! The
overhauled hydraulics had made a massive difference to the rig
tension. It was probably one of the most awesome transits along
the Solent that I have ever made, and the fact that we had managed the
34 mile race with only two of us on board was brilliant.
Once through the finish line, we tacked then eased off and headed
straight back to Haslar. It seemed to take ages to get back
(punching tide), and wasn’t helped by the HUGE hailstorm that
came through as we were about to enter the harbour. Needless to
say we waited a little while, but the freezing rain felt like needles
on our faces.
So we finished, but how did we do? Our finish time was 12:59:45,
which meant that our race had taken us 4 hours, 19 minutes and 45
seconds – corrected to 4:44:41 when our handicap was taken into
account. There were 21 in our class and we came 19th, BUT
we came 2nd in the class 3 double handed category! How good is
that? Needless to say, we were chuffed to little mintballs when
we read the results this morning!!
So, we’ve managed to post the first time for the club challenge
to the Nab and back (2 hours 25 – not quick, so that’s the
one to beat!) AND get the first set of results in the JOG races.
We had an amazing race. All very calm and collected. How
did we do so well? On our analysis in the pub that evening (it
did go on for a few hours!), we put it down to communication and
forward planning making sure that we were both aware of what we
were doing and why we were doing it. Also that we had the right
kit – I wore 3 thin, man-made fabric layers and my club jacket
over the top – in fact, the only thing that really got cold were
my ears!
So – looks like Lutine’s season has started well. If
you would like to take part in any of the races (JOG are very friendly
races and generally involve a drink at the end of it), then check for
available berths on the web-site and check in! If you are
interested but need more information then please let me know!
Liz
LLYC Vice-Commodore
LLYC Rear Commodore (Club)
Book a weekend: http://www.lloydsyachtclub.com/pages/lutinesprogramme.php
Photographs – Click events then JOG Nab Tower Race – we’re on print 7:
http://www.yacht-photos.co.uk/
Race Results: http://www.jog.org.uk/resultsarticle.aspx?page=S633735050670625000&ArchiveID=10&CategoryID=2&ItemID=52&src=
Info about JOG: http://www.jog.org.uk/jog.aspx
JOG Race dates: http://www.jog.org.uk/reslist.aspx
Lutine’s facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?sid=63cb23a5c5f624a2a933d1a1ee36c409&gid=18915713766
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