Cowes to Yarmouth

Some weekends even gardening can seem more satisfying than sailing. We could not find the boat keys which left us running late from London which eventually translated into being late for the start and having to motor over the line after the start. If there was an upside it was we got some nice video footage of the boats sailing past us! In the light conditions 5 minutes late only translated to about 200m as the Class 3 yachts slowly drifted sideways with the tide.

We watched Night Owl head well North from the back of the fleet – hmm what are they doing. The boats seemed to split into 3 groups. Those that stayed inshore at the start suffering, those that went for maximum tide catching the early "wind" and Night Owl then NJOS the outsiders heading North. About 2/3rds of the way to the bottom mark we noticed Night Owl and NJOS making very strong gains to the North. The rest of the boats with us gybed to the North but we held fast near the Island to keep out of the turning tide. It did not take long for us to realise our mistake as the Northerly boats all made good gains on the fleet. Finally we gybed and within about 30 seconds found the wind and we shifted back into chase mode.

The beat to and past Hill Head was uneventful and we basically focussed on hauling in the Fandango. We chose to stay near the Island and watched Fandango tack and head well North. It seemed a bit odd. About 15 minutes later we saw Night Owl reaching behind us and then NJOS. Why are they not beating - it's like they are heading for the mark behind us..... and then the penny drops. We did not pick up the course change and we've now got to turnaround and for the second time in the day proceed back against the fleet (how embarrassing) and head to where we could see Fandango was going on the North side. Whilst our race was well and truly run there is always the boat ahead to catch to keep us interested.

Overall an enjoyable days sailing and we were suitably punished for our mistakes. Our list of things to pay attention to keeps getting longer.

It was a pleasure to meet some more of the other race crew at drinks at the RSYC and put a face to a name.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlhS4KR3O90 Once again I've loaded up video footage. We've created a JOG UK channel on YouTube and have started to post the race videos to the shared location. Other crews are very welcome to contribute to assist in bringing JOG racing to life. This week we had over an hour of footage which I have edited down to about 3 minutes. Highlights are the drifting start for Class 3, Old Mother Gun under kite and a good demonstration of how a gybe even in light airs can almost send a crew member overboard.

Thank you to the race committee.

Anthony Roberts

Report from Substitute, Salona 37 Class 3

I gather that Peter was having serious “have we done the right thing” second thoughts about the course at the start of the Saturday race. The wind had dropped right off and our class three kite start was more of a pirouette in the tide whilst trying to get enough lee bow to avoid Snowden. The person/greater power that Peter talks too (so I’m told) about the weather must have thought that he or she would play fair after about 1030 and provide the fleet with a building wind thus allowing us to have an enjoyable beat from the leeward mark all the way to Yarmouth.

With half the usual crew missing we had some new faces to JOG on board and a couple of older faces returning to JOG thus making for some very enjoyable banter and plenty of new jokes.

The race was quite a tight one with all of the class three boats finishing fairly close to each other. Although our result was not as good as we would have liked we had enjoyed a great day out and Zippy’s pal George (the new to JOG and racing, member of the crew) had enjoyed his first experience of racing and JOG.

It was good to see everyone in the bar at the yacht club especially some new faces from other boats.

 
Report from Moondog, Laser 28, Class 5

Crew for this race weekend was as for the previous three inshore races of Robin Lawton, brother Peter and myself, ok for the light stuff but not enough weight on the rail if it blew up. We got out to the start area nice and early and did a few time runs from the slack water off Egypt point to the line, all in the one and a half minute area working out from the slack water to the strong tide pushing us over the line. All felt good until just as we started our timed run the wind dropped away to next to nothing making our timed drift a little longer than planned still we crossed the line in the front echelon and proceeded to drift our way up the eastern Solent with the occasional zephyr to fill the kite. Steerage way was a delight when it was there. The drift/run to North Sturbridge was actually reasonably quick with a strong tide under us and fortunately we got there just as the tide was turning. Unfortunately a good  number of boats had stretched out quite a lead, we spotted both 31.7s, at least a brace of Sigma’s and the biggest boats of our class all beating away from the mark towards Hill Head and disappearing into the distance. The beat to Yarmouth seemed fairly pedestrian, broken by an exciting spinnaker leg across the Solent and spiced up by a building breeze. We just managed to change from the #1 to #3 genoas whilst the kite was up which made the final two beating legs manageable in the rising wind.  We felt a decent result had slipped away from us on the downwind leg and so it proved with a 9th position, just in the top half of the fleet . Feeling we could do better with the anticipated mostly downwind legs of the return race we had a good few beers and a meal in good spirits looking forward to Sunday's race back to Cowes. Andy Pickett    

Report from Hot Rats Humphreys 30, Class 4.

Well everyone made it on time to the boat bar one crew member who sadly cancelled at the last moment Friday night which left us a bit short. Picked up the new boy trying out safely from the other side of the river and got to the start area in time after the usual coffee and Calvados. As expected little wind so a sensible call from the race committee to put in some extra cascade legs between Hillhead and Yarmouth was welcomed by the crew.
Clearly a spinnaker start but with tide ripping over the start line some concern about potential OCS All the usual suspects out in class although it felt quite odd to be racing against a couple of boats owned by good friends who are usually in a different class. Skipper adamant that he didn’t want to be OCS as we headed away from the start line stemming the tide with the nav/tack adamant that she didn’t want to be late.... so we were about 30 seconds late on the start line. J2eau acquired an attractive yellow stripe as she banged Gurnard just in front of us marring an otherwise perfectly timed  start. Overall game plan was to stay in the deeper water and tide in the main channel, stay north of the Ryde bank and work all and any wind zephyr we could find. This was a great plan but somewhat defeated by the completely lack of steerage as we drifted down tide towards Norris.
Decided to keep the crew occupied so as the odd puff came through peeled to the asym and tried to head up both to generate and to get some north in. Watched most of the fleet pick up some Medina puffs to leeward and gradually push us toward the back of the fleet. Diverted the skipper with a sausage roll in an attempt to head off his frustration. Diverted the crew with a peel to the code zero and continued to head up. Noticed a definite split in the fleet as most of them floated over on or to leeward of the bank but were not sure whether they had insufficient pressure or a better game plan. Found our own private corridor of pressure and ever so gently started creeping over the rest of the fleet although generally having to go up to keep moving and constantly moving north. With Alacrity in front us and, we think, Shades of Blue they both appeared to be adopting a  similar strategy. Got sufficient pressure to swap back to the code zero and then to the kite . Now definitely leap frogging the main fleet to leeward and slowly reeling in the leading three boats. Skipper started to smile again.
Really good crew concentration on reading the puffs and wind lines and working to the slight pressure lines Watched with surprise another class 4 boat coming in from Gillkicker on starboard and with even greater surprise watched them round the mark to starboard. Got round on the transom of With Alacrity as he hailed the other boat to hold course and we protested the strange boat for failure to sail the proper course as she continued on to the island with clearly no intention of correcting the error. Got the kite down and hardened onto a beat for the North shore, couldn’t find strange vessel on entry list and watched a line of vessels round the mark to starboard...... possible Portsmouth SC.... quietly removed protest flag........ . Somewhat better with a long beat coming up, we seemed to have pulled out about half a mile on the rest of the fleet in sufficient time to round North Stourbridge on the last of the east going tide. Watched with as the windward mark disappeared behind us but no one else appeared to get round for a considerable time as the tidal gate built. Tried our best to stay up with the bigger boats With Alacrity and the J110 as we all tacked a couple of times on the North Shore following the shifts and tides but essentially ending up in the North Channel to use the tide and then round Hillhead. Started going through the class 5 boats.  
Long tack to the Island shore to get the best tide and take the rolling cascade round Gurnard Ledge and West Lepe. Some confusion at West Lepe as we haven’t worked out yet the best way of communicating bear away set/ assym/ starboard pole without confusing either the bowman or the tactician or indeed usually both but bowman got sorted in sterling time and hoisted cleanly. ! Nice quick fast and furious downwind leg trying to stem the tide to get around Salt Mead which pulled us back to the transom of With Alacrity and a nicely planned broach (!)took us just about up to the mark  but dropping a bit early lost us time rounding against the tide. A one tack beat out to Solent Bank and another back into the Yarmouth shore. Interesting trying to identify the finish gate from the map but sorted. Watched for the boats behind as we dropped the main but reasonably comfortable no one had got us from behind so to speak. Directed to join the class 5 boats rather than our fleet but met some nice neighbours. Enjoyable and reasonably priced supper at the Royal Solent and good to get a look at our competitors in the fleet close up. Crew verdict was a good race and no major mistakes with an enjoyable course a fully deserved 4th.

Go Back To Race Reports