Well it’s a mixture of good and disappointing news this time round. On the positive side, the new Rogers designed Class 40, built in Thailand by Pom Green and his team at CMI, has finally arrived in Lymington. The owner of the boat is a close friend of mine Tanguy de Lamotte and he along with his French sponsors NOVEDIA GROUP and SET ENVIRONNEMENT have kindly asked me to be his co-skipper for the 2007 season.
After a significant delay loading the boat onto the ship in Thailand, our program was not helped by another logistical issue, when the shipping line decided they could not wait for an unloading slot in Southampton and headed off up to Felixstowe. Normally I would be only to happy to visit the east coast but this additional delay really put us up against some tough deadlines, if we were going to carry on with our original plan of racing in the Rolex Fastnet. To cut a long story short, we got the boat in the water eight days before the scheduled start and worked all hours with a big team to get her set up and ready for the compulsory 300 mile qualification passage. With four of the six race crew onboard and a photographer, we set off last Wednesday evening for our maiden sail.
After carrying out some standard checks our support RIB motored home and we headed off for the Eddystone Rock just off Plymouth. We had a variety of conditions and up to 23 knots of breeze. After completing the 300 mile loop, we returned to Lymington on Friday morning, with a shorter job list than we had expected. Further hard work was going on onboard, whilst I began to study the weather patterns for the race. As usual I was ably supported and advised by Clemency Williams and it soon became apparent, that there was a high probability that this years Fastnet race was going to see some extreme conditions. Whilst continuing our preparation as normal, Tanguy and I started to assess the benefits of racing such an unproven boat in potentially storm force conditions. Our assessment of the weather forecast was backed up when RORC decided, for the first time in the history of the race, to delay the start. With minimal sailing miles under our keel on this boat and with such a bad forecast, we consulted with the crew and decided that it would not be sensible to purposely expose ourselves to such extreme conditions so early in the boats program.
After so much hard work it is very sad to miss out but on this occasion, the head ruled the heart. With only two weeks until the start of the doublehanded Brittany Ferries 1000, which is also our qualifier for the Transat Jacques Vabre (Le Havre to Brazil doublehanded in November), it seemed prudent to ensure we are 100% prepared for these events, which are the main focus of our season. Whilst I am a little disappointed not to be writing this note from onboard NOVEDIA/SET having just set off in the Rolex Fastnet race, I am very excited about the potential of this new boat and team.
