Another win for the First 34.7, Jos of Hamble in the Eddystone Rock Race

Exhausted, I am back behind my desk reflecting on a wonderful weekends racing. Nick and I raced for 50 hours battling calms, wind shifts and spring tides to claim victory in the 2-handed class in the RORC Eddystone Race.

Nick took us across the start line in pole position just under the Royal Squadron and we led the fleet short tacking down the Island shore. It was hard work. I think we did nearly 30 tacks in all to get out of the Solent past the Needles and there was a moment when I wished we had a few more crew!

Often offshore races just turn into drag races but not this one. There were opportunities for gains and loses throughout the race which meant we were constantly making tactical decisions. We did not manage to get much sleep in, especially on the second night when we were trying catch every zephyr to prevent us going backwards on the adverse tide.

The most exciting element of the race was the battle with Voador. As we approached Brixham, after crossing Lyme Bay, we thought that we might be leading the 2-handed class but then through the dawn Simon Curwen and Paul Peggs appeared on the their J-105, Voador. As we cracked off around Start Point they gained on us, taking a short cut through the rocks, they overtook us. By the time we reached the Eddystone Rock they were 25 minutes ahead of us. Now we were on a mission to re-gain our lead.

We followed Voador pretty much all the way to Portland Bill, where we made the decision to keep further offshore in order to try and escape the worst of the tide; Voador went inshore. This was our winning decision. During the night the wind disappeared and at one point we were going backwards. When the wind picked at dawn we headed inshore towards Anvil Point and the finish. As the sun rose we kept looking for Voador through the binoculars hoping to have over taken them. And suddenly we spotted them, we were ahead!

The race was by no means over as once again the wind died and we had to wait until the sea breeze built to get us over the finishing line. Voador were slightly further offshore by this stage and we kept a constant eye on their boat speed.

Although Voador did get the breeze before us the First 34.7 outpaced the J105 and we crossed the line, exhausted and jubilant, 20 minutes ahead of Voador.

As we motored up the western Solent amidst the race boats and cruisers out enjoying the wind and sunshine, I could not have felt more content. We had sailed a race in which we felt we made good decisions throughout, we had put ourall into it, and most importantly we had won the 2-handed class proving the First 34.7s great potential as a short-handed race boat.

Cervantes Trophy -Clemency Williams reports

1st 2-handed division, 2nd Class 2 and 4^th overall out of 122.After a long night finishing off last minute preparations, we started at 0840 on the Royal Yacht Squadron line off Cowes. Being one of the slowest boats in our class and with over 40 boats on the line, we really had to jostle with the bigger boats for clear air but in the end we successfully out manoeuvred the competition and hit the line at speed next to the favoured pin end. A perfect start to the race and the Jos of Hamble 2007 campaign.

With a 10 knot north easterly wind we fetched out of the Solent heading towards Selsey Bill. We knew the wind was going to be easing throughout the day and going round to the south west, so we were extremely conscious to stay focussed on the bigger picture rather than the boats around us. Initially we were passed by some of the larger boats and it took a while to find our groove as we tested Jos for the first time in anger. We sound found out what worked and what didn’t and we were pleasantly surprised by how responsive she was to our constant sail trimming. We rounded the first mark just astern of Diablo J, one of our main rivals in the 2-handed class. As forecast, the wind was already dropping and shortly afterwards the fleet was becalmed.

The next mark was Rustington, roughly ten miles to the north. With the wind expected to fill in from the south west, we decided to try to keep left of the fleet as we drifted north and hopefully benefit when the new breeze arrived.Unfortunately, although the wind did come from the south west, it spread across the course very quickly and those on the right benefited from a better angle into the mark. However this gave us a great opportunity to test our downwind speed.

Beneteau’s First 34.7 comes with a choice of either bowsprit or conventional spinnaker pole. We choose the former believing that it would be easier for short handed sailing and had great confidence that our sailmakers, Quantum UK, would be able to design us an asymmetric spinnaker that we could run deep with as well as use for tighter angles. We were not disappointed, both the boat and the sails lived up to expectations and we managed to soak low whilst keeping good speed and regain some of the ground we had lost to Diablo J who had pulled ahead.

We rounded Rustington in the middle of the afternoon and set off for Le Havre which was just under 100 miles to the south. By now the wind had filled in again and we had 13 knots from the south west. The bigger boats, most of who were sailing fully crewed, soon powered past us but again we were very pleased with the performance of Jos as she was well balanced and easy to drive.

The wind slowly dropped throughout the night and veered round to the west. As every short handed sailor knows, it is these windless nights when it’s hardest to stay awake and Nick and I operated a one hour watch system to ensure we both had a bit of rest and maintained our concentration at the helm. After some of our previous boats, we certainly both enjoyed the comfortable bunks of the First 34.7.

By 0330 the wind was down to just a couple of knots. We knew that we would be able to carry our flatter asymmetric spinnaker very close to the wind, another advantage over the boats with symmetric spinnakers. Onto this ploy early, we soon found ourselves ghosting past some masthead lights that were undoubtedly significantly taller than Jos’.

We made our final approach to Le Havre in the early hours of Sunday morning and could not believe how many bigger yachts were around us. The main worry for us though was what had happened to the other doublehanded boats. As it turned out the two top J105s, Diablo J and Juneau had a fantastic finish, crossing the line just 18 seconds apart. We followed 22 minutes later, which was just enough to give us victory on corrected time, by three minutes.

On crossing the line, we spun the boat around and headed straight for home. It was a rough ride home but we were rewarded with finding out that we’d won the 2-handed division, come 2nd in Class 2 and finished 4th overall out of 122. Not bad for a first race!

Many thanks to Ancasta, who have provided us with a great boat and to my co-skipper Nick Bubb. We look forward to our next race, RORC’s ‘Myth of Malham’ from Cowes to St. Quay Portrieux, starting on Saturday 26th May.

Plans for 2007

It has been a very long time since I’ve sat down and written one of these updates, I have so much news I don’t know where to start. I suppose the beginning is usually a good place. After a tough season in 2006; I decided that I needed to re-group and focus on exactly what I’m trying to achieve in my life rather than continuing with my blinkered approach of Vendee, Vendee, Vendee, whatever the cost.

Currently I’m developing my Project Management skills outside of the marine industry. Since February I’ve been working in the Business Improvement Service at the University of Exeter. I’m on a short term contract as a Project Manager. This is a very diverse role that involves overseeing business process reviews and running new projects. This work is coupled with helping to push the University forwards, in its aim to improve its position as one of the top twenty universities in the UK. It is currently ranked 18th by the Sunday Times league table. Throughout 2007, I will divide my time between working at the University, sailing with other teams in a variety of events and trying to raise funds for my 2008/9 Vendee Globe campaign. This is all quite a change to building boats and running racing campaigns but in this time of change for Higher Education, I’m learning about the core of a major business and helping to develop the service that it gives to its customers. These skills are all key to running Ocean Racing Ltd and servicing the project sponsors.

Aside from my nine to five commitments, I’m racing with Clemency Williams onboard the brand new First 34.7, Jos of Hamble. We will be competing doublehanded in the RORC (Royal Ocean Racing Club) offshore series throughout the season. This circuit kicked off last weekend and we made a fantastic start, first in the doublehanded division and 4th overall out of 122, see Clemency’s report attached to this mail for all the details.

I will also be doing some Mini Transat racing with Australian, Volvo Ocean Race veteran Tom Braidwood. Tom has a wildcard entry for the Transat this September and I was flattered when he asked me to join him for the Open Demi-Cle, which starts from Lorient on Friday 18th May. Having not been on a Mini since the Transat in 2005, I’m really excited about this opportunity. Hopefully the twenty odd thousand miles experience I have under my belt in this class will at least provide Tom with a couple of helpful tips for his campaign.

Looking further ahead in the season, I will also be racing the Rolex Fastnet at the end of Cowes Week. The main focus of the season though is once again the Class 40. I have a full program planned here which includes another shorthanded Trans-Atlantic race. We hope to make an announcement with all the details in the coming weeks. Thank you all for your wonderful support last year, I hope that this season I can provide you with more tales of famous victories than daring do!