Yarmouth Cowes

Fantastic weather and an eventful race!

After the disappointment of Saturday’s weather, we awoke to bright skies and a nice breeze.

It was clear from the first two starts that lessons had been learned and boats were determined not to be over at the start. We applied similar caution and had a reasonable start. We then hoisted the Code 0 and were off, just above Jibe who had hoisted their spinnaker. It was neck and neck for a while, with Just So gaining in the puffs and Jibe in the lulls. We had started with the heavier jib, as the wind was forecast to increase, but it didn’t look like this would happen so we brought the lighter one up on deck.

Then there was a loud “bang” and the pole came in. We thought it was the tack line at first, but it turned out to be the failure of one of the blocks on the pole. Will and Christian, hastily replaced it with one from the kicker quick release. But meanwhile we were approaching an obvious wind line. The wind went from SW to ESE, we hoisted the light jib and dropped the Code 0. Wrong jib! The wind quickly went up to 16-18 knots, so we then changed to the heavier one.

Round Hill Head, it was still a beat to E Bramble and then a hoist of the spinnaker for the run to the finish. Work wasn’t over for the foredeck crew though, as we had to go to jib for a short time to avoid and take the stern of a tanker.

The breeze held up well to the finish, but the run in was very busy and much avoiding action was needed as for most of the time we were on port.

We then planned on running back to Lymington under spinnaker, but the breeze died and so we ended up motoring again.

Thanks to all the team for a great race.