Classic Channel Regatta Blog

Channel Race - 123.7 miles, 17 hours, 1st

Both Simon and I were extremely excited about the race and crossing ahead. After the numerous weather delays we were itching to get going and leave land behind us. We found ourselves in a bad position for the start, starting 1 minute late. This may not sound much, but we ended up winning the 17 hour, 120 mile race by only 1min and 19 seconds so it could have cost us dear!

We got the kite up soon after the start and roared along, keeping up with the much larger fleet. We did slip to leeward of the majority of the fleet however stayed on the rum line which was our plan to begin with. After 2 hours we had lost sight on all the other boats to windward but carried on pushing hard. Perhaps a little to hard as about an hour later the pole downhaul broke, the rivets popping out of the spinnaker pole. The breeze and sea was really building up by then as we headed further into the channel making holding such a close reach difficult. The shipping lanes were also approaching so we had a quick tidy up and decided to head up slightly and use the 150% Genoa which lost us a little speed but made helming a lot easier and probably faster overall. We carried on like that for the remaining 110 miles.

At 1000 we decided to try and make some food, the paraffin cooker however was spraying the preheat meth everywhere making lighting it extremely dangerous. We decided to concentrate more on racing than eating and resorted to a bag of kettle chips between us and caffeine chewing gum instead!

We both loved the helming, the waves were big yet long meaning good driving and anticipation kept good speed. A couple of bad phases meant we lost some distance to leeward, resulting in us having to hitch up a bit later costing us some time and resulting in a bit more distance.

When we read the channel pilot and almanac, it stated ‘night entry to Paimpol is not recommended to strangers, especially at night even if an experience pilot’ Ticking all the wrong boxes it was typical that our race was going to finish at night! Although extremely tired through the lack of sleep and food we navigated sensibly and found our way to the finish, someway inside the rocky area along the north coast, off la jument.

We did have some luck however as we made the first lock in without having to anchor off and wait. We got everything off the boat to dry off in the sun, grabbed a shower and slept until late afternoon. Woken up only by the great news that we had won the race over by just 1 min and 19 seconds, incredible!

Il de Brehat Race - 34.1 miles, 4th

We had a great start, downwind and kite up and flying on 'go' which was fantastic. It was a short downwind leg around a cardinal. As we approached the mark, I called a standby for the drop, however the halyard had already gone. We scrabbled to get it in and did a clean job, however the reason for the early drop was due to a failing in the head of the sail, meaning we had no halyard for the second downwind leg.

When the race was over we anchored off waiting for the lock in time later that evening. First time we had to rest since arriving in France, played some music, ate some French bread and went for a refreshing but extremely cold swim! Simon also went for a trip up the mast to fetch our halyard!

Paimpol to Guernsey Race - Race abandoned – 56.4 miles

Due to lack of wind we were sent to Guernsey under motor. We had already had engine problems in the morning however, and due to our small fuel tank we sailed as much as possible making painfully slow progress. It meant we got in extremely late, leaving us little time to get anything or ourselves sorted, again! The engine also stopped working just at the wrong moment as we tried to get into harbour, unable to find a gear, so we had to get towed in unceremoniously after our best efforts to beat our way into the harbour. Just enough time for a shower, a beer and bed.

Around Sark Race - 27.2 miles, 2nd

The engine started straight away which was a relief enabling us to get to the start line early and actually work out our route and some tactics. We had a nice lane off the start, very important for us as the smallest boat we were always in great danger of getting rolled and thrown into turbulent wind of all the bigger boats roaring away from us. The tide was always going to be against us the whole way round, but we made the most of it and kept battling away. The fastest boat in our fleet managed to clear the headland before the tide turned which meant they got away and also had a slack tide returning to Guernsey. They ended up winning by over 12 minutes. We put up the kite for the last 3 miles which was good for us and enabled us to get a much needed second for our overall standings. 

Overall:

1st, 2nd, 2nd, 4th counted results

1st overall CCRH Modern Classics Division

Over 250 miles