|
|
Post by fish on Jul 23, 2023 22:54:26 GMT 12
Started today apparently.
RUMOURS that 3 boats have sunk.
1 boat confirmed to have sunk, a Sunfast 3600 in the Needles Channel. Of all places, it is not a nice spot.
A number of boats either sheltering at Portland or retired.
RNLI Lifeboats standing by all over the place.
I did the 2007 race. Or at least attempted to. That year they delayed the start by 25 hrs, to much controversy, then about 20 boats finished out of 300 plus starters. I was a watch leader so went to the met briefing. It made the hair stand up on the back of my neck, the weather map looked exactly the same as the '79 race. Just more rules, tighter safety checks and crew training.
I was on a Sigma 38, which is like a Sherman Tank of 1 design racing yachts. Skipper was ex Military. Our liferaft had a float free trigger on it, anyway, it triggered. I was on the helm, suddenly wondering what the hissing sound was behind me and trying to slow the boat down in a nasty sea-state. We were forced to withdraw, can't race without a LR. I've never seen a grown mas throw as big a sulk as the skipper that day. He didn't speak the entire voyage in to Plymouth Sound...
I still feel my greatest achievement on that race was staying in my bunk. I was having to wedge my elbows and knees on the deck-head above to not get thrown out...
|
|
|
|
Post by fish on Jul 23, 2023 22:56:05 GMT 12
It was a gnarly start to the 50th edition of the ROLEX Fastnet Race, and when we woke up this morning, it was no surprise to see a vast number of boats already retired from the race. All you need to do is look at the tracker leaderboard to see the number of retirements, with boats having dropped rigs, sustained significant sail damage, hull damage and various other reasons. From what we are seeing, and this is the most important part, is that all sailors are ok. Some boats opted to not start at all, including the TP52 Imagine, with their reason being that the boat was designed for light air Mediterranean sailing. While that boat has had offshore optimisation, the team was not confident that the hull structure would handle the conditions forecasted. www.livesaildie.com/50th-rolex-fastnet-race-sporty-start-leads-to-a-number-of-retirements/?fbclid=IwAR3fDjZ6kgNezw6rH2wcYV8iXs0gyeUo4BIi_3hNqUMXewHfn6EIMEiGjek |
|
|
|
Post by fish on Jul 23, 2023 23:04:05 GMT 12
Some cracking photos here of wind over tide in the Needles Channel. Forecast was for 25 knts on the nose, building to 35-40knts. Doesn't sound like much, but for those that don't know it, the Needles Channel is the Western entrance to the Solent, and is very narrow with strong tidal flows. Flanked by a row of saw tooth chalk pillars on the eastern side, the western side has Hurst Castle, along with a nasty shoal just outside the channel - Shingles Bank, making the channel more like a river than anything. Easy Peasy to get swept onto it and bounce the keel through the floor. Happens regularly. www.sail-world.com/news/264591/Rolex-Fastnet-Race-start-Trevor-Pountain-gallery |
|
|
|
Post by em on Jul 24, 2023 7:42:47 GMT 12
Hey Fish , thanks for posting some sailing stuff ! . Here’s a vid taken from hurst castle . Ironically there’s a shot of an imoca heading back in “medlia’ that was about 1O seconds over at the start and was penalised 2 hours . youtu.be/8UL8nyjs7r4 |
|
|
|
Post by Fogg on Jul 24, 2023 9:01:39 GMT 12
I did the 1999 race on a HOD35 (Humphreys One Design). It was considered the Sunfast of its day and a modern rival to the Sigmas.
It was certainly quick. We won one of the pre-Fastnet qualifying RORC races (Cowes-Dinard / St Malo). And during one practise race we were planing in through the Needles Channel under spinnaker with wind-over-tide, and I remember thinking “OK, so this is probably how I’m going to die.”
We had the usual mix of gales and calms but our race was most memorable for experiencing a total solar eclipse at about 10.00am as we were approaching Land’s End on our return leg (we were pretty much on the line of totality).
It went quite dusky for a few minutes and for about 2 mins it went almost completely dark - I remember all the sea birds suddenly landing on the ocean looking confused that night had come early. Also, we had race instructions to switch on nav lights and operate under ColRegs for the duration of the eclipse.
There had been warnings about potential severe squalls caused by thermal wind-shear moving with the edge of the light / dark zone (which was moving at a few hundred km/h) but it was event-free.
|
|
|
|
Post by fish on Jul 24, 2023 9:51:54 GMT 12
I did the 1999 race on a HOD35 (Humphreys One Design). It was considered the Sunfast of its day and a modern rival to the Sigmas. It was certainly quick. We won one of the pre-Fastnet qualifying RORC races (Cowes-Dinard / St Malo). And during one practise race we were planing in through the Needles Channel under spinnaker with wind-over-tide, and I remember thinking “OK, so this is probably how I’m going to die.” We had the usual mix of gales and calms but our race was most memorable for experiencing a total solar eclipse at about 10.00am as we were approaching Land’s End on our return leg (we were pretty much on the line of totality). It went quite dusky for a few minutes and for about 2 mins it went almost completely dark - I remember all the sea birds suddenly landing on the ocean looking confused that night had come early. Also, we had race instructions to switch on nav lights and operate under ColRegs for the duration of the eclipse. There had been warnings about potential severe squalls caused by thermal wind-shear moving with the edge of the light / dark zone (which was moving at a few hundred km/h) but it was event-free. Sorry Fogg, I have to correct you, there are no rivals to the Sigma 38  I saw the green flash on my very first RORC channel race. It was to St Peter Port. Thought we were going to get run down by a coastal freighter in the Needles Channel one dark and stormy night. Almost did get run down in the shipping lanes another dark and stormy night. I dislocated my knee whilst attempting to put a reef in (it was a bit bouncy). Then I successfully managed to distract the crew while they dragged me downstairs. Just after, the skipper looked up to see a green light high up to one side, and a red light high up to the other side. Followed immediately by a violent 'Crazy Ivan'. As I was the only person downstairs at the stage, they didn't tell me about it till after the race, as I was the most likely person to have been killed if we did get hit... Ah, the stories. Good times racing around The English Channel. Spend all weekend tearing around in the dark and wet going to interesting new places. Get into work on Monday completely knackered. Most Englishmen's version of sports is watching football and having a bender. Same result, knackered on a Monday. Nothing like 'out there doing it'. |
|
|
|
Post by fish on Jul 24, 2023 12:56:35 GMT 12
Sounds like a demolition derby: A brutal first night at sea in this 50th edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race has seen numerous retirements and many others seeking temporary shelter from the gale force conditions in the English Channel. For example, wind data from Hurst Castle at 20:10 BST last night recorded 38 knots, gusting 43. Yesterday evening off St Alban’s Point, the crew on Stuart Lawrence’s J/120 Scream II reported 46 knots. At the time of writing, from the 430 official starters (excluding 15 DNS), 86 have officially retired, comprising 78 across the IRC fleet (the biggest number being 27 in IRC Two) plus two Class40s, two IMOCAs, three MOCRA multihulls and one Ocean 50 trimaran. In the severe conditions HM Coastguard reported involvement in 28 incidents, including one sinking. Of the latter, in a statement the Rolex Fastnet Race race committee stated: “At approximately 16:30 yesterday afternoon the Sun Fast 3600 Vari began to take on water southwest of the Needles. Thanks to the swift response of the emergency services both crew members were evacuated to Yarmouth, Isle of Wight and are safe and well. The boat is believed to have sunk although the exact reasons are not yet confirmed.”Several calls to HM Coastguard were to do with injured crew. Otherwise, four yachts dismasted – Heather Tarr’s Yoyo from Ireland; Nick Martin’s Diablo; Bertrand Daniels’ Mirabelle and Tapio Lehtinen’s Swan 55 yawl Galiana (due to compete in the Ocean Globe Race shortly). In addition Azora sustained broken steering, Dulcissima a loss of rigging, while Richard Matthews’ CF520 Oystercatcher XXXV sustained deck failure and Oida ran aground after her anchor dragged. T here were several other incidents in which HM Coastguard was not involved, including the mast foot exploding on Long Courrier who retired to Cowes – the only occasion race veteran and 2015 winner Géry Trentesaux has retired from this race. In addition 15 registered entries didn’t start yesterday, including one of the race favourites – Peter Morton’s Maxi 72 Notorious in IRC Super Zero. Many more sought shelter after starting. A trio of French offshore racing legends were among a group that returned to Cowes: Marc Guillemot’s WellnessTraining/MG5, Roland Jourdain’s Outremer 59 We Explore and the Fife classic Moonbeam on which round the world record breaker and former Vendée Globe race director Jacques Caraes is skipper. Round the corner in Osborne Bay was Michael Orgzey’s Swan 48’s Dantes, in Newtown Creek was Martin Andrews Cork Malt II, with an additional 13 in Yarmouth. Having braved Poole Bay, four were in Poole Harbour; five in Studland Bay, one in Swanage, three in Weymouth and 15 in Portland Harbour. The majority resumed sailing this morning as conditions abated. The strong winds last night were forecast well in advance,” commented Rolex Fastnet Race Race Director Steve Cole. “The club would like to thank HM Coastguard and the RNLI for their assistance. It is thanks to their effort and skill that the incidents were dealt with professionally and those who required assistance were recovered safely. Now the front has passed the wind and sea state have dropped, and conditions are even set to be light over the next 24 hours.” This morning the wind has dropped to 10-15 knots in the western English Channel and is expected to drop further to 5-10 knots in the Celtic Sea for the crossing to the Fastnet Rock. www.livesaildie.com/severe-opening-night-impacts-on-rolex-fastnet-race-fleet/?fbclid=IwAR2w4oFfp_OdtzFIeCG3gbdNcrs9gbBv1k7-UtxT6NO2HC27LEdBk9r5rTg |
|
|
|
Post by Fogg on Jul 24, 2023 13:20:44 GMT 12
Will no doubt trigger the age-old debate: “If you knew this was likely to happen then should you have delayed 24hrs to avoid predictable burden on emergency services?”
|
|
|
|
Post by sloopjohnb on Jul 24, 2023 14:22:59 GMT 12
|
|
|
|
Post by GO30 on Jul 24, 2023 21:47:02 GMT 12
I want a Ocean Fifty
Those 60 imoca's are quick and have a rather diverse range of hull shapes.
The further back in the fleet the more mass production racer/cruiser cruiser/racer boats, many struggling a bit but all featuring some thing the front part of the fleet didn't.
|
|
|
|
Post by sloopjohnb on Jul 24, 2023 23:10:12 GMT 12
GO30, not quite an Ocean Fifty but it will do me.   A Mini 40 to add to the collection of RC boats. |
|
|
|
Post by fish on Jul 25, 2023 10:50:25 GMT 12
I want a Ocean Fifty
Those 60 imoca's are quick and have a rather diverse range of hull shapes.
The further back in the fleet the more mass production racer/cruiser cruiser/racer boats, many struggling a bit but all featuring some thing the front part of the fleet didn't.
Randomly, if I were to do another Fastnet and only had a 'normal' budget, I'd take a Contessa 32. Old, solid and sea-kindly, but if it is a slow year you can win overall. A Contessa 32 won a few years ago, 2 handed. Admittedly it was sailed by a loonatic French father and son combo who had more on water experience than the entire Royal Navy. Other than that, trying to find a boat to win the Fastnet (or even do well) is like an arms race. When I was doing the RORC stuff we were in divs 3 and 4 I think. I always thought div 1 was for the fast boats, then they introduced div Zero, then div Super-Zero, then the foiling ultims etc. Put what was a really good div 3 down to about div 27 if you counted all the faster and posher divisions up the list. |
|
|
|
Post by Fogg on Jul 25, 2023 14:21:47 GMT 12
Contessa 32s are amazing little boats. Growing up in the Solent sailing bilge-keel family 26-30 footers, a C32 was an exotic looking animal that I dreamed of owning.
Roll the clock forward (a lot of years) and a few months ago I met the happiest, most relaxed single-handed sailor I’ve ever come across. A quietly spoken Scottish guy about 7yrs into a circumnavigation from UK - sailing via the Capes btw, non of this poncy canal stuff - in a Contessa 32.
Of course stepping aboard after being on Fogg felt like going back in time - which of course you are - but I felt a great fondness and sense of calm being onboard.
He had a self-steering wind vane, GPS and a VHF. And that was where the mod-cobs ended. No fridge, no H&C pressurised water. Just the bare basics. You get the picture.
Result = everything basically worked and he wasn’t frustrated by a constant stream of breakdowns and failures.
Whilst other cruisers were using their NZ stop-over time to perform major repairs and mini-refits, he was relaxing enjoying the scenery.
He’s now on the Gold Coast deciding whether to drop south around the bottom of Aus or not, to do Cape Leeuwin.
|
|
|
|
Post by GO30 on Jul 25, 2023 19:00:51 GMT 12
GO30, not quite an Ocean Fifty but it will do me. View AttachmentA Mini 40 to add to the collection of RC boats. I want one of those as well. You sailing them on the newish rebuild pond down south a ways?
A Contessa 32? I don't think I have enough spins around the sun left to handle one of those. I'd need a bit quicker.
|
|
