RPYC Racing - Wed 19th March 2025 - Great racing in strong winds, one yacht dismasted (Edited) скачать в хорошем качестве

RPYC Racing - Wed 19th March 2025 - Great racing in strong winds, one yacht dismasted (Edited)

It was a Bavaria Day with consistent SSW averaging 19 knots and gusting to 25 knots (may be more at times). The wind remained in for the entire race, no slow points. All honour to a great crew and those that lay abed shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here. Our start was OK, good momentum on the eastern side of the line but about 10 seconds off the mark. It allowed us to press through to Foam without much dirty air from other boats. The fleet of 13 consisted mostly of Farr’s with the odd S80, Beluga, Huckleberry and ourselves making up the numbers. As expected Course #1, 9.28 nautical miles was set. We maintained an average speed of 5.71 knots, that’s our best average speed this year. We were 4th round Foam, held out by the descending Farr’s. Tacking options were limited, Huckleberry holding close to our stern quarter, eventually however we had to go (it gets shallow you know), as we came into the tack I realised we would have difficulty cutting under Huckleberry’s stern, a strong chance we would round up, so held into the wind, stopping progress until Huckleberry cleared, then completed the tack. Yes we lost speed/ground but out of control rounding-up in the conditions would have been highly risky. We continued up Melville Water, making good progress but getting pushed down from the mark, Fons reckoned we would do better to tack back into the fleet, and that we did - heading towards Applecross Jetty. When we tacked onto port to clear the Applecross spit mark we were still be in a good position mid fleet. We held our position to the mark, gybing the main after rounding Sanders and setting a starboard pole to Dolphin West. In these winds we seemed to be able to hold our position, no one overtook and we kept up with the front runners. Alex did a grand job of handling the pole in difficult conditions, I suspect Julie would have been more than a little concerned, but as usual he just got on with the job. On rounding Dolphin West we came onto the wind and set back towards Applecross Spit. It’s a long beat up to Bricklanding (A&B) and we set about the task paying judicial attention to sail trim and line. We put in three tacks to make Bricklanding ‘A’, holding our position except that Lionheart snook past us on this leg, rounding both marks in front. On rounding Bricklanding ‘B’ we gybed the main and again set a starboard pole for the long run down to the Day Buoy and, when settled, some of us partook in a well deserved ale! The wind was still around 20 knots and the helm required continual attention. On this leg we increased the gap between ourselves and the yachts astern and, to some extent, took some ground back against Huckleberry, not much but every bit counts and normally we loose ground on these downwind legs. Another gybe (the fourth) was required at the Day Buoy and again this was completed without fuss, or indeed the fear of losing the mast. We settled onto the reach, occasionally getting close to broaching but Heather working the main kept us on our feet. Then we heard over the radio what sounded to be a very calm Lionheart calling for assistance from the safety boat, because they had “lost their mast between the Day Buoy and Poplar”. We (the GoPro) were unsighted for the actual dismasting, damned sails in the way, but as you can see from video (5m 13s in) the mast is broken about 4 feet above the deck and the rig and sails are alongside to starboard. Frightening! fortunately only one minor injury sustained and with the help of the safety boat were returned to their pen. We continued on our way to Poplar and after rounding Knot Spit again set a pole (third), so a lot of pole work. By this time we also had some of the ‘A’ fleet coming up behind and overtaking. We arrived at Poplar in company with other ’A’ fleet boats but rounded clear. To stay clear we put in a quick tack this worked, except for losing control of the lazy sheet and as the headsail flogged in the tack, it tied itself into a birds nest bundle, interfering with our ability to get the jib set properly. Once sorted we came back on the wind and tacked along the lay line to Crawley mark. We had a good line to Crawley and no boats on starboard caused any issues. The rounding of Crawley and a fast beat to the line all went very well, The crew of Heather, Mike, Alex, Julie, Derek and Fons did a stirling job in difficult, but exciting, conditions. The result: 2nd OHC, 6th/12 OTL (would have been 6/13 had Lionheart not retired). We came in ahead of Farrlap (29s) Farrfetched (58s), Ragnar (1m 18s), Apparition (3m 27s), Beluga (5m 35s) and Grand Piano (6m 32s). The 5 usual suspects beat us over the line with 1st OTL, Itinerant, being 4m 4s ahead. I deleted the original video of 15 minutes and replaced it with this shortened version - 7 minutes.