So that was our first race, and actually my first Fastnet Race, came through with no real issues with the boat. Apparently we passed just by the 100-footer Rambler that had capsized just ahead of us in the rough conditions around Fastnet Rock. Given the conditions, no surprise that some boats had issues there, going from a fast reach into upwind to do the little 7 nautical mile beat in 30 solid knots of breeze and a bit of sea state.
We had our own little drama just after the start, tacking out of the Solent, when a port tack Classe 40 did not see us. It looked like it was dipping us, but apparently they had not seen us, so we did a last second evasive crash tack which cost us a lot of speed for a few minutes while we got everything sorted again, and also pushed us over to the side of the Solent with unfavorable tide. On the other side it was running out at four knots.
But we quickly left that behind us and kept improving our stacking routines as we sailed along the coast in anticipation of the big right shift that would arrive early evening. It is a big job to short-tack these boats with all the sails and gear we move from side to side. And as so often happens in sailing, rich got richer and Abu Dhabi pulled out one mile on Groupama who did the same to us. And from there on it was pretty much a drag race out the English coast towards Land's End and the Scilly Islands.
So one of the few tactical options in this race would be how to deal with the high pressure system with a big left shift south east of UK. I thought the high wasn't really as far east as expected, so that we wouldn't get a big wind shift by going far into it, only extending the time sailing away from Fastnet Rock as well as staying for longer in the light breeze to the south. I worked with Mike on the possible options, and we both thought it would be a good idea to tack early to sail a shorter distance towards Fastnet. We had to sail on an unfavorable shift initially, but the shift arrived earlier further north so we quickly started making gains. Of course the others had a slight angle advantage later on to gain some back. Below the official tracks, our in black, Groupama green, Abu Dhabi red. We tacked just between two of the three-hourly VOR position reports. Note our better angle towards Land's End. The other set of tracks are from our way back towards the finish.
Groupama decided to cash in on their Westerly position and reached right down to us, so we were neck and neck again before they pulled out a bit when the breeze increased closer to Fastnet Rock. Both because their boat will be good for that kind of reaching at high speeds, and because we did a quite conservative sail change before the rock.
We actually never saw the capsized Rambler when we passed them, but noticed the presence of rescue boats. From there on it was pretty much straight line sailing at high speeds through the night, our first time real blast reaching together. The boat didn't feel bad, but we sailed conservatively with two reefs and a no 4 jib. The guys on deck used the helmets for the first time, and it wasn't ideal with sun-shaded visors to see the instruments in the middle of the night.
We finished about an hour behind the other two Volvo boats, not bad given the time we have had together and in the boat. Just approaching Solent now on the delivery back to our base in Hamble, have been doing watches with a few guys on deck and most catching up sleep. So have to get on deck to navigate through the Needles.
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