Races
After we retired in the very windy 2007 Fastnet Race with a broken mainsail halyard we were all very keen to show that we were ready as ready can be for the 2009 issue of this great race. Half of the crew arrived the week prior the start on August 9 to prepare the boat to be in first class condition. During this time we screwed on the boat in daylight and on the girls of the K&Q pub in the dark – busy days… We love the nice people in Hamble and the nice little village. A lot of party was going on in the King & Queens pub, although Hamble was much less crowded than the years before. scroll down on sidebar
The race started in 10kn with a downwind run towards Solent´s west. After 10 or so gybes we managed to be on the top of the fleet but stuck in a lull only minutes later. When the seabreeze came in the fleet tacked out of the Solent but the wind dropped again the more we approached Portland Hill in the first night. This is a crucial point and it seemed wise to stay outside since we did not expect any thermal advantage close to shore. When other boats slowed down in 4-6kn TWS Sjambok made advantage of her big mainsail and the overlapping jibs. We were doing great gains on the TPs and most of the other SZ yachts as well.
The next day was pretty breezy - a Code 3 upwind and tactically not a big challenge. At Lands End we met our bigger sister Sjambok (now TP52 Lucky) with some of the US Sjams on board. In 15 kn of breeze we gave them a hard time to pass us and we played the clouds to overtake them again after they just managed to pass us. When Lucky chose to stay north of the rumbline we knew we will meet these fellows again, probably after the Rock on our way back home. Instead of going north and fully upwind we tacked on port and close reached across the rumbline to get south of her as fast as we could to sail into the new weather with a big shift to the left approx half way up in the Celtic Sea. TP52 Cutting Edge passed us on day two 60 miles before halftime on the Fastnet lighthouse. When we arrived at the rock at 10 pm the rock was hidden in a scary mist and even 400m next to the rock we couldn’t see anything beyond our 48ft island we were sitting on. As we came closer the Fastnet Rock huddled out of the fog and it looked more than a bizarre playground of vampires than the place of pilgrimage any offshore sailor wants to see once in his life. At this time we were 1st in real time in IRC 0 and 2nd corrected and all really tired. With max sight up to the pulpit we steamed downwind thru the fog in a pitch dark night, 14 knots on the clock and fully aware that almost 300 boats will more or less cross our line – cool, eh! Russian roulette went well. At dawn next morning we saw Tonnerre sniffing on our butt. There was nothing we could do to keep these smart guys on distance since this course was a bit too high for our sail configuration. Oh yes, Lucky came as well, maybe one hour later - and this time they saved their butts over the finish line. After Bishop Rock this race became tricky with unsteady pressure for us and a nice breeze for the fleet chasing Tonnerre and Sjambok. In IRC 0 we were most of the time 2nd on corrected, passed the rock 1st on realtime but struggled on the end also due to lack of breeze. Anyways we passed the finish line 21 minutes after Tonnerre as 17th overall and 8th in class (IRC 0A place 5). A really great result after last years 3rd place at Round Gotland, followed by a great welcome of the K&Q ladies with ice cool beer on the dock, 2 days of wild & kickass parties with the fellows of the winning Spanish Swan, Tonnerre, Lucky, Venom and Cutting Edge guys. Almost no sleep in 5 consecutive days. I am not sure we will really publish the party vids – in case we do check ´em out!
The Crew
Stefan
Thommi (aka The Pudle)
Henri
Doc Goetz
Chad
Yan
Albrecht
Marius
Marc
Porn
Jens
