Cowes Dinard St Malo
| Cowes – Dinard & St Malo 10 July 2009 164Nm 
Weather Skipper Watch Leaders Crew Results |
Report The Cowes Dinard-St Malo Race is one of the highlights of the RORC calendar, with the promise of excellent Breton cuisine in the picturesque city of St Malo as a spur to getting there as fast as possible. With three of our Fastnet team unable to join for this race, the crew was completed by Kirsten Tapping (Peter’s wife), Nivette Mullen and Richard Chester. Though new to the boat and offshore racing, they were to prove their worth. The line bias was at the Squadron end of the RYS start line. Space Race tried to starboard tack down the line, forcing out the bulk of the fleet who were banking on a southern-end port tack start, before a glorious tack onto port to lead the IRC Class 2. Unfortunately we timed the manouevre a little late and ended up behind rather than in front. However, we joined the fast and furious beat down the Island side making the most of tidal relief inshore, short tacking at close quarters, very close on some occasions. We were forced to shout for water to tack out of Gurnard Bay. Later we misjudged a port-starboard situation and ended up taking a 720 degree penalty turn, deftly executed by Geoff at the helm. Trying to make the most of the rip tide along the south edge of the Shingles, Space Race was reminded that the sands shift considerably: after tacking back out into the channel at 5 metres depth sounding, it continued to fall to a low of 1.3 metres (beneath the keel). Normal breathing was resumed at 2 metres. After the Needles Fairway Buoy we tacked onto starboard but again found Space Race failing to point as high as the majority of other boats. Fairly soon we were on the eastern edge of the fleet. The wind gradually backed so that ultimately our arrival on the Channel Islands was midway between Cap de la Hague, on the Cherbourg Peninsula, and Alderney. Continuing south, so that our tack onto port steered us within 2 miles of the north coast of Alderney, we picked up a useful 2 knots of west-going tide to help us to round the west of coast of Guernsey. Having left Guernsey to port, we now faced a beat into a light S-SSW wind. This included a bit of a dog-leg into the water between Guernsey and Jersey. It was here, during one of our exemplary sail changes, that Richard decided he would have a look at the starboard side of the boat. We were moving a sail-bag back, when the boat must have lurched. Geoff recalls the image of Richard in the crouched position flying up in an arc out of the boat. “The next thing I heard was this plaintiff voice from the starboard bow saying ‘help me’ – two sea-boots were outside the guard rail pointing skyward.. oops”. He helped Richard get his hand/leg hold and lifted him back into the boat. Close call! If he hadn’t been hooked on, it would have been an MOB session. We carried on beating past Jersey, slightly shocked, but none the worse. As the wind veered further south we were forced to beat to the east and then out westward again to leave les Minquiers to port. As forecast, the wind eased some as we approached St Malo but we were always making five knots or more. The finishing line was between a cardinal buoy and the red hulled committee boat and both objects perfectly framed a beach on the shore a few miles way. The beach appeared to look like the finishing line itself, quite a magical finish, racing closely with two of the many participating French yachts. Afterwards we piloted into St Malo, threading our way through the rocks as night fell. We were a little disappointed to arrive and raft up in les Bas Sablons too late for dinner in one of St Malo’s restaurants. However on the plus side, despite the intense rain, we moored up next to Velocity Girl, which was a pleasure, and a few hearties found a local hostellery (Le Cunningham) to try one of Flavien’s proclaimed ‘Pecon’ (be careful how you say it) drinks. The following morning, after a rude awakening by the Harbourmaster, who was not happy with 6 boats rafted out into the then current gale, we relocated the boat, abluted and went striding into St Malo for a fine Breton breakfast. Our return was most delightful: a cruisey sunny passage to Jersey on Sunday afternoon, followed by a blast through the Alderney Race and a moonlight crossing back to Blighty. The tides were with us most of the way home and we finished with a fast trip back through the Needles and up to Southampton. |