Myth of Malham
| Cowes – Eddystone – Hurst Castle 23 May 2009 230 Nm 
Weather Skipper Watch Leaders Crew Results |
Report A good start to the north side of the Solent, followed by keeping to the deep water to maximise the tidal stream advantage saw Space Race in a good position when the wind dropped entirely towards the southern end of the Needles Channel. There was enough tide to get across the Shingles Bank fortunately, as with no wind there was little choice in the matter. Several windless hours, in a pattern that was to be repeated over the next few days, were eventually rewarded by good winds which allowed us to make good use of Space Race’s reaching spinnaker, but progress was punctuated by hours spent in near windless conditions where any progress was hard won and required constant attention to sail trim and careful helming. As expected in such conditions, the tidal gates at Portland and Start Points closed very tightly, but good winds eventually arrived and saw Space Race a few hundred metres short of rounding the Eddystone Rock when again the wind dropped completely leaving us struggling in an adverse tide. Basking sharks put on a fine show to help keep our spirits up, but it was hard to watch boats just ahead of us, which had just managed to scrape around the rock, making slow but steady progress eastward using the tidal stream that had closed the gate for us. Five hours later and we finally got the first zephyrs of a freshening wind and were one of the first around the Rock of the increasing number of boats which were edging to get round. Several boats retired within minutes of the wind reappearing, and we were only saved from anchoring, in 45m, minutes before the wind arrived, by the decision to have another cup of tea first. Again sunset saw the wind steady and freshen and good progress restored our spirits, only to be frustrated later in the night when light airs meant that we were only able to keep station off Start Point in the adverse tide for 3 hours. Phil’s watch handed over to John’s watch at 0100 just in time for the wind to freshen for some of the best sailing of the race, making up to nine knots across Lyme Bay. John’s watch handed over to Richard’s watch with the wind dropping and again protracted near windless conditions resulted in a protracted vigil off Portland Bill. Fortunately we had made sure we were over 10 miles off the avoid the worst of the adverse tidal stream. Finally the winds filled in again, and were to give us good sailing, with many night sail changes to hone our skills, and a couple of short interruptions, all the way to North Head, and the finish at 0143 on Tuesday morning. The adventure was far from over, however, when engine failure and 4 knots of adverse tide at Hurst Narrows saw dual struggles: the on watch team making more sail changes and difficult sailing to achieve even slow progress up the Solent: Peter and Geoff heroically dismantled the engine under the phone guidance of the Seastart expert to replace the impeller and retrieve the broken bits of the disintegrated old one. A tough race, which felt like a bit of a wind lottery at times, but we have much to congratulate ourselves on. The Space Race team is now more of a race team than it was at the start of this outing, with growing skill and confidence at sail changes, especially for those night time spinnaker manoeuvres. |