Preparations for the Azores Race

Time seems to be running away at the moment and there is still lots to do. It's the small things that seem to be taking up all the time, my evenings after work are now spent preparing spares, packing food and looking at weather.

Stress levels are starting to rise slightly as we reach the two weeks to go mark and were not helped much by a few boat breakages this weekend at training. On the plus side training was fantastic, the weather provided some nice testing conditions and I learnt loads. I am now feeling a little bit more confident about my manoeuvres and my speed against the other boats.

Training mainly involved practicing all of our manoeuvres, lots of gybing as well as making sure the reefing systems to reduce the sail size when the wind picks up were working well and were safe as well as fast and easy to use. The primary focus of this training was the Azores race, so we talked through spares and weather routing for the Azores.

We also had a great practice on Sunday using the only furling sail we carry on board the Mini. This is my least favourite sail as it always seems to result in some tangled disaster and me crawling along the bow sprit to untangle a furling drum at the end of the pole. Thankfully nothing went to disastrously wrong with that this weekend, I just need to work on some stronger muscles to furl it away quicker.

I gained some nice bruises on Monday as I practiced my first solo rig climb while sailing. Generally I have no problem with heights and quite like climbing, but climbing the mast solo means that both hands are required for climbing, there is no free hand to hold on to the boat, so with every wave I smashed into some part of the rig. On the plus side, the view was great from the top and my pilot (which I have appropriately named herbie) for once did a great job of steering in a straight line. However we were kindly reminded this weekend that the minimum righting moment of a Mini is only with 50kg weight at the top of the mast which is a bit of a scary thought however, I feel this is less of a problem for me than some of the bigger guys but my fingers are still firmly crossed that is my first and last time up with rig while sailing the Mini.

This weekend I will be taking the boat 200 miles down the coast to Les Sables D’Olonne ready for the start of the race. This will be a great opportunity to give everything a final test before the race and spend some time getting used to my new sails. Fingers crossed everything goes ok!

Azores 2012

The final countdown has begun; it is only just over a month until the start of the Azores race, and I cannot believe how quickly it has come around.

Final preparations are now underway for what will be the first Class A mini race I have done. A class A race is a race over 1000 miles so there are a few additional safety items and modifications I need to make to the boat so it complies with class rules.

This week I have been busy writing up a spares list for the race and working out exactly what tools and materials I need to take with me to fix any problems I may have. This has been a difficult task, I naturally like to be prepared for everything however there is a limited amount of things I can take with me and I need to not weigh the boat down too much. This has resulted in my list being stripped back to just the essentials, the priority items that I definitely need and those which I am most likely to break. I also require enough string and other items so that I can find a solution to most problems. This part of preparing for a race is challenging; it’s almost guaranteed that if you don’t take something, you’ll need it! For my last race, due to the light conditions and it being a short race I decided not to take my spare pole, however I had a heart in my mouth moment as I rounded the first mark and my pole got smashed into a wave. Thankfully all ended well, the pole came out the other side unharmed.

The other aspect I have been working on this week is what food to take and how much. I am a particularly fussy eater so getting this right is very important to me. I need to make sure I have the right balance of snacks and meals on board to make sure I get enough calories and there is enough variety  so I don’t get too bored. The other challenge that will come later is making sure I don’t eat all the chocolate on the first night!

I am back out to France this weekend to make the final preparations for the race; it’s only a little boat and the Azores and it’s a long way so I need to make sure everything is perfect and will hold together for the race. Over the next month leading up to the race I will be training with Pole Dournenez training group, giving me a great opportunity to train with some of the French sailors and improve my sailing leading up to the race.

MAP Race 2012

After a tough delivery from Plymouth involving every sea state and wind condition possible apart from anything using a spinnaker, including 30 knots upwind, I arrived soaking wet, cold and ready for a sleep. It was however great preparation to get me back into solo sailing as well as testing my navigation with some rock hopping through the Chanel du Four. Once I had arrived in Douarnenez, I had three days to dry out, rest and prepare the boat for the Trophee Marie Agnes-Peron (MAP)

This year brought some great sailing conditions for MAP, the majority downwind in 10-12 knots with sunshine for two days. With 76 boats on the start line, the biggest fleet so far this year, it was set to be a competitive and tactically challenging race.

With so many boats on the start line my objective was to get a clean start and to be in the position to tack as soon as possible for clean air. The wind was very light as we made our way out of the bay towards the Raz de Sein and I had to work hard to keep the boat going through the light patches of wind.  Once through the Raz de Sein, we hoisted our spinnakers and made our way down the coast. I cut in close to the mark and hoisted quickly to take advantage of the wind conditions. I worked hard on this leg taking advantage of the wind conditions and to slowly work my way up the fleet. After the first gybe I knew I was in a good position and worked hard to push out in front. I led the series fleet into the Glenans (our next mark), although at the time I did not know my exact position, I just knew there were a lot of boats behind.

Once around Les Glenans, I had to change the large spinnaker down to my smaller once, a difficult job to do fast and alone in the dark. There was a bit of weaving about before I finally got my pilot too corporate and got the sail changed. I felt a bit rusty, and one or two boats managed to squeeze past me here.

I arrived at Ile de Groix in the middle of the night and while I had my head down preparing for another sail change, I managed to catch a lobster pot, unfortunately not lobsters though, just ten minutes of hard work trying to free myself while everyone was catching up. Once I was free and got my spinnaker back up, and started chasing down the other boats.

I rounded our turning mark 4^th place with 100 miles to go to the finish. I worked hard to keep the boat moving sailing with my big spinnaker as close to the wind as I could,  I was glued to the helm: no breakfast for me as the auto helm could not manage to steer the boat without going off course at this angle in the gusty conditions. The fog built in the morning and we were sailing fast downwind dodging fishing boats. This was at bit scary as they appeared out of the mist only 200 metres ahead.

I managed to get back in to the lead just as we worked our way up to the last mark before we turned into the bay and headed back to Dourarnenez. However a few miles before the buoy the wind died and shifted to the east and I found my self on the wrong side of the shift. I was a quarter of a mile to the right of the pack and as they reached in to the buoy I had to sail upwind.   I was very frustrated with myself for making such a bad tactical decision. After the mark, we had 30 miles to sail home to Dournenez overnight in very light winds. The light winds made it difficult and by this stage I was very tired as I had only around two hours sleep since we left. It was tough to keep pushing hard for the finish. I finally finished at 7am on Saturday morning in 12^th place out of 49 series boats. This was a great result for my first solo race of the year and it was really exciting to be at the front for most of the race, sailing with the best sailors in the series class.

UK Solent Race

With my port winch breaking within the starting sequence and being over the line, it was not the best start to the race but we quickly re-crossed the line and worked hard to catch up any distance we had lost. The winch issue however was a bit more terminal and we short tacked our way out of the Solent against the tide with only one winch. It was a very intense start to the race with everyone tacking in as close to the shore line as they dared to stay out the strong west going tide. Any losses and gains made from one right or wrong decision became immediately apparent.

After such a bad start it was great to be leading the fleet out round the island on Sunday evening. As darkness approached we headed off round the eastern coast of the Isle of Wight, flying our spinnakers. The big decision for the evening was whether to head outside at St Cats lighthouse in favourable wind or head in at St Cats in light breeze but avoid the tide. We decided to stay out and paid for it, rounding the next mark at Poole in 4^th place, 2^nd series boat.

As morning approached the match race between me and Pip (743 Potting Shed) began. Pip extended on us throughout the day as she managed to carry her gennaker; her lead was 1.6 miles at one stage. We kept pushing the boat as hard as we could and squeezed out every inch of boat speed.  As we rounded Eddystone late on Sunday evening the wind picked up, and to set up for what was a very cold, wet and windy evening. Despite only seeing a maximum wind speed of 20 knots, plenty of waves broke over the boat and sent cold spurts of water down the back of my neck.

Tuesday morning brought sunshine and a well needed chance to refuel on lots of snacks and dry out. However, light winds made it difficult to make progress and every ounce of concentration was needed to keep the boat going in the right direction. The final night brought some really tough racing conditions; tired after two days of essentially match racing, the conditions were light and shifty making it difficult to keep concentration. We made little progress. By this time we were also sick of freeze dried food; there was a reason why the lefts overs from last year’s food were mainly veggie casserole and chilli (far from the best flavours). The lure of real food motivated us to sail faster. As we made our final approaches into Plymouth, the fog thickened to 100m visibility and we were surrounded by the sound of fog horns. There were a few nervous moments as we tried to pick our way into the harbour avoiding the shipping traffic; I was very happy to have the AIS up and running at this point, to identify our location to other ships.

We approached the line at the Royal Western Yacht Club with no idea of our position, and it wasn’t until we were over the line that it was confirmed to us that we were the first series boat to finish! It is a brilliant first result for the season in what was a tactically tough race with some tricky sailing conditions. As ever, the RWYC provided us with a great reception offering hot lasagne and a beer, a perfect way to celebrate our achievement. 

Time to go Racing

Just under a week to go until my first race of the season. The final few boat jobs are being ticked off and charts and weather routing are being prepared. We don’t have onboard computers on the mini, so a lot of preparation time goes into studying tides marking up charts before the race and putting lots of waypoints in to the GPS to make navigation while racing as simple as possible!

My first race this year is the UK Solent Race, which starts on the 6th of May. The course is from Lymington East out the Solent, round the Isle of Wight, round wolf rock (off lands end) before heading back into Plymouth. We also have a class mini start in the LTSC Thursday evening race, so I am looking forward to this as a sort of prologue and chance to line up against everyone before the race starts.

The course is 290 miles and tactically this will be a very interesting race because of the strong tides in the Solent and the number of tidal races we need to get through along the English coast. There are 9 boats entered, a small fleet compared to the French races, but it’s a great turn out as this is the first year this race has been run.
But before I get to go racing there is first the small business of getting through measurement and safety checks. This is a really important and time-consuming part of my race preparation. For a C Classe Mini Race (this is a race under 300miles) all boats must arrive a full 3 days before the start. Each boat will then be individually inspected and boat documentation checked over.  Everyone races to get this part completed because you don’t get the full race instruction until your boat has been officially been signed off. In the big races in France, these checks are done by appointment due to the number of boats taking part.

The inspection involves checking that you have all the necessary safety equipment on board including equipment stored in the safety container like flares and survival food, which has to be sealed to ensure that it is not opened during the race. If your boat is inspected after the race and these seals are found to be broken you have to take a penalty. The life raft, batteries and survival water are also sealed; this is to stop you stacking them (moving them around to increase the performance of the boat). The sealing of the life raft always amuses me, as I can barely lift it on land. There is no way I would manage to stack it while bouncing around at sea!! There is also a very obvious problem that would occur if I tried to stack my batteries…..no power! But this obviously hasn’t stopped people in the past, so for safety reason everything gets sealed in place. The evening before the race, final checks are made to insure that your AIS and mast head lights are working.

So I have double checked the rules and the safety check list to make sure I have everything on board that is required, but there are always a few nervous moments as they go through the long list with you and tick everything off.

At the moment the weather looks light with almost no wind forecasted for Monday and it looks like we might even get some sunshine! But we will have to see how it develops over the rest of the week.

I have my fingers crossed for 15 knots and sunshine.

Final Preperations

So we are half way through April no idea how that happened! Only 3 more weeks till the first race of the season – UK Solent Race, starting in Lymington on the 6th May. Final preparations are now getting under way.

An important aspect of any sailing class is boat preparation, but it is particularly important when sailing solo offshore as one small problem can easily lead to a very big head ache. Mini Sailors tend to do most of the boat work themselves, this keeps costs down and gives us the great advantage of knowing our boats inside out, but it can also make you slightly nervous; I wonder whether this crack is structural….!? Is that bulk head I laminated in strong enough?

The weekend before Easter the UK Mini Training group were all down in Cowes, but this time not for sailing. Instead we all had long jobs list to get though in order to get our boat ready for the UK Solent Race, which is now only a month away. Jobs ranged from deck cleaning and winch servicing, to new rigging systems and the construction of life raft ramps. In the Mini our life rafts are stored below deck and we have to be able to launch our life rafts from inside and outside the boat in 15 seconds. This means you need a quick and easy system to launch usually a ramp and single robe or clip in order to free the life raft, and they do test us. My record for last year was 10 seconds!

Last week however has was a tough one in getting the last few jobs ticked off the list. Things haven’t gone quite to plan on the final few boat work jobs (I am slowly learning it’s a boat and they never do). What started out as one small job back in January to remove the foot chocks due to a change in class rules has escalated into full scale laminating and deck painting project. It was all on schedule last week, just a bit more filling and sanding to do before painting the new deck grip, unfortunately we were supplied the wrong paint one part instead of two part deck enamel and the one part enamel reacts with the deck grip. The only solution to fix this problem is to scrape off all the paint and start again, doing things for a second time is always extremely frustrating. 

On the plus side I did managed to get the boat back together and in the water ready for Mini Training last weekend, just without grippy paint on the decks, the deck grip will be finished off this week. We were finally blessed with some wind for this weekends training.

I felt thoroughly bruised and exhausted on Monday morning but it was great practice and I was reminded of a few lessons about handling the boat in stronger winds. It was perfect for practicing downwind sailing, which is the best part of mini sailing. It was exciting on Sunday avoiding all other race fleets out for the springs series races flying along with a spinnakers up, with a top speed of 11knots we were definitely overtaking some of the boats racing downwind .

Why Sail Solo ?

A question I am often asked is why sail solo?  Why choose to sail by yourself when it would be much easier to sail with a crew or even double handed? Most people are too sensible to sail across oceans alone. Even the keenest of sailors would question offshore sailing in a Mini 6.50 as it is so small.

Offshore solo sailing for me is about the spirit of adventure, the challenge, and of course the racing, which appeals to my competitive side.  Solo sailing gives me a sense of freedom and independence. When you sail alone, everything comes down to you and the decisions you make. You are everything on the boat: doctor, councillor, cook, and navigator. You can rely only on what you have with you, you must pick yourself up when you have a bad day and keep pushing the boat and yourself to the limit. It is not only about having physical endurance, but most importantly being mentally strong and having a positive attitude to overcome difficulties. Ultimately, it’s all down to you, the decisions you make decide whether you win or lose a race.

Of course there are moments when you think another pair of hands would be great right now: when you make a bad sail drop and you find the sail fly out of the boat backwards and you are not quite sure how you are going to get it back alone. The hardest bit for me is not being able to share exciting or funny moments, when you are lying in the cockpit in stitches of laughter after doing something silly like trying to brush my teeth with a spoon in a sleepless state.

There are challenges that come with solo sailing. You can forget about eight hours of sleep a night, more like twenty minutes at a time. When racing, more than 13 hours a day is spent helming and you must manage your sleep patterns as best you can with the needs of the boat, taking any opportunity to sleep while you can. Even when you manage to grab some time, sleeping is still a tall order, having to constantly listen to the boat for anything unusual that indicates a problem and ensuring avoidance of other boats and shipping traffic.

Cooking can also range from challenging to near impossible when the sea is really rough. The first problem is trying to get the water in the jet boil, next is trying to hold it level without burning yourself, and finally trying not to set fire to the boat during boiling, whilst simultaneously ensuring the boat still maintains upright and moving forward in a straight line. The challenges however are what draw me to solo sailing: it makes the satisfaction at the end even greater, and the enjoyment of surfing down every wave even better.