Zanzara’s Rolex Fastnet race 2009.

The Saturday before the start was a busy day. We had completed the last two days at Cowes using the second reef line as an outhaul after it had snapped at the last mark on Wednesday so that needed remousing and replacing. The splices on the rather aged guys were very worse for wear so they also need replacing and splicing. Finally the jaws on a couple of cam cleats had decided to stop moving, needing replacing, and every shackle, nut, screw etc needed checking, tightening and lock wiring.

All of that while loading the boat with food, water and enough beer to get us through what could have been up to 7 days of non stop racing.

Sunday didn’t start ideally. After returning to Lymington Saturday night to see my family and have a night in a proper bed, I had planned on getting back to the boat at 07:30. Unfortunately a few miles into the journey the engine in the car started overheating, and a quick check at the side of the road revealed the radiator had split! After limping home stopping every mile to top up the water and changing cars I finally made it to the boat around 09:00. So much for the planned relaxed coffee and pep talk with the crew. We got the last provisions aboard, made a quick trip to the fuel dock and made our way out to the line.

With the check in gate passed, we had probably 5 minutes to spare after reaching the line before our warning signal, and after a couple of warm up circuits behind the line the time came, the light weight kite went up and we were off.

With the last remains of the flood against us we went for the island side although with Gurnard as a mark we were unable to get close into the beach and started closely with Gauntlet, Red Macaw and Iromiguy amongst others. Gauntlet were very close to the shore so made good running initially, although they obviously hadn’t realised Gurnard was a mark, I tried hailing them to let them know but they were too far away to hear, fortunately they either realised or someone told them as about half a mile past the mark they doubled back to pass the right side.

The sail down the Solent was initially quite uneventful, we were sailing close with Red Macaw, and I finally had the chance to do my planned pep talk with the crew, the main emphasis being that Zanzara was well prepared, could match any other Sigma 38 for boat speed, and that on a long race such as this the key to doing well was to maintain concentration at all times in every way and if we were to keep that up there was no reason why we couldn’t win.

The Island side proved to be as usual the right side and approaching Hurst we were a hundred yards behind Red Macaw, which didn’t concern me too much as I new they had a better rating despite more sails. We need to look at the one design rating! We did seem to have a slight lead over the boats that had taken the main land side. But then for the first of several times during the race, the wind deserted us!

Fortunately in anticipation of this I had positioned us so that we would be carried on the tide in the fastest flow, to go north of Sconce, but not so far that there was any danger of being carried into the North channel outside of Hurst as had happened to us on the Eddystone race. It was quite galling to watch so many boats sailing up behind us before they too sailed into the hole, I was quietly relieved to notice With Alacrity lose steerage as they came into the fickle breezes and were at one time pointing straight back at Cowes.

Once through Hurst a gentle south westerly started to build and we were off again, although Persephone and With Alacrity were now close by. As we passed out of the Needles channel I decided to stay on port tack and head towards Dunnose in order to catch the stronger tide just out from Anvil point, and equally to stay in clearer air away from the bulk of the race fleet. As we passed the longitude of St Albans head we were still looking good to just make it past Portland Bill on the ebb tide, but as the wind died it became clear we were not going to make it so I made the decision to head inside the Bill in the hope of riding a back eddy out to the end of the peninsular.

This I think was the pivotal moment in the race that separated us, Persephone and With Alacrity from the rest of the Sigma fleet as while the rest languished offshore in negative tide and very little breeze we were able to keep moving west albeit slowly and although there was still very little wind as the tide turned we bobbed and pirouetted our way out through the tidal rips off of Portland doing 3.5 knots in the right direction.

As daybreak arrived on day two of the race we finally had some wind building more steadily, and as I was soon to discover from numerous text messages we also had the lead of IRC3!

Approaching start point we were yet again close to Persephone and With Alacrity, crossing tacks with WA as we headed in close to the entrance to Dartmouth to dodge the tide, while Persephone came in from slightly further south. By now we were down to the No 2, driving hard into a now solid F4-5 south westerly. But this part of the race was one of my first mistakes as I went too close behind Start Point forgetting that close in the back eddy actually hooks back and was actually pushing us south east as we came back into the main tide, and as we beat past Prawle Point towards Bolt head it was clear WA and Persephone had gained a small lead over us.

With the wind due to veer, we sailed into Monday evening staying close to the shore and were taking a similar line to WA who were now having their turn to lead IRC3 while Persephone took a more direct route towards the Lizard.

Just past the Lizard was I think the moment the adrenaline started running out and the reality of the long race was setting in. As the wind dropped yet again to below 5 knots true we lost steerage for a few minutes in the confused choppy seas and it took us a while to get back on the wind and in control. From there to the Scillys I could not find any definite strategy and then having sailed across the bottom of the TSS at the prescribed 270 degree heading, found we had sailed too close to the Scilleys and were having to work our way up past the Islands in a strong south going tide.

As we cleared north of the islands around 1100 on the third day WA had a 2 mile lead on the course and Persephone were not far behind. Now started the long beat to the Rock.

I did not have too much confidence in the forecast at this point and rather than do anything clever decided to stay close to the rum line, making a couple of long tacks each side through Tuesday afternoon and evening until we were close to laying the Rock on Port tack which was how things stayed through to Wednesday afternoon.

Approaching the Rock it was clear we had a few tacks to do in order to avoid the TSS and make it to the Rock. Starboard tack turned out to be very slow due to the waves being on the bow so we decided to stand on port until we were in the lee of the island to the north east of the rock before taking as much of the starboard tack needed on flatter water. As we closed on the Rock we needed to peel back to the No 1 which went quite slowly meaning we over stood the lay line but although it made more sense to sail directly for Pantaenius, with less than a quarter of a mile of visibility I decided, in the interests of crew moral, to bear away and sail within visible range of the rock, and actually passed within 100 meters of the lighthouse at around 17:30 Wednesday, thankfully back in the lead of the Sigmas.

A short fetch/beat to Pantaenius and it was time to hoist the kite and head for home. By morning on Thursday all appeared to be going perfectly. We were positioned well in the corridor between the two low pressure systems and were spinnaker reaching in a fresh north easterly and sunny skies. We had lines of cloud either side, converging ahead and it looked that we would have a good few hours in these perfect conditions until we popped out the end. But! Around 10:00 I looked behind and the clouds were joining behind us and it became obvious the low pressure systems were merging and we were bang in the middle of what was becoming the new eye, and as I frantically tried to decided whether to head south into the tail winds, or north into the easterlys which would give us the chance of making better apparent wind, the wind dropped to nothing! We were becalmed, the only way we could keep the boat moving was to surf the slight swell. We took consolation in a cold beer, and spent some time cleaning the boat, pumping the bilge, and tried not to think about the boats probably sailing past us in the clouds to either side.

Initially we tried to move north east in the hope we could get through the front to that side, but when it became clear that side was moving away from us faster than we could move we reverted to surfing at just under 1 knot in the direction of the Scillys in the hope of limiting the distance lost to the fleet behind.

Eventually around 1400 we picked up a gentle southerly breeze and we were able to start making better progress although still slow and with the front to the south west of us moving slowly, by the early evening I decided to bite the bullet and turned pretty much perpendicular to the course in order to sail straight through the front to pick up the stronger south westerly’s I hoped we’d find there. And find them we did. By 20:00 we were doing 7 knots over the ground directly towards the Scillys.

From there on it was just a case of staying on the back of the front. A couple of times we sailed too far back into it, and as the wind started to back and lessen we had to get hard on the wind to sail back into the veer.

From the Scilly’s onwards we were close behind Longue Pierre, gazing longingly at their mast head spinnaker, and knowing there was little chance we would be able to get ahead of them and make the time ahead to overcome their rating.

We were past the Lizard by 09:00 Friday morning and spirits were high as we reached towards the finsh, surfing in the small waves, with loud motivating music pumping out of the sound system.

As the last hours passed it became clear the boats behind would not be able to catch us without a disaster on our behalf, either loosing the wind, or anything else that may cause us to slow or stop.

Eventually after a very frustrating dead run against the ebbing tide in the entrance to Plymouth Sound we made it across the line. A huge relief all round.

Once tied up in Sutton harbour we quickly tidied the boat and headed to the presentation, and so started a long night of celebrating, ending up with a party on the boat well into the early hours, with half the crew of Persephone a couple of crew from other boats and several friends who had come to join us at the finish. Apparently we were still going past sunrise.

So what was the secret of our success? A well prepared boat and a sensible watch system aimed at keeping everyone well rested. Plenty of good food supplied by my fathers business, I will put a post in the forum with details for anyone interested in high quality boil in the bag meals, but first and foremost a great crew, my sincere thanks go to Paul Wright, Dominic Lenk, Richard Sawle, Nick Goerens, Tom Knight and Clement Boyenval, whose hard work and dedicated concentration kept us moving in the right direction at the best speed all through the race.