Wet behind the ears?

Well, we completed our ISAF Offshore Safety course. The course was held over two days at Hamble School of Yachting and is a mixture of lectures and practicals on all aspects of yacht safety, emergency drills and survival techniques. We had lots of fun letting off flares and fire extinguishers, as well as “wet work” – involving towing each other up and down the swimming pool, inflating a liferaft, righting it and all piling in - a very efficient way for us all to get to know one another!
Although the ISAF requirements only require a third of the crew to do the course, it is CSORC policy for all to complete it. We are grateful to CSSA for providing a grant for half the cost, which is matched by CSORC, so the course was free to the crew.

Trev

Party!!

From the RORC Website:

In an effort to absorb the large waiting list for the Rolex Fastnet Race, the Royal Ocean Racing Club have decided to increase the number of places available to IRC yachts by removing the 'professionally' sailed classes from the 300 entry limit. The Volvo Ocean 70s, IMOCA 60s, Class 40s and Multihulls, who will race under their own class rules, will be counted over and above the previous 300 entry limit.
The Rolex Fastnet Race reached its entry limit 10 days after opening and over 130 boats are on the waiting list. "We were staggered at the speed with which people signed up," said RORC Commodore Andrew McIrvine. "We had to do something to satisfy the huge interest, and taking the non IRC yachts out of the total is a fair solution allowing more loyal RORC racers to get their boats into the race."Removing the non-IRC classes will add about 50 more places to the total. "We are delighted that the Volvo's and IMOCA's want to compete in the race and that the Class 40's are coming en-masse," said RORC Chief Executive, Eddie Warden Owen. "It shows the popularity of the Rolex Fastnet that these professionally sailed boats want to join the race. However without this initiative, they would be taking valuable places away from less experienced offshore racers who view this race as a great personal challenge - their 'Everest' of sailing."
Sutton Harbour increase berthing capacity
To cater for the number of boats arriving in Plymouth, Sutton Harbour Marina has increased the amount of space by making the whole of the berthing area adjacent to West Pier and the Barbican available to the Rolex Fastnet fleet. Sutton Harbour has also become the official berth provider for the race and Chief Executive Nigel Godfroy is pleased to be associated with the race. "Sutton Harbour Marina welcomes the return of this world famous race," said Nigel. "We are very proud of the quality of facilities we have here in Sutton Harbour and being selected as the official berthing provider for the Rolex Fastnet Race. We look forward to welcoming the extra large fleet in August this year."
To accommodate the increased number of entries, space has been booked in Queen Anne's Battery, adjacent to Sutton Harbour and in Plymouth Yacht Haven in the Cattewater, where a water taxi service will be set up to connect competitors with the race office based at Sutton Harbour. The 2011 Rolex Fastnet Race starts in Cowes, Isle of Wight on Sunday 14 August.

Looks like the party's just got bigger!

Trev

Fastnet 2011 Training Weekend is looming

It's two weeks until our first training session - two days studying for our ISAF certificates. This will be partly in the classroom, learning first aid, along with some practical bits like letting off flares and chopping up bits of shroud - or trying to, anyway. We'll also have a session in the pool, righting liferafts and trying to get in them. And, of course, it will be our first chance to get to know each other.

Meanwhile, Blue Juice, our First 40.7, chartered from those nice people at MECSail, is out of the water, having her bottom cleaned and some maintenance to the underwater bits. Then, the week after our shore training, we'll be out on the water for the first time, learning more about the boat and how to sail her.

Trev

RORC Rolex Fastnet 2011

The entry list for the Fastnet opened at midnight on 9th January. Our entry was in the following morning and by the 15th we had submitted crew details and all the other paperwork. We are provisionally accepted - provisional, that is, on our completing training and qualifying races. So, game on, as I believe they say these days. First stop, ISAF Offshore Safety Course.

From the RORC web site:

"Entry for one of the world's most popular yacht races opened at midnight on Sunday 9 January and by midday Monday, nearly 100 entries had signed up, with an unprecedented number doing so in the early hours of the morning. The trend continued over the next couple of days when the halfway mark of 150 boats was reached for the race which has a maximum entry of 300 boats. Within a week, 250 boats had entered!

"We expected an initial rush of interest because people were registering the details about their boat on our REMUS on-line entry system over Christmas," commented the RORC Racing Manager Ian Loffhagen. "However nothing had prepared us for this unprecedented amount of interest in the race. We are obviously delighted at how popular the race has become with entries from all over the world."

Of the high profile race boats entered, the two canting keel 100 footers, ICAP Leopard and Rambler 100 will be the ones battling to take line honours in the Race. Mike Slade's ICAP Leopard and George David's previous Rambler had a huge fight in the 2007 Rolex Fastnet Race, with Leopard taking the silverware. However, this year, George David has chartered the Juan K designed Speedboat, re-named Rambler 100, which will put Mike Slade under a lot of pressure.

There are 15 Class 40's entered so far and the next biggest classes are the Sigma 38 and First 40.7s, with 14 boats each and so far, 14 different countries will be represented in the 2011 Rolex Fastnet Race. "

The entry list has now apparently reached the limit of 300 boats!

Round Britain & Ireland - Jangada Too blog

Dear followers
The blog of our adventures in the big, double-handed "Round the Islands" race can be found at http://jangada-too.blogspot.com/.
We had a stunning result, coming fourth in our class and fifth overall. What an adventure - hope you enjoy reading about it as much as we did doing it!

Trevor

Jangada Too qualifies for RBI 2010

Well, we've succefully completed the qualifying voyage, required by the RB&I organisers. Our plans to qualify were based on an extended “Round the Island”, from the Hamble, around the Isle of Wight to Falmouth followed by a return leg to the Needles finish, then home. Three hundred and ten miles, as the seagull flies, but probably ending up more, by the time we’ve tacked to make our way against the inevitable south-westerly that we anticipated we would face on our way down the south coast.
In the event, our planned early Thursday morning start was thwarted, almost before the off. The GRIB files, detailing the wind forecast over the following days, told a sorry tale – a dominant high pressure that could jeopardise our chances of success. Was it worth even starting? Richard and I debated it over the phone, in the early hours of the morning and finally decided to go for it. The dominant wind would be a north westerly – which meant avoiding a beat, and we might benefit from sea breezes that would likely develop under the forecast conditions.
So, with a revised departure time of 11am on Thursday, we set of on our adventure. By then, Richard had done all the boat prep and victualling, so I did little more than step onto the boat, carry out routine safety checks and cast off.
We registered our passage plan with the Coastguard and our first leg, towards the Nab tower, was typically propelled by an unforecast south westerly, which backed towards the southeast as we approached our first mark. Facing a beat in the wrong direction, we decided to round Bembridge Ledge instead and at last made our way westwards, catching the first of the west-going tide. We made good progress to Anvil Point, but we were never going to make the critical tidal gate at Portland Bill. Though the wind dropped, we managed to stem the foul tide and finally made forward progress as the tide changed.
Richard has done quite a bit of two-handed sailing, including the Fastnet earlier this year, but my own experience is minimal – a circumnavigation of Corsica 12 years ago, which involved copious wine in some very fine restaurants but was otherwise hardly an endurance. We settled into a routine pretty quickly, mainly involving “one up, one down”, but typically not making enough of sleep opportunities early on.
Dawn found us in Lyme bay and we finally made Start Point in the late afternoon of Friday. The wind was flukey and very light and pretty consistently from the north, though the sea breezes did kick in, as expected, reversing the wind direction in the early afternoons, until dusk. Our progress was slow but steady and we finally approached our destination in the dark of Friday evening. We logged our arrival with Falmouth Coastguard and, much to their bemusement promptly logged another passage home again. They even asked us to confirm our departure time as “immediately”! Friday night gave us a good run to Plymouth, but once again, we fell into the mini-Doldrums off Start Point on Saturday morning. The wind finally picked up a little and took us back into Lyme Bay. The day was, as we had anticipated, the worst day, with the wind completely dying for long periods. I’d brought along a fishing rod, but not even the mackerel were biting. Not even a sea breeze came to save us. It was not until the evening that the wind returned from the northwest, with a forecast veer to the northeast.

Accordingly, we headed north to ensure we would not be headed. It worked out well, giving us a constant beam reach towards home. Indeed, the wind built during the night, so that we passed south of Portland at an impressive 8 knots, sailing due east.
We creamed the last few miles past Anvil Point and to the Needles. We debated the North Channel, but decided it was better, given the tide, to go up the Needles Channel. Once past the forts, the wind veered a little further, straight onto the nose and dropping to 3 knots. Time to call it a day. We finally finished around lunchtime on Sunday – 340 miles or so in 3 days.

Richard and I also plan to enter the two-handed division of some of next year’s RORC races, to gain further short-handed racing experience. We'll post our planned races here and do our best to let you share in the adventure by following this blog, which thanks to the wonders of satellite communications, should be updated daily once the race starts.

Trev

Round Britain & Ireland 2010

Richard Palmer and Trevor Drew plan to compete in the Shetland Round Britain and Ireland Two-handed Race in June 2010.

A more varied test of pure seamanship than its transatlantic counterparts, the RB&I has drawn the top names in ocean sailing. Traditionally, when the weather deteriorates, the sailor stands offshore in deeper water, but this is not possible when the course is around our islands. With our changes of weather and large tidal ranges, the race is accepted as a unique 2000 mile challenge to the short-handed sailor.

Established in 1966 by Blondie Haslar, the event is held every four years starting and finishing in Plymouth. The course takes the fleet clockwise around all of Great Britain & Ireland, including Shetland, with compulsory stops of 48 hours at Kinsale, Barra, Lerwick and Lowestoft.

The Race, which starts on 6th June, is open to all yachts and multihulls between 30’ and 50’ in length, crewed by two people only. Started by the Royal Western in 1966, it is one of the International classics of short-handed sailing, and over the years has attracted the great names.

Richard and Trevor will be competing on J109 “Jangada Too”, in which Richard recently completed the Fastnet, also two-handed.

As part of the qualification requirements for the RBI 2010, crews are required to complete a qualifying passage of 300 miles.