THE RACE

 

August 7, 2021 – One day before the race

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The tolerance that the COVID rules leave to the RORC and the participants for the race remains unclear. Until shortly before the start, it remained uncertain whether yachts that had checked in in Cherbourg would be able to spend the night at a berth in Cowes before the race. When this is finally confirmed, the final phase of our adventure begins on Saturday, August 7th: at 11:30 a.m. we cast off the lines in Cherbourg and set sail for the 75 nm to Cowes.

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The crossing gives us a foretaste of what awaits us on Sunday - just on the comfortable tour. We are rushing halfwinds across the Channel at 6 bft under G3 and with the main reefed half wind on course N. The further we move away from the tip of the Cotentin peninsula, the more noticeable the swell becomes. Great fun today, albeit tiring and wet - tomorrow however we'll have to do it all over again with the wind in  our face. In Cowes we surprisingly find a fine berth alongside a floating jetty at the Cowes Yacht Club. The wind carries the sound of the festival mile from the land to us. There’s “Big Party.” We resist this temptation so as not to embarrass anyone for violating the COVID restrictions and stay on board obediently, also to take advantage of the last opportunity to get a good night's sleep before the race - this won't be a children's birthday party.

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Day 1

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Sunday begins with gray skies and rain, the sheltered harbor at Cowes is quiet, but that's deceptive. Out on the Solent it is blowing at force 7, with gusts of 8. This wind will be in our faces and the ebb tide will push us against the wave at up to 4 knots - that will be fun. Our start has been rescheduled for 12:10 BST, we'll set off in the rain around 10:00 - now's the time!

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There is the expected hustle and bustle in front of the harbor. Although only 337 boats out of the total of registered 530 yachts are competing due to COVID 19, Brexit and in view of the current weather forecasts, it is a irritating hugger-mugger for us. All starters must demonstrate their storm sails as is customary in the regatta and sail through one of two gates prepaired for this purpose. Only after this procedure,the crews may hoist the sails the intend to use for the start of the race.  Everything is in motion and it is often difficult to keep a clear view. There is the tidal current, there are also yachts at anchor near the start zone, the ferry traffic between Cowes and the mainland continues, and there is still the large commercial shipping. As soon as you leave the protected area at the southern end of the approximately 1 nm long starting line, which runs roughly in a N-S direction, you are hit by the strong winds - not good conditions for changing sails and for the remaining final preparations for the start. Things are correspondingly tight here in the more protected area.

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As expected, our start is rather mediocre. Given our primary goal of “finish the race” it was never our intention to push ourselves into the battlefield at the line without any regatta experience and to take the risk of early breakage. Nevertheless, a few seconds before the start we manage to turn towards the middle of the long line of yachts, which are already sailing down the line on the port bow in imminent expectation of the starting signal, and thus get off to a decent start without a lot of risk - not too bad for a start .

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This is followed by a tight tacking for some three hours in the still dense regatta field down the Solent to the Needles, pushed by the ebb tide but with a wind of 30 - 35 kn AWS from the front. The further we progress, the wilder it gets. From Hurst Point at the latest, the field is completely unprotected for the remaining 5 nm up to the narrow passage between Shingles Bank and the Needles, it's blowing with force 7, gusts 8 bft in our face and we are exposed to waves that have already had some way to build up nicely here, when they meet the barrier of “The Bridge” at the Needles while  the tidal stream runs against the waves at a rate of 3 to 4 kn  – cheers, enjoy! At home in the mouth of river Weser it would never come to our mind to seek the dubious pleasure of "wind against tide" at a rate of 2.5 knots tidal stream and a wind of 7 bft  - but we're not on a holiiday trip on river Weser here - we're at the FASTNET RACE!

 

But SNIFIX DRY takes it all in stride and meets the expectations placed on her. It can't be said that this was much of a Sunday sail, but we were never concerned about the boat being swamped or overloaded never arose. Apparently that wasn't the case everywhere. The RORC reports that in the first 5 hours of the race, 24 (!) yachts had damage or gave up. We had the utmost respect for those who sailed here with modern, lightweight 10m yachts and in some cases even significantly faster than we did with our heavy-weather classic yacht.

 

Things continue to be lively overnight, but the waves are getting longer. The wind remains constant and there are also heavy rain showers - a first class sailing dream. After around 12 hours, our boat appears uninhabitable by normal standards. But it's not normal here - we're at the FASTNET RACE! We have redefined the term “dry” and now applies to everything that cannot be wrung out.

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Tactically, the Needles are followed by an exciting phase, because you have to consider whether you can reach the Portland Bill headland in time with the ebb tide and then benefit from the current there, or whether it is better to keep a clear distance early on. It is clear to us that our speed is not sufficient to reach Portland in time and we, like most of the IRC 4 fleet, head out to the channel. The only question is, how far is right? These passages make local knowledge and experience so irreplaceable at FASTNET. It's no surprise that when we analyze it after the race we find out that our course wasn't optimal, but we're not losing any significant ground either.

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As the night progresses, the wind decreases slightly, the clouds also become fewer, and in the morning the sky opens up completely. A great sunny sailing day develops with around 5 bft, decreasing later. Now we head towards the headland of START POINT and once again everyone is faced with the question of how deep it is best to go into the bay to the east of Start Point . We decide to sail deep deep into the bay and later in the morning when the wind continues to decrease we shift to our large G2. Unfortunately the maneuver takes longer than usual because the halyard is jammed in the masthead. It takes us some 15 minutes until we can sort this out - crap. Later we notice that two yachts sailing very close to the shore, are making a noticeably better speed to the south than those sailing further away from the coast - so let's go after them. We observe a few reference yachts on the AIS and, after passing START POINT, we are satisfied that this tactics  has paid off - we have gained a little bit on a number of competitors. We have fantastic sailing conditions now which also allow us to open hatches and  mushroom ventilators and the drying process below deck is making progress.

 

Day 2

 

The next important destination is now the headland of LIZARD POINT. The regatta fleet cruises off the coast of Cornwall into FALMOUTH AY, once again faced with the question of how deep into the bay and close to the shore we should sail. We are making good progress on our northern route, many yachts choose this option. Nevertheless, subsequent analysis shows that those, especially e.g. WINSOME, who stayed further out and only went close to land relatively late are better able to get around Lizard Point and score crucial points on this section.

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The group of yachts in our neighborhood sails into the second night of this race with steadily decreasing winds and is finally caught in a total calm early in the morning of the third day just east of Lizard Point. At first we just tread on the spot, then the flood actually pushes us back to the east.. It's an unreal situation: for a long time we could see the light of the lieghthouse of Lizard Point, a great starry night, quiet attentive sailing. Then at dawn a sea mist rolls in, the world sinks into cotton wool, the wind dies down. Yachts that we were just in sight of first disappear behind the veil of fog, then they are completely gone. We can now hear the fog horn from the lighthouse  in the distance. We decide it would be better to anchor than to sacrifice ground. To do this, we put the anchor chain, the anchor line and two spinnaker sheets together and bring the iron to the bottom at a water depth of some 52 m. That doesn't quite hold us up, we continue to drift in the wrong direction at about 0.3 kn - but the yachts around us are drifting significantly stronger. in the wrong direction. It's like sometimes in politics: you gain positions by doing nothing. However, we are not completely idle. We are taking advantage of the lull to carry out a small repair on the masthead. And we can open all the hatches and create something similar to a clear ship below deck. The pantry is also open again, we have a  delicious roasted porridge with apples for breakfast, and you can even take a quick swim in the sea. The break is good for everyone and doesn't hurt our ranking. The dolphins always provide entertainment and follow the scenery with interest.

 

Then a breeze sets in and we lift the anchor. But the wind also pushes the curtain of fog aside and reveals a view of Lizard Point in bright, cloudless sunlight - a great scenery, the mood on board is great. Now it's time to get going again with light winds. Compared to more modern, lighter yachts, our SNIFIX DRY this is not exactly her favourite  discipline, especially since we had her rated without our large Genoa 1. The new G2 – slightly larger than our old G2 and better profiled than the G1 – however does its job well. We can keep up with our competitors pretty well. When we reach LAND's END , the SKORPIOS comes across us about 10 nm away under majestic sails already on her way back from the FASTNET ROCK after only about 1 day and 21 hours since the start of the race. She is traveling at a SOG of over 13 kts and has only some 130 nautical miles in front of the bow, to Cherbourg. So for her "the Mass will be said " in about 10 hours time - that's really cool..

 

Day 3

 

Things look different for us. The wind remains light throughout the day and the progress towards to Land's End is slow. Due to tidal conditions, the only option for our field of yachts is the route east and then north around the TSS Off Land’s End. So we have the tide with us, but sometimes we drift more than we sail. Despite the northerly course we cannot spinnaker. Some boats opt for the  gennaker, however they have to make a leeward bend to do so. We're cruising upwinds at an apparent wind angle of sometimes 60 degrees, heading straight for the waypoint at the northeast end of the TSS. In the early evening a bit of wind picks up again and the ship picks up again more speed. The story ends toss-up: At the waypoint, almost almost all boats are close together again, regardless of whether they sailed with or without gennaker.

 

Now the long straight passage of some 150 nm with a northwesterly course across the Celtic Sea to the Rock follows - only the TSS Fastnet Rock still needs to be taken into account. We have to head towards the northeast corner of the TSS and leave it on the port side, then we head west for the last 5 nm to the place of longing, the FASTNET ROCK!

 

The wind stabilizes around WSW 4, later increasing, and allows us a quick, unproblematic journey upwind to our waypoint. We have a few yachts in sight and some more on the AIS to benchmark and can gradually improve our position. The conditions suit SNIFIX and her new sails well. With the REINDEER in sight we are in a dead heat for over 100 nm. She can't outrun us, but SNIFIX can't catch up with her either. The course of the big DANTÉS from Hamburg, a stately SWAN 48 with Fastnet experience, is interesting. Late in the evening of our third day of the regatta she was sailing a little higher upwind, i.e. not on a direct path to the waypoint, but at a slightly higher speed between the REINDEER and us. What is she up to?

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Day 4

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After some 100 nm the picture changes. The wind has picked up again. We are sailing heavily reefed but still on direct course with the G2 on the port bow when the wind shifts sharply to the right within a few minutes. We use this windshift for a tack to the starbord bow and, in anticipation of a predicted shift back, decide to make a long tack on this side towards the SW. This will be exciting because we are moving far away from our previous companions. They disappear from our AIS, we can no longer keep track of how things are going, and after we tack back to the port bow it feels like before the presents at Christmas: when will the others appear on the screen again and we will look like a winner or a loser then? We briefly fear that we have built up unnecessary excess height to the windward, since after our tack we can head towards the waypoint at full speed a few degrees less than maximum height to the wind, and the concern increases that we would be punished for our courage to move away from the group of our close competitors. At the waypoint however it turns out that we have gained around 3.5 nm on REINDEER, the DANTÉS is even further aft.

 

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Having passed the NE-edge of the TSS we can set direct course now for THE ROCK. The scenery is like in the catalogue (and exactly like on this year's promotional photo wall for the ROLEX FASTNET RACE in Cherbourg): Under a blue sky, we are sailing upwind in golden light towards the sunset and the ROCK. Euphoria is spreading. On August 11th at 21:24:20 BST, three days, nine hours and 14 minutes after our start, our bearing of direction to FASTNET ROCK is 180 degrees - done! A cork pops out of a larger bottle of a sparkling drink of French origin, at the right temperature thanks to our energy management. We can even toast with glasses, because (with optimistic foresight) they had not all been cleared away before the race.

 

Now  “only” about 330 nm are left to the finish. But the conditions are different now than on our way to the rock. A constant WSW of some 20 kn sets in soon. We rush along at half wind, the sky is cloudless, long waves push us, the boat rushes forward but requires to be kept on track by the helmsman with strength - picture-perfect sailing. However, navigational care and attention of the helmsman is still required, because there is still the waypoint at the southwest end of the TSS Fastnet Rock - it must be left to port.

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Day 5

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We don't know whether it was a result of the Fastnet champagne or whether it was due to a plotter setting that was zoomed out too far and lost some precision, but in any case no one was aware of a mistake when we were already close to the islands of Scilly when we received a worried text message from our followers on land saying that we had minimally touched the restricted area after the Rock and had conceded a 10% time penalty. Irritation on board is spreading. We check our waypoint and are not aware of any guiltiness, but we push that aside and enjoy the fantastic sailing. Things are also going well in relation to the other yachts in our field. However, we're wondering what they're going to do with the restricted zone within an 8 nm radius of PENINNIS HEAD lighthouse on the Isles of Scilly. Acording to our assessment a number of them violates this restricted area. And there is still another small challenge. In the south, the TSS South of the Scilly Isles is only a short distance away, and we're not allowed to go there either - the regatta practically goes through a letter slot here. Warned by the incident after the rounding of the Fastent Rock, we check our waypoint again, add another one for safety, and thus properly reach the relevant waypoint at the northeast tip of the TSS to be avoided.

 

The next tactical decision awaits us here: Should we pass north or south around the last restricted area of the TSS CASQUETS in the north of ALDERNEY? The classic route, which is around 10 nm shorter, passes south of this TSS.  This then triggers the follow-up question as to whether you should aim north past  ALDERNEY directly towards the CAP DE LA HAGUE, or - if the tide constellation is suitable - choose the (longer) route south around Alderney and then with extremely strong tidal currents (up to approx. 10 kn!) to be “washed” to the Cap de la Hague. However, our current weather data suggests to head north around CASQUETS, as the wind is expected to last longer along the British coast while on the French side weak winds are predicted. Our navigational program promises us a time advantage of some 1:30 hours on this route, and we have no better knowledge or experience that would make it a rational decision to ignore this recommendation from our digital weather and navigation expert.

 

So we hold a bit more to the lee side  and set our next waypoint at the northeast corner of the CASQUETS. This means that we can now hoist the spinnaker - but do we want to try it? It continues to blow at a cheerful 20 kn true, the seastate is considerable, SNIFIX is already running very quickly under G2. The crew has no spinnaker practice, some have hardly any experience in sailing downwinds in 5 bft with an Atlantic seastate, and it goes on into the night - not exactly training conditions for spinnaker novices. However, as completely lacking in ambition as we are here, we don't want to give anything away, and after some instructive palaver, the spinnaker goes up about 9 h hours after the beginning of our fifth day of regatta in the late light shortly before sunset. And since it was just prepared in the spinnaker bag, it's the big one, we don't spend long with our smaller "Spinnaker heavy". Since Erhard and the author are the only ones on board who have experience with such conditions, we decide to rotate the helmsman every two hours. Everyone stays on duty in full gear so that they can be on deck immediately if necessary, and the ride begins. This way we sail into the 5th night at sea. The conditions are great. In order to reach our waypoint, we have to keep an AWA of some 150 degrees, a great course, but with up to 24 kn of true wind, sometimes at the limit of what we can steer. And beware if the boat is pushed to windward by a wave, then the „sun shot“ could no longer be avoided. The rudder blade extension and optimization initiated by Willie is paying off especially now, SNIFIX can be tamed much better than before. On the other side there isn't much space left for the helmsman on the leeward side before the spinnaker threatens to collapse. In addition, a course that is too deep to the lee side would cost us distance and force us to luff towards the waypoint later - difficult to dangerous in the given conditions. Thus the two helmsmen are now challenged to keep SNIFIX DRY in the narrow corridor that will lead her safely and quickly to the waypoint.

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Day 5 1/2

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But it works fine, we fly through the night under spinnaker for hours and hours and it is only on Friday afternoon at about 5:00 p.m., i.e. after over 20 hours of fully concentrated spinnakering, that we drop the spinnaker because we can no longer sail as close to the wind under spinnaker as required after passing our waypoint.

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Now things are getting exciting again. Was our extra tour north around the TSS CASQUETS worth it? On the AIS we could only observe many hours ago as our “fellow travellers” gradually disappeared from the screen because they had chosen the southern route. When will we see them again and where? Since things have been going great so far, we are optimistic that we have actually been able to achieve the time advantage promised by our grib files, and current estimations indicate we might be able to reach the finish line by 9:00 p.m. But as is well known, the settlement takes place at the end. As the afternoon progresses the wind decreases and finally dies down almost completely (that wasn't in our forecast...). At the same time we are getting closer to the point where the tide will capsize. Soon those boats who opted for the strategy to go south around TSS CASQUETS and have been held back by the ebb current will get the upper hand and the game will go against us. Because of our slow speed, we are carried further west than planned by the ongoing ebb current. It requires strong nerves and the wisdom of our navigator Willie not to attempt to head tensely but unsuccessfully south towards our destination after the current capsizes, but rather to let the current take us eastwards on a course with more speed through the water in the hope of benefiting from the gradual shift of the tidal current to the right when we come closer to CAP DE LA HAGUE and then opens us a route to the finish line as soon as there is wind again. Meanwhile, we can see on the AIS that REINDEER‘s and XARA's strategy comes out even. They pass at Cap de la Hague in time and cross the finish line before us. However, others in our previous field of competitors are not so lucky, and in this respect our tactics has given us an advantage over at least some of them.

 

But the race is not over and the harvest isn't in the barn yet: the wind picks up again in the last 10 nautical miles to the finish, and thanks to the flood tide at times we're back in the game at 8-9 knots SOG. However then the wind decreases again to almost dead calm and the last 2 nm of this race were perhaps the longest of our lives. We are just crawling along, carried mainly by the weak flood current, and now it is just before high water Cherbourg at 01:56 a.m. local time. If we don't make cross the line by then, we are in acute danger of being sucked out again defenceless by the ebb tide that will soon set in. At least we are now in an area where we could anchor and wait for better times - but who wants that 2 nm from the finish??

But there is a happy ending: On August 14th at 2:17:46 a.m. local time, 5 days and 13:07:46 hours after our start, we cross the finish line! Corrected by our IRC factor of 1.002, the calculated time is 5 days 13:22:58.

 

So it can work out well if a few quirky older men want to treat themselves to the FASTNET ROCK, and do it very well. We reached the destination and had no injuries on board. However, there was serious material damage: a coffee pot and a pair of glasses broke.

 

And do greenhorns like us have a chance when it comes to the ranking? We think yes and are very happy with our result. The opening of the envelopes with our tips we gave prior to the race confirms: All but one of us guessed significantly worse rankings, our expectations were exceeded in every respect. Ultimately, according to IRC and after our time penalty of 10%, we finished in 170th place out of 181 ranked yachts - but we also beat 88 others who didn't reach the finish at all (including many larger yachts than SNIFIX). This results in 170th place out of 269 in the “IRC all” ranking. In our group IRC 4 we reach 46th place out of 70 yachts that started. Before the penalty is taken into account, i.e. based on the pure IRC-corrected sailing time (5 days 13:22:58), our sporting performance is ranked 136/269 in "IRC all" or even 31/70 in the IRC group 4 – not too bad for a crew of regatta beginners with no experience in the area who just wanted to have some fun. 

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