Winsome DNF

May 29, 2013

Myth of Malham Race 2013.

It gave special memories to us when we started last year with 37 knots of wind under Genoa III.

Start Myth of Malham Race in 2012.

This time we started under Spinaker II with 13 knots of wind. Like in 2012 the start was to the West.

37 boats in Class IRC-4 amongst them our formidable French competitors Foggy Dew and Iromiguy. We choose the North side of the start, giving us free wind and in spite of a good start Foggy Dew was ahead of us at Hurst Castle. Still we were in the front of our Class.

The wind decreased soon to only 8 knots, later to 6 knots so it was time to fear for a clear passage with favourable tide at Bill of Portland. The entire crew enjoyed the first sun of this season tremendously.

The wind increased again to 16 knots but changed direction, coming from the West so no more spinaker. We were forced to go North into Lymebay and so were all the other boats. At Start Point the wind dropped again and we had the entire fleet together more or less, including La Reponse, but also including Iromiguy though we had no idea where she came from. No sign from Foggy Dew who has to habit to turn off their AIS or it is just not working all the time. It may be a tactical decision to switch it off though we wonder if that is permitted in the RORC races. I will ask Noel Racine one day when I meet him again.

Lyme Bay. Our tracking to approaching Start Point.

Traffic jam at Salcombe

NASA’s space Centre

At Salcombe it became a mess, not any boat could find the proper direction and we observed Iromiguy going very very close to the land. She did that very well, as we are used of Jean Yves Chateau. Once we cleared this point the wind came up to say 10 knots and we had a very nice night with the moon starting to be red turning thereafter white. I tried to catch that very nice view by photograph but I feel it was not anything what we have seen. Here are the results, as poor as they may be. It may give you some impression at least. That is the best I hope for now.

We rounded Eddy Stone Rock on Sunday 26th of May in extremely nice weather.

Thereafter the wind increased to 13 knots, later to 20 knots and we changed from Spinnaker I to Spinnaker II by just taking I down, without use of a Genoa to cover, and putting number II back in place. Successful action. After Bill of Portland which we could pass at 6 Nm South of the most Southerly point, we got an enormous tide which increased later at Anvil Point to 4,5 knots. I am sure now that I did not the right thing when going along that coast but it appeared not many boats did much better, probably except Iromiguy since she won finally our Class.

In waves of say 2-3 meters, with boat speeds of 9-10 knots we had to gybe. The gybe went wonderfully well. I was in the position which usually is taken by Boj i.e. on the piano. In order to gybe I undid the line we used on starboard tack, in absence of our real preventer,  with the idea to put it back in place on port tack again.

That moment never came since the boom came back at the moment I was leaning towards the line in order to pick it up and I was tossed into the rail of the boat where I was hanging overboard, but not in the water, unconscious. That must have last one minute. The crew took me inside the boat and started talking to me. Within about 15 minutes (all by hear saying as you will understand) they could talk to me and checked if I still knew the pincode of my phone etc. I recovered quickly. In the meantime however the crew had decided not to finish the race but to go  back to Cowes as soon as possible.

I believe that if there was something which saved me, it was my life jacket. Not by keeping me afloat but covering my neck with the thick band plus the Musto coverage in my neck as well.

Therefore I started with blog with DNF [Did Not Finish], a rather unusual score for Winsome I must say.

Once we aborted the raced Floris talked already to Boj in the AMC Hospital about my condition. Nothing looked wrong on me, not even any swellings could be discovered. It was a Bank Holiday so in absence of Brenda’s help -she was working in her garden- we had not sufficient time to contact the Hospital on the Island and decided it would be better to get back to Amsterdam as soon as possible.

In Amsterdam my neighbour Emile Couturier, a neurologist, talked to me and said the same thing. All was looking ok with me. I told him “old soldiers never die”. Both we were right I think.

In spite of this risky near accident I like to congratulate Jean Yves Chateau and Noel Racine with their 1st and 3rd place in our Class. Well done

Our next race will be the Round the Island Race on Saturday 2nd of June. In the June edition of Yachts & Yachting a very nice photo has been published of our last year’s race.

Tonight I sailed my 12′ Jol with the usual bad score (last place) so am looking forward to Saturday.

Next blog can be expected Sunday 3rd of June.