Tears on the fore deck

July 30, 2013

I want to keep this blog as short as possible.

In the fist place because we are in the middle of the preparations for the Cowes Week. Amongst it repairs by Lewmar of the gearbox. They did it all wrong to start with and now we are in a race against the clock.

The RORC Channel Race with Laura Dillon on board started very well. Though we were still 22 boat lengths from the start line when the start gun sounded, we were still the first boat over the line. All boats feared the same i.e. being pushed over the line in a situation with much tide but no wind.

At the Forts we were the 2nd boat and during the race we improved our position hour by hour. At Pool no other boat in our class was any closer to us than 3Nm.

We had no experienced fore deck crew and every gybe turned into a disaster, but there was little wind and we did not loose much until then. However after Pool the wind increased and it appeared that all halyards were entangled in each other.

There was no chance to gybe anymore so in 23 knots we took the Spinnaker down and never set it anymore. The entire class came closing in on us and we could not do anything to change that. Our result was a poor 6th place instead of a glorious 1st.

Laura did very well giving me confidence for her helming during the Cowes Week.

We will now focus on what is still ahead of us: Aberdeen Cowes Week and Rolex Fastnet Race.

I am even unable to put some photo’s in this blog because of another problem.

Life can be tough sometimes.

Will be continued.