Cowes Week 2022, Race 3

August 2, 2022

Your OBR (On Board Reporter) reporting for duty after day 3 of Cowes Week 2022.

At 0730 our weatherman Boj sent out his predictions stating the following:

“We are under the NE gradient generated by the High over the North Sea. The Cold front

that passed the South coast of the UK yesterday should have cleared the skies, but

as seen on the satellite image, the (old) occluded front behind the Cold front and the

Warm front moving in from the West generate lots of cloud coverage. Due to cloud

coverage the not so strong thermal enhancement over land will generate a light SW

flow. So a day were the light NE gradient and the light SW local thermal will fight

until the skies clear or until the SW gradient push of the Low over the Atlantic helps

us out.

Due to lack of wind the start was postponed for two hours. This allowed for a relaxed morning. Some of the crew tried to book a massage to complement the easy start of day, however they were not the only ones in Cowes with this great idea. The alternative became a coffee at the Yacht Haven.

At 1205 Winsome left the dock as Boj’s weather forecast seemed to be playing out by a SW gradient push. The wind picked up while motoring out to the Committee Vessel in the Western Solent. Sadly for the trimmers the wind reached the end of the genoa 1 range just before the start (keep in mind they didn’t have their massage yet). 

Winsome had an excellent start on the genoa 1. Some would say too excellent, as our bowman thought we were OCS. Gladly for us this was not the case. After a few tacks we reached the top mark. Due to a rooky mistake and minor preparation time we lost our starboard halyard and had to attach the port halyard.

Our main competitors (Cobra, Whooper and 2XS) were right on our stern. The heavy breeze downwinders are not Winsome’s strength due to her moderate surfing capabilities in comparison to the lighter boats. We managed to get a small separation on two of them however ended up rounding the mark with Cobra a bit too close to us.

The next upwind beat we extended to a small lead which we managed to keep up for the last downwind leg to the finish. This time we had an excellent (but wet) preparation of the kite and managed to get her up quickly.

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At the finish there was only a gap of 34 seconds between the number 2 (2XS) and our time (both corrected finish times). Whooper won with a margin of 3m30s on us (corrected time) and became first, again. This asked for a different strategy to ensure a win for tomorrow – we invited the Whooper crew over for drinks. Unfortunately they didn’t fall for our tactics of getting them drunk tonight however it was great to meet up with these well-respected sailors. 

P.S. The halyard was retrieved by our bowman after entering the Medina. Proof down below.