Plymouth Branch Offshore Report 2014
Time to take stock of the season and look ahead. Following a 2013 season dotted with successes and frustrations it was decided that RNSA Plymouth would leap into the arena of sailing management within the port of Plymouth with a view to promote our sport and put offshore racing back on the map. In recent seasons there had been friction between clubs in the port in trying to put together a cohesive and deliverable sailing program that would both satisfy the needs of the individual clubs and meet the aspiration of the individual boat teams to fulfil their sailing needs. A number of lines were lead by the RNSA Plymouth committee and for the Offshore Sec – rejuvenation of a credible offshore program was the aim. With this in mind, and to keep year one as a light touch exercise to test the waters, a five race cross channel series was put together which was to run alongside the other offshore series races for the year. To incentivise local sailors into taking part the cross channel series was made to impact on only three weekends and was kindly sponsored by Peter Sanders of Sanders Sails.
The series comprised of a two leg race both to and from St Peter Port (Guernsey) over the late May bank holiday, race one and two. A race to the Bretagneport of Treburdan, race three, this race being organised by the Yealm Yacht Club (YYC) and finally a two leg race to the port of Roscoff, race four and five. It was anticipated that there would be significant uptake for these events given that it; a significant sponsor was underwriting the event and all entry fees would be reinvested in the midpoint stopover in the form of a social event. The reality was sadly not as anticipated and entries were confined to five yachts.
Winners
IRC
Yacht / Skipper / Race 1 / Race 2 / Race 3 / Race 4 / Race 5 / TotalKerronimo / Andy Williams / 3 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 1 / 7
MuskOx / Neville Devonport / 1 / DNF / DNS / 2 / 2 / 13
Magic Dragon / Stephen Maltby / 2 / DNF / DNS / DNS / DNS / 18
Red Arrow / Paul Pascoe / DNS / DNS / 4 / DNS / DNS / 20
NHC
Yacht / Skipper / Race 1 / Race 2 / Race 3 / Race 4 / Race 5 / TotalTriple Venture / Tony Head / 2 / DNS / DNS / 1 / DNS / 15
Calandra / Adrian Bishop / 1 / DNF / DNS / DNS / DNS / 17
Liberte of Solent / Francis Douglas / 3 / DNS / DNS / DNS / DNS / 19
Sourcerer / Neil Pearson / 4 / DNF / DNS / DNS / DNS / 20
St PeterPort
The first race of the 2014 season saw the anticipated angry weather of a spring channel crossing. A modest fleet met at the RNSA start line off RNRMSTC Camber in Plymouth Sound at 1845 in anticipation of a great evenings sail across the choppy and blustery channel. The original four start sequence was shortened to two (IRC and NHC) due to depleted numbers. As was expected the Kerr 40 of Andy Williams and his team went haring out of the western entrance like a “Bat out of hell”, meat loaf would have been proud. Following was a mixture of both the NHC and IRC fleets in a more sedate manner. Magic Dragon of Yealm (Grand Soleil 45) seemed to be making heavy weather of the initial part of the race and was being overhauled but the slower boats of NHC. Not until passing the breakwater lighthouse did he discover that his feathering prop had not been quite so streamline as he had anticpated, instead acting like sea anchor costing him over 2 knots of boat speed. Once rectified – the dragon, as if by magic was off – Poof! She was gone. The NHC fleet made steady progress together with Adrian Bishop aboard his recently acquired Nicholson 29 Calandra was making the best of the conditions and quickly opened on his competitors in the NHC class. The fleet made their way over the channel, side stepping the usual heavy shipping, with great aplomb to get within sight of land at first light. Over night had been a gargantuan battle between MuskOx and Magic Dragon leaving them fighting nip and tuck up the little Russell as they approached St Peter Port. To the surprise of the chasing pack, as they approached the island they could see the becalmed figure of Kerronimo. Kerronimo, having made great overnight speed had found a sizable area barren of and wind, which let her competitors, who had been some hours behind her, to close to a short distance behind. The morning brought with it a return of the inshore winds of the channel islands and Kerronimo was able to claim line honours in the morning sun. Magic Dragon, although she claimed the second spot over the line was pipped on corrected time by MuskOx and her skipper Neville Devonport. The surprise of the race was the time in which Calandra had made the crossing. With her three man crew and modest handicap – out gunned all the bigger and faster boats on corrected time and was the fastest boat overall – well done Adrian and team. Many thanks to John Gaisford of the Guernsey Yacht club who finished the race on behalf of RNSA. The apre-sail shenanigans were great fun, hosted by GYC, spent on the balcony of the club house sharing the obligatory tepid winners wine and waxing lyrical over the trials and tribulations of the previous evenings sail.
Sunday morning soon, too soon in some cases, came round too soon and the fleet gathered again on the GYC line off Castle Cornet. This time in anticipation of the race for home. The weather forecast for the return run was not favourable and with a time limit based on a mean SOG of just shy of 5 kts, looked to be a challenge. Indeed the wind was now waning at a significant rate and all but the most fleet of foot would find it difficult to make it over the line. This turned out to be the case with Kerronimo being the only yacht to make it back, although over 5 hours ahead of the time limit, before the final bell rang. All other competitors decided to flash up the donkey and motor the lions share of the journey back. All in all a very pleasurable weekend and hopefully the start of things to come.
Treburdan
The race to Treburdan was a limited entry race (30) coordinated by the team at Yealm Yacht Club on 26 Jun 14. Although this form part of the RNSA Offshore series, only two competitors from the entrants decided to take up this leg of the series. A straight forward foot race from the Yealm to Treburdan concluded with Team Kerronimo (Andy Williams) being again victorious. The only other entrant of the series taking part was Paul Pascoe and the team onboard Red Arrow, who came away with a very credible 4th.
Roscoff
The final pair of races in the series and new to the sailing calendar for both the port of Plymouth and RNSA was the round trip to race to Roscoff on the northern Brittany coast. A Limited field of entrants had two yachts in the IRC class (Kerronimo and MuskOx) and one NHC (Triple Venture). The weather could not have been better for the round trip event, with a stiff northerly breeze for the outbound race and a southerly blow for the return – truly gentlemen’s sailing by definition was achieved. The outbound race had Kerronimo pipping MuskOx on corrected time with a mere 28 minutes between the two boats after over a hundred miles of racing. Tony Head on Triple Venture was within shouting distance of the pair at less than 30 minutes behind MuskOx, which is no mean feat given that Tony did the trip “Single Handed”. Following the race and after a short meeting with our Belgium auntie ( Stella Artoris) and a short sabbatical to get over the over night event – the competitors were treated to a reception in the newly built Roscoff Mariner complex by the Roscoff Yacht club. Smallie eats and drinks were abundant and the hospitality of the local club was both generous and very welcome. We also had the opportunity to spend some time with the local press and sang the praises of the new facilities the port has to offer and to celebrate the hospitality of both the local yacht club and mariner staff. Irrespective what form the shape of the future race calendar takes, the port of Roscoff should now feature on the every sailors annual pilgrimage across channel.
The return race on Sunday morning very much favoured the lighter boat and with Kerronimo’s power to weight ratio offering such a significant advantage it came as no surprise when Kerronimo reported herself over the finish line a significant way ahead of the rest of the fleet. This was the icing on the cake making Kerronimo the winner of the inaugural offshore series by some way.
Salcombe
September heralded the final race in the RNSA crewed yacht series with its annual pilgrimage to the easterly port of Salcombe. A beautiful late summer morning heralded the cooperative event with Plym yacht club to Salcombe and the biggest turn out of the season (28 yachts), largely due to the race forming part of the Ullman Sails Plymouth Race Series (USPRS). Light and variable winds promised a challenging event for competitors with much reliance of the winds filling in with sea breeze in the early afternoon. This turned out to be the case on the day with only the faster yachts with helms of the deftest touch being able to overcome the prevailing conditions to make it to the destination port within the time limit set. As is now traditional, the single handed fraternity (supported by Ed Pearson) Francis Douglas and Jo Bower (MoJo) did the honours on the finishing line and welcomed the 4 IRC boats able to make it in time. The winner was David Oliver in Xtorsion8 followed by closely by Chris Williams in Saltheart and finally Daniel Flannagan in Sunburst taking the third spot. The winning time of 6 Hrs 27 mins and 44 sec represented an approx boat speed of 3 kts, which really does illustrate how demanding the conditions on the day really where. A great effort and testament to the level of concentration maintained by all who took part. I would like to thank all skippers who made the effort to come and support the race, but the biggest thank must go to the Single handed team who year on year make the logistics of putting on this event less trying than maybe they should be. BZ Francis, Mojo and Ed.
Conclusion
So what lies ahead? Well I hope that the offshore series still has a future but clearly the format in which it takes needs to be tweaked to suit those who wish to take part. I am therefore proposing that we amend the series to dovetail into a number of the Plymouth Clubs longer distance races and try and confine a few races as possible to the bank holiday weekends. Clearly this largely falls outside of my control but I will be drafting a letter to the Port of Plymouth Sailing Association, on our collective behalf, with a view to them scoping the art of the possible. The shape of next years series is therefore not yet known, but I would anticipate that we would have a good idea of its 2015 shape following the PPSA planning meeting scheduled in Oct/Nov 2014. I am additionally trying to put on a combined yacht race, cruising and single handed event to St Peter Port for members of ALL RNSA catchments on the South Coast. I have gained tacit agreement from RNSA central that this will be supported and will contact the respective Secs at Portsmouth, Portland and Central to see what we can put together, suffice to say that a grand get together in Castle Cornet would be a great diary marker for the 2015 season. Let’s see if we can build on the successes on the 2014 season and make 2015 bigger and better. Let me close by offering all competitors, race officials, harbour masters, yacht clubs and last but not least – the families of the sailors who took part for having the good grace to support their sailing relative in attending the above events. I thank you all.
Ray Crockett
Offshore Yacht Racing Sec
RNSA
Plymouth Branch