Discussion
Best of British to Mahatma & any other who may be doing the Fastnet the week after next. I'll be thinking of you whilst I tuck into my 3rd or 4th beer on Tuesday night.....
Just think of all those lovely hours on rail ahead of you, followed by bitching land sickness when you get back to Plymouth.......
In all seriousness, sail fast & be safe (I am mighty jealous of you all!)
Alex
Just think of all those lovely hours on rail ahead of you, followed by bitching land sickness when you get back to Plymouth.......
In all seriousness, sail fast & be safe (I am mighty jealous of you all!)
Alex
Edited by Schmalex on Thursday 2nd August 13:12
ALawson said:
I see the start has been delayed, I think they are going to be in for a good downwind blast on the way back!
Lucky bastards!! I remember touching 18.5 kts in a Sigma 38 at 3.00am on the run back from the rock one year. Absolutely awesome sailing (bloody terrifying as well!!)Guys - have a great race & give us a blow by blow account when you get back in
two of my fellow colleagues entered this year.
one was on the Kerr 52 FAIR DO's... which retired due to numerous equipment failures.
the other is on the Swan 65 DESPERADO which is still going strong... they went round the rock early this morning in 3rd place, but the blast back will favour the planing yachts (open 60's, maxi's etc etc), so they will slowly get overhauled on the thrash back to plymouth.
kinda glad i stayed in the office really!
one was on the Kerr 52 FAIR DO's... which retired due to numerous equipment failures.
the other is on the Swan 65 DESPERADO which is still going strong... they went round the rock early this morning in 3rd place, but the blast back will favour the planing yachts (open 60's, maxi's etc etc), so they will slowly get overhauled on the thrash back to plymouth.
kinda glad i stayed in the office really!
toxic frog said:
two of my fellow colleagues entered this year.
one was on the Kerr 52 FAIR DO's... which retired due to numerous equipment failures.
the other is on the Swan 65 DESPERADO which is still going strong... they went round the rock early this morning in 3rd place, but the blast back will favour the planing yachts (open 60's, maxi's etc etc), so they will slowly get overhauled on the thrash back to plymouth.
kinda glad i stayed in the office really!
I used to share a flat with Jason Ker when I was at uni. His racing boats are fantastic to sail, particularly the 11.3's. Especially so, considering during his final year, he had to design & build a hull for tank testing which we accidentally left too close to a radiator whilst it was curing meaning that it was only hydrodynamically sound on Port tack....one was on the Kerr 52 FAIR DO's... which retired due to numerous equipment failures.
the other is on the Swan 65 DESPERADO which is still going strong... they went round the rock early this morning in 3rd place, but the blast back will favour the planing yachts (open 60's, maxi's etc etc), so they will slowly get overhauled on the thrash back to plymouth.
kinda glad i stayed in the office really!
M Bag I was talking to a chap from Norths yesterday, they are going to be busy 
.
To be honest I tracked the race on the web with the latest Ugrib files for weather and was surprised at the number of yachts pulling out. Obviously once you have major gear problems i.e. No Main it is understandable.
As you said the most important thing was that there were only minimal injuries across the fleet.
.To be honest I tracked the race on the web with the latest Ugrib files for weather and was surprised at the number of yachts pulling out. Obviously once you have major gear problems i.e. No Main it is understandable.
As you said the most important thing was that there were only minimal injuries across the fleet.
We were just south of Start Point when it happened. We didn't fancy the entrance to Salcombe or Dartmouth so we put into Brixham to see if we could make a repair, but it there was no way. We thought about continuing under trysail, but it would have been impractical (and way too slow). We were gutted. The weather itself didn't bother us that much and we had seen far worse in the build-up races.
Mahatma Bag said:
Vertically near the leech. It flogged as we were taking in the second reef and we think that's what did it.
Ah, exactly the same happened to me once about 10 years ago with a Genesis main. Major pisser, as the weave is just not designed to cope with the stress put on it through flogging (especially while reefing).Bummer to be out through gear failure...
I was once partially responsible for putting a 20ft verticle hole in the main of a whitbread 60, we had just put the 3rd reef in, with Paul Jeffes issuing instructions to give it "just one more turn on the winch" the reefing pennant was bar tight and we tighened it the last half turn there was the loudest teearing noise ever 
Having been going upwind for 14 hours we quickly turned around and headed back to Antigua, we were delivering the boat back to scotland in Jan 2000. When we got back to English Harbour we we told "you should never leave on a friday". Anyway the main had about 60m2 of sticky dacron put on it and we ended up going to Shirley Heights anyway.
I quite fancy doing in 2009, that will be another Volvo year won't it?
Having been going upwind for 14 hours we quickly turned around and headed back to Antigua, we were delivering the boat back to scotland in Jan 2000. When we got back to English Harbour we we told "you should never leave on a friday". Anyway the main had about 60m2 of sticky dacron put on it and we ended up going to Shirley Heights anyway.
I quite fancy doing in 2009, that will be another Volvo year won't it?
Gassing Station | Boats, Planes & Trains | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff