Des Founds was the OOD for this very well attended club race to Isle of Man. The weather promised a mild SW dying off towards the end of the day. Originally the start time was between 9am and 12 noon, but this was changed by Des to between 9 and 10am, which as it turned out, was a good idea.
| Date | Saturday 23rd May Monday 25th May |
| Time | 23/5/09 0845 Leave mooring 23/5/09 0959 Start line - Teen feet / Dinmor 23/5/09 1714 Finish line - Pier / Carrick rock 25/5/09 1000 Leave Port St Mary 25/5/09 1150 With Hwyl Dda 25/5/09 2000 Close encounter with Alpha Germania 25/5/09 2115 Bumping onto mooring |
| Tide UTC | Beaumaris: 23 0918 7.28 2141 7.22 0328 1.66 1555 1.39 24 1001 7.54 2223 7.50 0414 1.34 1640 1.21 25 1046 7.69 2307 7.68 0502 1.09 1727 1.12 |
| Crew list | Carolyn and Glen Llew |
| Distance | Beaumaris to Start 7.9 miles, 1hrs 20mins, 6 mph average Start to Finish Line 60 miles, 7hours 14mins, 8 mph average Port St Mary to Beaumaris 66.4miles, 11hrs 13mins, 6 mph average |
Route
Route showing straight track there, and curvy route back
Weather - Saturday
A pretty windy day to go racing, with increasing seas as we got further out.
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St Davids Head to Great Ormes Head including St Georges
Channel |
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Much less wind than the race there, but enough to sail by for most of the day. Bad Vis at times!
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Notes
We had been anticipating a big turn out as the weather promised a sail there and a sail back, and the new club notice board indicated there would be much interest.
We put a reef in when we left Beaumaris and quickly realised it was not needed. A quick about turn into the wind and the full 1000 sq. ft. was up. We crossed the line just in time, with the start being 9-10 am. We spotted Stargazer, the OOD's boat and JayGee up ahead. We were surprised that we caught both and got past. Bearing in mind JayGee being a 41 feet Westerly Oceanlord! The two boats were very closely matched.
Watch the video of JayGee here.
The wind began to pick up and we pushed our main out until it hit the spreaders. The moderate sea made controlling the boat quite a task - the rudder being sideways on most of the time trying to counteract the weather helm. We decided to put a reef in, doing it on the run. Unfortunately this gave the edge on speed to JayGee and she came past us, seeming to alter course. Later in the pub, they thought we had altered course - probably a bit of both.
At least with the reef in we had a more comfortable and controllable sail. We crossed the line at 1714, giving us a time of 7 hours 14 minutes. In contention for winning, as Shoalbird, a Catamaran, and the Oceanlord were 1st and 2nd.
The inner harbour was dry so we hung around and sneaked onto the end at 8pm. Shoalbird were the only boat to join us.
The next day we had it lazy, and headed over to the wall to join the others:
We tied up to the wall and was joined by Abraxas and Hwyl Dda:
Hwyl Dda, Abraxas and Genesis
We then took a walk around Port St Mary in the sunshine, it was a hot and sunny lovely day:
We walked all over town and worked out that there were no restaurants who needed business from hungry Venturers. Des organised a trip to nearby Port Erin, where we all enjoyed a fantastic meal. Some difficulties in taxis on the way back with so many people!
We made our pacts in the pub to leave mid day in order to get back on the mooring in Beaumaris at 9pm.
When we got up, everybody had gone! It was only 9am so we guessed we should leave now all our mates had gone. By 10am we had upped and left PSM.
We didn't have enough wind to sail effectively by so on came the motor and we set off. Some little while later, we overheard a conversation between Des and Hwyl Dda about some engine trouble Hwyl Dda were having. We heard Des give a quick engine maintenance course over channel 69.
We asked Hwyl Dda to give their position so we could follow on and catch up. After a mis-read we made straight for them and tried to detect them on the radar. Our first use of it in anger.
We caught up with them by mid-day, and elected to stay with them. The thought of having their engine go bang, no wind and fog whilst a 100,000 tonne tanker bore down on them at 20 knots was sobering.
There was just enough wind to sail by as we bunched up with Abraxas and Hwyl Dda.
Sure enough, a dense fog did descend and we budged up closer to Hwyl Dda to keep them in visual range. The boats with radar and AIS came into their own.
Very soon it was just Genesis and Hwyl Dda in their own little world of fog, with threatening radar blips around us.
We swapped AIS and radar sightings with Abraxas. We told them about the Aspen, a 50,000 tonne tanker doing 6 knots straight for us. We advised Hwyl Dda that if they could use their engine it would make the Aspen pass a little further away from our stern - they thought it was going to pass in front. The fog lifted and we gratefully sighted it:
Hwyl Dda seemed to be having less engine trouble now, so we motored on. Crossing Red Wharf Bay we noted the Alpha Germania at anchor. Hwyl Dda seemed to want to play chicken with it!:
The skipper of the Alpha then sounded his fog horn which apparently scared Hwyl Dda xxxless - I noted that he had also started his engines with smoke coming out of the stacks.
Soon we were at Puffin, a very long passage for us:
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However, it had not impeded us at all as we could only just get onto our mooring at 9pm.
Lessons Learned
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Putting a reef in on the run is possible
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Take a reef out just as soon!
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Radar and AIS is great in fog, and for finding other boats
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There are no restaurants open on Sunday in PSM!