Nikki Curwen Offshore Racing blog: Racing season begins
by Nikki Curwen 25 Apr 2014 11:22 BST
25 April 2014
I've just got back from Genoa, Italy, where I've been competing in the Classe Mini 540 mile double handed race with Romain Mouchel on his proto Follow Me (759).
It was a tough race with very mixed (med) conditions, the first 2 1/2 days consisted of absolutely no wind, sailing only 80 miles in the first 50 hours. Then due to strong winds the course was shortened to 300 miles and we turned around back to Genoa - sure enough we were shortly hit by 30+ knots. It took us 3 days to get to the turning island, then just less than 1 to get back. When we rounded the turning island we were 27 miles from the leading pack, in 4th position, We hoisted the kite and surfed back reaching speeds of 17.5 knots. We never gave up and kept pushing the boat, taking miles off the leaders.
We finished 2nd, less than an hour behind the leader, quite an impressive catch up in 21 hours, if only the course was a little longer perhaps we could have caught them!
It was great to get out there and get into race mode ahead of my season, I've come back to the UK in a new frame of mind and ready and raring to get on the race circuit.
More photos can be found on Facebook here.
I'm busy preparing for my races ahead, looking through nav, creating road books and making sure the boat is ready to go and up to date on all the new rules for 2014.
I'm still desperately looking for financial sponsorship, please get in touch if you think you can help!
This Saturday (26th April) is possibly the most important race of the year (in terms of bragging rights anyway).
Boat on boat I go up against my dad on Voador his J105, among 32 other boats in the SORC Round the Isle of Wight Solo.
A 7 O'Clock start off Cowes, the forecast is looking like a Southerly with 15-20 knots. Bets open for the winner...!
Track us on AIS Voador vs Boreal.
On 3rd May my first Mini race of the year will start from Hamble, finishing in La Trinite, a course of 380 miles solo. Unfortunately we only have 6 boats and I'm the only Proto so not much competition for me to play with. None the less it will be good practise to get out on the boat solo for 3/4 days.
Once in La Trinite I will stay there for the rest of May. I have another 500 mile solo race starting on 20th and then a 300 mile double handed race on 29th May.