Concise approaches the Rock as Portland Bill pays in the Rolex Fastnet Race
by James Boyd 7 Aug 2017 13:52 BST
6 August 2017
Overnight the fleet in the Rolex Fastnet Race has been made solid progress upwind, tacking on shifts and dipping in and out of the land according to whether or not the tide is favourable.
At 0900 Tony Lawson's MOD 70 trimaran Concise 10 was off the Irish coast just about to tack towards the Fastnet Rock while the next boat and leading monohull, George David's Rambler 88 had rounded Land's End, followed by SMA, the lead IMOCA 60, sailed doublehanded by Paul Meilhat and Gwénolé Gahinet. The bulk of the handicap fleets were attempting to make progress around Start Point. With the exception of the fastest boats, all of the crews are scratching their heads about how the weather will pan out today with very little wind forecast around the Scilly Isles and a real risk of drifting into the prohibited zone that is the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) off Land's End.
Approaching Land's End this morning Sam Davies sailing, doublehanded on the IMOCA 60 Initiatives Coeur with Tanguy de Lamotte reported seeing 7 knots of wind from the southwest. How was her first night? "Busy! We did manage each to get two times one hour's sleep because today is going to be even busier!" They spent most of the night short tacking, no mean feat in an unfamiliar IMOCA 60, particularly with sail to re-stack each time.
Their next call was whether to go west or east of the TSS. Leader in the IMOCA 60 class, SMA had already opted for the easterly Land's End side along with IRC Z leader (and impressively within the top five overall under IRC), the 115 footer Nikata and Ludde Ingvall's maxi CQS. "Luckily we will have the tide with us. From then on we see the breeze building back up in the Irish Sea," said Davies.
There was some ladies' fist shaking this morning when Davies' old Team SCA crew mates Dee Caffari and Liz Wardley, aboard the VO65 Turn the Tide on Plastic, tacked right on top of them. "I thought they were going to sail across and say 'hi' and then tack like a nice friend would - because we are not in the same classes. But she tacked right on top of us, in the worst place you could imagine, when there was no reason to do it! And there was I about to say 'hi' to my best friend... Dee Caffari and Liz Wardley owe me a beer when I next see them..."
The Infiniti 46 Maverick, racing in IRC Z was half way between Start Point and the Lizard this morning. Tactician Michael Firmin was not happy with their decision to bang the left side of the course yesterday after exiting the Solent. "We were hoping the models would play out and we'd see a big left shift which never really came, so there was stronger breeze and a slight right and people on the inside made out."
At 0830 they had tacked away from the Eddystone south of Plymouth and were sailing in 9 knots from the west in 0.5 knots of adverse current. Fermin continued: "We are taking a leg out in front of a squall line to get a bit more pressure and hopefully a bit of a lift, just waiting for the change to come through. We are hoping the model gives us something better than what we are currently seeing which is quite light round the corner with about 4 knots of adverse current!" At present a slow moving shallow cold front is lying across the course on a northeast-southwest axis. Firmin was also contemplating the Land's End TSS, the left possibly proving attractive as the side where the wind was expected to fill in first later today.
In a similar location to Maverick was Gilles Fournier and Corinne Migraine's J/133 Pintia, leading IRC Two on the water as well as IRC overall, from the Nicolas Loday and Jean Claude Nicoleau on the Grand Soleil 43 Codiam. Both boats benefitted greatly from going inshore at Portland overnight.
In the same class, Ireland's Joan Mulloy and Cathal Clarke on board the Figaro Beneteau 2, Offshore Academy 21 were negotiating Start Point. "The night was good we made up some ground," Mulloy reported. "We went really in close to Portland Bill and we were happy with that because we were looking bad coming out of the Solent and we've been a bit slow going around Start Point." Clarke has spent much time below fixing a sail they had managed to blow up leaving the Solent.
"We are just trying to figure out what to do," Mulloy continued. "We are watching people on the AIS to see what's happening with the wind. There are two forecasts and there is a front and if that moved everything changes. I am trying to play it safe and stay in the middle."
Track the fleet in the Rolex Fastnet Race at cf.yb.tl/fastnet2017
Slow progress for Ludde Ingvall's CQS (by John Roberson)
A fading wind and heavy rain slowed the progress of Ludde Ingvall and his team on CQS in the Rolex Fastnet Race on their first night at sea. The 100 foot super maxi had the benefit of a favourable tide for most of the night, as they sailed west down the English Channel.
At 09:00 BST this morning CQS was approaching Land's End, the south western most tip of England, and assessing their strategic options for crossing the Celtic Sea to the Fastnet Rock, off the south west coast of Ireland.
As they approached the famous promontory, that marks the end of the English mainland, the breeze dropped to just 4 knots, but they were in a tight race with the 115 foot Nikata, and narrowing the gap with Ramble 88.
The team are expecting to deploy their huge code zero headsail as they round Land's End, and strike out across the Celtic Sea. They will initially turn north to avoid an exclusion zone, which is designed to keep the fleet out of the busy shipping lanes.
Also in close company with CQS, at this stage of the race is the IMOCA 60 SMA, one of the very high tech boats that are sailed in the Vendee Globe single-handed race around the world.
The breeze is expected to stay light, less than 10 knots, for most of the day, with an increase likely late this afternoon or early evening. These conditions should suit CQS, with her narrow waterline and low wetted surface area.
Update from Alex Thomson on Hugo Boss
British sailor, Alex Thomson, remains upbeat on day two of the Fastnet, despite currently sitting in ninth place in the IMOCA class. Thomson and his co-sailor, Nicholas O'Leary, are approximately just twenty miles behind the leader SMA. The conditions the fleet are facing are upwind, which are not favourable for the foil assisted HUGO BOSS. As Technical Director, Ross Daniel, explains; "Alex and Nin are sailing the boat very well and are happy onboard. The boat was designed for competing in reaching conditions in the Vendee Globe, and will always struggle upwind. From the start to the Fastnet Rock we will be upwind all the way, but the opportunities will come after we have rounded the Rock when we should have fast downwind sailing conditions."
Thomson and O'Leary are clearly working hard to keep the gap between them and the front as small as possible, with both sailors managing just a couple of hours sleep overnight.
Update from Phil Sharp on Imerys
"So far it's been non-stop, we've made a lot of sail changes and had many difficult decisions to make because the weather is very unstable and the forecasts are highly localised. Our little confidence in the forecasts has pushed our strategy to focus on simply sailing the shortest route – essentially to reduce the chance of getting caught out.
"We're about 2 hours away from land's End and think this passage might just be the trickiest part of the race. We will be entering a cold front and the winds look incredibly light and variable, which will make passing through the TSS zones tricky. In fact we're on a deadline. If we don't make it past before the tide turns we could end up going backwards, and the wind is dying!
"Life on board is good, I've been able to focus on nav and the guys are shifting around roles on the boat. We're in a great routine, and feel like we've been at sea for days already!"