Fastnet 2019 Campaign Update

HOEOCA has TWO entries in the 2019 Fastnet Race which starts on Saturday 3 August.

The Gentlemen's entry is a F40, Dusty P, chartered from Britannia and the Professionals, otherwise known as Chris & Simon, have entered their SunFast 3200, All or Nothing (AON), in the 2-handed category. Dusty P will be crewed by skipper Richard Oswald from Britannia, Martin Inglis (1st Mate), Gabriel Donaldson, Mark Parker, David Gilchrist, Will Russell, Peter Dunn, Ashleigh Hemming, Ian Stevenson & Allen Busby.

Boat  and starting details are:

All or Nothing - SunFast 3200 - GBR3200N -  IRC4 & Double Handed - 1pm start

Dusty P - First 40 - GBR3213L - IRC2 - 1.30pm start

The Story So Far...

All or Nothing

You can follow the progress of AON's campaign in detail on their blog https://yachtallornothing.wordpress.com/ and Face Book page.

They took a battering in the RORC Cervantes Race to Le Havre with a wind direction that did not suit ANO but held on to come in 49th overall and then turned right round and sailed back to Cowes!

They then entered the RORC Myth of Malham Race to the Eddystone Light and back on 25 May but sadly were not able to defend last year's win and raced again in the Morgan Cup on 21 June coming 7th from 15 in IRC-2 handed, 7th from 22 in IRC 4 and 14th from 86 in IRC overall.

Their last practice race was Cowes-Dinard-St Malo Race on Friday 12 July. They took 22hours 39:22 minutes , corrected to 22hours 29:51 minutes, coming 22nd from 42 finishers in IRC 2-handed, 19th from 47 in IRC 4 and 66th from 171 in IRC Overall. They beat Dusty P by just 12 minutes on corrected time.

Dusty P

The intrepid crew started off with intensive training - First Aid, Sea Survival and Offshore Safety courses and then a weekend on the water over the weekend 5-7 April.

First Qualifying Race

Having survived the intensive training it was the first qualifying race, The RORC Cervantes Race to Le Havre, which started at 9am on Saturday 4 May off Cowes. How would they fare?

Result !

The guys all  had a tough weekend but a great result:

- 1st of the four First 40’s in the race
- 7th in IRC Class 2
- 33rd out of 85 finishers, with 20 retired!

Whilst good fortune, a good skipper and a good boat played a very big part in the result, the HOEOCA crew were pleased that they were on board, worked very hard and hung on for the result.

After a good start they had an error rounding an early mark when the main sheet trimmer was too slow in releasing, and they had quite a struggle to get back past Lancelot but  did so and then found themselves in front of the other three First 40’s in the race.

They manged to miss a violent squall at the Littlehampton mark because they were setting up the spinnaker rather carefully and it hit when the sail was still in the bag, otherwise they may well have been done for! As it was, once the squall blew through they were able to fly the spinnaker and grab some miles, speeds up into the mid-teens regularly with 20-25 knots of wind. It was a bobsleigh ride and they hung on...

The easterly tide did not seem to appear as expected and they needed to jibe east earlier than planned but just as they were preparing to take the spinnaker down for the night due to the wind and then jibe they had a super wine glass twist in the spinnaker which required some heroics from Martin to untangle! The leg back upwind from Cussy to the Le Havre mark was challenging but they made it for sunshine and a good breakfast. Then after a relaxing lunch they sailed back to Cowes overnight.

It was a baptism of cold water for some but on Monday at the end of the cruise back they all looked pretty happy. So 300 miles in 20-25knots of wind. They were ready for the next one.

Second Qualifying Race

Sadly the weather conditions for their chosen second qualifying race - the cross-Channel RORC De Guingand Race - on Saturday 8 June were so poor that they couldn't race (neither did AON), a very wise decision.

Dusty P entered the Cowes-Dinard-St Malo Race on Friday 12 July instead. A good wind resulted in a fast race of 21 hours. Sadly they made a poor start as they didn't get the boat speed up when required. Then about 2am on Saturday morning they got a twist in spinnaker during a gybe. It got sorted and they put up the bigger one which they then flew to the line. There was a little disappointment among the crew as this lost them about 20 minutes overall which would have made a lot of difference! They then had to turn round almost as soon as they crossed the finish line and had no opportunity to sample the local fayre

In the end Dusty P was first across the line among the Hamble First 40's and 3rd on handicap, 84th overall out of 170 starters and 19th from 39 in IRC 2. there was less than 12 minutes between the first five First 40's after 21 hours of racing so the lost 20 minutes would have made all the difference..