Thorpe Bay Yacht Club

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Charles Devenport made me a new radial cut main and suggested I should publish events, later Chris Maloney  had the same idea and when Wayne got on my case I knew I had to tap the typewriter.

Events started 3 years ago when I bought a Kelt in the Algarve and TBYC member “Little Ray” volunteered to sail it back. Just before leaving he asked who else was coming? I replied that I wasn’t overly concerned as I had sailed approaching 100,000 ocean miles solo and shorthanded. There was a long silence then the Old Boy said “yes John but that was 30 years ago”, I was very very upset that he should think I was past it.

A few months later I became aware of a Jester solo race from Plymouth to Azores and I entered on my little Thorpe Bay mud boat. The solo delivery of 300 miles through the busiest shipping lanes in the world went well in 52 hours so I had confidence to continue the 1200 miles to Terceira.

I have sailed through the Azores before and the renowned High pressure can be a problem through lack of wind ; I had 36 hours of no wind which is pretty normal. I also had a period of 5 days hard on the wind in a good Force Six. I completed the trip in just under 12 days and was the third monohull out of 45 starters. I was very pleased with the position as the two boats ahead were fast bulb keel racing boats with experienced Skippers. The winning boat was based on an elongated minitransat, a rocket of a boat that only arrived 24 hrs ahead of my Kelt.

I decided I wasn’t going to be beaten by a quicker boat next time, so I bought a 30ft Figaro, probably the only water balasted one in the UK. It was designed for solo and shorthanded ocean racing, it is known to “bullet proof” though I have had my go at destroying it. Though it pains me to write this, the French are undoubtedly the leading ocean sailors and they use the Figaro fleet to prove and test themselves before being sponsored for the big races. It has more than 30 control lines, no heads or plumbed water, a small single burner ring, two pipe cots and virtually nothing else. It is a very uncomfortable boat but it does sail well in all conditions. Sadly because of its draft I can not keep it outside the house in Thorpe Bay and temporarily moor it at Pagglesham.

To test the boat (and myself), I took it for a spin up to Norway last summer. I was quite pleased with the 72 hours to cover the 500 miles. I returned via Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Holland all in 28 days. I was happy enough with Fluffy to sail her solo, non stop, back down to Plymouth for the start on 23 May this time to Newport Rhode Island, an upmarket summer sailing and vacation spot on the approaches to New York.

Solo ocean racing started in 1960 when Blondie Hasler challenged the world to race him for Half a Crown (12.5 pence) from Plymouth to New York, The Observer newspaper sponsored it and it became known as the OSTAR, later they stopped sponsoring it and it kept the initials and became known as the Original Solo Transatlantic Race. As the years progressed the nature of the race changed, sponsorship took over, boats became much larger, much more sophisticated and these factors made it more expensive so that the amateur almost became excluded. Organising races also became a money making exercise, new races developed and the different races changed character.

Blondie Hasler was a tough experienced sailor and an innovative man; he designed Jester which was based on a 26 Ft Folkboat. Blondie developed a Junk Rig, eliminated the cockpit and developed self-steering to a point where he never needed to hand steer and could control everything from within the safety and comfort of the boat. Jester raced across the Atlantic many times, often in the cold high latitudes of the Northern Route and proved herself to be very seaworthy and surprisingly fast for her length and the minimal physical effort required to sail her.

As years progressed  the Nanny State society moved some responsibility from the Skippers to organising body.  The family of a competitor that died took costly legal action against the organising yacht club, so to protect themselves they now insist on boats complying with 60 pages of regulations and meeting certain stability criteria. In the first OSTAR four out of the five starters were less than 30ft and they all made it, in some respects size does not guarantee seaworthiness though it may add a lot to comfort. In their wisdom the OSTAR organisers decided, in the interests of safety, not to allow yachts of less than 30ft to enter.

The situation now existed where the boat that started solo ocean racing, Jester, one of the most famous boats in the world, a boat that had crossed the Atlantic many many times could not now enter the race she had founded!

Luckily, 4 years ago, some independent thinking and hugely experienced solo sailors decided to stage their own event for boats of between 20-30ft and bring the event back to it’s grass roots with no entry fees and the Skipper taking total responsibility for his actions – unfortunately to date there have been no female entrants though I’m sure they would be hugely popular. If there are any TBYC females interested then there is still time to enter; money should not exclude as there are some yachts that are probably only worth £3,000.

This year the Jester celebrates the 50th anniversary of the original race.

I will now try and answer a few commonly asked questions-

How long will it take? In the first race Francis Chichester took 40.5 days in a purpose built 39ft race boat, he was awarded  a prize by The Duke of Edinburgh and became Yachtsman of the Year. In 1962 he did it in 33 days and 15 hrs and was later Knighted for his sailing exploits.  In 2006 a Figaro was first in the Jester in just over 32 days and this achievement never hit the papers. If all goes well I would hope to do it in 4 to 5 weeks.

Wind and current? This is what makes it difficult, when they set off in 1960 it was thought to be on the edge of man’s achievement to get there. Blondie said that they weren’t competing against each other they were competing against the elements and every finisher was a “winner”. The course is right through the middle of the Horse Latitudes; wind should be predominantly on the nose though it will be from everywhere. Dead calms of 3 or 4 days can be expected, fast boats can expect 3 or 4 gales and the slower boats perhaps 7 gales. It is the severity and direction of the gales that is most important. I have a Russian friend from the Azores Jester who 2 years ago met a hurricane, got rolled, lost his mast and was lucky to limp into Newport. The Gulf Stream starts to kick in about half way over and a contrary current of 10 to 20 miles a day is the norm.

Ice and Fog? Well if the Titanic sank then  small yachts certainly can! In the summer the bergs break off and drift South close to Newfoundland. There are Ice Reports on the internet and I hope to establish where the ice is likely to be. In the areas effected by the icy water hitting the warm Gulf Steam over the shallow Grand Banks there is very frequent fog which adds to collision hazards. Thankfully technology has moved on and I have an active radar reflector and AIS, but fog is extremely worrying and the technologies are only aids.

Route? In all of the transatlantic events, competitors are allowed to stop where and when they want. In practice there are very few/or no places to stop and stopping costs time. There is a lot of talk about the trade wind route, the southern route, the rhumb line, the great circle and the northern route. I can not see there is much to discuss; all the quick boats take a route between the rhumb line and the great circle; wherever the wind will allow you to go. In a straight line the route is 3,000 nautical miles but with head winds could well be up to 4,000 miles sailed

Food and water? Some competitors get very excited about this; buying dehydrated food, planning menus etc. I shall go to Lidl in Plymouth and buy a dozen corned beef, dozen chilli con carne, dozen ravioli, 3 dozen breakfast bars, dozen dried sausages, some pitta bread and some apples. I have discovered the perfect “storm food” – ready made Devin Custard in a carton – just open and suck. I have never opened any storm food before but I look forwards to this. I drink half a litre of orange juice a day and will carry about a litre of water for every day.

Sleep? Thankfully I have a unique constitution very suited to solo sailing. I semi hibernate and try to become nocturnal. The whole game is to keep dry, warm and rested by using as little energy as possible when subconsciously analysing every movement of the boat. I cat-nap, setting my egg timer for 15 minutes yet after only 7 minutes I wake up, look around and repeat the procedure.

Navigation? When I started all I had was a log, compass and sextant and it was a terrible worry imagining where you were. Now things are extremely easy, I have 9 GPS on Fluffy so I know where I am within a metre. I am carrying a Spot satellite tracker that sends my position and interested people will have a chance to view it. For the first time I will have a satellite phone and I intend to send short abbreviated texts which may be published.

Company?  Many people think the 85 entrants will be within sight of each other all the time, the reality is that after 5 hours I do not expect to see another competitor or have any contact with them. On the Azores trip I saw another vessel, usually at great distance, about once a day; enroute to Newport I expect to see less traffic. My TBYC friends bought me an inflatable sheep to keep me company on way to the Azores; this time they have excelled themselves and bought me an inflatable Fatima and thankfully Wayne stitched up a very large leotard for her.. After leaving Plymouth I kept having the delusion that I was out for a daysail, could not see the land and was lost. A quick look in the log reminded me of where I was supposed to be going. On several days I went around on hands and knees looking all over the boat for my Wife, convinced that she was hiding.

The Future? Well the boat is sitting in Plymouth ready to go. It is my view that up to 90% of success in yachting is achieved before the gun goes. I have stiff competition, there are some very experienced and tested Skippers, while once I thought I had a competitive boat there are faster boats, there is a Pogo, Proa and several fast multis as well as other fast monos. There are lots of things to go wrong; collisions with whales, flotsom and ships, mast failures, steering failures, hull failures, keel failures, gales, fog, ill health. Considering all of these, Blondie was correct to say every finisher was a winner.

Link to Tracking Site:-

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=06Q3hJCzauUquLjqtvnUIO029gDEgfzu6

Fluffy

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