This year I have been competing in my first season of RORC (Royal Ocean Racing Club) and JOG (Junior Offshore Group) racing. I have joined a fabulous team on an Elan 410 called Mad Dash based in Port Hamble Marina. The crew has been slightly different each time but have always been a great team to sail with. The immediate ability to connect with others with a shared identity as sailors has enabled us to share skills, ambitions, laughter and nights out!
The first weekend of racing consisted of the JOG Stoneways Marina Insurance Lonely Tower and Great Escape races. This involved racing to the Nab Tower at the East of the Solent on the Saturday and to Bridge Buoy at the West of the Solent (next to the Needles) on Sunday. Although I had sailed around the solent before and raced in big dinghy races this was a different experience. I was hooked.
The next race was the RORC Easter Challenge, this involved a series of short races in the Solent with coaches helping along the way and in de-briefs afterwards. I was used to to this coming from a dinghy background: busy start lines, short courses, high adrenaline. This race was another great experience and I learnt how transferable dinghy skills are to yacht racing, as lots of the advice from the North Sails coaches was very familiar.
A few weekends later was the JOG Exposure OLAS race from Cowes to Cherbourg. I was very excited for this race as it would be my first race to France. Unfortunately, the wind had other ideas. We started off Saturday morning with light wind but lots of tide taking us west out of the Solent. The sea breeze eventually kicked in, suddenly causing the wind to sift 90 degrees, this tested many boats’ sudden spinnaker drops. We got about a third of the way across the channel with the sea breeze until it dropped in the evening. After this we were left wallowing among many others. That evening we decided to retire and had a long motor back to Port Hamble. Due to the lack of wind only 5 boats completed this race with the shortest time being over 24 hours.
The most recent race I have completed is the MDL Marinas Weymouth race with JOG. This was due to be another light wind test for everyone, so the start line was moved further West off Lymington to give everyone a chance of getting to Weymouth. As we were passing Poole the wind almost completely died before filling in again later. Passing St. Albans Head was tricky with light wind and the overfalls holding us back. Our boat chose good tactics in these light airs giving us our best position of the season yet of 3rd in IRC 1. Celebrations were enjoyable and lively, the early start to get home not so. Even our round the world veteran developed a bit of “sea” sickness.
The next race on the agenda is the RORC Cowes to St. Malo where I will hopefully complete my first channel crossing (wind permitting).
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