The prestigious RDYC class 1 offshore race to Cherbourg was won by club members Richard Veale and Jez Rees sailing the Figaro Solo offshore race boat Groupe Partouche.......
Sounds good doesn't it, you can dream....well that's what Rattler used to be called and Richard and I were really looking forward to a double handed race to Cherbourg, trouble is we couldn't find what was going on, there was some talk of the race happening on saturday but the weather was best on the advertised date of friday and we'd taken a day off work anyway.
In all the years that Rich and I have been sailing together we've never raced offshore with just the two of us, usually an adjudicator has been required in the past. Only the night before we'd been adversaries as he sailed Rattler fully crewed in the thursday evening IRC series against us on FarrOut. We managed to get a start at 0830 along with RDYC boats “Wahinee Waves” and “Brown Eyed Girl”, Rattler shot off under the old Groupe Partouche spinnaker and we successfully gybed as we crossed the bay on our 152deg rhum line to Fort de l'ouest Cherbourg.
The wind was high and the seas were flat, Rattler loved it, we loved it. We had an unplanned spinnaker take-down as a clip popped but the recovery was successful and we used a little bit of white sail time to make some westing in our course. The spinnaker then went up again and was only dropped at the finish line with around four broaches along the way. The boat is so well behaved though she just comes back up again, I guess this is what you want if you're a sleep deprived French single hander... We finished in 8 hours 45 mins with all smiles.
Gareth of the Royal Dorset was pleased to inform us that we had won class 1. The Glory, The Glory! A pleasant couple of nights in Cherbourg with a visit to the Fort de la Roule and a cracking sail back on Sunday with winds in the high twenties and up and some nice waves to surf down. We tied up on her mooring near “big wellies” after another 8 ¾ hour sail! Bring on the next time.
Submitted by Jez Rees
