Draig O'r Mor Qualifies with Line Honours
On Monday 25th May Draig O’r Mor took line honours for her class to finish the Myth of Malham, Fastnet qualifying, race. A grueling 61 hour 230 mile battle of wits against no wind, to Eddystone rock & back, tested team spirit and determination to the extreme. It was a race of triumph and disappointment, hope and exasperation. Time after time Draig led the way only to fall into a windless tidal gate which enabled the back markers to catch up and the race started all over again. Sailing on Draig were Kay & Kevin Stibbs, Andy Young, Dave Sadler, Kevin Francis and first timer John Robertson (not forgetting delivery boy Mickey Carter)
This epic began with Draig crossing the Royal Yacht Squadron start line at Cowes on Saturday 23rd May at 0830. The day had begun with thick fog but this soon dissipated to leave glorious sunshine and idyllic breezes. With a first class running start we unleashed the purple demon and sped off down the Solent. With adverse tide for the first hour or so a ’he who dares Rodney’ shallow water game was the order. As we left the Solent only the super yacht Farr 52 Chernikeef 2 had managed to overtake us and we were delighted to be 2nd yacht of 132 down the Needles Channel. Then the breeze switched off. In seconds our safe, high, well to windward, ‘perhaps we can crack off a bit now‘, position was at the mercy of the tide. We watched with horror as the whole fleet was swept over the shingles bank and our depth sounder fell as we were dragged across the SW corner. It was only when we saw 1.9m below our keel the very real possibility of having the abandon the race and motor off the bank dawned. We held our mettle as Draig thrashed in the overfalls and a lifetime later the depth started to increase. Once out of the choppy water we could harness the light airs and pick our way across towards Portland Bill. The fleet divided as some yachts decided on the inshore passage. Bad mistake, as they missed the tidal gate and we sailed past saying goodbye to a large chunk of our competitors. Sailing through the night with endless headsail changes, the light airs held up and we made good progress across Lyme Bay. The next convergence was at Start Point. As the sun rose we could see that we were amidst yachts from the faster classes. In the distance the super yachts - ’Aren’t they getting closer??’ A big, windless, tidal, hell hole, off Salcombe, saw the whole fleet bunch up again and even the ’lets go inshore at Portland’ guys, catch up from behind. A few boats went miles offshore but faired no better in the stronger tides. We were pinned for hours. 1 knot of breeze was cause for celebration. Then, from nowhere, a few ‘cats paws’ and we were in the running again. We had ended up in a favoured position to windward of most of the fleet and overtaking Class 1 yachts. We sparred with a Dehler 47 and an IMX 38 and were soon on our way to Eddystone Rock. The wind died again (groan) and the fleet seemed to split as a whole bunch of us clawed our way round the rock, in sunstroke conditions with a basking shark joining the spectator boats. On our return we passed the remainder of the fleet in a cluster still struggling to get towards the rock. At this point a lot of yachts retired. A combination of having achieved the rock, at least 24 hours more windless sailing still to do and work commitments seemed to get the better for some. We never faltered. After checking water, food, sunscreen etc our only concern was the amount of loo roll left on board!!! Yet another tidal gate at Start Point made tacking against the wind and tide an uphill struggle. In the darkness we eventually made it to the lighter tides in Lyme Bay in the company of several porpoises. We were well to windward of our competitors and as the breeze tracked further into the West were in a good position. Rounding the Bill in deep water and fast fair tide was a joy and we (foolishly) began to make plans for our finish. If the breeze had switched off with a fair tide, we could have coped. If the tide had turned but the breeze held, we could have coped. Yes, you’ve guessed it! Despite our best efforts and good boat speed through the water, we could only watch, horrified, as our track took us back across the St Aldhelms ledge. Only one thing for it. In 39m we mustered all our mooring ropes and after several attempts managed to anchor on the ledge in 3.5 knots of tide. We quickly radioed the coastguard to reassure we were not in trouble and phoned relatives to stand down our shore side pick ups. We than discussed the real possibility of retiring. With 4 hours until the tide changed we were unlikely to finish before 2200 and more realistically midnight. Everyone rallied and agreed that provided we had an escape route, for commitments on Tuesday morning, we could continue. We relaxed as much as you can at anchor when you are doing 3 knots ! We were watching 2 boats tacking against the tide, as we had been, and were just about to get the fenders out when they started to make progress against the tide. Time to up the anchor. With Draigy like a stabled race horse chomping to get off and 2.5 knots of tides pulling the anchor back in, it took 4 guys pulling and lots of ‘sailing up to the mooring’ tactics to get the bugger out!! We did eventually get the anchor back on board but had lost a lot of ground in the process and took half an hour to get back to the point at which we had first dropped the hook. As the sun started to set the wind freed, the tide changed and we screamed along under purple demon across Christchurch Bay. Draigy was so excited to have breeze with the bay flat as a pancake and weight well aft she acted like she wanted to plane. An exhilarating finish, first in our class, at around 2130 at North Head just as the heavens opened to rain us into Lymington (thanks). Draig was 5th out of 37 in class on handicap which is a medal winning position. We are now qualified for the Fastnet but as we are now lying 4th out of 57 in the series we have decided to do Cowes - St Malo on 10th July. See our results on http://www.rorc.org/raceresults/2009/ms03os.html Kay & Kevin Stibbs
