FASTNET 2009 aboard ARCSINE
Back in 2007 when the crew of Arcsine were forced to retire from the Fastnet Race with mainsail damage Caleb, one of the crew said “this is unfinished business, Kathy you will do Fastnet in 2009 and I will come from were ever I am in the world” True to our word Arcsine was entered for 2009 and Caleb arranged to join us from Panama!
Some of the 2007 didn’t join us leaving room for Alan Glover from WSC, an Italian and a Swiss to join us.
It was Arcsine’s 3rd time on the start line and we were all keen and prepared for a slow race so how much water shall we take, how many dinners etc-I began to wish we’d gone for a watermaker!
We had a fairly good exit from the Solent and made good progress passed St Alban’s, but then the big decision-Offshore or inshore? I was sure the wind would die and after a bit of nav decided on the option of aiming for half way down Portland Bill to catch the southerly flow then if necessary drift southwards till the tide turned to take us passed the Bill 2-3miles off and that is about what happened. We thought we were doing well as we were surrounded by much faster boats and we started to see the green lights out to sea go back eastwards! We popped our Code Zero to keep us moving and maintained steerage way-well most of the time-we did do a few pirouettes! 
That put us in the lead or 2nd till Lands End, if you want more detail it is still possible to re-run the tracker on the www.rorc.org fastnet page.
We lost places as we crossed the Celtic sea, great spinny run back but then we were becalmed near Bishops Rock lighthouse and our final bit of bad luck was to be off the Lizard as the tide turned against and the wind died to nothing. We managed to kedge with 120m of warp, after 3 hours Alan who was on anchor watch saw the start of some breeze and it was all hands to haul up as quickly as poss.
We slipped over the finish line just a few minutes over 5 days from the Start; it had been a very long 5 days with very changeable winds a lot of concentration and not enough sleep!
We finished 7th in class 2A and on Saturday we had to delay our departure when we found we had won the trophy for highest placed Female skipper.
You can see a video on youtube, Arcsine in Fastnet 2009 and on Yachting Experiences group page on Facebook.
Arcsine and I (Yachting Experiences Ltd) are now back running training etc from Southampton and sometimes Weymouth! Whilst in WSC last week there was a suggestion of a team from Weymouth sailing Arcsine in 2009-I’m open to suggestions.
Kathy Claydon
