After a gap of four years, the sight of fifteen French yachts moored together on the other side of the harbour was most welcome, demonstrating that the Cherbourg-Weymouth Transmanche event is well and truly back!
Crews entered from Granville, Guernsey, Carteret and Cherbourg, for many of whom this was their first visit to Weymouth and the club but not, judging by what they were saying, their last - more than one sailor said they intended to return here as a cruising stopover very soon!
Although the crossing had been lively and a bit wet, the long spinnaker run across gave boats the opportunity to show what they could do, although no-one approached the record of 6h 35m from some years back, set by a Grand Surprise! One of the crew from that epic voyage, Wilfried Bessin, was on the committee boat this year, along with other old friends from Cherbourg Yacht Club.
The first boat to arrive was Edouard Pinta’s Pogo 36 ‘Shah’ logging a very respectable 7h 15m elapsed time, soon followed by the SunFast 3200 ’Charlotte III’. It was a pleasure to see the Garcia 52 ‘Emma’ from Guernsey, and the green trimaran ‘Tromaran’ replacing its much smaller predecessor in the event. The two Dufour 34s who are always at or near the front of the YCC fleet in racing at Cherbourg, sailed by Philippe Rios and Jean-Luc Pronier, arrived within minutes of each other, with the X332 ‘Eskil’.
The crossing was not without problems for the J111 from Granville, ‘Mirage’, which lost its mast mid-Channel after the backstay snapped with the kite up going full speed! The resourceful crew managed to gather up the debris and proceed under jury rig and engine to Weymouth by early evening, though they decided to return to France early on Sunday morning to avoid the forecast southerly.
Some crew members expressed the wish to sail with us on Sunday morning; Martin Allix from ‘Shah’ had no sooner spotted the Squibs than he wanted to sail in one, and was put in touch with Simon Vines, who was impressed by how readily Martin adapted to the boat – the fact that Martin is specialising in match-racing in France may have helped! Mark and Rima Bugler hosted two French sailors on ‘Saskia VII’; our bowman Arthur Lenoel from ‘Eskil’ was at home on the pointed end from the start, while Wilfried Bessin took over the winches in the cockpit; Wilfried was part of the crew I joined on a Sigma 33 for my first race in Cherbourg many years ago, so it was a particular pleasure to be able to return the favour in Weymouth.
The by now traditional BBQ took place on the terrace at WSC in glorious sunshine, and superb food was served by Amanda and Stuart and their team, while the bar was ably run by Ali Ashworth, Kirstine Watson and Evie Munson; everyone was most impressed by how smoothly everything went, and the food was described as being between ‘impeccable’ and ‘parfait’! We look forward to an even bigger and better event next year, as the word spreads again along the French coast…
PS - New WSC member Ross Graham came ashore from Sunday morning's race on 'Suspicion' and decided he would try to complete his weekend by sailing to France on a French boat - 'just to see what it was like! News is just in that he enjoyed the cold clear night at sea, with a wonderful moonrise; in spite of the language barrier, the international crew still managed a respectable third place in the return race to Cherbourg! Skipper Philippe Rios was very complimentary about Ross, who is a newcomer to sailing, but clearly someone to watch in the future!
Steve Fraser
Submitted on 8th May 2023