2014 Underway
05 January 2014 | Lymington
With no racing now until April, it's all down to reviewing plans, doing some boat maintenance, and just maybe finding a break in the sun that will see us through to the spring.
The garage is already packed out, what with the Scooter and the Scow, the J's sails and cushions, plus most of the new kit we need for our mid summer sail up and around the Baltic. We've planned out the remaining work needed and got Jumbuck booked out of the water for most of February and March, so we can polish the hull and topside whilst fitting and wiring in the windlass, drill and fit a bow strop to hold down the pole, ready for when we launch our new code 0 headsail.
Our sailing plan is to do the Round The Island Race as our last race on Saturday 21st June before heading off cruising. It will be a bit tight, needing us to load on the cruising gear the Sunday after, ready to depart for Kiel on the Monday. It's looking like we will sail up to Kiel in loose company with a French Feeling 1090 and an Ozzie owned Bavaria 46. If fact two of our French pals from the Feeling will do the RTI race with us.
We've four days spare in our day sailing journey plan to Kiel before Rally start on 4th July, but if the weathers against us and we don't make the rally start on time, I guess we can always follow them across the Baltic and chase them down.....
I've ordered up the Code 0 headsail from Norths, due for delivery early March. That new sail should give us extra horsepower in sub 7 knots of breeze upwind (which we've experienced a few times last year racing in the Solent) and more important for me, fill the gap we've found in our medium strength shy offwind work. If we had a Code 0 on the two long legs out and back to the Fastnet for instance, we could have got a higher placing. And the bonus will be its ease of use double handed as it's on its own furler, when we feel flying the asymetric might be too much work.
The dyneema bobstay we've got to fit will run from the pole end down through a hole I need to drill through the bow into the anchor locker. A big Turks head inside the locker but behind a large penny washer and some other form of fitting on the pole end will stop the pole lifting, but I'm also looking at how to withdraw the bobstay into the pole or even the anchor locker when the pole is retracted.
Maybe a length of bungy inside the dyneema so it crumples back when the poles in, thereby holding itself up and out of the water? Or retracting it somehow into the bow? Who knows what might work......but I'm sure there's more than one way to get it sorted.
We have also decided to go for the 'endorsed' IRC rating for 2014. That's going to involve some work weighing the boat etc, but should see us improve our TCF. Currently we are at 1.017 when some other 109s are down to 1.008, so hoping we can get ours down. I would like to get that re measurement done early in the year before we lift the boat, but it's not now looking likely.
I've provisionally published a race program for 2014 to fit around our time away, and it's out with the crew for comment:
5th April - Nab Tower JOG. Starts off Cowes, out to Nab Tower off the eastern end of the Isle of Wight, then back to Cowes. A quick race we hope!
26th April - Double Handed Solent Race 1, hopefully doing these with Rob. Will be good to have the code 0 for these.
3rd to 4th May - Cervantes RORC. Cowes cross Channel to Le Havre. We got a delayed start last year having to go back and re-round a Solent mark. We wont repeat that error, so hope we can get right up there with the leading 109s.
24th to 25th May - Myth of Malham RORC. Cowes out west to round Eddystone, and back. We did well going out last year, but a poor return. Learnt lots along the SW coast this past year, what with Fastnet etc, so want us to do better this time.
31st May - Double Handed Solent Race 2.
13th to 15th June - IRC Nationals: Seven races over three days with boat moored at Cowes. So should be a classy affair and benchmark exactly how well we are going against some gun boats.
21st June - Round the Island: We were 7th 109 from 20 entries in 2013, so lots to do to improve this year. Two of our French pals also doing the rally will jump on for this event.
30th August - Double Handed Race 4 (missing 3 as away on cruise).
6th to 7th September - J109 West Solent Championships. Only two days but the first pure 109 regatta we've entered. Should sort the men from the boys....
13th to 14th September - Cowes Poole JOG. Great party race usually with lots of upwind work.
26th to 28th September - Cherbourg JOG. Another cross Channel bash, but this time JOG rather than RORC.
October / November - INEOS Solent Circuit: This year we've no excuses, so aim to complete all races, and do better than the 5th series place we got in 2013.
I hope the program will encourage the team to stay together during 2014 and give us the chance to hone everyone's skills so we become a true unit by the time 2015 - and another Fastnet - comes around.
And at my age, these new years come around quicker and quicker!
On. On.
John