Raging Bee - the boat to beat

This race was exceptional. The biggest RORC fleet since Fastnet 2013 and winds that saw records broken. IMHO it was champagne sailing at its best. Sweet, delicious, and with more than a few bubbles towards the end.

We got a good start Friday 0920 off the RYA Cowes line in warm sunshine, not too close to the island end to risk loss of any of the moderate SE breeze, and not too far out that that we couldn't take advantage of the ebbing tide.

Everyone in the fleet sailed shy, flying Code 0s if they had them, and we had ours up before we crossed the line. With Fergus helming we quickly established clear air and looked around for the other 11 x 109's in our Division 3 fleet of 47. Two hundred metres ahead was Jazzy Jelly Fish with Jalenko following (exceptionally good starts), and J T'Aime and Just So close behind. There was little difference in boat speeds, so we kept those positions as we swept down the Solent, past Hurst Castle and out into the English Channel.

The larger boats in Division 1 made impressive noises as fully powered up, they creaked and groaned past us all at speed and onward to St Malo.

We were all heading towards Les Hanoise lighthouse on the western corner of Guernsey, some 85 miles SW of Cowes, from where we would all turn south and then leaving the Minquies to port, complete the remaining 45 miles to the finish off this historic old French city.

It was a perfect day to go sailing. Solid warm winds. Sunny sky. Flat water. Huge initial tidal advantage. A big fleet with company alongside all the way. And a crew that were working well together.

As we slid diagonally cross channel we focused on trim / boat speed, as we wanted to get around Les Hanoise by midnight. The forecast was for the winds to back around to the west at that time, so getting around the corner before then would give a great advantage to anyone - and force those further back to sail upwind for a while - whilst those who got round would be able to sail faster in an off wind direction.

Todd had brought along his Sail Track routing software and continued to give us updates, as Fergus and I swopped trim and helm roles to keep Jumbuck moving along at pace, frequently referring to the AIS system to see how we were doing against the other 109's. Our AIS is a budget version, and only has a 5/6 mile range, but inside that we could see several of our challenges.

Across Christchurch Bay, the combined fleets of 170 boats looked a colourful spectacle as the winds backed a little and one by one each changed up to full spinnakers as the fleet began to spread out either side of the rhumb line.

Each was making their own decisions on which side of the rhumb line might provide some added wind or tidal advantage.

For a while we raced close alongside the JPK Raging Bee (photo above). She's one of the top Division 3 French boats. Exceptionally well sailed by a father / son duo. A quarter of a million euros worth of composite lightweight flying machine with optimised handicaps - and normally unbeatable by our more modest and heavier J boats. It felt good to know we were both sharing the same bit of water, and obviously the same heading / strategy.

We were basically sailing WSW without too much deviation from the rhumb line. There's no shorter distance between two points than a straight line!

Jazzy Jellyfish didn't agree, and went higher out to sea, and Jalenko also went lower closer inshore. J T'Aime and Just So followed our line, but with our staysail deployed inside the spinnaker, we had a slight speed advantage over them all.

By midday the others realised that as we edged between Jalenko and Jazzy Jellyfish, and as far as we could tell on the AIS, assumed the lead 109 spot. The majority of the other 109's (11 in total) seemed to be sailing higher, out to sea.

Non stop trimming helped us slide onward though the afternoon, but as we got close to sunset, we could see the winds ahead were easing. Lots of bigger boat were sitting more upright, and we were catching up.

As we slid into the same wind pattern, our speed dropped off also, and soon we were struggling to make way.

This windless patch also gave those boats behind the chance to catch up with us, to eventually see the fleet slide to a standstill in a spread out group, between 2 and 10 miles off the top of Guernsey.

Actually, we didn't quite stop. We got to within 4 miles of the island. The ebb tide was still pushing us SW, but as darkness fell we along with the fleet around us were gybing left and right with draping sails for a further frustrating two hours, hunting for anything that might give us boat speed towards the corner. For a while we though there might be stronger tide close to the shore, so drifted left. Then we thought we could detect a breeze line a long way off to the north west, so drifted right.

Fortune and good eyesight finally worked out, as we finally felt the drafts of new wind from the west and felt the boat gently accelerate forward. Surprising how good 1 knot boat speed can feel when you've been doing 0 for 2 hours!

An hour later in the pitch black with the spinnaker hauled in as tight as a headsail to allow us to shave round the corner making 5 knots and turn south, where we could begin to ease sheets and run shy before the gentle WNW breeze. But now with at least a couple of 109's very very close behind!

Chris Palmers J T'Aime and crew had done a good job in that light stuff, to come up and get his boat to less than 1/3 mile behind. Just So was very close behind her. Jalenko and Jazzy Jellyfish had lost out in some way but we were unsure why, as they had dropped right off our AIS system.

The breeze continued to build as we all reached off south. Good to see the wind exceed five knots. Pleasing when it hit ten, and we could deploy the new staysail once more. It begun to get tougher work when it hit fifteen, and got really exciting when it settled in the mid twenties.

Jumbuck was soaring along fully powered up, with the staysail working well inside the A2 spinnaker keep her well balanced as we worked hard to try and gain sea early room down that leg. We fully expected the breeze to get stronger still and whilst it was a struggle to stay on our feet sailing so high with such pressure (and several times we failed and bowled out in wild broaches), it worked for us.

Fantastic night of sailing. Bright stars above. Steep waves building with white foam on top as the tide continued heading west, against the stronger westerly winds. Lots of lights around as we sailed in very close company with other boats adopting the same strategies, some of them bigger boats that had started ahead but which we had caught up, and some of the lightweight boats in our own fleet who were positively screaming now they had pressure and heading downhill.

Notable were three J105s - some with only two crew on board and one ton lighter than us - who seemed to surf for long periods without any effort at all. Having them in close company as we tried real hard to keep up / overtake, kept us right on the pace.

We frequently had to use up some of the sea room gained earlier to surf off ourselves before the 27/28 knot gusts that bulleted through, but being able to swop helming duties between myself, Todd and Fergus, kept us all fresh and fast.

We were finally able to breath a sigh of relief as we left the Minquies SW flashing mark to port and ran 20 degrees deeper for the final 20 miles to the finish off St Malo. By then the tide had turned, and was also sweeping us eastward. Interestingly several of those who earlier sailed lower / faster courses, had to dump kites to reach back out to that mark. Hard for them in that tide.

Dawn broke on that final run into the finish, when two of those lighter 105's who had sailed higher than us down from Guernsey, came back down and passed us at pace. Impressive to watch them surf past. But there wasn't much other competition nearby. We had clearly done ok ourselves.

Our non stop through the night efforts had apparently blown away the other 109s, for as we crossed the line at 0528 UK time, we could see on the AIS that J T'Aime had dropped back to nearly two miles behind us, and she in turn had opened up another two miles on Just So.

So high fives all round as we knew we had retained that lead 109 spot - and would therefore be collecting the Passmore Bowl Trophy - awarded to the best on corrected time for the largest fleet of production boats in this race.

And then we got the bonus.

On the radio as we motor-sailed in, we heard another yacht report it was 5 miles out from the finish, and would you believe, it was the unbeatable lightweight French flyer - Raging Bee!

A real achievement to not just beat her by such a margin on the water, but we were so far ahead we also beat her on corrected time.

Absolutely brilliant sailing - by everyone on board.

With a couple of JPK 1080's (350K apiece) and a J133 already in, and having been overtaken by those 105's, Jumbuck ended up 7th from 47, that's 11th overall in the combined fleet of 153 starters, and the Passmore Bowl - which was a really top result.

A good measure of Capt. Morgan's spiced rum was issued to all whilst we motored out way through the off lying rocks to then grab a berth and celebrate with a full breakfast on board in St Malos Sablons Marina. Some beers, some showers, some moules et frites in the St Malo old city centre, before we set off home mid arvo. Even that voyage, motor sailing three up and three down and using the flooding tide, was a very pleasant trip. With tide helping all the way from Alderney to the Needles, and 23 knots of wind from the west, we surfed into the Needles and eventually back up the Lymington river mid morning Sunday.

So a huge thanks to regular crew Chris and Allan, and big thanks to Fergus, Rupert and Todd who all gave such a lot to help us get our end result. And real congratulations to everyone for working so well together. Lots of laughs, not one difference of opinion on sailing or a cross word. An all round great race, result, and weekend.

On. On. Tattinger Regatta then Cowes Week comes next.