Fastnet Musings......

Those jolly lads of Sweden, Blur, are off on a very jolly jaunt indeed round the lump of stone somewhere south west of the Irish port of Baltimore, for no other reason than the sheer challenge of getting round it  and back to Blighty, ........and racing against europes best IRC teams.

Sitting in my new reasonably discounted Musto Evolution Shorts, well away from the briney while I wear the waistline in a little, ahem, I muse a little about why I have not done this most celebrated race, made infamous by the mega storm which hit the event in the late seventies.

Would I like to do it?  Well yes now I would because I would be far more interested in the navigation and metereoligical elements of the strategy to sail shortest, fastest and in the best tidal scenarios. Way back when I did race off shore out of Ireland, Wales and Southampton (S'oton) I considerd both the fastnet and the round Ireland to just be too long. Also an amateur sailor friend of a friend had wangled himself a ride in the 1980s on a Mumm 36. Turning up at arranged marina berth he was promplty shown how much spare kit he was allowed to take - no more than what we called a sausage hold all, and no more than 10 kgs. He sat the whole race on the rail of course too, sleeping in short order as the race was a beat the whole way out.

That and the whole 1979 debacle, and also years when the opposite transpired- too little puff stuff to get moving - had put me off taking a jaunt down the Solent to Terra Hibernia's outer reaches. However in 1999 I was lucky enough to be invited down to sail in the Myth of Malham channel race, on the later to be infamous j125 "Wings of the Wind" or just "wings" to most who sailed her. Now here is a magic combination of carbon fibre, 12 meters water line, planing performance, easy-peasy kite handeling and a lovely big dose of ballast in the bulb. The latter is the real deal maker because the boats were designed for light handing or offshore with crew not on the rail necessarily. You can sail here pretty effecitvely with 5 or 6, not bad for a 43 foot boat.

So a j125 would be an idea for me to do the fastnet on, but really it would not matter so very much the type of boat per se as long as it was all human and fun. Sitting out hard down past the needles, before more cockpit and cabin sport replaced such youthful abandon. Plenty of tea. Rum ration before some kip in a bunk and enough food and liquid libations for a week. I rather fancy that Griff Rhys Jones is enjoying himself, sitting currently off the Scily Isles with a not too shabby position on the fleet, all be it with an odd circular event off the Lizard according to their tracker.

Blur were having the race of their lives to some extent, being in second place in IRC1 until later today when half a dozen boats seem to have slipped past them, from the south, catching up from the Scilies. Their northern little dog leg, which many other boats also took, seemed to maybe  chase a wind on that side of the couse which may have filled and taken them on the best side of the tidal gate for the St. George's Channel, I would need to look up the alamanc and forecast history. However they seem to have broken the age old truism in sailing " sail the shortest course" when ever you can, and that in light airs it can be worth sitting very near to it and just being patient, kedging or seeking a little island or bay to stem the tide. Also they seem to have broken another Cardinal rule of yacht racing, and that is they had let themselves get out of a line from the chasing fleet to the next mark. Going out on a flyer so very, very often results in this being good ahead or overtaking the leaders, banging the edge of the diamond, only then to have all your glory of boat speed turned to dejection as the fleet march en masse in a straight line to the mark or finish while you are on the flier, out of touch. Perhaps they were covering a nearby IRC 1 boat to have something to spice up the afternoon. Perhaps they just said " oh yes, everyone else will have to come North of the Scilies to get the leebow of the ebb tide out the Irish sea" while as light airs time dragged on, the gate opened and closed??

Off shore is a lot more about navigation and a chess like mindset than rail meat and mark rounding frenetics. You need to plan to sail the shortest route when the tide is with you, while then making the compromises of the seemingly most effective route when the tide is against you. However the real magic trick is to play the chess board such that you are in the right place for the next move of the great opponents, the wind and tide. This year I am pleased to be using the YB Races App' on Android to track various boats and see their paths, plus the entertaining en masse replay swipe bar function allowing you to see the fleet dart out like disorderly migrating birds, making a course for the Lizard and then fighting tide and light winds this year past lands end and the extremeties of Terra Angles.

No other distance race now appeals to me but for the Fastnet come to think of it. The various North Sea races are just a bit of bore really. Sydney hobart would be beyond my budget and allowances for holidays. Trans Pac not my cuppa eitther, too much water and Whales. F'rdern is inshore anyhows. Blue Water race just too time consuming.

I think it is a little nostalgia for me, 1999 being a long time ago and a wonderful memory of the Myth of Malham, partly because of the sea faring tradition which plied the route and over which Drake used his strategic cunning and tactical geographic knowledge to prevail against the odds, but mostly because the event is a spectacle which passes some beautfil places and provides real challenge while also being within the ken of any good amateur sailor.