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September 06, 2006

Petit Bateau 2006

At some point a good few months back now some might say that I had a moment of weakness when I signed myself up for Petit Bateau's single handed race week. The event was scheduled to start in Weymouth and headed towards Alderney, St Peter Port, Treguier and Fowey before finishing up in Falmouth. At the time I signed up I felt sure that I could commit to getting myself a bit fitter and slimmer. Unfortunately however life's rich tapestry and timing conspired against me in that a divorce and a subsequent house move all had their critical moments a week or so before I was scheduled to depart. Not liking the word quit (except when printed on the button of an MP3 player playing country music) I figured I would get myself to the start and give it a go anyway.

The route to Weymouth

I was due to depart on the morning of the 16th of August at the top of the tide enabling me to benefit from the tide as it fell out of the River Crouch. However when I arrived at the boat I was faced with my first problem, my onboard GPS had failed!! Yes... I had a backup but the idea of leaving port on a solo mission with broken stuff seemed stupid. I delayed my departure for 12 hours, took a drive into Maldon and purchased a new GPS from the nice people at Mansbrite.

The delay meant sailing through the night down "The Downs". I figured this was fine as I needed to do this as a qualifier for the event anyway.

I pulled into Brighton late during the evening of the 17th without too much trouble. I managed to sign myself in, pay and plug into the shore power before dashing up the ramp and getting a solo table in Pizza Express 3 minutes before they closed.

On the 18th I departed from Brighton and headed towards the Solent and Lymington. The plan was to hook up with some other race participants there before having a pre-race race the following day to the start at Weymouth. All this seemed fairly sensible now, after all I was a single handed skipper who had a belly full of Pizza and an appetite for more adventure.

My enthusiasm was about to get a kick in the teeth. One of the really great benefits about sailing shorthanded is that your co-skipper, while sitting opposite you in the cockpit can say things like "I don't like the look of those clouds behind you" OR "Can I make you something to eat" (the 1st being the most relevant here). The weather took a turn for the worse with rain and wind hitting me at the same time while I was not very prepared. A reef or 2 later and the boat was fine.. I was very damp and wishing I had put my wetgear on.

As I sped through the Solent I heard 5 maydays. One chap's rigging had failed and, while his mast was still upright, he felt sure that it would not remain like that for long. Then there was a barrel of something nasty. This along with the constant barrage of radio checks kept Solent CG fairly busy. As I reached the top of the Island and started to head down towards Lymington I was faced with the arse end of a force 5 pretty much on the nose. I tacked back and forth and with the entrance to Lymington in sight switched the plodder on and chugged in.

The evening of the 18th was very pleasant. A number of skippers including my chum Tony 2 names on Big Dorris 2 dined at Royal Lymington YC and were entertained by Hannah White, her shore crew and lovely mother.

The pre-race race from Lymington to Weymouth gave me my 1st clues as to what the other skippers were all about. Paul on Audacious, a boat the same as mine disappeared before my very eyes..wooosh.. The beat through the needles was a painful process and the quick tacking demonstrated how poor my pilot performed. Nonetheless I got out and wasn't the last boat (but only just).

The rest of the run to Weymouth was fairly straight forward. I arrived a little after the J's in the afternoon having departed at 0800 that morning. Everything at this point seemed to be ok

I met all the other skippers in Weymouth. The race organisers handed out various bits and bobs including my much treasured PB06 flag. Then it was back to the boat for a recharge before leg 1's start the following morning.

I sat and sipped a beer while watching some fireworks. I was exhausted yet these other skippers, many of whom were considerably older than me all seemed fine. They had all managed to pack up, put their sails to bed and perform all manner of jobs while Ninjod looked a bit of a mess.

Leg 1

The morning of the start for the 1st leg arrived and one by one the fleet left Weymouth harbour. I arrived at the start sporting a full mainsail but shortly before the start popped in reef, I was not alone. We all headed off toward Portland and as we did the wind increased. The sea was fairly lumpy off of Portland and shortly after I saw the 1st retirement.

I had a wet fast sail to Alderney and covered the leg in 7 hours and 16 minutes, just a few minutes behind Xtrikate, an X332. I was over 30 minutes behind the closest water ballasted JOD Going Grey and, frustratingly, nearly an hour behind Audacious

When secured in Alderney harbour on a mooring I headed ashore to the local yacht club. The club management had kindly changed their bar opening hours to ensure the fleet could be well looked after.

Leg 2

On the morning of the 21st the fleet dropped their moorings and headed out to the start of the leg that was scheduled to take us to St Peter Port.

Moments before the start of leg 2 my autopilot packed up. The alarm kept ringing out off course. The autopilot compass heading would jump erratically and, on further investigation the ram stopped moving. I swore a lot, jumped up and down and then subsequently decided to retire. There was no real way I race to St Peter Port single handed without a pilot.

I was then faced with what to do next. The easiest point of sail was a reach so I headed back towards England. As you can see from the track above the route was not as straight forward as it could have been. I tried giving the pilot ram some love with a can of WD40 and a hammer half way across the channel but it let me down almost as fast as I switched it on. With the aid of my new handheld plotter and many bottles of water I pulled into Lymington before the sun set.

Tony (Big Doris 2) had hooked me up with Nigel of Sea Ventures who got his Raymarine chap to call me on the 22nd.

22nd August

The morning came and I awoke a little depressed. The Raymarine guy could not help me out, he had no spares!! I then decided to head home via the Solent and get a good kick from the tide.

I heard a Mayday relay on the VHF from Solent CG. They had found a body in water, it turned out to be the 1st of a number of bodies and a news item that grew in coverage for the rest of the week.

The Mayday relay and discovery of the body upset me so I decided to head into Brighton and call for crew (my father) before heading home.

23rd August (Shorthanded)

My father and I left Brighton on the 23rd at 0500. We arrived in Burnham 17 hours later having had a fantastic sail that included a 10 hour kite run....Awesome..

Summary

While it had not gone entirely as planned I did end up doing a fair amount of single handed miles. I learnt a lot about the boat and myself. I am now in the process of trying to organise a new autopilot and some more sails.

Posted by ninjod at September 6, 2006 01:31 AM

Comments

Posted by: Graham at September 9, 2006 10:55 AM

Posted by: Tyrone at September 27, 2006 01:15 PM

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