Close Finish for FCS Crew in Cervantes Trophy Race

Preparing for the Rolex Fastnet in August, the First Class Sailing crew will enter three races and last weekend they competed in the opener – the Cervantes Trophy Race. Below is skipper Ricky Chalmers’ report of how the action unfurled and how the FCS crew fared on their first real test.

Crew Bonding And Jockeying For Position

Challenger 3 completed the RORC Cervantes race, the first of a series of RORC races we are using to qualify for this year’s Fastnet race. The fleet of 100 boats of assorted sizes and speeds set off from Cowes, eastwards out of the Solent, around Selsey Bill and an outfall buoy off of Littlehampton and then across the English channel to the busy French harbour of Le Harve.

Tall Ships Challenger 3 with its First Class Sailing crew of twelve motored the short distance from Portsmouth to Cowes on Friday night and after a good night dancing and socialising in the local Cowes haunt, The Anchor, were up at first light ready to slip at 08:30 for our 09:30 start time.

As it turned out the start was delayed by ten minutes to let a large container ship pass through the start line. After a nervous time jockeying for position with strong and building tide threatening to take the class zero and our class one boats across the line early, we started close to the Royal Yacht Squadron and its cannons and the race was off.

Making the Most of the Weather That Arrives

The forecast was for light Easterly winds to build through the day, swing to the South just as we started our leg South across the channel and to build to gusty winds topping at 30 knots.

We were prepared for a rough night of rain and showers and lots of tacking… Luck was with us though, as the low pressure off Ireland decided to do a bit of sightseeing over the Emerald Isle and we were presented with a superb upwind race on flat seas with no rain.

The 160 miles whizzed by as we topped speeds of ten knots managing a consistent eight for most of the race. The strongest winds were mid-channel and we did a smooth sail change from our big Yankee 1 headsail to our smaller Yankee 2.

With the big steel yacht still over powered in 24 knots and our nearest competitor, Challenger 4 just ahead, we made a tactical decision and put a quick reef in and soon overtook them, proving yet again that flatter is often faster. They were able to see our sneaky move though and soon followed suit and we started a close duel which lasted for the remaining half of the race.

Challengers Light Up Le Harve

The finish line off Le Harve is a bit of a bottleneck with the 100 race boats squeezed into a funnel by a series of waypoints designed to keep us out of the busy main shipping channel. With boats all around and some competitors lit up only by torches, showing no navigation lights – we tacked the 47 ton, 72-foot yacht towards the windward finishing line…

Challenger 4 showed an amazing turn of speed at the finish, caught us quickly and powered close past us at night, leaving us all astonished and scrambling for torches and checking our sail trim.

Our seemingly secure 2 mile lead on them across the channel had been blitzed right at the finish showing there is no room for complacency in ocean/offshore racing, and that the race is never over until you cross the finish line.

We briefly regained the lead in the tacking duel for the finish line, but they were finally able to pip us at the line.

All in all a nice fast race with lots of good experience for the crew. We have two more qualifying races to hone our skills and are all getting excited for the big one, the Fastnet race itself in August.

Ricky Chalmers
Skipper
Challenger 3

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Posted by: First Class Sailing