Royal Air Force Yacht Club

Club members, Stephen and Debbie Webb, the indefatigable Dave Evans of Hamble Harbour Office fame plus beautiful visiting Italian student Chiara, raced Puma of Paglesham to finish 31^st overall on handicap, well within a planned top 100 finish.

Skipper's pre race preparation included getting rid of absolutely all unnecessary baggage/weight, cleaning the bottom, psychological mapping of the tides, times and subsequent routes, plus mountain biking for fitness followed by Somerset Cider to offset body weight loss..

Light winds favoured the smaller boats, and after an interesting tactical discussion with Dave concerning the start and subsequent tactics, Puma went for an unusual, but brilliantly conceived midline start. With no boats around for 100m, Puma, had clean air and was not only within minutes in the main and favourable tidal stream but leading Division 7. Sticking to the main channel with a series of short and long tacks, care was always taken to tack into clean air, thanks to Dave's deliberations. By the time Puma reached Yarmouth she had caught up tail enders from the supposedly faster boats which had started two starts and twenty minutes earlier.

The wind then unfortunately increased which altered plans, much to Debbie's relief, to sail over the boilers of the wreck Varvassi. Bigger boats we'd caught up then started to overhaul us. Dave, then as planned due to his heavier body mass, took over the helm downwind. The spinnaker was hoisted for the run down to St. Catherines Point. Aiming for the halfway point inshore across the bay to make use of a favourable current, the spinnaker had to be lowered as the wind increased even more and changed direction slightly as we then tried reaching parallel to the shore.  

Hoisting again having turned the corner, and against the current, Debbie's GPS regularly indicated our speed at over 8 knots (over land) - aided and abetted by the fact that we could not drop the jib. But Puma broached badly on the necessary gybe due to the swell and wind strength, and the spinnaker was pulled down. The main sheet traveller then went flying in another gybe when having to give way to another boat. Dave quickly fastened the mainsheet bottom pulley block to a main sheet centre point in the boat. With the wind subsequently subsiding, the asymmetric was hoisted, boat handling being much easier and Puma started to shoot ahead again.

Rounding Bembridge Ledge, the only compulsory buoy on the course, Puma tacked close in shore on the second tack, in order to avoid the strong counter current out to sea. This tack was very difficult psychologically since we were headed the whole way, but we just had to get in out of the current. Sailing to within 10m of St Helens Fort and skimming the bottom on several occasions, boats out to sea appeared to be going backwards in comparison. This was the most interesting part of the race.

Just beyond Seaview, at the tide marker post and subsequently natural funnel for the course, it was like being in a washing machine - boats for England with subsequently no clear wind but plenty of swearing as boat after boat converged on each other with gay abandon. Dave's loud, Navy trained voice was exceptionally useful in this respect.  Breaking through by sailing right on the edge of Ryde Sands, missing numerous boats aground,  passing within 20m of Ryde Pier, Puma finished after 10hrs 17 minutes of hard fought  tactical racing.

 Sailing Racing is about making as few mistakes as possible. With hindsight and no equipment breakages, Puma could well have finished at least fifteen minutes earlier.

Mistakes included:-

 i)    Followed a lift near Newtown taking us out of the main tidal stream. Lead lost.

 ii)   Leaving the Varvassi  alone

 iii)  Main Sheet traveller smashed end stop - later affected pointing ability and boat level control when beating. Ciara spent whole time pulling boom to boat centreline when beating.

 iv)  Mishandled the gybe - spinnaker like a flag waving in the wind - we were lucky.

 v)  Did not tack immediately inshore at Bembridge Ledge - later had to go inshore against a header - biggest time waster.

 vi)  Tired at end - boat not pointing (traveller problem) and caught in dirty air towards finish - costing +/-250m and several places - 2^nd biggest time waster.

vii)  Was at windward side of finishing line.

 and also:-

 viii) Dave phoned me to advise results when on first pint. Very bad head next day.

 ix)   Did not apply from Dave for a Dive Permit prior to swimming underneath boat for a quick bottom clean, Friday afternoon. Beware next year. Big brother is watching.

 x)     Lost all way when dropping Dave off at end at Warsash.  Will he trust me again?

Stephen Webb