Blogs 2011

Team Phaedo has finished its biggest challenge to date and completed the Rolex Fastnet Race 2011

Finishing in a fantastic 5th place with only the world's fastest yacht "Banque Populaire" and 3 MOD 70's in front of them...

They worked hard, sailed well and came home fast...

Congratulations, Lloyd Thornburg, Paul Hand, Nick Crespi, Ian Moore, Andy Beadsworth, Brain Sharp, Jeff Condell, Ben Bungartz and Sam Bason.

Check out the final video showing the whole race, including some onboard footage from the boat, filmed by the Captain Paul Hand:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XwqvbTFfms

Still to come, TV coverage and some more high resolution photographs..

Rachel Jaspersen

Hi

Photo of malice minus rudder, on the wall in Hugh Town, and sailing to

Plymouth on Saturday with transom mounted jury rigged J24 Rudder. Parted

company 0330 on Thursday 45m west of the scillies.

We rigged a drogue and continued on to the Scillies where we were towed in

by the RNLI. The J24 rudder was then modified in Plymouth and sent out to

us in Hugh Town

(More pictures and commentary available)

Rgds

Mike Moxley

Dawn Star Sails Home -Final

It is 2 AM, and Dawn Star finished her race in style, pulling ahead of a crowded fleet. But like every other day in the race, there was an alternation of fast and slow. Her trip homeward, after leaving Fastnet light, was fast, but as she neared Plymouth, the whole fleet in the area fell into a vast hole of windless calm. After hours of barely moving, the wind returned and Dawn Star flew home. The finish line was a madhouse, with over fifty boats bunched together in darkness trying to find wind and room to cross the line. But now it is done. Finishing places will come later. Thanks for following our adventure. Bugs

Slow boats to plymouth

Did I say that the finish team would have problems as 50 boats came to the line? Surely that was the understatement of the year.

Team WAFL had their hearts in their mouths. Our met information suggested zero wind by midnight and we fully expected to have to spend the night at anchor but some little thundery cells powered us ( and everbody else!) across the bay. Our ETA at Rame head was tantalising - 2345 hrs - although the breeze was dying for the last two hours as we closed the land and it slipped ominously into the predicted calm period. Astern of us the night filled with green and red lights - unbelievable numbers of them - whilst ahead the big class one boats who had overtaken us appeared to have stopped in yet another line abreast under the cliff.

We opted to go outside the first group and it seemed to pay , but as more and more boats piled in , what little wind there was ( and by this stage we were excited if we had 2 knots of it) was swallowed up . What is more , the fair tide that had helped us all east was now replaced by an ebb past the breakwater, and the reach that was powering the boats from astern turned into a beat against the tide . Then the piece de la resistance - you couldn't cross the line on starboard ! So there we were , surrounded by 200 of the 350 boat fleet in the pitch dark just about to cross when yet another large boat joined the party on starboard , scattering the next bunch of port tackers in a bizarre slow motion ballet.

The radio was going mad as 200 boats reported, as per the SI's , that they were about to finish. No kidding guys - the whole bloody fleet was about to finish and it would have been more sensible for the few yachts in the universe who WEREN'T within 100 metres of finishing to radio in and tell the race officer not to worry about them!

By and large it was a good humoured affair , although inevitably there were a few who thought they were back in the Oppie nationals . Our priority became to finish without being hit or going on the rocks by the breakwater ( did I mention that someone did this , thus adding to the already overloaded radio traffic as they called for help !) , and gradually the whole raft ghosted across the line.

So now its time for a bottle of champagne and some serious snoring , and tomorrow we will get down to the serious business of telling tall tales of high adventure. I have a feeling that however extraordinary ( and unlikely) those tales will be , nothing will quite match up to the bizarre events of tonight.

Goodnight.

Pink kite; gold kite; White sails; purple kite....and so on. The senior bowman has given up and gone below to make his trademark Fastnet fruit crumble and custard. Mmm, lovely.

Robin Taunt

Sent from my iPhone

The crew of JIBE were too busy on the wet and windy run up to the Rock to worry about the developing leak on the inlet circuit to the heads. The boat was wet anyway.

On the reach back across the Celtic Sea the problem was addressed with determination and vigour. A blanking plug was found to be leaking.

No problem: the cork from the Rock Rounding champagne was still on board. Nifty whittling with a penknife and the problem was solved. Dry heads: bliss.

Robin Taunt

Sent from my iPhone

Reptilian delights

Did we have fun at the Lizard!

We took our NW wind most of the way to Mullion Cove and tacked up the back eddy whilst a line of boats parked up offshore. There was a light Southerly (team WAFL think it was a local sea breeze) at the Lizard itself and it was the transition between this and the NW wind that was holding up the fleet. All the best bits of fun have moments of terror and ours came when the wind switched off just as we were negotiating the rocks at the point. We had about .5 of a knot of fair eddy and no steerage ( its always rough here)and there was no knowing if this would deposit us on the rocks , so we had the unmentionable device (k----) out and ready to go . Chris managed to get the merest hint of steerage and we were clear ,with the kite up and seemingly hundreds of boats parked the other side of the headland.

The next half hour was frantic as we gybed and wriggled and trimmed our way between about 4 conflicting sets of zephyrs ( 4 diffent local sea breezes vying for supremacy- Ok I admit I made that up!) but now a NW wind has filled in across the bay and we are off with hordes of boats chasing mile astern.

Chris spends a lot of time on the AIS , and from the speed and vectors we can deduce what the wind is doing on varying parts of the course. It may have been designed for collision avoidance but he uses it as a local meteorological tool. What with me sending e-mails and Chris glued to the chartplotter it's a good thing Festina is used to sailing herself for long periods of time!

We have the feeling that this is not Neptunes last throw and there may be more park ups before the night is out. If there isn't , the finish team is going to have one hell of a headache as 50 boats finish line astern. If it does go light again the WAFL plan is to find a nice lobster pot to tie up to for the night.

I suspect you lot will be getting more sleep than us tonight!

Beginners Blog - Star Date: Thursday, 18 August 2011. Time: 1500

The best of all worlds

Its over. We finished. Ive finished. Were tied up in Sutton Harbour.

Handshakes all around, champagne, beer, its all happening. Weve lost class

2 by a whisker of 30 minutes, but it does not matter. A bunch of blokes have

raced a 48 foot yacht around the Rolex Fastnet course and done so

respectably. There was plenty of bad language, but none of it in anger. No

one came to blows, even though Clinch was rudely awakened by a bottle of

water to the midriff - his return salvo missed the initiator and went

through the wheel, narrowly missing Matt. We can laugh about it now.

Girlfriends of the crew show up, phone calls home are made. It is a

satisfying moment. Sutton Harbour has plenty of boats in it - we think we

are the first non-carbon rig and there are plenty more to come. Weve done

well, but that is not the half of it. Last night and this morning were

something else.

I miss an off watch from 6 9 pm to watch the sun set over the receding

outline of the Scillies. Some hours later at 0300 I get below, out of the

damp and cold. A quick brew for the forthcoming watch and then Ill be in

bed. Suddenly, come on, everyone on the rail shatters my illusions of a

warm and comfy sleeping bag. Ross has got to be joking, but hes not. Were

in fighting mode. He wants one last push to the finish and whilst theres

wind we need a flat boat. I had forgotten one could sleep on the rail.

Gradually, though the wind peters out. It is all about the tide at the

Lizard now. There is a small gate and a small advantage for a

well-positioned boat. We need that position. We are hunting for minutes and

seconds to beat some boat called Nutmeg. Magnus the Swede has become our

link with the outside world. His iPhone seems to have the best signal and he

is charged with downloading grib, and checking the tracker. If we are in

with a chance we need to know about it.

The wind gets lighter and lighter. Tension mounts, daybreak arrives and then

it starts raining. Not any old rain, but the wet stuff that goes through

everything even my mid-layers. This time they are not warm. For some

reason, the leg straps of my otherwise excellent Spinlock life jacket cause

a seepage point on my foulweather gear. It is rank

The rain just keeps on falling. When the call comes for half the crew

below, I am too slow. McInney is first as usual, for an old guy he moves

fast. So I sit it out, moving from side to side as required. Matt and Ross

are engaged in a discussion about whether Ross can actually drive whilst

checking our position on his phone. The discussion goes Matts way, when he

confiscates the phone. We need to keep focussed. Ross knows it too. It is

his focus over the last four days that has got us into this position of

hope.

The morning seems to have lasted forever. The rain never seemed to stop. The

wind never seemed to settle. The finish line kept moving away from us as

each header pushed us off course. Slowly we inched towards it. We have a

last minute scuffle with the American boat Carina. We have been within eye

sight of them since Lands End on the way out. We have been in front all

that time. As we approach the line, she seems to have her own wind. Our

headers are her lifts. Our lack of wind, her gusts. This is not fair. Maybe

the Americans do not feel the same tension. They have us on handicap and

look to have won class 2 overall. They wave us through on a port/starboard

crossing which is gentlemanly after 607nm of racing and we nip them on the

line, our hooter just seconds before theirs.

Would I do it again. Of course. It takes about 30 seconds from crossing the

finish line to thinking of next time. It takes tying up, an hour and a

welcome from friends for the nasty bits to vaporise and the rock rounding to

take precedence. Within two hours, you know you have done something special.

Something that is an achievement about which to be proud. Understanding why

people come back time and again, why hardened pros want to do the race, why

Ken Newman embarked on his 27th race is easy once youve had a go. After a

couple of beers, the nerves have gone too. At least Ill know what to pack

next time. Any beginner needing some advice in 2013, let me know. Im an

expert on clothing.

After nearly 600Nm sailing we were very close to Plymouth when all of a sudden the wind refused to do any more work. It happened some 20Nm outside of the entrance to the port.

We could not avoid thinking a little bit about our likely 1st price in IRC4 Class, since it appeared that Pinta-M did not manage to get any closer, that Iromiquy could not possibly cover 70Nm at a speed of 8,7 knots and that Elmarlien was so far away from us, approximately 120Nm that she would need the all the luck in the world to beat Winsome. And finally there was the iPad waiting for the winner of the Blog writing.

All this was completely miscalculated once the wind went on strike.

We are now already two hours drifting on the water, 20Nm outside of Plymouth.

Find it funny or not, but just before it happened we emptied the reserve water Jerrycans, so we may be soon without water for the kitchen. Drinking water we have still plenty.

There is not any indication when the wind will return. May God have his soul. Our sails are down but not our resilience.

I may be back to you with another hundred of Blogs if this continues.

Thursday Noon. All the bad things of Wednesday turned to good things over the next 24 hours. Dawn Star spent hours drifting in the lightest possible wind Wenesday while rounding Fastnet light while her competition sped 50 miles ahead. As though Dawn Star had won a huge coin toss, everything reversed.Good winds in the high teens -- strong but not too strong -- drove us at top speed toward the finish. And at the same time, the boats ahead saw their wind fade to almost nothing. Our morning report told us that our 50-mile deficit had been chopped dramatically to 18 miles. We were fifth in our class, almost into the prize circle. Dawn Star loves the heavier winds. Beating upwind in strong winds is great for our competitive result, but is,as always, pretty miserable below.. You have to hang onto the grabrails, floors become wet and slippery. plates slide off tables, you fall out of seats, clothing is difficult to put on or take off, and things just fall apart. After Dawn Star hit some rock-hard waves this morning, a seven-foot long ceiling panel, together with its installed lighting fixtures tore loose from its Velcro attachments and fell on Mark, who was asleep in his bunk; the panel was not damaged.. But spirits are high. Stacey's watch, with Paul C, Paul J, and Rob held a raucous joke-telling contest. And the food continues to inspire. Robin Hubbard's chicken blend was consumed eagerly at dinner time, with three portions extra set aside for later. Will ate them all. And last, we should finish our 608 mile adventure late today. Bugs

Seabreeze - what seabreeze?

Anybody looking at the tracker over the last few hours will have seen us make a radical move over to the North of the fleet, our course dictated by what would give us any speed at all in the chop rather than heading for any point. You then would have seen us take off like a rocket and assume that we had found our seabreeze.

Wrong! The sky cleared over Mounts Bay with the exception of some strange thin lentiucular clouds and all of a sudden we had 15 knots from the NW. And we had it first. So 5 out of 10 for team WAFL - 5 for a result but nul pointes for theory. Actually now I come to think of it I have experienced a sudden 30 knots from the NW in this exact spot out of a similar deep blue sky.

So , all of a sudden our tidal plans have to be brought forward a couple of hours , which means rock hopping round the point. There look to be a few boats trying it already up ahead so we can just keep outside the wrecked yachts and should be safe.

Only joking! And what will we find the other side of the headland ? Possibly a flat calm!

Stay tuned.

[Note: this post is slightly delayed due to unreliable comms at the Rock

and on the way back]

Wed 0859 precisely and we are round ... and in good company. As we

approached the Fastnet Rock we could see lots and lots of boats

streaming away under spinaker looking stunning in the glorious sunshine,

but even better we could see many more boats working their way up behind us!

Since we left the Lizard and Lands End we have seen more dolphins than

boats, and where we also saw a couple of the enormous multihulls already

on their way home.

So now, mightily encouraged and armed with a new and favourable

forecast, the crew are trimming the kite inch-in inch-out and looking

very every bit like we are going to be able to keep this up until we

cross the line - well Bishop Rock maybe. OK, well until right now, the

Pantaeneus bouy is here already and the shout has just come to drop the

kite!

All is well on Koru, any trace of seasickness forg§otten, and everyone

fired up for the return - and variously pints of beer, champagne and /

or Perroni (and maybe a nice long bath) when we get in!

More to follow...

Don't mention the K word!

We are no longer beating. Actually we are no longer doing very much apart from being thrown around by the left over waves which are coming direct from the Lizard and intent on destroying any forward motion we manage to generate.

The latest theory that has come from team WAFL ( With Alacrity/Festina Lente - geddit?- and thanks Ben , yes I am aware it works on another level as well!) is that we could get a sea breeze In fact the cloud cover has slipped away and in the last hour there is impressive cumulus activity building over the land.

And that is why we are hot footing it towards the land- or as hot footed as you can get in a Sigma in no wind and loadsa waves. Sign on after 1600 and see if we get it! I have a feeling its going to be a long day and night so its time to bring out our secret weapon. Chocolate coated coffee beans!

Oh , and the K word you are NOT going to mention. Suffice to say that retrieving one two handed in 80 metres would need an awful lot of the above mentioned secret weapon.

We have around 10 miles to go to the finish at Plymouth now. Some

disapointment on board as our placing has slipped in the last few hours

from 17th to 24th or something like that. We had a bad patch in the early

hours with light fluky winds and a tired crew so speed was bad.

Still apart from rubbing noses with the odd cargo ship (crash tack last

night after the nice chappy the ship driving altered course sharply to

starboard instead of port as agreed and straight towards us!) its been a

good race, the only thing missing was the sunshine.

Still some debate on board about the need for showers over beer; Ive tried

to explain the offshore racing rational to the crew (we dont want to be the

only ones smelling good in the beer tent) but I dont think they are buying

it. Plus its been decided that instead of the usual Dubarry boots and shorts

combo with the odd climbing harness thrown in we are going to wear our

sailing gloves and head torches to the pub....you never know it may catch on

in Hamble.

Cheers

Andy (skipper)

Am unable to write too much today since we are trying to keep Pinta-M, Iromiguy and Elmarlien from our IRC-rated-back. It is a big fight with them though only virtually since Pinta-M is about 18Nm behind us, Iromiguy 53 and Elmarlien 74. We cannot even see them on AIS for reasons I explained earlier in one of my Blogs.

I do not believe that Pinta-M has switched on their AIS, or is out of order, so we cannot even see them on the screen. Iromiguy does probably not have an AIS on board since we failed to observe them from the start during our departure from the Solent. Elmarlien must be now on the leg from Fastnet Rock to Bishop rock so it is quite impossible to give any opinion if they will manage to arrive within 12,8 hours from us.

We are now tacking in the Bay of Plymouth, trying to find the best way to the finish and fortunately the waves disappeared so we are sailing now like we are on a lake or on the Solent with good weather.

One of the cooks just served hot porridge with honey. One word: delicious.

The boat is still in good shape except for the toilet which heaved its last breath during the night. The still waters of the blocked toilet were thougher to endure than the seas we encountered during the race.

I have to get back to my Deckman screen right now in order not to disappoint my entire crew and myself by failing to call the tacks in time.

Perhaps one more Blog tonight, but that will be all for today.

Beating to the Lizard

Our 4th dawn at sea brought the Scillies in to view as we rounded the Bishop light and set off for the Lizard. The wind is NE and due to back N or even NW, but as ever the time is unspecified. Neptune and Mr Grib have thus set us these nice little problems : do we point and get on the left hand side of the beat , or foot our way through the typically disturbed seas that always exist hereabouts. Option one puts us in the right place for the wind shift , but the wrong place for the foul tide at the Lizard which is strongest inshore. Option two gives us better speed and less tide , but at risk of being hung out to dry if caught offshore when (if!) the wind backs.

As you can imagine Chris and I are wriggling our toes with delight about such arcane mysteries and the mood on the boat is one of happy , obsessive delight . It makes me wonder about our sanity as most sensible folk would prefer a straight run in, but this little scenario is the hand we have been dealt and it will do just fine.

Last 3 miles now and am sitting down below, very wet upstairs and wind is dropping slowly. Trying to find patches of breeze to get in front of Jivaro and Moana, but who knows what will happen...

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device

20 miles away from the finish. Weather not very nice, quite cold but hopefully wind will hold until the end. A few boats around us so all to play for.

Flora on Erivale III

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device

Dear Diary, Day 3 on Lancelot Logic.

Alistair is still glued to the helm. Last heard he had to be removed with

a crow bar. More dolphins have visited blueberry watch and canary watch

are getting jealous.

Approach the rock after a tactical battle of champions with the Puma Crew,

they may have pipped us to this post, but we're so gonna get to the

Scillies.

Spirits high, looking forward to chilli for dinner, washed down with a

glass of merlot, oops, got carried away there, will have to make do with a

sunset over fastnet rock.

Love and hugs to all ashore.

The white chargers.

Sent: 15 August 2011 17:17

.................just charging some British Soldiers.

Things are all good aboard the good ship Lancelot 2, approaching The

Lizard after a strong 24 hours. We've just passed Soldier who sailed past

us last night but on a lower course. We didn't pass too close to

windward, as we are of course gentlemen. This battle may be won but I'm

sure the war isn't over.

Yesterday was pretty full on. An island shore start had us alternating

between calling for water so-as not to run aground and calling for right

of way to get back in for the good tide. Allie's home made thai curry

provided a excellent first meal offshore, accompanied by a most stunning

sunset. It's what sailing is all about. After a couple of IRC1 boats came

to say hello in the night, accompanied by a small pod of baby dolphins,

dawn broke to find us right in the hunt.

With the breeze dropping off it's been all about positioning and a

relentless focus on keeping the boat moving quick, with trimmers and helms

keeping sharp as we've been talking about throughout training.

Much love to all at home.

The crew of Lancelot Logic (2)

After rounding the Fastnet Rock, the weather got much lighter. It did not mean we could take a rest since we had to keep our competitors from our tail.

When we rounding the Fastnet Rock, we first set spinaker I, trimmed the sails, cleaned up the boat etc. Only thereafter we uncorked our bottle of Champagne and we unpacked the 8 Champagne flutes. No music, dark sky, time of rounding 21:52UTC. We did not even manage to empty the bottle. Leen(dert) was asleep and got his drink offered a couple of hours later.

Our patient on board kept on sleeping for the entire night and is feeling a little bit better today. So for the time being we have stopped any efforts to get him to disembark from Winsome at either the Scillies or at Falmouth. The medical advice we got was not alarming and we keep him under anti biotics and strict orders to stay in his bunk. The last item is the most difficult.

We still have to go 166Nm to the finish so expect to arrive in Plymouth by tomorrow, Thursday afternoon, all going well.

Today I looked every hour at the positions of our competitors who are a threat to our leaderboard position which is still No 1 now:

Pinta-M 34Nm behind us

Iromiguy 65Nm behind us

Hakuna Makata 17Nm behind us

Elmarleen 72Nm behind us

Hephzibah 60Nm behind us

I consider Elmarleen and Iromiguy, in this sequence, are the most dangerous competitors because there rating gives them the chance to arrive 12 hours (Elmarleen) and 8 hours (Iromiguy) after us and still win the race in accordance with the IRC handicap system, which is very good and fair as well. How it works is nicely explained on RORC's webpage in the heading of the Leaderboard.

Checking upon some friends:

Marinero 60Nm behind us. Ken Newman doing his 25th Fastnet Race

and will certainly be disappointed so

may have opened one of his tactical

bottles of whiskey. He must be 84 now.

Swan Walhalla 57Nm behind us. Manfred Schepers will regret his

remarks he made in the bar at Cowes

Yacht Haven.

Tonnerre de Br 57Nm ahead. Piet Vroon may be doing only his 23rd

Fastnet Race but is still enjoying

this race at 82. Fantastic Piet, you

are the best and most famous Dutch

sailor I think.

Panther 5Nm to West Yvonne Beusker did her first Cowes Week

followed by this race for the very first

time. She and her team is assisted by

an "old fox", well not so old but a fox,

Radboud Crul. We have seen following her

on AIS all the time. On the leaderboard

they were given a wrong position i.e.

54nM behind us, unless the Panther we

see on our AIS would be the other

Panther in this race.

Eclipse 69Nm behind us Our very nice American neighbour in

East Cowes Marina Greg Conary.

This race will be ended only at the finish and we realize that very well.

If you would believe one moment that I forgotten all about home, I contradict this with this photo showing 3/4 of my grandchildren Theun, Wiecher and Maas.

Tomorrow next blog.