Gothenburg Lighthouses Solo Race aboard Veloce

Once again, I sailed Gothenburg Lighthouses Solo Race aboard Veloce.

It was glorious sailing!

The forecast promised sun and stable wind from the North East between 10 and 14 knots. Just perfect.

The day before race I dove under the boat and run the usual cleaning and brushing procedure. Then I set off to meet with some of the sailors at Björkö for catching up and having dinner together.

With the wind on a broad reach at around 24 kn, I decided to push the Pelagic autopilot (which I reviewed here some time ago) and see what it could do. With full main, heavy jib and heavy chute, I peaked at 10.4 kn over ground in flat water. A very good start!

Great dinner, great company. Just one too many beers and the usual “never again” in the morning.

Sailing day was just as expected. Sunny, warm and with steady winds.

After a brief walk to properly wake up, I headed to the start line straight away. Since it was going to be a spinnaker start on broad reach, I decided to try out the kite immediately and see how much I could push it. No problem at all.

Down with the spi, up the genoa, which was in its upper register (here our sail inventory), trim is fine, pin the line and start count down.

With the wind from the port quarter, I decided to start on the left side to 1) be above the fleet 2) been able to sail off the wind in the puffs.

Because of some inexplicable magic, the spinnaker halyard wrapped itself around the forestay and I couldn’t hoist it. Panic.

Already late at the start. Down with the spi, run around the forestay with halyard, up with the spinnaker again. Somehow the fleet hadn’t left me totally behind and I could overtake most yachts, before the first jibe. Except Rebellion (Archambolt Grand Surprise) and Vindrus (XP33). Alright, I can live with that.

Perfect jibe. Yeah. One down.

On starboard tack, with a 120 degrees true wind angle I could just stay on the layline for the next rounding and jibe. The Pelagic Autopilot couldn’t cope with this level of heeling. Not its fault, though. I entered a long duell with Aurora (Dehler 35) which was approaching from behind with its code and longer waterline.

If she took my wind I couldn’t clear the mark at Vinga Lighthouse. Paramount to keep her behind.

Next jibe. Major fuck-up.

The spinnaker wraps around the forestay a milion times. And around the jib halyard as well. And the top half of the spinnaker fills tightening the whole mess.

I am forced to sail off the wind in the wrong direction to blanket the sail. After a few seconds of desperation, seeing the fleet behind happily overtaking me and sailing on, I reminded myself that you haven’t lost until you have lost.

After 15 minutes at reduced speed in the wrong direction, the spinnaker was down below deck. Unusable until further notice. The angle to the mark was by now so narrow that a spinnaker wouldn’t fly.

I rounded Trubaduren, the next lighthouse just behind Retro Baloon (Compis 28).

Close-hauled I am fast, and although I knew that the first place was gone, I was confident that I could make up a lot of places on this long leg. Somehow, setting the trim for heavy weather with the genoa at the upper end of its range, I found a new gear and squeezed out some 5% extra speed above my target speed for the next 1,5 hours. Time to update the polars?

This put me back in the race and state of mind.

Sailing across the archipelago here is difficult and each layline needs to be spot on to avoid extra tacks. Or running aground. For once things were looking up and left more distance from the boats behind.

After the last rounding, at Rivö Lighthouse, I had a straight line to the finish with a 100 degree true wind angle. Here is where Veloce has a cusp in its polar and where you don’t want to be. I decided to sail off the wind to 120 degrees and carry my heavy spinnaker until I could reach to the finish line.

In the end I took home a 4th place. Considering the disaster with the spinnaker, I think it was a very good performance overall.

It was, in any case, an amazing day at sea, with lots of sun, legs in all directions, and a great sailor community all around! A better way to spend a Sunday? I can’t think of any.

19 registered boats, 15 of which showed up at the start. Here the full results

Looking forward to next year’s edition of Gothenburg Lighthouses Solo Race!