Last weekend we participated for the second time to Robline Skagen Race. And for the first time along the original route to Skagen and back.
This edition, the 22nd, came with 20th anniversary celebration. 2 years delay, because of covid 19 restrictions.
On Thursday I sailed alone to Framnäs, where burgers where being handed out, beer flowing and a jovial atmosphere with live music to mark a remarkable evening!
My co-skipper Johan, joined me early in the morning at the harbour where full and shorthanded crews busied about, getting ready.
Race 1
We expected winds from the North, between 8 and 14 kts. Most models indicated current from East to West below the rhumb line and inverted current, just North of it.
However, we motored out to the course, once again, on a windless morning. Just the slightest of breeze filled from the North.
As we were among the slowest boats in the fleet, the only way to stay in relatively clear air, meant starting behind. After a successful start at “full speed” flying a light air spinnaker, we could not avoid overcoming the fleet in front of us and ended up in a messy cluster.
After some difficulty in disentangling the mess and rounding the first mark, the wind had somewhat picked up and we had good enough speed to keep up with the faster boats.
Just before getting out to open sea, before Stora Oset, we go stuck in a wind hole with a bunch of other yachts. And we got frustrated…
We didn’t know that things were just about to get worse.
After a few slow and short stretches out at sea, we parked with boat speed 0kts and SOG 0.8 kits backwards. To add injury to insult, chopping seas from the beam shacked everything making the whole thing quite nerve wrecking!
Several boats a few miles ahead of us started moving forward, so we held on and hoped for that promised northerly wind. After a while we realised that they had given up and were motoring to Skagen.
Nevertheless, after a painful Bohusracet in July (here the full report), we introduced a new policy aboard Veloce. If it is safe and nothing critical is broken, we DO NOT ever abandon a race.
I must thank Johan who insisted not to break the vote and be stoic! Robline Skagen Race would not be a repeat!
We figured that we could use the current to generate apparent wind and somehow sailed South to where the current flowed westward.
After a few hours the breeze picked up. We then reached towards Skagen at speed and had a handful to keep the spinnaker flying at such an angle. As we sailed under a magic starred sky and the clearest Milky Way, the current turned against us once again and the wind veered to NE. We jibed a few times to keep up our VMG and stay in shallow waters.
None of our onboard cartography showed the most recent updates of the harbour at Skagen. We could just make out the dark breaker in the night. A bit nervous about sailing aground on some dark unmarked pier, we finally crossed the finish line under spinnaker after almost 13 hours.
We then realised that only 6 double-handed crews did not abandon, 3 of which had not yet arrived. What a feeling to have honoured our policy, completed the first race with good result and have almost a whole night sleep ahead!
Saturday was all about enjoying harbour life and mixing with our fellow sailors!
Race 2
On Sunday, it was time to race back home. Once again a downwind start.
We only focused on crossing the line at full speed in free wind on a free lane.
We expected the wind to back to the South and increase in strength, accompanied by an increasing current from the same direction.
Our initial strategy was to keep well South of the rhumb line, keep speed and hold on until the wind backed.
Within an hour, it was clear from the yachts around us that there were 3 strategies ongoing:
- A group to the North, sailed the rhumb line, deeper and slower. Probably not believing in the expected shift or its amplitude.
- To the South, a group was certain of that shift and sailed fast and high.
- And in between the ones who were edging their bets. Considering the forecast unreliability in the last days, we decided to play safe and stay in the middle.
The shift came, about half way across the sea. However not nearly as ample as expected and with no extra wind velocity. We immediately realised that we could not beat the one on the rhumb line, which now sailed high and fast along the shortest route.
The ones South of us, however, could never make up for the extra distance at such broad angle.
We tried to minimise damage by sailing deeper but never more than our VMG angle. With the help of the increasing current from the South we arrived exactly at the rounding mark just behind the yachts which sailed the favoured side.
Once inshore, down went the spinnaker. We tried to stay in the wind and cope with the disturbing gusts. Nothing dramatic here, no big gain to be made at this point. We crossed the finish line after 6h 25m in 4th position.
We scored a 3rd place in the combined races! Very glad with the result. Especially considering that we don’t feel very strong in light air and we had some problems with speed downwind throughout the season. But we are getting there…and proof of our development is the best result we could hope for.
Here the entire results of Robline Skagen Race 2021
