Pantaenius Bohusracet 2022 and Swedish Championship in Doublehanded

Last weekend we sailed Pantaenius Bohusracet 2022, which was one of the most awaited races for the season.

It turned out undoubtly the toughest race to date. Previous editions (for us) have been all about patience and mental strength (our reports 2021 and 2022).

Pantaenius Bohusracet 2022, aboard the J/80 and in the sort of conditions we encountered was mostly physically draining.

Some time ago we sailed Stora Oset double-handed in heavy air and choppy seas (check out our video). Add proper waves, some rain and a pinch of night. The result was exhilarating tiring and SOOOO WET!

Meet up on Thursday at home harbour for the traditional dip and wash. Not a trace of barnacles. Nice!

We expected a long day with just a slight breeze on our noses. At 10AM, for once according to plan, we left our slip ready to sail out of harbour.

After a few hours working our way up in the light air, we got a lift from Mats and Thomas aboard Aurora (Dehler 35) all the way to Uddevalla. Thanks!

By the time we got there, 2 bad things happened. I developed a fever and we found a few holes in our medium gennaker. After weeks preparation, who could guess that we’d rely on paracetamol and spinnaker tape?

Forecasts where variable at best, but 2 things were almost certain:

• First half of the race in light air (but how light?) and second half in heavy air and big waves (but how big?)
• In spite of 180NM in the following directions: South West, North, North East, West, East, South; there would not be a downwind leg

We were the smallest/slowest boat in our group. In fact, we belonged to the group rating “0.950 to 0.999” in spite of our rating at 0.948. The idea was to be as close as possible to the other J/80s and sail in as similar conditions as possible.

Very little wind at the start with most pressure on the boat side of the line. We screwed up the start entirely. And came away as last boat in our group. Totally our fault.

However, the J/80 is a light air machine and with a few shifts well executed we were in the pack. We kept exchanging positions with Tyra (another J/80), Elektra (Beason 36) for most of the day. Real fun and under a sunny blue sky.

After Tjörn bridge the wind suddenly came up to a 20kts. We struggled to find the right gear and lost some ground. At Åstol, we sailed South towards Marstrand to avoid the Northerly current as long as possible and trying to anticipate the wind expected to shift to the West at any time.

The cold front hit us just a the rounding at Hätteberget, bringing us to a close reach. It came with force and accompanying waves.

Struggling to keep the boat on her feet, we put on our drysuits, a reef in the main and got ready for the ride that was to come. The boat surfs easily and with the reefed main and full jib we power reached all the way to Smögen between 8 and 10kts on average.

The course at Smögen brought us about 20 degrees farther off the wind. Too tight for the gennaker, but broad enough to shake off the reef.

The rest of the trip North continued all the way to Strömstad in a similar fashion, with exhilarating surfs and a singing rudder.

With the night, rain and waves breaking over the deck, we realized our biggest mistake. The bloody touchscreen on the plotter was not only unusable with wet hands, but the moisture and salt “pushed” randomly on any button.

From this moment on navigation became very difficult. Whoever was not helming, spent about 80% of his time trying to navigate with either a phone or paper charts. Sucks.

Just before rounding Furholmen, at Strömstad, I decided to wait with reefing jib and main. Second mistake. As we came out on the open sea, we faced agitated seas and 24kts wind on the nose. Putting a reef in both jib and main costed us further ground.

With hindsight, we should have changed down to a heavy-jib and reefed the main in sheltered waters, on the way to the rounding. Probably faster, less battering and safer.

Rounding Tresteinene Lighthouses in Norway we realized that the seas were breaking on our beam and after a few miles we decided to sail off the wind sheltered by Tistler islands in spite of the longer distance.

We sailed in almost flat water on the leeward side of Koster until finally we had to face the battering waves and wind somewhere between 24 and 30kts.

Wet, wet wet.

On the positive, as long as we sailed with attention, the boat was surprisingly fast upwind. Not the usual chop that stops us in our tracks, the waves were big enough to climb their face and sail down along their back, never under 6kts.

Once the angle opened up a little, we enjoyed surfing up to 12kts.

Since we could no longer navigate safely amongst islands, we decided to follow a trail of larger yachts off the coast as long South as we could, even though it meant slower going and greater distance to cover. Safety before performance. And here is a typical case where we deemed land to be more dangerous than sea.

So, how did it go?

Not as we hoped. A few major mistakes and not really ideal conditions for one of the smallest boats in the fleet that completed the race.

With this said, we are proud to have come around the course and in one piece at that. A great test of seamanship and an adventure to remember.

About 50% of the starting fleet completed the race. Amongst these, all 3 participating J/80s. Which is pretty cool in itself. All of them came within a 18 minutes span after almost 28 hours in such conditions.

A special congratulation to Jesper Folkesson aboard Vindrus (XP33) who won its class, total and the Swedish Championship Double-Handed.

Complete results here