We have been wanting to sail to sail Pater Noster Race for a few years, without success. Finally the stars aligned and we made it there.
Last Saturday, we sailed Pater Noster Race 2023 in perfect conditions. Shining sun, light to medium breeze from the South-West. A great way to celebrate my own birthday!
The race starts from beautiful Skärhamn, rounds the most westerly rocks surrounding Pater Noster lighthouse, and after a brief leg in the opposite directions, it winds through Stigfjorden all the way to Stenungsund. It plays out with a backwards handicap system, where the arrival time is assumed to be the same for all boats, and the start time for each is calculated backwards with their time-on-time rate. Which means sequenced starts and first boat to cross the finish line wins.
For once, we were ready on time, had an early night and hit off as first boat on the water on race day. We had plenty of time, since we would start almost one hour after the first boat.
First Leg
The first leg was an excruciating beat to Pater Noster archipelago in light air (4 to 6kts) and dying seas. We found a good trim and could point well, in spite of the waves. At the rounding we left almost the entire fleet behind and had only 4 boats ahead to hunt down.
Second Leg
Sailing eastwards along Marstrandsfjord, we expected the wind to stay weak and from the the WSW. We decided therefore to launch our light air spinnaker.
The wind turned out to come way more from the South than we expected and picking up to 10 to 14kts. After a spinnaker sheet got stuck, things got better. We left behind 2 more boats and came very close to the 2 ones left. We even managed a quick plane at just over 10kts.
As the light one clearly stretches under the heavy pressure, we had to sail less aggressively so to avoid permanent damages to the sail.
Third Leg
A short reaching leg with little worth noting, except an X332 sport threatening to catch us from behind.
Last leg
From the next rounding, it was downhill all the way. And the right spinnaker went up. Not enough pressure to plane but enough to soak very deep, we played shifts and tried to stay in the pressure.
While we caught up with one of the last 2 boats ahead of us, a few other faster, full crewed boats arrived fast and left us in their wake. Nothing we could do about it, except keep sailing as fast and shortest way as possible in free air.
We arrived 7th out of 38 boats (both doublehanded and fully crewed) and won the doublehanded class. “Unfortunately” I was about to head to Mallorca on the following day and could not stay over for celebrations, but I heard there were loads!
What we liked
- We loved the small margins between boats. One wrong tack and chances were not to recover.
- The inverted system with arrival at the same time. It really turns the presssure on and forces to keep focus.
- The race is long enough to be a real challenge, but short enough to stay focused all the time, even doublehanded.
- An endless column of colourful spinnakers extending along the fjord
- We won the doublehanded class, but mostly we have been in the leading group most of the race. It does feel good.
Could have done better
- Right spinnaker. In our defence, peeling spinnaker doublehanded on a broad reach is not possible and sailing bareheaded on our fastest point of sail is a suicide in terms of results.
- Our compass lost its mind. We thought we were soaking as much as possible, while in reality sailing about 10deg higher than best on starboard gybe. It took a while to realise that something wasn’t right.
I must admit, in spite not being a doublehanded race, this has been the most fun race we participated in a long time. We loved the format, the course, the length and competition.
Glorious sailing.
Results Pater Noster Race 2023
| Rorsman | Båttyp | SRS | Klass | Seglad | Korr.tid | |
| 1 | Algotsson | Farr30 | 1.104 | 3 | 4:40:37 | 5:09:48 |
| 2 | Edberg | Corby33 | 1.066 | 3 | 4:52:00 | 5:11:16 |
| 3 | Bergvall | X-332Sport | 1.022 | 2 | 5:05:02 | 5:11:45 |
| 4 | Bergman | Finnflyer36 | 1.079 | 3 | 4:50:20 | 5:13:16 |
| 5 | Granhed | Smaragd | 0.945 | 2 | 5:30:11 | 5:12:01 |
| 6 | Niklasson | Dominant95 | 0.995 | 2 | 5:16:11 | 5:14:36 |
| 7 | Garofalo | J/80 | 0.947 | SH | 5:31:52 | 5:14:17 |
| 8 | Berntsson | First35 | 1.05 | 3 | 5:03:06 | 5:18:15 |
| 9 | Rohlén | X-332 | 1.011 | 2 | 5:14:17 | 5:17:44 |
| 10 | Axelsson | Cumulus | 0.867 | SH | 6:03:40 | 5:15:18 |
| 11 | Thorsson | gambler38 | 1.035 | 3 | 5:08:05 | 5:18:52 |
| 12 | Johansson | Xp44 | 1.199 | 3 | 4:31:53 | 5:25:59 |
| 13 | Henricsson | Banner28R | 0.935 | SH | 5:43:49 | 5:21:28 |
| 14 | Oskarsson | Accent | 0.835 | 1 | 6:22:34 | 5:19:27 |
| 15 | Hansson | Smaragd | 0.953 | 2 | 5:39:13 | 5:23:16 |
| 16 | Lundgren | Sunfast3600 | 1.077 | 3 | 5:03:16 | 5:26:37 |
| 17 | Nilsson | IOD | 0.917 | 1 | 5:53:06 | 5:23:48 |
| 18 | Having | Corby33 | 1.052 | 3 | 5:11:35 | 5:27:47 |
| 19 | Segerlind | Smaragd | 0.947 | 2 | 5:44:53 | 5:26:36 |
| 20 | Johnsson | CB66Racer | 0.954 | 2 | 5:43:36 | 5:27:48 |
| 21 | Ahlqvist | Archambault35 | 1.074 | 3 | 5:09:14 | 5:32:07 |
| 22 | Ristorp | Iod | 0.917 | 1 | 5:58:05 | 5:28:22 |
| 23 | Johannesson | IOD | 0.917 | 1 | 5:59:21 | 5:29:31 |
| 24 | Larsson | X-99 | 1.009 | 2 | 5:30:08 | 5:33:06 |
| 25 | Hammar | H-Båt | 0.868 | 1 | 6:18:34 | 5:28:36 |
| 26 | Ekbrand | NF | 0.901 | 1 | 6:06:36 | 5:30:18 |
| 27 | Lyrstrand | IOD | 0.917 | 1 | 6:01:36 | 5:31:35 |
| 28 | Christofferson | Omega30 | 0.935 | 1 | 5:57:15 | 5:34:02 |
| 29 | Berglund | IOD | 0.917 | 1 | 6:04:28 | 5:34:13 |
| 30 | Wahlström | IOD | 0.917 | 1 | 6:06:01 | 5:35:38 |
| 31 | Larsson | IOD | 0.917 | 1 | 6:07:49 | 5:37:17 |
| 32 | Nilsson | Dehler33 | 1.006 | SH | 5:47:15 | 5:49:20 |
| 33 | Danielsson | Alpha | 0.889 | 1 | 6:26:28 | 5:43:34 |
| 34 | Wahlström | IOD | 0.917 | 1 | 6:23:08 | 5:51:20 |
| 35 | Johansson | 707 | 0.899 | 1 | 7:00:05 | 6:17:39 |
| 36 | Knutsson | IOD | 0.917 | 1 | 7:07:02 | 6:31:35 |
| Pettersson | Hanse350 | 2 | DNF | |||
| Bohlemark | First36.7 | 3 | DNF | |||
| Petersson | Fareast28 | 3 | DNC |
Official Pater Noster Race 2023 results here
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