Once again time for Pantaenius Bohusracet. And once again a airy affair. Very airy. In fact airier than the previous year (check out my report here).
As the date approached and we monitored the forecasts, a deep depression started forming on the North Sea, generating gale force winds for a number of days from Race Day.
With a lot of expected reaching, considerable upwind and no downwind at all, of which, mostly in heavy conditions from 25 to 34kts wind, we were hoping in a miracle. Or at least some variability providing an opportunity throughout the 30hours it would take to complete.
We chunked up the race in 5 legs which allowed to focus on smaller milestones and then re-assess the next leg, its feasibility and our exit options.
To complicate things, the racing committee shortened the course to prevent boats to sail too far off-shore. The first change was a new rounding mark closer to Marstrand, instead of the traditional lighthouse Hätteberget. The second change was removing the leg to and from Trestene, in Norway.
From our point of view, both changes were disadvantageous.
- The first meant a tighter angle against the large seas and through an area were we expected breaking waves because of the shallow waters. Nothing which a J/80 (or her crew) likes very much.
- The second change meant that time sailing in non-gale conditions decreased to almost nothing. Very little opportunity to actually race and plenty to break something.
With this in mind, we decided to spare energy and change down to heavy jib as soon as the wind hit 16kts. As it turned out, this happened just before starting. No matter. We believed in our strategy and committed. The idea was to sail slightly under canvassed, and be fresh and ready when we hit the gale raging on the open water.
We started ok, but quickly realised how penalised by our sail configuration we were. We stood by our decision and in fact, put a reef quite early, as the wind touched 22kts on average. When the waves arrived and the wind picked up to 28 to 35kts, we were glad of our choice. We felt very well rested and ready to take up the next 24h fight.
Completed the first leg, we decided to try sailing the offshore route for the second leg. It didn’t take long to realize that it was not safe enough. Waves broke overall. Two 40 footers ahead of us where washed several meters to the side, close to a bunch of rocks, as if they were ducks in a bathtub. And we could barely sit on the coamings without being washed down in the cockpit. We considered taking an inshore route, but this still required us too sail in unprotected waters for a while with such waves from port and cliffs on starboard and therefore no exit options, no possibility to run, and risk of rolling.
Turning around before it was too late was an easy decision. We quit and sailed to Marstrand. The brief journey to harbour was quite exhilarating in itself, planing at around 15kts with heavy jib and reefed main.
At harbour we realised that plenty others had similar thoughts and were docking. Turns out, most boats quit the race early on and only 9 boats out of 90 finished.
We were impressed by another J/80 which went on where we decided to abandon. During late evening however, we noticed that they first slowed down, then changed course towards the coast and eventually abandoned. In the morning we heard the news that the co-skipper was washed overboard. Hooked by safety harness and holding on with one hand outside the boat, it was pulled back on board with only minor injuries.
The stuff of nightmares.
We were happy to spend an evening with other “non-finishers” with pizza and beer at Marstrand.
Plus:
- sails set-up
- strategy
Troubles:
- I inspected the boat one last time on our way to Uddevalla and found a shackle holding the backstay was bent and cracked. It required a bus trip to a hardware store and skipping the skippers’ meeting.
- The battery came undone and rolled into the bilge ripping with it instrument cables as well as solar panel charging cables. Not fun working upside down in those seas to replace the cable connectors.
- Plotter. In spite of having installed hard buttons, it just doesn’t work when wet. Which of course, is all the time on a J/80 in 30kts wind.
All results here. Congratulation to all who made it to the finish and in particular the Smaragd which arrived first (Malvina) and second (Lova) and sailed virtually in each other shadows for most of the race. Uncatchable.