Toughest race Tom Braidwood has ever done

by Tom Braidwood on 9 May 2007 Tom Braidwood relates his experiences during the recently completed Mini Pavois race.

'I knew this mini sailing would be tough but I don't think I'd quite prepared myself for the intensity of racing alone in a fleet of 64 boats with the added part of not only being tired but knowing that there is no one to take your place if you need rest.

'My start was pretty ordinary, but as with the race, I was looking at it as a learning experience and didn't need to get in there crashing and banging for my first start. After a light air beat to Ile de Rae and an altercation with a fishing pot, I rounded the top in around 16th position, already learning that we need to get more sail area on the little Wombat, something I have been working on with North Sails Sydney already; but now great to know that our thought processes are right.

'It was a fast reach to Spain with up to 35knots, at one moment I was sailing with 2 reefs in mainsail and 1 reef in jib trying to get my head down for the usual 20 minute cat nap, I looked at my B&G wireless and the boat was surfing along a 16.5 knots, no problem except that there are 64 other mini's doing the same thing.

'Got to Spain with 9 other Protos in front of me and it was then a light fluky trip all the way back to Ile de Rae, with a 6 to 10 knot run back down to La Rochelle. only problem was that reaching the top of Ile de Rae I was in need of some much needed sleep, but there were 8 other mini's with in 5 miles of each other, with VMG running you can't sleep that much but it made for a great race over the next 65 miles.

'By the time I got to final approach to La Rochelle I had started hallucinating and was convinced that there were people on the foredeck and couldn't work out why they were just laying there (try telling a jib to get up - it doesn't listen).

'I had a bit on to say the least and was busy trying to sail the boat dead down wind in 12 knots and work out what all the lights meant, working on the chart in the cock pit with a torch because in the mini class rules you are not allowed a GPS plotter. As if it couldn't get any better I managed to run over another fishing pot and wrap it around the keel, so I got to work dropping the big Spinnaker and set to untangling the fish pot, checking one more time my gybe angle, gybing over and resetting the spinnaker.

'I managed to get into the Harbour without any more incidents and finished at about 8am, coming into the dock to see my two beautiful girls waiting for me. I was dead on my feet.

'What a great race, I have already learned plenty, not only about myself but about how to make my boat faster, the standard of the guys over here is pretty high and I was relieved to here from one of the veterans that it to was one of the toughest races he had ever done.

'So now I leave to sail up the coast to Pornichet for my next qualifier which is a 300 mile single hander. Bindi has been busy packing up our little unit and trying to fit it all in to the old car we have. Good old Yards now has eight teeth and as you can imagine she has been letting us know all about it each night..what a girl!!'

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