Cape Breton Island Crew Diary - Jan Ridd

by Jan Ridd on 20 Feb 2010 Cape Breton Island - Match Racing in the South China Sea – by Jan Ridd –eighth February

This has been the most interesting leg so far for the crew of Cape Breton Island with close racing with other boats from the start in the Singapore Strait. The start saw the whole fleet involved in a tacking match to exit the straits, right away some of the boats pulled out an early lead by judging the correct time to make the tacks and using wind shifts and tidal currents to their advantage.

I must admit the three weeks I spent with the Keppel Bay Sailing Academy helping out with the Clipper training last year did give me a small advantage as I was sailing in familiar waters. But from the start the crew of Hull & Humber showed great skill and determination and moved to the front of the fleet and had pulled out a small lead by the time we left the Singapore Strait, it was here that we saw a definite split in the fleet with some of the boats immediately deciding to head north, a risky decision and against most of the information available to the fleet, perhaps they saw a window in the weather that they could use to their advantage. But here on Cape Breton Island I decided to continue heading east first before heading north, I think there were four boats heading east to start with, but slowly one by one their nerve broke and started to head north obviously feeling the need to cover the boats already heading north, until it came to a point where it was only and ourselves and Hull & Humber continuing to head east, it became obvious to both Piers and myself we were both sailing the same game/passage plan and after a few chats on the VHF radio we started our own race within a race.

We have been in close proximity since the start, but it has only been over the past few days that the enjoyable game of cat & mouse that is match racing has really developed, we have had periods where we have been chasing down Hull & Humber and times when we have been defending our slender lead. There was one point where they disappeared out of sight and pulled out a ten mile lead which was a low moment on board, so we had to work hard and tack on every wind shift to keep our VMG (velocity made good) as high as possible, and after 12 hours very intense sailing we were rewarded in the middle of the night by seeing the red port light of Hull & Humber come towards our port beam meaning we would cross ahead of them, they crossed our track about one and a half miles behind us and tacked on to our line, the race was now on! We had to defend our lead which we have done very well by sailing as high as possible without losing boat speed therefore not allowing them to sail over the top of us, they have tried several times to bear away and pick up speed and get ahead then tack back to our line, each time we have covered their moves and maintained and even improved our lead.?
Over the last 12 hours especially overnight Hull & Humber have taken a chance by not sailing as close to the wind and therefore sail faster, this tactic could pay off well for them if the wind shifts further. I have not chosen to cover this move as I was given some very simple advice for this race by one of the previous skippers, he always said to me “sail the shortest route and stay to windward of your rhumb line”. It does feel like an unnecessary gamble to bear away from our rhumb line (direct line and therefore shortest route to our destination) with the possibility of having to make a losing tack later on to get back on course.?
We are currently side by side with Hull & Humber but they have sailed lower on the wind and are over six miles downwind from us which as long as the wind stays the same puts us in a strong position but it will only take a 20 degree shift to see them pull ahead. Only time will tell who has made the correct decision but whatever the result both boats have enjoyed several days of very enjoyable tactical racing which has been of benefit to both of us as whilst we have been having our own private race we have pulled out a sizeable lead on the rest of the fleet with the next boat approximately 40 miles back.
We are fully aware we are not even halfway yet and there is a lot of hard sailing to be done and the lead we have over the rest of the fleet could be lost in a day, but we are all so glad that we sailed east to begin with, as to be on the eastern side of the fleet and trying to head east with the wind veering will make it hard for those boats to pull back any miles.
We are starting to prepare the boat now for the expected heavy weather we have ensured all hatches seal properly, and modified the main hatch so as it seals as we expected the seas to be big enough to see waves breaking on the deck and to be awash under a couple of feet of water! Everyone on board is aware that this is literally the calm before the storm, we have not been issued much information yet of the weather north of Taiwan, but hopefully we will start to receive it soon so we can mentally prepare for what could be the hardest sailing of the whole race!
I feel we will not so concerned of Hull & Humber movements then as we both will be just sailing our boats as safely as possible and looking to get to Qingdao with no damage to the crew, sails or boat!!

Jan
Skipper Cape Breton Island (enjoying the smooth sailing)