Solo Channel Week overall

by Solo Offshore Racing Club on 27 Jul 2011 Solo Channel Week is a week of single handed racing in the English channel organised by the Solo Offshore Racing Club.

Thirteen yachts started this year’s three hundred and fifteen mile Solo Channel week. The course Lymington – St Peterport – St Cast – St Quay – Treguier – Weymouth – Lymington was particularly testing with the first leg finishing in well over twenty-five knots of wind, rain and poor visibility after a tiring night sail.

The second leg to St Cast was cancelled owing to full gale forecast and legs three and four were also sailed in over twenty knots. Tee shirts and shorts not required. Solan Goose won the week overall taking two wins and four seconds overall once more proving the skills and preparation by Race Director Peter Olden on Archambault 35 Solan Goose. Last year’s Channel week overall winner Paddy Cronin was less fortunate having won the first leg HOD 35 Psipsina broke a D2 on the second and despite efforts to repair and re-join Psipsina needed a proper new rod rigging section. With the Fastnet race coming up the only option was a long motor home. At the front Ding Dong - Stewart 37 and J122 Jbellino once more fought for line honors, Chris Rustom’s Ding Dong finishing the series a creditable second overall, winning the day race at St Quay – the old man again showing the boys how to do it! During the later part of the week in less wind Mike Saqui’s Elan 333 Edith and Herve Dupriez’s Beneteau 31.7 Penrod each won a leg overall under IRC. Nigel Colley with Sunfast 3200 Fastrak VIII managed to stay ahead of his previous Sunfast 3200 Roxanne sailed by Simon Mitchell who battled all week with Carl Wilcox on the much travelled J105 Juneau. Barry Hurley back again from Dublin with JOD 35 Dinah was reliably near the front aided by water ballast in the predominantly upwind conditions took a solid third overall in the series. The well deserved Rookie Trophy went to Myles Perrin on Capo 30 Santana – welcome to Solo Offshore!!! With very close racing all week and some great nights out we thank all ports visited who all were a tremendous help to the solo fleet and Kirsteen Donaldson and David Giddings - race officers who after starting races chased us round most legs with X332 Pyxis.

Overall IRC
First Peter Olden A35 Solan Goose, second Chris Rustom Stewart 37 Ding Dong, Third Barry Hurley JOD35 Dinah

Class 1
First Peter Olden A35 Solan Goose, second Chris Rustom Stewart 37 Ding Dong, Third Rob Craigie J122 Jbellino

Class 2
First Barry Hurley JOD 35 Dinah, second Nigel Colley Sunfast 3200 Fastrak VIII, Third Carl Wilcox J105 Juneau

Class 3
First Mike Saqui Elan 333 Edith, Second Herve Dupriez Beneteau 31.7 Penrod, Third Myles Perrin Capo 30 Santana

Rookie Prize
Myles Perrin Capo 30 Santana

Team prize
Team Lymington Ding Dong, Fastrak VIII, Edith

Lymington to St Peterport
Skippers met for sandwich lunch briefing at Royal Lymington Yacht Club before a 1600 hours departure to St Peterport, Guernsey. Kirsteen Donaldson with Trevor Wray on Yacht Elixir set the fleet off into a southerly 15 to 20 knots breeze that took the fleet rapidly out through the needles on the last of the ebb tide. Once clear of the Needles yachts went due south on starboard tack into the channel as the wind lightened as forecast to as little as 10 knots for a while before veering westerly and increasing to 20 knots at about midnight. As the tide turned yachts that tacked onto port soonest did well arriving around Alderney at daybreak to an advised, but not mandatory, rounding of the Casquets for the final fifteen miles to St Peterport. From daybreak rain, low cloud and increasingly adverse tide made it a challenging conclusion. As the first boats reached at the Roustel mark finish line the four knots adverse tide made for very slow progress to make the last half mile. Last year’s SORC channel week winner Paddy Cronin on HOD 35 Psipsina snuck through the rocks on the North East coast of Guernsey to avoid the worst of the tide and though not taking line honors did win the leg on overall IRC, second was Solan Goose, third Jbellino. Later boats faced this adverse tide all the way from the Casquets making for a painfully slow finish when most tired in increasing 25-30 knots winds. Herve Dupriez on Beneteau 31.7 Penrod having had battery problems and then no engine quietly sailed into St Peterport harbor in 35 knots at 1330 hours under jib alone to the waiting pontoon – quality French sailor!! John Ford on Maxi 1050 Geofon lost GPS before the Alderney race and sensibly retired to Cherbourg for repairs. John Bailey on Neried lost wind instruments early on and returned to the Solent.

St Peterport to St Cast – C’est non possible !
With a full gale forecast and tired sailors it was regrettably agreed to not race to St Cast as planned Sunday but head direct to St Quay on Monday.

St Peterport to St Quay
Kirsteen Donaldson had conveniently left X332 Pyxis in St Peterport after the last RORC race and at 0700 hours she and David Giddings set the fleet off from the Castle Cornet line for a close fetch fifty miles due south to St Quay – should be pretty straightforward? In last year’s race this leg started a few miles south in a light breeze becoming a delightful deep spinnaker run all the way in the sunshine. This was just a slog with the wind increasing to 25 knots as a front passed through at the midway stage. With wind against the tide the waves became pretty big but thankfully well spaced. Most yachts ended up changing down headsails and or reefing mainsails. Paddy Cronin pulled up abruptly dropping all sails as a D2 (inner upper shroud) popped and headed under engine to Jersey for repairs. Carl Wilcox responsibly furled the jib away on borrowed J105 Juneau and sailed for a couple of hours on reefed main. Chris Rustom on Stewart 37 Ding Dong finished just two minutes ahead of Rob Craigie on J122 Jbellino but on corrected overall IRC first went to Peter Olden’s Solan Goose finishing in exactly seven hours, two minutes ahead of Nigel Colley’s Sunfast 3200 Fastrak VIII, two minutes ahead of Barry Hurley’s JOD 35 Dinah.

St Quay once more was very welcoming, marina director Jean Michel Gaigne presented bottle prizes to the days winners and hosted a drinks party for all.

St Quay Day race
Seven yachts went out for a six mile dash up the coast, once more into 15 to 26 knots of wind round a Cardinal buoy and a deep run back. The one sided beat was uneventful but the yachts that put up spinnakers for the run were rewarded with a great leg deep down wind with glimpses of sunshine as the winds increased peaking at 25 knots – just don’t look behind you…it’ll be fine! Chris Rustom on Ding Dong took the win wondering all the way down the run now he was going to get his spinnaker back down again at the end. Second came Solan Goose and third Fastrak VIII. All managed fine and thoroughly enjoyed the race. Paddy motored in with repaired Psipsina just in time for supper at the fabulous Via Costa restaurant.

St Quay to Treguier
10 knots dead downwind start was a welcome relief for a run with the tide to the headland where three waypoints were in the course to keep yachts out of the rocky coastline around to Treguier. Peter Olden on Solan Goose and Carl Wilcox on J105 Juneau, both asymmetric, went offshore on starboard jibe, the rest went on port with asymmetric boats working hard to maintain speeds downwind in light airs. Nearing the first waypoint with strong favorable tide Jbellino and Solan Goose rounded the mark first in close proximity and were followed by Ding Dong, Psipsina and Mike Saqui on Elan 333 Edith and Juneau in pursuit. The tide made an expected reach into a beat and the winds once more built to 15 knots plus for the final 15 miles along the coast and up to the finish off Treguier. Once on port tack Paddy Cronin soon realized Psipsina’s temporary Dynema D2 was not right and once more lowered sails and prudently retired joining us in Treguier before the long motor back next day to the Solent. Line honors went to Solan Goose but when the handicaps were worked out Edith was first overall, Solan Goose second and Penrod third.

Treguier to Weymouth
Pyxis having sailed down met us in Treguier to enjoy the visit to this lovely town and start us off for the longest SORC race of the season, a 105 miles race overnight direct to Weymouth. The North westerly breeze put yachts back up wind again setting off due north at 12.30pm Pyxis having organized the start in pursuit. The afternoon through to dusk was just straight line sailing in the sunshine as the breeze dropped to below 10 knots with a spectacular sunset. Rob Craigie on J122 Jbellino favoring a low fast route went off towards Guernsey and Carl Wilcox went up through the Alderney race on the tide. After dark yachts took their 'easting' in the favorable flood tide carefully crossing the shipping lanes. The strong ebb tide off Portland later was to be anticipated to ensure an efficient finish off Weymouth. Solan Goose, Jbellino and Ding Dong all got it right; Barry Hurley on JOD 35 Dinah just had a short tack to the finish while Nigel Colley ended up right in off the rocks at Portland and had an exhausting 25 tacks up the shore to finish. Later boats were met by the much stronger tide and had time consuming miles to make to get up tide for the sail into Weymouth bay to the finish. First on corrected time was Solan Goose, second Ding Dong and third Jbellino. Weymouth provided a welcome rest for all and a good supper at Weymouth Sailing Club joined by John Ford on Geofon having returned from repairs in Cherbourg. Myles Perrin and Mike Saqui noting it was just one minutes swim across the harbor (instead of 10 minute stroll around) had the inaugural SORC Weymouth swimming race across won easily by Myles following a diving start as opposed to Mike’s bomb.

Weymouth to Lymington
Pyxis set the fleet off downwind in 10 knots towards Anvil Point. Yachts chose symmetric, asymmetric and code zeros – Solan Goose was soon ahead with code zero working perfectly, Ding Dong in pursuit with full symmetric both heading for the shore. After an hour the wind dropped and became very fluky until finally re-establishing from a more offshore direction. Edith completely miss-read the happenings and was left over alone two miles behind the fleet. The full flood tide carried the fleet rapidly eastwards. Ding Dong lead most of the way holding the rhumb line with other symmetric boats Dinah and Fastrak following suit, while the asymmetric Solan Goose worked the angles further offshore. Further back Roxanne, Geofon and Juneau also stayed out while Myles Perrin on Santana with masthead symmetric stuck to the rhumb line ever watching Edith trying to catch up heading inshore for the North Channel. At Hurst the tide flood tide made for an easy run and tight reach up to the finish at Dunfords (where the week started) early yachts held spinnakers, later yachts Juneau and Edith had last minute frantic drops to make up to the finish. Myles on Santana determined to stay ahead of Edith now close behind just held onto his masthead spinnaker to the buoy. But the quiet Frenchman Herve Dupriez on Beneteau 31.7 Penrod having been well back early on made the best judgment and won the day on IRC, second Solan Goose and third Barry Hurley on JOD 35 Dinah.

Prize giving supper took place in the Mayflower Pub accompanied by many wives and girlfriends. The week having had a testing start finished in the sunshine with a top quality group of sailors having battled the whole way returning in one piece all looking forward to the re-scheduled Round the Island race on 18th September.

Results:

Solo Offshore Racing Club website

Pos	Skipper	Boat name	Boat Type	Points	Solent to St Peter Port	St Peter Port to St Quay	St Quay day race	St Quay to Treguier	Trequier to Weymouth	Weymouth to Lymington
1	Peter Olden	Solan Goose	A35	10	2	1	2	2	1	2
2	Chris Rustom	Ding Dong	Stewart 37	23	5	4	1	5	3	5
3	Barry Hurley	Dinah	JOD 35	24	4	3	4	6	4	3
4	Nigel Colley	Fastrak VIII	Sunfast 3200	31	6	2	3	9	7	4
5	Rob Craigie	Jbellino	J122	38	3	5	6	7	2	15
6	Herve Dupriez	Penrod	Ben 31.7	39	11	8	8	3	8	1
7	Mike Saqui	Edith	Elan 333	39	8	7	7	1	9	7
8	Myles Perrin	Santana	Capo 30	46	7	10	5	8	10	6
9	Carl Wilcox	Juneau	J105	51	9	9	15	4	5	9
10	Simon Mitchell	Roxanne	Sunfast 3200	55	10	6	15	10	6	8
11	Paddy Cronin	Psipsina	HOD 35	70	1	12	15	12	15	15
12	John Ford	Geofon	Maxi 1050	84	14	15	15	15	15	10
13	John Baily	Nereid	Elan 340	89	14	15	15	15	15	15