Tuesday, August 14, 2007
8pm update:
More beer has been drunk, Katie has arrived in Plymouth with the van and bags after a horrible journey down from Southampton, and Puma Logic has left Salcombe on her way to Plymouth to rendezvous with the other 2 Logic teams, to wait out the weather and welcome back the 4 yachts still out there racing.
We have been listening and reading with interest all afternoon accounts from other boats that have retired talking about the conditions and why they turned back, whether by choice or because of breakages. Dee Caffari, an old friend of Sailing Logic was sailing her Open 60 Aviva with Mike Broughton the weather routing expert and Sir Matthew Pinsent. A novice to yacht racing Matthew was onboard as a journalist reporting back for the BBC. He described his experience as horrendous with Dee describing the conditions as some of the worst she has ever sailed in.
We knew the storm was coming, and we prepared everyone for it, but until you are out there in the thick of it, it’s very hard to describe it to people who have never experienced anything like it before. Most of the 58 crew we have aboard our 7 yachts were complete offshore sailing novices when they came to us earlier this year. Sailing Logic devised a campaign which was felt to give all crew, experienced or not, the opportunity to learn how to race a yacht safely and in an environment that encourages learning and participation. As well as 2 training weekends the teams also competed in 4 offshore races pre-Fastnet, to make sure that they all knew what to expect and also to learn to sail their yachts for days on end rather than just a sunny afternoon in the Solent.
The race organisers, the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) decided to postpone for 25 hrs Sundays start due to the unpredictability of the low pressure system coming in, as they felt they would rather the yachts be able to choose to go into a port of refuge if they needed to rather than have the fleet already in the Irish Sea with nowhere to run. This decision was felt by many experienced offshore sailors to be the wrong one, but probably made with all the right intentions. That as it may, the fact is that over half the fleet has now retired and those left still racing are giving it everything. Many a seasoned professional offshore sailor is propping up the beer tent in Plymouth right now, marvelling at the tenacity of the little boats still out there slogging away to the rock. At Sailing Logic we are all very proud of our teams, for racing in a true professional manner and knowing what to do at the right time. Deciding to stop racing and head for port is one of the hardest decisions a Skipper can make, but sometimes in hindsight, in weather such as we have had it can also seem to be the easiest too.
The weather tonight in the Irish Sea where Jaguar Logic, Exabyte 3, Sidney and Bongani are is forecast to be 25 knots from the South West still, with the wind coming round to North West by daybreak. The sea state is described as rough, but the yachts at the moment have said that it is not too bad yet. They will be hoping to get themselves to the Fastnet Rock before the wind shift, and then they will have fantastic surfing conditions on the way back to the Scilly Isles.
