The Fastnet Race - 51° 23' 21"N 09° 36' 11"W

The Fastnet Race - that doesn't look too bad!

Setting the scene

 
Emma is a cruising boat,  twenty glorious tonnes of gleaming aluminium with all the creature comforts - air-conditioning, microwave, freezer - that one would expect on well-appointed cruising yacht. She was loaded up with a tonne of spares, lots of warm clothes, cockpit cushions, cosy bedding and a galley filled to the gunwales with tasty food. VERY few race boats would choose to compete this heavy.

 
Emma's sail wardrobe consists of a main, a furling headsail, a furling staysail, an asymmetrical spinnaker and the mandatory storm sails. This is quite a lean selection, and a slight disadvantage, compared to other competitors who race with far more sail options. For the non-racing sailors, furling sails do not allow trimming the sail to an optimum shape - they are designed for ease and convenience.  The relatively sparse selection of sails would cause most racing aficionados to shake their head in dismay. 

 
The upside of being a cruising yacht is that Emma can be sailed with a small crew, just six. And the six, as gorgeous and experienced as we all were, had sailed only the qualifying race together. We had limited experience aboard Emma and we could count on one finger how many times the spinnaker had been hoisted!

 
The likelihood of Emma winning was very remote but she would keep us safe.  We resolved to have fun and be kind to each other - our goal was to finish before the parties did!

 

Heading down the Western Yar out to The Solent and the start

The Crazy Start

Race day started in Yarmouth.  We all had hot showers, washed and braided our hair. Mark organized coffee and pastries to be brought to the boat while we had a weather briefing with Pete Goss.  The weather did look a little sporty! A quiet start was not in the forecast, instead winds of up to 30kn in The Solent and higher outside. With wind over current, the start was going to be rough. The general consensus was if we could make it through the first night, it would be a great race.

 
We wove out of Yarmouth and headed towards the identity gates. It was windy, around 25kn and raining. Visibility was limited and there were boats everywhere, many sporting the bright orange of their storm sails. We hoisted ours, received the nod from the officials at the gate and headed away to prepare for the start.

We had three reefs in the main and the stay sail, as we tacked to run for the start our staysail slid down the stay – the halyard had broken.

 

A sporty start and lots of storm sails flying

Well that's not good! We gathered it in, re-hoisted the storm jib and started the Fastnet Race! The seas were nasty, the wind kept building and we were making limited headway up-wind with so little sail up.  We were seeing 36kn of wind and we were still in the relative shelter of the Solent. Without a staysail, it was going to be a long night.  Boats started to return, a couple with broken masts and then we began hearing mayday calls on the radio.

 
Under the race rules, anchoring is allowed.  So the sensible decision was made to anchor up, make repairs to the halyard and let this system blow through.  Nearly 90 yachts retired overnight and the Coastguard reported 28 incidents, including one boat that sank.

 

Howling winds and driving rain - where are my ski goggles??

The English Channel

We solved the halyard problem and were back racing before dawn.  As the sky slowly lightened, we headed out into the confused waters of the English Channel. The southern coast of the UK is tricky navigating with its strong currents and tidal gates. We tacked and bashed and worked our way along the coast, ticking off the milestones as we went.  The Needles, Portland, Start Point, Lizard, Lands End...

It took us days! The first boats were finished before we rounded Portland but we kept on.  Finally, we were out of The Channel and off the Scilly Islands working our way past the Traffic Separation Schemes that were exclusion zones under the race rules.

We did enjoy some glorious sailing!

The calm gave us time to shower and wash our hair - a luxury unheard of on most racing boats!

Should we keep going?

Dead calm, becalmed, drifting vaguely in the direction of the Fastnet Rock. The water sparkling, the blue sky cloudless. Will we ever get there? Hour after hour, the Scilly Islands get slowly closer with their sandy beaches, pretty villages and pubs.

Pubs! Do we really need to finish? We could just start the engine and be at the pub in an hour with a nice cold beer and this yacht racing silliness behind us. We could just do that!

We were not deterred by the strong winds, the adverse currents or the gear failures. It was the calms and the bobbing going backwards that almost did us in! After what seemed like hours of chasing the slightest puffs of wind, Emma started to move. One knot increased to two, then three and before we knew it, we were once again skimming towards The Fastnet Rock.

We had some sporty weather heading across the Irish Sea.  But Emma loved it and kept us safe and dry.  In rainy, windy and foggy conditions, we closed in on Ireland and The Fastnet Rock.

The off watch stayed snug and warm and just look at those smiles! 

We're nearly there!!

...finally, The Fastnet Rock!

No drone photos showing Emma rounding the Rock in sparkling conditions!  We could hardly make out a blob through the mist!  Getting caught on a fishing net brought us to a complete stop.  In the time it took to raise the centreboard and shrug off the net, the fog vaguely parted and gave us a glimpse of The Rock.  We were around and heading for home!

The Fastnet Rock - can you see it??

A downhill run back to Cherbourg

We had the spinnaker up for about half an hour before the halyard broke (what is going on with the halyards??) and the spinnaker was shredded.  With just the main and headsail, we were much slower than we had hoped.  To brighten us all, Marie served up a special treat. Just delicious.

Thanks Marie, that's exactly what we all needed!

Despite the valiant efforts of Clothilde and Rebecca repairing the spinnaker, we were unable to fly it for the rest of the race.  The wind picked up and died off and picked up and the miles slowly, slowly ticked down. It was frustratingly! The nights were beautiful with a sky filled with stars.  And a sight most venust that I had never before seen - dolphins with a bioluminescence trail.   

 

Repairs to the spinnaker took five hours - and ALL the repair tape onboard!

The Alderney Race or Raz Blanchard

Back in The Channel and nearing the Cap de la Hague (the northwestern tip of Normandy) and we faced one more challenge - The Alderney Race or Le Raz Blanchard as it is known in French.  We needed to hit this on a fair tide as the currents can get up to 12kns!! We were counting down, needing an average of 8 knots of boat speed to make it. 

We came up with some unique ways to fly the headsail, staysail and storm jib all at one to get up a little extra sail and a little extra speed.  We missed the tide by about half an hour and found ourselves jibing north to avoid the worse currents.  Oh the frustration.  We were so close!

The Finish

Finally, finally, finally at 12:10:00 on Saturday 29th July, Emma crossed the finish line.  It took us six days, 21 hours and 55 minutes to complete the course.  But finish we did!

The finish line is in sight!

Still smiling after almost seven days of racing

Adriano and Marissa loaded Voyager with 'the husbands' and they cheered us on the finish line.  As we came into the marina, Clothilde and Marie's families were lining the breakwater cheering.  There were cheers and congratulations from by-standers and those on their yachts in the harbour.  You would have thought we had won!  As we were a local boat and the winners had left days ago, we were taken to the berth which usually reserved for the race winners.  Rolex met us with champagne, Garcia with cameras, friends, family and other crews gathered to congratulate us.  Rolex interviewed Marie - read all about us here. 

Fastnet Finishers!

Who needs to make the party - we had our own!

The race finishers' sign

Our prime position - usually reserved for the race winners!

Team photo by Rolex

The Crew

Clothilde, Rebecca, Marie, Sylvia and Fi, a huge big thanks for your friendship, laughter, bravery and skill. I am privileged to have been part of the Team Emma and this awesome group. And thanks to Mark and Rebecca for making this all possible by trusting us with your beautiful Emma.

So Girls, what are your thoughts on a Sydney to Hobart??!!