Congratulations Armel!

Armel Le Cleac'h has won the Figaro for the second time. An unstoppable performance with 3 out of 4 leg wins put him at the highest point of the podium. He is a worthy challenger to Michel Desjoyeaux for the title of  best solo sailor in the game.

I've "supported" him for a number of years after that great picture from the AG2R in, I think, 2004:

Whooohooo........

August Series Race 2 - Weymouth Sailing Club

Helm Stephen applauds Sigma 33 Scoline in the distance after another exhilirating race last night. Another reach to reach course gave JS9000 RWH the win again and Sigma 33 Snow Goose sailed impeccably well to get the 2nd and first in IRC. We were 4th in PY but again we only had four on board.

Rattler came past our 1st kite leg on the way into Weymouth harbour so hopefully they've got a nice "Touareg" photo for us!


The Rolex Commodore's cup starts this weekend with GBR being the current holders but against some very strong competition, the french have four teams whereas we've got three which don't include any Archambault boats but do include a Farr 45, I don't know that much about it but that worries me, let's hope beneteaus and superior sailing is enough! Link here
Edit 18th Aug: oh yeah, I get it now about the Farr 45 thing, very clever....Alice II beat the tidal gates in the offshore race to win class 1 by a country mile! I should be more supportive of Farr designs.

The last stage of the Figaro sets off from Kinsale on monday with Armel "The Jackal" Le Cleac'h sure of an overall win. Link here 

La Solitaire Le Figaro

For those of you that might have missed it the Figaro started yesterday from Le Havre.

http://www.lasolitaire.com
It's probably my favourite yacht race of the year, and worth following if you have the time. No Nigel King this year but let's hope that he can get back in the mix next year after his encouraging performance last year. The sole hope of the Rosbifs this year is Jonny Malbon on Artemis, who I have to say is looking more confident after the training that he has received at "Figaro School"in La Grande Motte. 17th in the prologue race out of 45 skippers and currently mid fleet. That is an incredible placing for an englishman in the Figaro fleet. Good luck Jonny keep it up.
http://www.artemisoceanracing.com/

With Artemis committed to starting a Figaro school in the UK there's hope yet. I wonder if I can sign Sam up, or do you think two is a little young for training?

I'm lining up for my first single handed round the cans on FarrOut this thursday. Gonna train with a double handed with Richard on Saturday. I wish I'd had some of that Figaro training.......

Bad news, Good news, Good news

Ok, bad news we were at the back of the field in the IRC class again last night. Another bad start put us there and we couldn't make it back on the dying breeze. Nuff said - the last RAC race is on sunday and we will be in the front rank on the start or OCS no matter what.

The first good news is that probably over a dozen dolphins were out to play with us while we were racing; jumping, tail standing and cackling. Really beautiful, and we're so lucky to have them so happy in our bay.

The real good news yesterday is the announcement by Artemis that they are creating an offshore school of excellence both at the Weymouth and Portland  National Sailing Academy and at La Grande Motte in the med in the winter. Sailing wise, I don't think it's necessary to have a warm winter venue other than to experience med conditions and terrain and of course to make sure the condidates can speak french. I'll let you read the announcement for yourselves at http://www.artemisoceanracing.com/news/view/artemis_investment_management_continues_commitment_to_british_sailing/

I haven't really been that bothered about the  WPNSA, the olympic sailing and RYA programmes, as they seemed to have little relevance to the club racing and offshore scenes that we're involved in. However, my attitude has changed and it's great to see the kids that are learning to sail here on our doorstep and the Offshore school has got to be the right way for Britannia to rule the waves in solo and short handed sailing. Well done Artemis. We'll have Samuel enrolled in a few years time!

Round the Island Race

I'm glad I changed my mind and decided to race, we had an amazing time on Rattler.
It started well with the feeder race from Weymouth with 10 boats on the start line, unfortunately it was so light in the bay that we had the engine on for 35 minutes until we found some wind. It was a shame to retire but really it was all about the delivery to Cowes.
The race around the Isle of Wight  itself was a classic and probably one of the better ones I've done. There was plenty of wind allowing a circumnavigation in just under 8 1/4 hours, which after the 0600 start (or was it 0601 for us!) meant that we were back in the marina at a very reasonable time.
Highlight has to be the tussle we had with the other Figaro 1 entered - Black Diamond around the top of the island. We got to the finish line in front of them but not by much. Really good to sail against another Figaro. I think it's probably quite a while since Groupe Partouche (Rattler) and Assiwa (Black Diamond) have sailed against each other.
We were so exhilarated that we even danced later...or maybe that was the Red Bull?
A photo of Richard a la barre, he drove really well:

Whilst it's blowing hard here, let's enjoy watching others...

I just thought I'd post this lovely Youtube video of Figaro 1s training in some wind. Enjoy.



Sometimes that spinnaker pole just gets in the way doesn't it?

Sunshine Day

A nice bit of video as we set out across Weymouth Bay for Cowes on Friday on Rattler.

JOG Cherbourg 25th Sept 09 - Sunday series 4/4

An action packed weekend this weekend with the finale of the sunday series for Farr Out with a serious depletion in crew numbers due to Bob, Dave and myself all going offshore with Rattler for the final JOG race of the season Cowes-Cherbourg.

When I phoned Stuart on sunday evening, the boys seemed to have had a pretty good race with Paul from Stuart's work pulled in as a reinforcement for him and Steve, but only three up. A spinnaker wrap cost them the series with Manana winning the last race by 36 seconds corrected. Well done to them and I look forward to getting back into it for the autumn series starting next week.

On Rattler we had an excellent race, starting in class 5 instead of class 4 although this was changed in the results. The initial beat down the solent had us up at the front by the needles and the kite hoist that would stay up all the way to the finish. We had Whistler and Xara with us and we were pleased to see Xara's masthead tricolour change from white to green as we slid past.

There were a lot of ships to deal with in the northern shipping lane and we gybed in the middle to keep in favourable tide and scooted on down towards Cap Levy keeping east expecting the breeze to die and to ride the tide down into Cherbourg. We lost a lot of ground just outside the Grand Rade but all in all a cracking race. Crew pictured at the Jog drinks reception at the Yacht Club de Cherbourg:


I had a chat with the guys from the Laser 28 Moondog they'd done very well double handed. Let's get Farr Out doing some offshore racing next year.....