Month: September 2022

Northerlies do not offer much opportunity for beats or deep downwind legs on the Solent, with the result that Mostly Harmless neither hoisted a spinnaker or Code 0 nor tacked other than when rounding a mark in the penultimate race of the JOG season.

After the frustrations of the start in our previous JOG race, Natalie approached the line at Gurnard assertively and was on the line at the gun, to windward and ahead of the rest of the fleet.  Trimming for all we were worth, we held off the competition on the reach to Browndown, possibly benefitting as a short-handed crew from any temptation to fly a Code 0.

Pure Attitude, an X37 rating well above Mostly Harmless, and Just So, fully crewed and able to carry not only her Code 0 but also a jib as an inner staysail, had the edge on a reach west with the tide to West Lepe.  Heading back to the east to East Knoll buoy we all faced the challenge of a strong ebb.  Pure Attitude showed a clean pair of heels by heading well above the rhumb line to get inshore leaving us kicking ourselves for failing to make the same call and get into weaker tide.  We came close to hoisting our A5 on a slightly deeper penultimate leg and had it clipped on before the wind piped up to 16 knots and swung a few degrees forward so it remained in the bag.

Arriving at the final mark, North East Ryde Middle, we were still fairly close to Just So and saw Pure Attitude experiencing problems with the furler for either her Code 0 or jib.  With Just So still able to carry extra canvas, she opened up her lead to finish four minutes ahead of us on corrected time, while Pure Attitude’s problems resulted in us closing her lead over Mostly Harmless to only 12 seconds, leaving us third in class.

This was also good enough for Mostly Harness to secure 2nd overall among the double handed entries, behind Deb Fish and Rob Craigie in Bellino. Combined with our other results, this meant we were third overall in the 2022 JOG double-handed championship.

The race had finished early enough for us to head back up to London.  We were planning to return for Sunday’s race but having had a good day on Saturday and exhausted by our efforts opted for a quiet day reading the papers and getting on with domestic chores.

Lots of things got in the way of our programme on Mostly Harmles during the summer: an operation, a grandparent trip to New York, a cycling holiday in Albania, the competing attraction of Tom’s Waszp – and a shortage of appealing events in August since Cowes Week stopped offering a double handed IRC class start.

But we were back in action for the annual September trip to Poole with JOG. The start was a challenge, with the wind dying away almost completely and a downtide start on springs.  Despite due caution, approaching the start-line maybe fifteen seconds late, we had to switch on the engine for a few seconds in order to avoid the tide carrying Mostly Harmless onto Gurnard Buoy (the outer end of the line).  We duly declared this, anticipating a penalty, but were generously treated by the race committee (possibly because we gained no advantage other than avoid potential damage, and were out of the chocolates at the finish and out of contention for a top place in the series overall).

At least we were able to continue with the race, and arrived at Bembridge Ledge Buoy in contact with the class leaders.  With a northerly breeze coming over the Island, the passage from Dunnose Point to St Catherine’s promised to be interesting.  We spotted evidence of a katabatic wind inshore and an absence of wind out to sea and felt very smug as we snuck up inside the rest of fleet who thought that they would do better away from shore and by St Cats were leading Class 2.  The wind then filled in properly from the west, putting a double handed J105 at a slight disadvantage against stiffer, fully crewed boats with better potential upwind speed.  We finally crossed the line close to Poole Bar in 6th, but less than 6 minutes on corrected time behind the winner.

We were very sorry for the Race Officer on Sunday morning, as we headed out to the start of the race back to Cowes in glassy conditions.  The wind was forecast to increase at some point during the morning but the fleet needed to reach the Hurst Narrows before the tide started to ebb out of the Solent.  The VHF traffic among the fleet suggested that everyone was happy when racing was abandonned, even if the promised wind arrived within minutes of the decision being taken.