Get the Inside Tack on the Round the Island Race
After a nice safe start (at 05:30) with the medium heavy genoa (MH1) up, we made good progress with the tide down the western Solent. Using the areas of stronger tide, combined with good / lucky calls as to when to tack, we managed to overtake quite a few boats. Just before Yarmouth, with the breeze building, we peeled to the heavy weight genoa (No. 3) and using the stronger tide down the western side of the Needles channel, and getting clean air, meant we made further gains.
Deciding to avoid the melee near the Needles lighthouse, we went well clear of the wreck of the Varvasi, even though this cost us a few places. I haven’t heard of any yachts hitting the wreck this year, although someone usually do. This was the last time that we had favourable tide during the entire race. Having cleared the wreck, we hoisted the 0.75-ounce kite.
The strategy chosen by some of the competitors south of the island was particularly interesting this year. Some yachts chose to simply point the bow at St. Catherine’s Point, whilst others chose to go inshore for the slightly weaker adverse tide. A third group saw what they clearly thought was a wind line further offshore, and headed for that, however I’m sure that the stronger adverse tide would more than offset it. After the race I discovered that (as I had expected) the inshore yachts were involved in countless port and starboard incidents. I decided that while this was the optimum strategy, it was not for us and chose to “sail the angles” either side of the rhumb line to St. Cat’s, whilst trying to maintain clear air.
We got a slight benefit from tidal back eddies near to St. Cat’s, but not much. As usual trying to keep clear air was a priority. Approaching the Bembridge Ledge Buoy I saw what I thought was Shirley Robertson sailing a J 80. We were overtaking them, and had to decide whether to try to go upwind of them or not. I reasoned that trying to go upwind of an Olympic gold medal winner, with my inexperienced crew, was unlikely to go well so I opted to sail below them. It’s shocking how long it takes to get past a relatively small yacht that is stealing your wind.
The breeze quickly dropped to 6 knots and we peeled to the light medium 1 (LM1) as we were on our way towards No Man’s Land Fort. Those yachts that had gone for their MH1 made ground on us whilst we sorted the headsail change. The fort is no longer a mark on the course, so we went inside it to minimise the adverse tide. The area around the fort and Ryde is one in which one really has to be careful with the depths. Many yachts went aground there this year, costing them time and possibly some damage.
By Peter Randall, Professional Skipper sailing a Beneteau 40.7