RORC Autumn Series Race 2 Report
Purple Mist
Skipper: Kate Cope
Sat 26 Sep 2020 20:11
RORC Autumn Series Race 2 report
Well there are some offshore races you do and frankly just finishing and not giving up is an achievement and yesterday was one of them . 128NM with a forecast of 25kts winds and + 30kts gusts and yet again up against the best of the best. The course took us all the way to Portland bill then a zigzag up and down the wind to add some variety and then round the back of the island to Outer Nab and home. Predicted finish 5:33 am worked out the old school way actual finish 5:35am !!! By 11am I was having wobbles about the forecast and was having to mentally break the race into chunks...thankfully my coskipper was supportive. 10pm the tables turned and it was me having to reassure a tired and seasick Matt not to pack in at the Needles. Best bit was post Brownie sailing down to St Cats where I was singled handed removing reefs from J3 and main ( we had trashed the A5 again on a broach in a big wave and probably +25kts!) . Wind picked up to 28kts and I’m surfing at 13.5kts thinking ohh shit I hope Matt feels better and wakes up before we need to put the reef back. Behind St Cats it all went calm . I stayed close in to cheat the tide and it was a mix of calm then super gusty. Not sure if it paid off but the rest was worth it. Worst section Outer Nab to the forts. Gusts now 32kts, bigger waves and although we had reefed the J3 on the downwind section I couldn’t work out how to safely put the second reef in the main. So we just clung in ...literally. Boat was laid flat about 10 times and I thought my arm was going to break clinging on...but slowly as we edged our way north to the forts the land gave us shelter and it calmed a bit. Final note North and NW breezes are flipping cold at this time of year . So that all explains why I’m actually pretty chuffed with 10th...others gave up and those ahead deserve all the credit. I should also add most of the boats ahead had those cheeky little Genoa staysails ...3 sails not 2 ....grrr the secret weapon.
