Pelican Racing Blog

 Round the Island Race 

Location – Isle of Wight

Date – 28^th June

Crew –Ian Gilmour

Ash Holmes

            Simon Davies

Result – 2^nd

Entries – 17

Website - www.roundtheisland.org.uk

Report

The day started at 4am, with a start at 0650. The wind was westerly force 4-5 increasing to force 6.

We had an average start beating towards the Needles, with over 1800 boats in the race, it was very difficult to spot the other SB3’s. At the Needles, we were still unsure of our position but we had past a couple of boats on the way. Once around, we hoisted the spinnaker and started flying! As we got nearer to St Catherine’s the wind increased as did our boat speed. We were now right on the edge, surfing at speeds of 15-20 knots in a 6-8 feet swell.

After 2 and half hours, we had covered 30 miles and were approaching Bembridge. On the way, we past 5-6 boats and had our sights on the leader.

Around Ryde sands, we found ourselves in 3^rd place and catching the 2^nd boat. By Osbourne Bay, we had climbed to 2^nd for the drag race to the finish.

By the time we got into the marina, we had all agreed, it was the toughest race of the year!

 Cork Week 

Location – Crosshaven, Ireland

Date – 12^th July to 18^th July

Crew – Ian Gilmour

            Ash Holmes

            Phil Deveaux

Result – 19^th

Entries – 42

Website - www.accbankcorkweek.ie

Report

The week started quite windy with westerlies force 4-5 decreasing during the week with clear skies.

The week started with 3 races a day starting at 1000 and continuing until 4pm. The races were very different to what we were used to and we soon found out, the starts were everything! If you were last off the start line, you were lucky to get a better result than mid fleet.

It was also the first time we had all raced together and with so many boats around, we had to be quite conservative.

The first race went very well, with a 18^th place, our hopes were very high which by the second race were shot down! From there the rest of the week went from bad to worst with our worst result of last place!!

That night, we cleared our heads and evaluated where we were going wrong. On the second to last day, we had a lot to make up. The first race we achieved 16^th place, then a 10^th, followed by a 5^th and 6^th!

Unfortunately, it was too late to make a real difference, but we achieve our goal, our final result was in the top half of the fleet!

 Cowes week 

Date – 2^nd to 9^th Aug

Location – Isle of Wight

Crew – Ian Gilmour

            Ash Holmes

            Simon Davies

Result – 16^th

Entries – 83

Website - www.cowesweek.co.uk

Report

August saw a full mix of wind from very light wind to gale force 8 on the last day! Again, Cowes week is a very different type of racing compared to Cork Week. The starts were very busy with 83 boats on a start line that is only 100 meters long and with one race a day, the courses were very long!

The tides and local knowledge played a big part in this type of racing so we had a few tricks up our sleeves.

The first day went very well with a 7^th place, which put us on a high, again! We then followed it up with all top 30 results which left us in 16^th place overall.

The last Saturday of the event saw very high winds, and because the race didn’t count towards the overall stands, there were only 20 boats on the start line.

On the start, we were first off the start line and second around the windward mark. From there, the fun began, we were the first ones to hoist the spinnaker and we were back in first. As the visibility decreased, we found it harder and hard to spot the marks so we stayed in the top 3. By the 3^rd mark, everyone had retired apart from 3 boats due to the wind.

We managed to hold our first place all day until the last leg to the finish when we were done by the 3^rd boat because we were covering the 2^nd boat! Lesson learnt!

We finally came in 2^nd.

     World Championships 

Date – 20^th to 26^th Sep

Location – Dun Laoghaire, Ireland

Crew – Ian Gilmour

            Ash Holmes

            Simon Davies

Result – 35^th (Silver Fleet)

Entries – 150

Website - www.sb3worlds2008.com

Report

The wind for the week was light to moderate and sunny. This is the 1^st SB3 Worlds and there was a big entry with some big names from the world of sailing.

The week started with a practice race on the Sunday, again the week started good with an overall result of 37^th.

Once again, the racing was very different compared to Cowes Week. It was all on the starts again. If you had a bad start, you would have a bad race. Around the marks, we saw 20+ boats and a lot of crashes.

We decided to play it safe and get round in one piece. Our goal was to get into the gold fleet and get into the top half of the fleet. During the qualifiers, we got average points but with a couple of bad results we found ourselves in the top half of the silver fleet.

When the finals came round, we had a few bad starts which gave us bad points, so we had to step it up on the last day.

It was back on the starts, you were either front row on the start line or Blacked Flagged, which meant disqualification from the race. The first race went Ok with a 35^th, then the second race went very bad with a black flag!

We then realized, we had no chance of a result, so we called it a day and packed up the boat.

Today we had a southwesterly wind force 7-8 with squally showers.

As the overall results were already decided from the previous 7 days (we got 16th overall), day 8 was a stand alone race. Which meant everyone including us, had another chance for a podium result. On the start, we saw about 15 boats with the rest going home.

At the start, we were in a perfect position, with good speed and good timing. We were first off the line and heading for the first mark. At the top mark we saw ourselves in second, with the lead just in front. Once we popped the spinnaker, we went back into first and sceaming at 17 knots towards our downwind marker.

From there, we stayed in the top 3 positions for the rest of the race. At the finish, we were beaten by 50 seconds and came in 2nd. A good finish to a good week.

Since the blog went down, we have had some great racing, with good wind and sunshine.

Wednesday - 18th

Thursday - 18th

Today, we had nothing to lose and the game plan was to go big or go home. But once again, we missed a good start and were shadowed by the sailors further towards the wind. With left us at the back of the fleet with a lot to gain.

The game plan suddenly changed to ‘lets see how many boats we can overtake!’ From there, the Pelican racing team stepped up once again to 5th gear, and played every wind shift and squeezed out every knot from the boat. By the finish line, we had over taken the proven faster boats and made over 30 positions to come in 39th.

Once again, we had proved to ourselves that we have the boat speed, tactics and handling skills to do well. Tomorrow is a stand alone race which will not count to the overall results but with trophies up for grabs, the Pelican Team are going all out for a podium position!

Phil Bishop and I had dreaded gremlins with the technology which proves the old adage if its aint broke, don’t fix it.Needless to say we wasted huge amounts of time on chasing our tails and have decided to stop tinkering and run with the set-up that was so successful earlier in the week.Its a shame because the footage from today would have been awesome as beat up the Green from the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes, so tons of action, bright sunny day and a 5 hour sail. Ash will no doubt be filling in the technical write up here are some pictures from three days ago with pelican on an Eastern start heading out into the Solent     

Today we had Southerly force 4 winds with lots of rain.

After our usual start, the pelican team were not 100% due to the SB3 class cocktail party the previous night. On the start, we were going east again but not a spinnaker run. We got off to an OK start and got to the first mark within the top 20. From there, we were flying and had good boat speed all the way to the 3rd mark.

On the second downwind leg we saw an opportinity to go a different direction to take advantage of the tide and increasing wind. But when we got down there, the wind was a little stronger, but not strong enough to make a difference.

After the 4th mark, we stay in the same place and found it very differcult to overtake other boats. At the finish, we found ourselves in 25th, not a great result but still in the top half of the fleet and in 12th overall so far! Roll on day 5!

It was an eventful day for the Pelican Racing team - Ash did a super write up yesterday. As usual the technology performed brilliantly and here are the You Tube highlights

Also, I was alongside Cowes when the upside down JP Morgan Extreme 40 came along towed by a Rib. A lot of SB3 sailors where alongside me taking pictures - the Germans have a word for it “schadenfreude”

Today we had westerly force 5-6 backing southwest, with sunshine!

We had our usual 8am meeting at the boat, tightened the rig, checked the tides and attached the web cam to the mast. We then sailed out to the Solent to check the boat and the spinnaker.

15 minutes before the start, they text us the course and we were heading east again, which meant another spinnaker. This time we were ready, the spinnaker was setup on the right side and we had a good position for speed and clean air.

On the downwind leg to Hill Head, we kept clean air and stayed out of trouble, but we seemed to lack speed?? At the 1st mark we were about mid fleet, and in the thick of it! We rounded with about 20 other boats all trying to tack off and use the tide up to the next mark. As soon as we had a spot, we tacked, our boat speed was ok and we had starboard tackers coming right for us. Then, as we were about to pass them, we hit a wave virtually stopping the boat and so we had to tack off to avoid the other boats, but it was too late. We were in the wrong and had to do a 720 degree penalty turn which put us at the back of the fleet. We now had our work cut out for us (again). Up the first beat we tried going a different direction to overtake more boats, but with no luck.

On the second downwind leg, the wind had increased and was now time to enjoy the fast sailing and surfing which put us all on a high. Boats were losing control everywhere, but we managed to weave ourselves through the fleet to gain a good 10 places. At the leeward mark, we completed out last gybe, but managed to twist the spinnaker and put a whole in the jib which cost us places. On the last leg home, it was all over, until we realised the fleet had sailed up the wrong side of the beat going against the tide. We quickly tacked over to the Island side of the course and headed for the finish line.

From the top 50’s, we managed to crawl back to 20th! Which again, was a big acheavment for the Pelican Racing  team!

Thanks to Phil, we are now starting to embed You Tube videos into this blog, starting with Day Two of Cowes Week

Day 2 had the continuing southwesterly winds, force 4-5 increasing 6 with rain!

We had our usual 0800 start at the UKSA, followed by a training session out in the Solent. At the start the wind was very light on the inside, so we went for a mid line start heading towards the east. Which meant hoisting the spinnaker 20 seconds before the gun and increasing your speed to 15 knots to go over the line at full speed. All good, until the spinnaker decides to go inside the rig on the hoist! Not good, we were now at the back of the fleet with 5 knots of speed watching the other boats disappear over the horizon. By the time we were sorted, we were in the top 70’s….!

Our luck had gone from bad to worst, so we headed in a different direction to the fleet as we had nothing to lose. Our tactics and boat handling suddenly took over and by the 1st mark, we were back in the top 30! But we still had a lot to gain. By this time the wind had increased to force 6, and we were on a high.

The second downwind leg was set to be a tight one, around the windward mark we manage to overtake 3 boat with a good hoist and set. The fleet was on the edge, with boat speed between 15-18 knots. Boats were broaching everywhere, so picking of the gusts and surfing waves was the order of the day! On that one leg, we managed to overtake 6 boats with good spinnaker trimming and team work.

After that, it was a drag race to the finish. Our final position was 18th. Not a great result, by we managed to overtake over 60 boats in one race which was a big achievement for the Pelican racing team.

Check out our Live web cam and GPS tracker on YouTube, thanks to Phil Bishop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK6TOvzet2M

The first day saw light southerly winds veering southwesterly increasing force 3-4. We started at 0800, at the UK Sailing academy where the boat was moored. Checked the tides and weather conditions for one final time before setting out into the Solent for some training. Our start was at 1005, with a 10 min warning at 0955.

At 1000, we were fully prepped with the web cam on and a game plan ready to go. At the start, we had clean air, good boat speed and in good position for the first mark. Then the worst happened, all the boats started going off in a different direction, we had an out of date race chart where the buoys where labelled differently! So, from the top 10 off the line, we were now in the thirties around the first mark with alot to gain.

As we tracked down the first downwind leg, we started overtaking more and more boats with our combined local knowledge of the tides around the solent. By the 2nd upwind leg, we crawed back to the top 20’s. Then with our combined tactics, we decided to go up the starboard side of the course to make use of the increasing westerly wind and made it upto the top 15. After that, we just kept climbing places and catching on the leaders ending with a very respectable 7th position out of 84!