A R T I C L E S

Winning the Petit Bateau Trophy
PASAB 2006 - Penzance, Around Scilly and Back
by Tristan Harwood

Leg 1 Penzance to St Mary’s

Having seen the PASAB in the petit bateau diary earlier in the year, my dad (Ted) and I decided it would be the height of our 2handed sailing calendar for 2006.

We took a leisurely 2-day sail from Plymouth via Falmouth in our Beneteau First 310. Most of the trip was spent motoring, due to lightish winds, the plague of our mid season racing. We arrived on the Thursday leaving ourselves all day Friday to prepare the boat. The race started at 8pm. We spent the morning monitoring the weather. The forecast said that the wind would be Nor Norwest force 5 becoming 6 later with 7 for a time. Sea state would be moderate becoming rough. This sounded rather daunting because neither my dad nor I had ever sailed to the Isles of Scilly, let alone sailed there in a near gale, at night, and attempt to enter St Mary’s.

We discussed the wind with a number of cruisers in Penzance harbour who all said, for them there was no decision - they wouldn’t go. One of them said, ‘it’s one thing being caught out in it and it’s another to leave and head out into it’. On the upside was that the boat has the same hull, keel and rudder as the Figaro 1, and loves reaching. On the down side was the perceived difficulty of navigating the St Mary’s sound at night in a swell. We had almost reached a decision not to go (we had decided that was the ‘seamanly’ decision). We then noticed that two GK24’s were readying to race, being 31ft this turned the tide and we then knew we were in for a very exciting race.(we felt like a real pair of chickens at that point).

Following the briefing, all the 20ish boats headed out for the 8pm start. The range of boats entered was fantastic, including a Limbo 21 two First Class8’s a number of Hunter deltas, two Kelt 9m’s a large Dehler38 a large Westerly and of course ‘Ramshacle’ an MGRS33 and Mercurial Spirit a Corby 30.

We started fairly well for a 2handed crew and were left chasing only three boats ‘4play’ (a First Class8) ‘Mercurial Spirit’ and ‘Ramshackle’. The race sent us on a beat and then a close reach in Mounts Bay. We had put our number 2 up because although we knew it would be a bit underpowered in the sheltered Mounts Bay, it may well pay off later in the wind.

By the second mark we were behind 4 Play and were rapidly overtaken by an F26 trimmaran. As we all began to close reach off for the Scillies, the light was fading and we began to catch 4play. It seemed we would imminently be overtaking them and they knew this. As we tried to sneak up so that we could overtake to windward they made a sharp manoeuvre to windward leaving us no real option but to pass to leeward, which we did. By this time it was dark and the sea getting lumpy.

In front, we could see the masthead lights of ‘Mercurial’, ‘Ramshackle’ and ‘The Tri’. Behind, aside from the hotly pursuing ‘4 Play’, a hole field of green lights flickered on and off behind the increasingly large sea. As the wind built, ‘4 Play’ took in a reef in their main, this was where the number 2 was beginning to pay off.

As the wind increased to a steady 6 with gusts, we increasingly twisted our main and Genoa to cope with both the wind and the increasing wave heights. Both my dad and I agreed that it was great to have some fast boats to chase and guide our way. The phosphorescence was tremendous with huge plumes shooting into the air each time the bow dipped, coating the deck with glitter. The boat was moving fast, as we knew she would, the conditions were ideal, but the quicker boats were getting away. By now the waves could be measured by the masthead lights being intermittently obscured from the leading boats.

The Traffic in the separation zone was light and we could clearly see the reassuring light of the Wolf rock well to south and leeward.

As we neared the islands (that we could not see) I went down to navigate, when I came back up it was clear that the wind had increased. My Dad was having difficulty keeping a steady helm in the waves due to the changing wind strength and angle in the troughs and on the crests of the waves. The masthead and lights in-front were disappearing. GPS is great!..

I was heading down below to navigate at increasing intervals, my dad chasing the three white lights as hard as he could. At about 6 miles out I came back up to find that he had lost the lights. I thought this was down to helming error, but as we were later to find out, the leading boats had turned their nav lights off to get a clearer view of the lights of the islands.

As we headed in for the light on Penninis Head a rain squall came in and the wind increased to gusts of 32 knots. We knew this was the start of the f7 and thought about the guys on the GK’s and the LIMBO21, knowing they would all still have some way to go.

Not knowing the entrance we ran the engine in neutral from 1nm out and readied the watch and pen for our finish. We crossed the finish, a very quick sail. Navigating between Penninis Head and Spanish Ledges buoy and up channel increased the adrenaline but we finally got in, picked up a mooring and had a beer. What a fantastic race, We loved it and everyone finished safely.

St Marys Harbour

Well earned snooze

Leg2: Around the islands.

After a day off to enjoy the Islands, (specifically for us the Mermaid Inn), the race began at 9am on the Sunday morning. The planned route was to leave St Mary’s sound, to windward to the Bishops Rock, around the islands and back to St Mary’s to a finish off the harbour wall.

We both had the feeling that, with our lack of local knowledge we might not do so well today. Perhaps not a great attitude but ‘Dogmatix’ is a bit 'tippy' going to windward, she carries 56sqm of sail with only a 25% ballast ratio. Again, we carried the number 2 Genoa. The wind was 18 to 22 knots, the sun was out, we were in for a good race, whatever the result. We had a dreadful start, thinking everyone was tuning up whilst, in fact, the race had started and they were sailing to windward on their first tack. We found out by shouting to another boat, who confirmed, yes the race had started (shit, better put the tea down then!).

It was a long choppy beat out to the Bishop in which we found ourselves getting a thrashing from all the other boats. The GK’s were doing fantastically well and even better the Limbo21 always seemed to be ahead on every tack. We knew though, that once around the Bishop we would have a short close reach around the remaining Western rocks, this, the boat would love, then we would get to the broad reach and run with the spinnaker, that the boat would love even more.

There was a decent sized swell leftover, not good up wind, but great down. There could be no spinnaker on the close reach, despite having an asymmetric(an ex-Melges 24 kite), because the apparent wind of 24-26knts would have rounded us up continually. We waited for the run. Once up the spinnaker made us fly (even if out to sea). We being 2handed were able to gybe the asymmetric with relative ease, we then put the pole on and squared it back. After a considerable number of round ups and still not managing to pass the large Westerly (despite trying), we managed to settle the boat and make her power away toward the faster boats.

Once going, we could look around, what a fantastic place to race, blue sea and sky with bright sun. Again, we were chasing ‘Mercurial’, ‘Ramshackle’ and ‘4 Play’ and also the Dehler although Mercurial was ripping away. We used the others’ local knowledge of how close you can (safely?) go to the rocks and chased hard. We passed so close to Men-a-Avur rocks and Round-Island you could have jumped ashore.

Passing Round Island, we couldn’t afford to gybe but instead used the surf to drive off and give us room, sailing by the lee in between. Needless to say; this was very adrenalin packed.

From there, a close reach and then a short beat. We had passed the Dehler, and were catching ‘4 Play’ and ‘Ramshackle’, ‘Mercurial’ nowhere to be seen. We saw the others inshore tacking, first we thought, ‘Ah good use of the tide, sneaky’, we carried on going off shore thinking ‘ooh this is a favourable tack, look we’re beating them,’ Then I went inside and put a plot on the chart. Yep, they were heading into St Mary’s Sound! We tacked and chased in with the Dehler, by now, hot on our heels.

We had a reach and then a brief run across the finish. A poor result but a brilliant race.

Ted Harwood helming with spinnaker

Men-a-vaur Rocks

Leg 3: St Mary’s to Penzance passing to the south of Wolf rock.

The Start was at 9am, the wind was South South Westerly, F6 and a following sea, fantastic! We got a better start, close reaching out of St Mary’s sound with bright sunshine we climbed up the fleet passing all but ‘4 Play’, ‘Ramshackle’ and ‘Mercurial’. As we headed toward the exit to St Mary’s sound, I readied the Spinnaker.

As we rounded Penninis Head ‘Ramshackle’, ‘Mercurial’ and ‘4Play’ had already raised their spinnakers and were moving away. We hoisted ours and rolled the Genoa, we were flying.

Within minutes it was clear to see that we were catching ‘4 Play’ and we thought Ramshackle too. We began to surf hard as we left the shelter of the islands. I pumped the spinnaker on each surf; we passed ‘4 Play’ and continued surfing in the growing sea.

The sea was truly spectacular with long rolling waves and by now 26-28 Knots of wind at 140 degrees apparent. The boat surfed and surfed, it was clear that if we could make the boat surf as many waves as possible we would catch ‘Ramshackle’. Speeds of 12 knots were becoming common with an average of 9 or 10. The boat is so stable at these speeds that I was able to snap a couple of shots of Ramshackle just before we passed her.

The wind was increasing a little and the surfing now almost continuous, we looked around for Mercurial who was now a speck on the horizon, we knew we would never catch her with her huge spinnaker and a full crew, besides being a truly ballistic boat. We also knew that if we kept up the speeds we would have a good chance at a win of this leg on handicap.

We noticed that we would have to head higher to get south of the Wolf, in this wind and sea this would not be easy without broaching. We decided to head up in the lulls and surf straight in the puffs, taking careful steps to windward. We rounded up hard at least 4 or 5 times on the way to the Wolf, but once round it the near would present a new problem.

As we headed for Penzance it was clear that we would have to sail very low, almost a dead run. To steady the boat we kept the wind a little higher, and surfed off low, this was quick. After continued runs of 12 knots we made 14.3! on one surf (through the water), we also noticed that we were catching ‘Mercurial’.

After two very close near windward broaches we continued surfing hard, hoping, at least to close ‘Murcurial’s’ lead. They seemed to be having problems with their spinnaker, this served to increase our gains. At one point we looked around to see that they had disappeared, they later reappeared well to sea ward, this was going to be a close finish. At Tatter Du light, we were able to gybe the spinnaker and begin to head toward the bay.

‘Mercurial’ was now behind and had their vast asymmetric up. ‘4 Play’ had been close behind the whole way and was a real threat, we sprinted across the bay at 12knots most of the way with strong puffs of wind keeping the boat virtually on the plane. ‘4 Play’ snuck inside of the rocks off Mousehole, cutting our lead a little. We flew across the bay sailing by the lee, passing a fishing trip boat at around 13 knots! and leading the race, they put their thumbs up; we knew we must be doing well!

The wind had freshened from the south and we screamed across the line in first place only 18mins behind the record!

After dropping the spinnaker the wind began to gust F7 and again we knew the others would be having it tough. Latter on we heard that there had been a dismasting and that the lifeboat had been called for a tow. The Casualty crewed by all women and in good spirits, was towed in. Another windy and unparalleled race.

We ended up 2nd in Class 1 overall, 1st on handicap for leg 3, winners of the Bevill's cup for fastest monohull from St Mary’s to Penzance and winners of the Petit Bateau 2handed trophy, not bad for a team with a combined age of 105, my dad having 75 of the years.

Chasing 'Ramshackle' with 'Mercurial to the left on the horizon

The Race

This is an excellent race, well organised and a serious amount of fun. We both agreed that the race is the perfect mix of offshore and inshore racing, a real challenge 2handed.This is a nice race for those wanting something offshore but not cross-channel offshore. We hope that more people will be enticed to join next year and that the petit bateau 2handed division grows and grows.

The Penzance Sailing Club were fantastic, we made a lot of friends and really enjoyed the company. The club run the race for everyone with the emphasis on enjoyment, both my dad and I would wholeheartedly recommend the experience to anyone. The race truly embodies the taking part attitude and we loved every minute. Thanks very much to the Penzance Club for organising it - we will definitely be back!

Full details at www.pzsc.org.uk/pasab.

View of the Bishop from St Marys

Tristan Harwood