Sigma Inshore

JOG Race Race 6  Yarmouth – Cowes

Sunday14th May 2006

By Eddie & Helen Smith – VELA GBR4568

| Cowes Yarmouth | Yarmouth Cowes |

After a fantastic evening in the Royal Solent Yacht Club, most competitors headed out to the start line with little hope of actually starting a race as the wind had died off completely over night leaving less than 5 knots of breeze outside of the harbour.

As with the previous day the race officers chose to run a RADIO course and gave everyone the shortest course they could – START west-east FINISH west-east.

The tide was flooding strongly so competitors not in the right position when engines went off would be swept over the line very quickly, and a number of boats including Elandra fell foul of this and were OCS.

Vela was the furthest from the start line at the gun as the nervous skipper didn’t want to be OCS at all cost, and being light (double handed) we thought we had a good chance. Once clear of the start and striving for clear air the fleet were washed towards the large anchored ship, which caused some interesting calls for starboard, which when most boats only just had steerage way caused some shuffling of the pack. The most inshore boats (Island Shore) were suffering as most of what little wind there was seemed to have deserted them.

At this stage a couple of brave boats including Shadowfax tacked offshore hoping to find more wind and some more tide in the deeper water, unfortunately for these boats there seemed to be little difference in the wind or the tide strength and the distance not on the making tack was immediately lost. In fact one of the 31.7s that tried the move even attempted hoisting a kite on a very shy reach. For the rest of the fleet clear air was the name of the game and some jockeying for position occurred as the boats arrived at Newtown Creek. The wind strength was fluctuating between 3-5 knots providing some very tricky conditions indeed. In a complete break from tradition for Vela she found her own personal wind band and began clawing back the distance lost at the start.

Before too long Vela was ghosting along making between 1.5-3 knots boat speed with the crew even whispering lest to upset the trim. After sailing through some 8 boats including 31.7’s and Sigmas we arrived at the back of the leading pack which included Heritage, Tai Pan and Alchemist however just as Vela was readying herself for the big push to the front, a massive wind shift signalled the arrival of new breeze which steadily rose to 16-17 Knots as the lead 5 boats all tacked and headed offshore to clear the headland. In the freshening breeze Vela began to lose out to the fully crewed boats as we struggled to get the boat de-powered. Once around the headland the leading pack tacked towards the beach but the wind was building and heading us so most required an additional tack to cross the finish line.

Line honours were taken by a 31.7 closely followed by Heritage the first Sigma 33, who had a very close finish with Blazer (Laser 28) on the line. Vela finished 6th over the line close behind Alchemist (Current Class 5 Champs).

A very happy but exhausted the crew of Vela headed home, happy for once to have beaten Shadowfax… long may it continue.

Much discussion was had on the way back to Hamble trying to workout what the other 5 people do on a sigma…think we might have to rewrite our crew positions doc.

Special note must be made of Elandra’s effort, who even after being OCS at the start valiantly made her way back to the start against the tide and under kite and kedge and then raced to the finish, something that is to be commended…

Congratulations also go out to Rapscallion of Suburbia for their participation this weekend (only their second JOG event) and for their perseverance to get through for a finish.