Monthly Archive

We are 8nm from St Catherines point and have just spotted our first round Britain and Ireland competitor, one of the multi hulls drama queen. According to our ais they are making 5.8 knots over the ground on a course of 255

As I write this we are currently motoring towards Portland Bill making 7.8 knots over the the ground. Ninjod did pretty well in the Triangle and consequently we have a fair bit of glassware onboard. We managed to achieve:
Line honours into Kinsale for the Peter Byway trophy
3rd on corrected time for leg 1
3rd on corrected time for leg 3
..and my personal favourite..
1st on overall elapsed time meaning we managed to be the quickest boat in the fleet across all three legs.
We ended up with the same amount of points as Mary, Peter and Jaldi (the J105) however they had a much better leg 2 than us and consequently achieved 3rd overall.
Father and son team Neil and Sam Matson aboard Vela Fresca managed 2nd overall after a frustrating leg 3 for them.
Well done to Derek and Tim aboard Mintaka for their overall win of the 2010 edition of the Triangle Race.

Leg 3 of the Triangle was forecast to be a slow one with no wind predicted in the middle of the English channel. We had a reasonable start and unfurled our code zero. At some point between furling the code zero away and moving to our No. 3 we picked up something (weed we suspect) and we became the slowest boat in the fleet. It became so bad that at one point everyone else had passed us. We were understandably depressed and very frustrated.
We performed a number of tacks and ultimately broke free of whatever was constraining us however at that point we felt sure that we were going to be last. We worked hard through the night and unbeknown to us managed to work our way back up the fleet.
At around 20nm from Torbay we were approached by a border patrol vessel. They launched a rib full of chaps and sped towards us. I explained what we were doing and that they could not board as we were racing. Fortunately this was all accepted and they went on their way. It was all very exciting.

As we came into the bay the wind died and we sat for an hour drifting again. We were delighted to find that we were the 4th boat across the finish line just behind the higher rated Firefly.
We have no idea what the official final result is yet however at 1300 today we head off to the prize giving.

The welcome given to the fleet in Treguier can only be described as outstanding. A large number of people went out of their way to ensure everyone was looked after.
The walk led by Breton pipers to the cloisters for the formal reception was even better than I had remembered and the hog roast in the public park was great fun.

At the start there was little breeze and the asymmetric was used. With the rhumb line dead down wind we spent all night gybing across the Irish sea and we were the 2nd yacht to round bishops rock. We hardened up and peeled to the code zero and eventually caught the lead boat.
By the morning however the wind had switched off and the yachts who had taken the more southerly route along the French coast were catching us fast.
The finish was very tight with the first 5 boats finishing just minutes apart.
At 01:52 this morning we finished leg 2 of the Triangle race. On corrected time we were 8th (5th on the water) and overall we are currently 4th.
We have just eaten and had a few beers and will now chill out for a bit before pulling out all the stops to do well in the final leg.

All the crews are busy preparing their yachts for the start of leg 2 at 1200 today. The hospitality at Kinsale has been fantastic and last nights meal at Kinsale Yacht Club was very good indeed.

The forecast for leg 2 promises light winds from the north.

Leg 1 started at 11:00bst last sunday. Our start aboard Ninjod was pretty good and with a tank full of water ballast we were able to point high and hold our own against the bigger faster boats in the fleet.
By 2000 on Sunday evening we were putting our first reef in and by 0500 on Monday morning we were still hard on the breeze with 2 reefs and our number 4 headsail. The wind speed over the deck rarely dropped below 32 knots and we saw it peak at just over 40 knots. The sea state was rough, the waves were pretty big and there was an awful lot of slamming and crashing as we dropped off the steep walls of water.
By Monday evening (although unknown to us) we were in a battle for line honours with Anthony and James aboard Big Doris and the weather had improved. Our eta to the finish was 0100 on Tuesday morning and at this point Jan made a call to sail higher than Doris and then hopefully we would be able to set our code zero. It all went to plan and eventually we passed them.
Unfortunately the weather gods had wanted to set us one more challenge before we were done. With 5nm to go to the finish the wind died. We sat for over 2 hours teasing 1 knot of boat speed out of Ninjod.
At 0353 on Tuesday morning we finished leg 1. We knew we had done well but were not expecting line honours. On corrected time we were in 3rd place.
We are now in the middle of recovery.

Location:Scilly Walk,Kinsale,Ireland

At 10:00 this morning a chap from RTYC came to take a look over Ninjod. Jan had spent the hour before the chap arrived tidying up.

While Jan spruced up the inside I made myself busy checking equipment. Here you can see me carefully checking the bean bag.

Our neighbour, a chap by the name of Chris who owns a rather lovely looking 38ft catamaran, dropped by to wish us the very best of luck for tomorrow. He gave Jan a rather yummy looking bar of hand made ginger dark chocolate.
My parents arrived this afternoon. The four of us had lunch then we used the car to get food and fuel.
In 30 minutes we head off for the race briefing.

Location:Torquay,United Kingdom

Jan and I signed on at the race office a little after 10:00 this morning. It looks like we will have a fleet of 13 yachts for the start of the race.
Some of the Triangle 2010 fleet began to arrive in Torquay today.

We are just back from the yacht club where we had a splendid evening meal with many of the other competitors.

Location:Torquay,United Kingdom