From the helm

Ian Walker brings us up to date with progress on Eamon Conneely's new TP52

The Irish TP52 Patches has returned to the Solent for Cowes Week and the Fastnet. Our month in Ireland has been very productive as we have managed to do two big IRC regattas and the 280 mile Dublin to Dingle offshore. We are very pleased with how the boat has been performing under IRC which is in no small part down to some excellent crew work. We have a healthy mixture of amateurs and professionals on board and this has ensured that everybody has been learning fast. You can have the best boat in the world but without good starts, good boat handling and going the right way you won’t win. The boat is quite twitchy and therefore demanding to keep going fast all the time.

Racing in Ireland is always great fun. The IRC racing is very active and the personal handicapping system ‘Echo’ seems popular too. I guess the lack of any large one design keelboat fleets means that the handicap racing is taken fairly seriously - as witnessed by the dominance of the Irish boats at the UK IRC Nationals. It seems a lot of older race boats head to Ireland not so much ‘to die’ but ‘to enjoy their last lease of life’. Stir Fry (Simon Fry) has been able to demonstrate not only his age but also his encyclopaedic knowledge of all things that float!

Kinsale is a superb place to sail and we enjoyed a good battle for corrected time wins against a very well sailed Flying Glove at the Sovereign regatta. Had there been any wind I am sure the new Dun Laoghaire regatta would have been close fought as well. In the end I was glad to escape with two Class wins and very pleased to see the new regatta in Dublin make such an impact in its first year. I would recommend the regatta to any English boats in two years time. At 52ft Patches was clearly the biggest boat and certainly turned a few heads. It was great to see how much local interest there was in the boat and our program.

If anybody is thinking of cruising in SW Ireland I can thoroughly recommend that too. I sailed round more lighthouses in 30 hours in the Dublin to Dingle race than I have been round in my life and the scenery was stunning. I only hope the Fastnet Rock is as calm and welcoming when we return in two weeks time as it was in June. Despite the calm weather Patches smashed the race record, spurred on by the thought of Irish stew and as much Guinness as we could drink in the picturesque town of Dingle.

In the absence of the Admiral's Cup the Fastnet has provided our focus for this part of the season. The Channel Race was a good training race for us and a good leg out of the Solent to the east saw us lead the 100ft Maximus on the water for nearly seven hours - not bad for a 52 footter! We also sneaked around St Catherine’s before the worst of the tide and extended to a victory in Class Super Zero by nearly three hours on corrected time over the Farr 52 Bear of Britain.

The boat has seen several modifications and a couple of new sails as we learn more about her. New boats always take a bit of working up and we have put a lot of thought into the internal layout of the boat, food, sleep, navigation and sail combinations to give us the best chance of victory in this year’s Rolex Fastnet Race. As with all offshore races all we need now is to sail well and a little bit of luck with the weather. Of course as Skipper I will be remembering the old adage that ‘to finish first you first have to finish’. I have a horrible feeling that the weather has been too kind to us this year and that we might be in for a blow.

Before the Rolex Fastnet Race there is the small matter of Skandia Cowes Week. For a change we will not be the fastest boat in class and we will have to deal with Skandia Life, Enigma, Aera and Oystercatcher among others. Some of our crew also sail regularly on Enigma so I’m sure there will be a bit of friendly rivalry there.

Looking ahead the real highlight of the year will be racing the other TP52s in Sardinia in September. I was thrilled to see our Reichel Pugh sistership Lexus win the last regatta in Palma and I’m hoping that we too will be able to battle it out with the leaders.

Good Luck to everybody in Cowes. If you see us coming downwind becareful as not only will we be coming fast but we can’t see a thing to leeward of our spinnaker!

Ian Walker, Skipper.