Bubb on the Course de Lions

Another epic episode on board Nick Bubb's Mini Northern Exposure

British Mini sailor Nick Bubb last week had another lively race aboard his 21 footer Northern Exposure in the Mini class' Course de Lyons, a 500 mile double hander starting and finishing in Port Camargue in the south of France and rounding marks off Cape d'Agde in Spain and St Raphael. Bubb on this occasion was sailing with sailmaker John Parker who will also be with him on the Mini Fastnet race in June.

Once again the boats received a beating as they crossed the notorious Golfe de Lyons.

"Off the start it was quite light upwind and within half an hour there was a group of six of us who had pulled miles ahead of everyone else," recounted Bubb. The front pack included Odyssey de Ulysses winner Sam Manuard and Loic le Bras on Tip Top Too, American Olympic 49er medallist Jonathan McKee and Brian Thompson on Team McLube, Armel Tripon and Erwan LeRoux on board Moulin Roty, Bubb's main rival from the Odyssey de Ulysses and Spaniards Angel Rojas and Alex Pella on Alevi (formerly Simon Curwen's QDS).

Their first drama came en route to Spain. "The breeze suddenly picked up and in a massive gust and header we found ourselves heading for the beach, 30m away. It was obviously in middle of night and the halyards were a bit knotted and we tried to drop the kite and the kite went in the water and we split the kite in half. Fortunately we ended up not needing any masthead kites it was so windy."

Rounding the mark off Cape d'Agde, the first six boats all went round within five minutes of each other. "Everyone was changing places the whole time," recalled Bubb. "All six boats were in the lead at some point."

Heading back eastwards on a fetch towards the Hyeres headland, the wind kept building and building. "We had 30 knots - but people were talking about a lot more than that," says Bubb. "There were really really big waves." The motion on the Minis was terrible. During this period one of the Spanish crew on Alevi was injured and they were forced to retire.

Tactically Bubb's break almost came as they passed the Iles d'Hyeres. "Basically we were fourth about five miles behind the front three who were still really really close," continued Bubb. "They all went inside the islands off Hyeres and we went outside."

The wind seemed to be funnelling through between the islands and the mainland and Bubb thought it would be easier offshore. "We were already under three reefs and reefed jib. It was looking really good for us, but there is a military zone outside the most westerly island. We’d been going upwind in force 7 for half an hour off the islands and then all of a sudden a massive police launch arrived and they told me I had to turn around. I carried on and then they came right up to windward of us and crashed off a wave and landed one metre next to me - we got absolutely soaked.

"So we got on the VHF and it turned out there was a submarine moving around down there, and we had to turn round and run back downwind and then go between two islands and go the way the others had gone which cost us about 10 miles."

True enough inshore of the islands Northern Exposure received a pummelling by the wind. "We were totally flatten, right on our side, the boat broached and wouldn’t come up again, so I was trying to pull the mainsail down and the whole of the leech of the sail pulled off."

Fortunately crewman John Parker had made the sails for the boat. En route to St Raphael the wind died to about 20 knots and to preserve the main they sailed the last 30 miles with 3 reefs. They passed the leaders heading in the opposite direction back towards the finish line at Port Camargue, 10 miles from the St Raphael turning mark - just 100m separating the top three.

Rounding the mark the wind built again to 30-35 knots and at this point Bubb says they tried to play it safe. "We decided that we had to finish that race to qualify, and it was stupid risking the boat and we didn’t think we could catch them downwind 20 miles behind with 120 miles to go. So in the end we took our main down. Again we went around the outside of Hyeres, because it was easier on the navigation at night. Even so we saw the hugest waves - bigger than I’ve ever seen. When I was asleep. John said we did 13 knots with just the jib up." Not bad for a 21 footer.

During this period there was more carnage Tip Top Too broke a rudder while the eventual winners on Moulin Roti had seen some fittings pull out of the deck. McKee and Thompson on Team McLube survived but had made the briefest of pitstops round the mark off Spain to tweak their spreaders.

Northern Exposure made it into Port Camargue in fourth place. Sébastien Roubinet and Michael Auger managed fifth despite breaking the boom on their Manuard design, Adrenaline.

In sixth place was Tanguy de LaMotte, who like Sam Manuard is another yacht designer who has created his own 'Proto' for the event. De LaMotte was part of Ellen MacArthur's Vendee shore team. He had had much pre-race trouble. "We did a solo delivery from Antibes to Port Camargue and Tanguy broke his keel axis and nearly lost the keel," said Bubb. "He managed to jury rig it and get towed in. Then when they were getting the boat out of the water in Hyeres to trail it here it fell off the crane and the keel head punched through the coachroof and then smashed up the bow on the ground. So Tanguy had to get a new keel axis." De LaMotte only managed to finish the repairs to his boat and launch it the morning of the start and missed the start gun because he was still rigging the boat.

The leaders were fortunate. Those further down the fleet had been faced with a 150 mile beat from Cape d'Agde to St Raphael across the notorious Golfe de Lyons. Unusually there were more retirements from the one design class than the 'protos'. "There were 33 entered. Only 25 started because so many people had stuff to fix from the Odyssey," said Bubb. "From those 25 only 18 finished. Loads of guys were coming ashore with stories about making 15 miles VMG to weather in 12 hours."

Nick Bubb has now qualified for September's Mini Transat, but he, like many others, still hasn't got a confirmed position. Bubb is currently fifth in line for a place. Other notables on the waiting list include Sam Manuard (second on the list) and Tanguy de LaMotte (sixth on the list).

The Course de Lions was the last race in the official Mini calendar in the Med. The next major race is the first big singlehander of the season - the Mini Pavois, from La Rochelle to Portsmouth to Douarnanez starting on 18 May.

Bubb will not be taking part in the Mini Pavois, as Northern Exposure is being trailed back to the UK to be worked on and will be on show during the Port of Felixstowe regatta from 24-26 May. His next race will the Mini Fastnet starting from Douarnanez on 14 June. More than 100 Minis are expected to be taking part in this event.