Bubbs' Odyssey

British Mini sailor Nick Bubb recounts his epic first leg of the two handed race from Antibes to Tunisia and back

The first major event in the Mini calendar gets underway again tomorrow with leg two of the grandly entitled Odyssey of Ulysses two handed race from Hammamet in Tunisia back to Antibes.

From the half built marina in Hammamet British Mini sailor Nick Bubb recounted how their first leg had gone.

"We left last Sunday. It was about 10 knots - a really nice day. It was southeasterly, so then we could use the genniker all the way to the Bonifacio Straits." At this point the eventual winner, the high experienced sailor and designer Sam Manuard, had already pulled out a small lead aboard his Tip Top Too, a design of his own. Then all hell broke loose.

"There was a pack of about five of us just behind him and then during the night the wind went more southerly and got really really windy," continued Bubb. "I reckon we had about 30-35 knots, but apparently one of the chase boats recorded 50 knots. A lot of people had mast breaking and there were all these retirements. It was certainly pretty hectic."

All the crews were wearing survival suits as the waves battered their 21ft lightweight fliers right on the beam. "And during the night we were sailing with 2-3 reefs and no jib, just beam reaching with the waves coming from the side - so it was not very nice. You couldn’t see them at all. You were getting knocked down every now and then."

Crews reported that they were regularly being thrown across the boat as waves broke into the cockpit. Many retired to Ajaccio in north Corsica. It was during these conditions on the first night that Arnaud Bernier, on the Pogo Taquet Max fell overboard. While his fellow crew Remi Beauvois sailed the boat round he was unable to spot him but fortunately a coastguard helicopter was able to spot him in the water and fished him out after 40 minutes. He was saved because his survival suit was fitted with a strobe light. Remarkably after a brief visit to hospital Bernier rejoined his boat and Beauvois in Corsica and went on to finish the race in 18th place out of 23!

"It was southeasterly then the wind went more southerly and the big decision was how soon to tack," continued Bubb. "And we and Armel Tripon who came second, they tacked pretty early too. Sam [Manuard] took the knock a bit longer which took him more to the north and he ended up reaching down to the south west tip Corsica whereas by the time we got there we saw a bit more upwind - that gave him his lead basically. All boats sailed through the knock too far got 50 knot type winds."

As Bubb and his crew Ollie Ballam negotiated Northern Exposure through the Strait of Bonifacio between Corsica and Sardinia, they saw another complexion of the Med. "We literally had just got to southern tip of Corsica and the wind just died and started shifting all over the place and six of us just converged in together. Then suddenly it filled in from southwest so we had fractional kites up and for 20 minutes were blasting along at 14 knots. And then the wind totally died again and filled in at 35 knots knots on the nose again from the east. We were lucky because the first 10 boats got through the Bonifacio Straights, sailing upwind but mostly on port tack more southeasterly, whereas the later boats had it right on the nose from the east which split the fleet so much."

The second night saw the two match racing Armel Tripon and Erwan LeRoux's Finot design through the islands at the eastern end of the Strait. "We took a shortish route through the islands, fully overlapped, match racing, up this tiny channel with Armel, which was awesome sailing...totally black night.

"We got through there and were catching Sam, and going down the coast of Sardinia we knew the wind was going to veer round to the south, so some of the guys went off to the east sailing as high as they could but we popped the kite up and went blasting down the shore, because if the wind died, then we could still use the thermal breeze off Sardinia, or it veered all the way round hopefully we would only have an hour where we were a bit screwed, and the wind would fill in and we could reach back towards Tunisia. That sort of happened although we ended up sailing upwind a bit on starboard tack."

Disaster nearly struck on the final night at sea. "We had three reefs in the main. It was a really really dark night about 20 miles north of Tunisia. Suddenly there was a massive bang and the fitting at the bottom end of forestay exploded and then the jib halyard snapped, but luckily the babystay which is only 4mm Spectra held the rig up. Because we only have three reefs in, all the forces seemed to equal themselves out.

"So we got the fractional and masthead kite halyards and rigged it up to the jib tack position. And then pulled the bowsprit out and put masthead kite halyard on to that and sailed the last 80 miles with three reefs and a storm jib. Then the wind died so we saw boats sailing past us with full mains and kites and we were just pootling along with three reefs and a storm jib."

Sam Manuard finished after 3 days 15 hours at sea. Remarkably considering their predicament Bubbs and Ballam reach Hammamet 16 hours later to take sixth place.

After the first 15 boats had got in the wind died and no one finished for a day. "The last boats only got in yesterday," said Bubb.

The restart tomorrow looks set to give the boats another pasting. "The forecast is for 45 knots from the southeast. It is basically going to be like the first night of the last leg - three reefs and beam reaching."

Aside from this Bubb says he is really pleased with his new boat - a design by Mini guru and twice winner of the Mini Transat Seb Magnen. "The boat is so much more comfortable compared to my last boat. I’ve got overhang on the coachroof and basically everything works. So it is not a shitfight. Apart from the forestay we haven't broken anything. The boat is super super quick. In ideal conditons 10-15 knots we are faster than everyone else here."

Bubbs clearly thinks his result was not all it should have been on the first leg and will be out to better this on the return journey to Antibes.

Leg one results

Pos	Sail no	Type	Name	Arrival time		Elasped time
				Date	Time	D	H	M	S
1	431	Proto	Tip Top Too	10-Apr-03	02:08:48	3	15	3	46
2	151	Proto	Moulin Roty	10-Apr-03	09:33:50	3	22	28	50
3	316	Proto	Seafari	10-Apr-03	10:33:20	3	23	28	20
4	139	Proto	Reglisse	10-Apr-03	15:26:20	4	4	21	20
5	421	Proto	Gwalarn IV	10-Apr-03	18:02:00	4	6	57	0
6	419	Proto	Northern Exposure	10-Apr-03	20:08:20	4	9	3	20
7	429	Proto	Classic	10-Apr-03	22:18:50	4	11	13	50
8	371	Série	Spasmos	11-Apr-03	00:58:00	4	13	53	0
9	240	Proto	Aquatec	11-Apr-03	06:49:10	4	19	44	10
10	432	Proto	Oc	11-Apr-03	07:52:00	4	20	47	0
11	386	Proto	Ti Waï	11-Apr-03	10:35:00	4	23	30	0
12	424	Proto	Cheekyta	11-Apr-03	12:45:45	5	1	40	45
13	135	Proto	Goudurix 3	11-Apr-03	13:36:10	5	2	31	10
14	223	Proto	Berlingo	11-Apr-03	13:58:55	5	2	53	55
15	281	Série	Yamm	11-Apr-03	14:18:25	5	3	13	25
16	78	Proto	Smets	12-Apr-03	11:15:00	6	0	10	0
17	345	Série	Fifrelin	12-Apr-03	12:31:45	6	1	26	45
18	340	Série	Taquet Max	12-Apr-03	13:51:06	6	2	46	6
19	339	Proto	Vecteur Plus	12-Apr-03	14:15:04	6	3	10	4
20	328	Série	Mitsubishi	12-Apr-03	19:11:00	6	8	6	0
21	109	Proto	Bagdad Madness*	13-Apr-03	04:11:00	6	13	6	0
22	56	Proto	Atomic	13-Apr-03	10:26:00	6	23	21	0
23	320	Série	Mac Ben Music	13-Apr-03	11:20:20	7	0	15	20
DNF	406	Proto	Delilalos	DNF
DNF	392	Proto	Bip Bip	DNF
DNF	405	Proto	Okoumé	DNF
DNF	410	Proto	Swen	DNF
DNF	348	Proto	Net Carrier	DNF
DNF	433	Proto	Voiles et Voiliers	DNF
DNF	16	Série	Les Passagers du Vent	DNF
DNF	238	Proto	Gemini III	DNF
*Plus 4 hour for going to the assistance of Taquet Max