McKee wins leg two

Olympic double medallist Jonathan McKee looks back at leg two of the Mini Pavois

In a spectacular display, considering it was his first ever singlehanded offshore race, Jonathan McKee finished in first place in both legs of the Mini Pavois singlehanded race. McKee's Team McLube crossed the finish line in the Breton port of Douarnanez early yesterday morning three hours ahead of the second placed boat ASNQ of Spanish competitor Pascal Doin.

"I was pretty agressive at the start," recounted McKee of how he got on in the race. The race got underway from a line off Portsmouth Sunday lunchtime. "I just wanted to get ahead. Sometimes in those races it just pays to get ahead. I worked hard around the back of the Isle of Wight. The wind came in pretty strong and I was just in the lead, with five boats close behind me."

The tide was against the 21ft Minis as they headed around the back of the island. McKee says he made headway against the competition at this point by going closer into the shore to get out of the worst of the current. By the time he rounded St Catherine's Point at the south side of the Isle of Wight he was a mile ahead.

From there down to the Eddystone light off Plymouth they were beating into headwinds of 6-15 knots. McKee rounded the light just before dark on Monday. "The whole time I could see two boats behind me. I knew they were pretty close. I was maybe just over an hour ahead of the Spanish guy going around the Eddystone."

Crossing the channel was difficult tactically for McKee. With the wind from the southwest, the forecast charts had shown that it might ultimately be beneficial to take the unfavourable port tack out to the west. However McKee opted against this in favour of getting across the Channel quickly. "At that point I was trying to get distance across the channel, so I stayed on starboard all night," he recalled.

Two thirds of the way across the Channel, around 30 miles north of Portsol, the southwesterlies died and McKee said he spent a tense three hours wondering if those astern were simply going to gobble up his lead. Thankfully a light northwesterly filled in and he was off again, the first to get the new building breeze.

"It was such a nice afternoon. It was just beautiful sailing, spinnaker up. Life was good at the point. It was hard to say how far ahead I was. It's weird not knowing where the other guys are."

The most nervewracking part of the race was negotiating the notorious Chenal du Fort, between Ushant and the northwestern France. Again McKee was able to play his hand well, making it through the Chenal du Fort with the tide - just. "I was also trying to get through in daylight as there were rocks all over the place."

After a beat once again down to the Douarnanez finish line, McKee crossed the line shortly after dawn yesterday.

Having come second with Brian Thompson, the previous owner of his boat in the Course de Lions and now decisively first to finish in the two legs of the singlehanded Mini Pavois, McKee must be one of the surefire favourites for the Mini Transat starting from La Rochelle in September. McKee believes his speed is pretty even with the top guys in the class and McKee says his secret in the Mini Pavois was to get ahead and in the words of Paul Cayard "to consolidate".

Again he feels that the most important lessons he has been learning from his time in the class have been how to manage his energy and his sleep. "You don't know when the important decision will be and if you are too tired you can easily make a mistake," he commented.

From here McKee is now en route back home to Seattle to consolidate with his family. He will not be taking part in the Mini Fastnet race but will be back in mid-July to compete in the Open Demi Cle from Locmiquélic to Port Bourgenay and in the final major event of the season prior to the transatlantic race, the Transgascoigne from Port Bourgenay to Gijon and back.

UPDATE: Jonathan McKee and four of the leaders from the first leg were penalised for missing a mark at the opening stage of the leg north from La Rochelle. "There was bad visibility. It wasn't a turning mark, it was more of a channel mark," commented McKee. While the race committee were threatening to throw out those who had missed in the mark, in the event McKee was given a time penalty of four hours - so he is still the winner of leg one of the Mini Pavois.

Pos	Sail no	Skipper	Boat	Time	Av speed
1	247	McKee Jonathan	Team McLube	2 d 17:35:00	4.2
2	312	Doin Pascal	ASNQ	+ 0 j 03:10:35	4
3	440	Raison David	Rayon Liquide	+ 0 j 05:08:54	3.9
4	426	Tymen Erwan	POGO 2	+ 0 j 05:08:54	3.9
5	227	Wright Donald	Russe Noire	+ 0 j 06:14:42	3.9
6	276	Huusela Ari	Eunet Finland	+ 0 j 06:23:04	3.9
7	100	Blin Raoul	Ozone	+ 0 j 06:43:08	3.8
8	385	Mumbru Jaume	Port de Barcelona	+ 0 j 06:50:55	3.8
9	421	Mirabel Michel	Gwalarn IV	+ 0 j 06:52:25	3.8
10	393	MacCarthy Cian	The Tom Crean	+ 0 j 06:58:40	3.8
11	93	Sudrie Erwann	Gwen Ha Du	+ 0 j 08:19:39	3.8
12	260	Mérigeaux Richard	Bon Pied bon œil	+ 0 j 03:10:35	3.7