Sharp top Brit in Demi-Cle

Phil Sharp describes his race in the Mini class Demi-Cle

Chris Sayer and Pierre-Yves Moreau followed up their leg 1 victory in the Open Demi Cle by impressive wins in the second and third leg to claim overall victory. Light winds plagued the end of the last leg from Cardiff to Lorient as most of the fleet spent a whole night and day in under 4 knots of wind. Top British competitor Phil Sharp finished 4th, 6th and 8th in each of the three legs. He describes his race in the long third leg:

After the second leg from St Quay to Cardiff, Dave Parker and I were lying in 3rd place overall after claiming 4th in leg 1 and 6th in leg 2 in the 48 boat fleet which had by this stage diminished to around 40 after several dismasts. Similarly to the 1st leg, the fleet had had another exhilarating downwind finale in leg 2 in 20 knots plus of wind. We had been happy with our leg 2 result after experiencing several problems, namely fishing nets and lobster pots caught around the keel on two different occasions! I had also had the very strange experience of a fish jumping out of the water and over the boat, and walloping me right in the eye, whilst planing downwind in the pitch black at 12 knots! It was one of those garfish with the swords on the front of its head, so I considered myself lucky not to get my eye stabbed out!

We were confident and in good shape for the final 500 mile leg from Cardiff to Lorient which was later shortened due to light winds in south Brittany. After a mediocre start in upwind conditions from outside the Cardiff lochs at 8pm, but managed to pull ourselves back up just behind sistership Karen Liquid and Chris Sayer on NZL403. Here the three of us were neck and neck right across the Bristol Channel until dusk, when Karen Liquid bore off for speed while us and Chris stayed high. Throughout the night the fleet separated, tacking up with the tide until we raced right inshore as the tide turned, to escape the 4 knot foul current. We had rejoined in about 6th place and from there it was a case of who had the most bottle to go closest to the rocks!

Frankly I knew in the back of my mind I had to finish this leg to qualify for the Transat, and so was being somewhat prudent, but we held position into the morning when we escaped the tide and headed on a fetch down along the north Cornish coast. Whereas on leg 2 we had a fishing net wrapped around the keel all night, we suddenly started pointing terribly and discovered a huge bin liner caught around the daggerboard. The only way to remove it was to stop the boat and sail backwards for a while, since the centreboard refused to lift up.

By the time we rounded Lands End we were in around 10th place and realised we had it all to do to catch up with the leaders. The next day the wind was southerly 15-25 knots and so we beat up the channel all day, getting quite wet and sleeping on the rail to sail the boat to the limit the whole day. Despite making reasonable progress we got caught in low winds North of Ushant later on, and so missed the tide gate around Ile de Sein. The wind kept dying and so we frustratingly couldn’t get around the point for good until early the next day, where we promptly hoisted the gennaker and made good speed towards Penmarch Point.

As the wind headed us near the point we sailed high under jib and were delighted to see around five boats ahead of us, tacking up the shore. We caught right up to the backs of them, and after tacking in and out of the rocks at Penmarch to stay out of yet another foul tide, we were soon overtaking. Next stop was the Jument buoy south of the Glenans, and with a dying wind we managed to find a good set up that took us passed three more boats until we could see Karen Liquid, who was lying in third, just ahead of us. By this stage the wind was only 4 knots, and we didn’t reach the Jument until dusk, which we rounded neck and neck with Karen Liquid. As we feared the wind dropped even further that night, until we found ourselves going round in circles with 1 knot of wind. By the morning we were crawling towards Ile de Groix at speeds between 0.0 and 0.5 knots, wondering if we would ever make it to a pizzeria that day - we had run out of food the day before and couldn’t think of much else.

The situation didn’t improve when the wind vanished completely just north of Ile de Groix. After sitting there a good few hours going nowhere, the seabreeze started close to the shore and all we could do was helplessly watch boats overtake us inshore. Eventually the breeze reached us and we managed to finish what had been a very painful leg in 8th place. It was made slightly more painful by the fact that Karen Liquid had finished 3rd, and that we had also been given a 2% time penalty for all three legs for apparently not radioing our position frequently enough! This dropped us to 8th overall for the three legs, but we were satisfied by the fact that we had shown consistently better performance than this deserved, through all three legs. I had also completed my qualification for the 2005 Mini Transat, and so had ever reason to celebrate heavily that night. The Demi Cle put on an awesome party and Chris Sayer got his head shaved for doing far too well...

Results

Pos	Boat/crew	Pro/Ser	Tot time	Club /Nat
1	NZL 403 (SAYER CHRIS, MOREAU PIERRE YVES)	Pro	6d.11:22:23	RNZYS
2	KAREN LIQUID (HARDY ADRIEN, LEBOUCHER PIERRE)	Pro	6d.20:06:04	A P C C NANTES
3	PARIDIS (DOUGUET CORENTIN, HENSEVAL ERIC)	Pro	6d.20:22:06	WINCHES CLUB
4	LOIRE ATLANTIQUE (BUNOUST NICOLAS, LUCAS FRANCOIS)	Pro	6d.22:02:02	A P C C NANTES
5	BIRVIDIK (GLADU SEBASTIEN, COLIN HERVE)	Pro	6d.22:32:43	C N DE PORNIC
6	WELDOM (AMIOT STEPHANE, LEYS MATTHIEU)	Pro	6d.22:45:45	A P STE ANNE DU PORTZIG
7	INKZONE (MARQUES DE ALMEIDA JOSE, BERTRAND ETIENNE)	Pro	6d.23:10:50	CENTRE NAUTIQUE RANCE FREMUR
8	LEGALLAIS.CO.UK (SHARP Phil, PARKER David)	Pro	6d.23:54:10	C V DIEPPE
9	CAP MONDE (AVRAM OLIVIER, AVRAM NICOLAS)	Ser	7d.01:52:52	CENTRE NAUTIQUE DE LORIENT
10	TOBEDOO - STAR VOILES (MASLARD STANISLAS, MERMOD LAURENT)	Pro	7d.02:31:24	SOCIETE DES REGATES DU HAVRE
11	SPORT VOILE (GINDRE PIERRE, HAMLYN ALEXANDRE)	Pro	7d.04:02:23	STE DES REGATES ROCHELAISES
12	MAN OF ALL SEASONS (FENWICK MIKE, YOUNG ANDY)	Pro	7d.04:30:44	WINCHES CLUB
13	MICROMEGAS (GEDOUIN PIERRE, GUILLEMOT BERTRAND)	Pro	7d.04:34:42	S N BAIE DE ST MALO
14	JULES (SORIN FABRICE, LEROUX ALEXIS)	Ser	7d.05:45:09	S N TRINITE S/MER
15	GWALARN IV (MIRABEL MICHEL, MIRABEL DAVID)	Ser	7d.05:57:18	C N DE ROSNY
16	BILLIT 2 (LEGRAND JEAN PHILIPPE, LEMONNIER OLIVIER)	Ser	7d.06:13:27	STE DES REGATES ROCHELAISES
17	CULTISOL MARINS SANS FRONTIERES (MESURE SEBASTIEN, CHAUVIN NATHANAEL)	Ser	7d.06:35:18	ECOLE DE VOILE ROCHELAISE
18	LENDUR (TAMME Jaanus, QUELEN JEAN-FRANCOIS)	Ser	7d.07:01:56	SMS ESTONIA
19	TECHNIQUE CHAUFFAGE-LE TRIMARAN BREST (HAIZE XAVIER, FLOCH REGIS)	Ser	7d.07:57:12	S R DE BREST
20	WAKE UP (LE DOYEN LOIC, COLOMA TRISTAN)	Ser	7d.07:59:46	SPORT NAUTIQUE DE SAINT QUAY PORTRIEUX
21	POP UP (MORISSEAU LAURENT, SALABERT FRANCOIS)	Pro	7d.08:10:25	SPORT NAUTIQUE DE SAINT QUAY PORTRIEUX
22	DCF (CHOMBART DE LAWE MARINE, CHOMBART DE LAUWE PASCAL)	Ser	7d.08:21:43	ECOLE DE VOILE ROCHELAISE
23	NEW DREAM (BEAUDART DAVY, BERGMANN Hanns)	Ser	7d.08:36:33	CENTRE NAUTIQUE DE LORIENT
24	GWENN HA DU (SUDRIE ERWANN, LE CORGUILLE PHILIPPE)	Pro	7d.09:09:02	C N DE BINIC
25	MARIOLE (MONEGIER QUENTIN, DUC LOUIS)	Ser	7d.09:43:57	S N TRINITE S/MER
26	GARCIMORE (BORDIEC SEBASTIEN, CLERC THOMAS)	Pro	7d.09:44:39	A S P T T LA ROCHELLE
27	POSITIF (PONTU SYLVAIN, HENRY SYLVIE)	Ser	7d.10:32:47	WINCHES CLUB
28	ULMAN SAILS (BAUWENS ERIC, BAUWENS Sabine)	Ser	7d.12:53:30	WINCHES CLUB
29	BLANCHARD OXYCOUPAGE (DARAMY JEAN BAPTISTE, ITURALDE OROTZ)	Pro	7d.13:38:53	YACHT CLUB BASQUE
30	KOATI (LE BORGNE JEAN, RAUDE PIERRICK)	Ser	7d.18:10:25	SR CONCARNEAU
31	YELLOW SUBMARINE (DU CLEUZIOU GILDAS, COSTAGLIOLI BRUNO)	Ser	7d.19:07:16	YACHT CLUB CROUESTY ARZON
32	AFOU (ANGIBEAUD STEPHANE, NOIRBUSSON Matthieu)	Ser	7d.23:07:13	CENTRE MARITIME DE NANTES
33	BOIS CARRE (SEYRIG JACQUESARNAUD, DEHENEFFE Gaël)	Ser	8d.05:26:25	ASS. SPORTIVE ET NAUTIQUE DE QUIBERON
34	LA LIGUE CONTRE LE CANCER (CHARMET NICOLAS, JUILLOT FREDERIC)	Pro	8d.06:31:07	WINCHES CLUB
35	GILL MARINE (SIMPSON Stephen, CRICHTON ALAN)	Pro	8d.06:36:02	C V DIEPPE
36	HAIZEKO (ORTIZ DE URBINA INIGO, DURANA JON)	Pro	8d.11:29:44	CENTRE NAUTIQUE DE LORIENT
37	LAURENT (GRAULLE BENEDICTE, CUSIN OLIVIER)	Ser	8d.12:16:10	Y C DE GRANVILLE
38	DINGO-CHANTIER MAREE HAUTE (BOSSEY DAMIEN, LOXQ YVON)	Pro	13d.15:34:49	STE DES REGATES ROCHELAISES
39	HORNET (HOPE-LANG CHARLIE, LINDLEY STEPHEN)	Pro	16d.13:06:00	WINCHES CLUB
40	VECTEUR PLUS (LE CLAQUIN ALOYS, LE VOURCH DIDIER)	Pro	16d.15:25:06	ASS. SPORTIVE ST PHILIBERT
41	PAROLE (JOSCHKE ISABELLE, CURRIER ADAM)	Pro	16d.21:00:28	C V DIEPPE
42	FUJIFILM (BENETT Alexander, PEDLEY Ifor)	Pro	17d.02:14:10	ROYAL WESTERN YACHT CLUB
43	BREIZH MOSQUITO (PERRIN PHILIPPE, LEROUX AURELIEN)	Pro	19d.07:56:10	CENTRE NAUTIQUE RANCE FREMUR
43e	SRADA BIZKAIA (GARAI Jon, MATHEZ-MARIET CORINNE)	Pro	19d.07:56:10	CLUB MARITIME HENDAYE