Nick Bubb and the fight with the lobster pot

The Whittlebury Hall skipper describes his plight on the first leg of the Mini Transat

After all the years of hard work it was great to finally leave La Rochelle bound for Brazil via Lanzarote. There was a carnival atmosphere and I only just kept myself together as I was introduced to the crowd and left the dock to the sound of Chemical Brothers 'Galvanise'.

Once at sea it was mayhem with 72 competitors, hundreds of support boats, officials, RIBS, naval vessels and even a few helicopters. I managed to focus on the job, found the start, checked out the breeze and got the boat sorted. We had a short windward leg to spread the fleet before heading down to fort Boyard and then off into the Bay of Biscay.

With the strong northeasterly breeze I elected to start at the pin end with one reef in the mainsail and managed to stay out of trouble as the count to the start down began. With great confidence I out manoeuvred the other boats and hit the pin on the gun ‘fully loaded’. It was awesome, at the first mark I led by around 20 boat lengths - a dream start. As we flew off down to Fort Boyard, Corentin on E.LeClerc went for a more powerful spinnaker and just slipped by after around seven miles but I held second as we headed of into the night and into Biscay.

For a few hours I rocketed along at around 15 knots with a masthead kite and full main, the forecast showed the breeze easing slightly down to around 16 knots before building up to 20 plus at midnight, so my plan as to hit it hard before changing down to the fractional smaller kite as the breeze built. Unfortunately the breeze hit a bit harder and earlier than we thought and I essentially became stuck at the back of the boat with no safe way of dropping the kite I just hung on - a wild but fast ride.

Things were looking great with the front five and no major issues that was until in the darkness I hit a lobster pot full on and it wrapped around the keel bringing me to a juddering halt, loading up all the sails we tripped over the bow with most of the boat under water we rounded up and the mast became pinned in the water.

The spinnaker filled with water and did its best to rip the rig from the boat. Quickly I cut the tack line free and tried to recover but to no avail as we were still motoring along with the mainsail, so this came down too and 45 minutes later I was back sailing but having lost probably about 50 places. Luckily there was no damage to the boat or sails and after venting some good abuse at French fishermen in general I felt a load better.

I settled in for a manic night with the fractional kite and a reef in the mainsail. It felt great to sail past so many boats but I knew they were not the top guys and gradually I stopped passing so many boats and settled in probably around 30th. The breeze had built again to 25 knots and it was a wild night but with a full moon making life a bit easier. As the night went on the emotion of the initial high and then the cruel luck hit me hard and I suddenly could not keep my eyes open, but in big seas the pilot was struggling a little and rather than risk anything so early on I opted to drop the kite for a few hours sleep - a safe decision but not the one I would have made if I had been running at the front no doubt. It was spurred on by the fact I had just heard that my great friend Cian McCarthy had just broken his mast and was out of the race already. This was a marathon not a sprint and I had to remember that!

As the position reports came in at 0800 on the VHF I realised how hard everyone was pushing and that my down time and cost me 30 odd miles. From this point on it was a balancing act between preserving boat, body and mind and keeping pace with the front guys.

The next few days went by so fast with speeds approaching 20 knots and the occasional huge wipe out, including one accidental gybe while working on the foredeck in the night……..not for the faint hearted and a surreal experience walking back along the boom to the cockpit with sails and water everywhere. I totally lost track of the days and struggled to keep my energy up as leaving the helm to cook was a near impossibility at this pace, so it was cereal bars and the occasional sleep next to helm ready to dump the sheets.

As the days went by I slowly moved up the fleet until at one point with only 300 miles to go I was only 3 miles behind Tanguy de Lamotte on Set Environment in 7th. There were five of us all with in a few miles after 1000 miles off racing - a great recovery by just pushing hard with big kites right on the limit.

Unfortunately on the penultimate night I fell off the tight rope I was walking in a big way and totally exploded my 96 sqm kite in a big gust and then stupidly managed to rip my fractional which I hoisted as soon as I had recovered the shredded big one. This was big deal and I had to spend the night with just a gennaker and fell back to 16th odd with my old rival and first lady Alexia on Roxy, who I had spent two days trying to get away from! As the sun came up I dried the small kite and effected a great repair which held to the finish. It was a good boost to pass Roxy with two miles to go and beat her by a hundred yards after 1300 miles to finish 15th.

I had taken just over seven days to complete the leg which last time took the front guys 10 days. We had had nearly perfect conditions with kites all the way and a strong breeze following us. Never before had I raced at such sustained intensity. The winner Corentin on E.LeClerc had beaten me by 14 hours which with 3,000 miles still to go is not a disaster and my goals are still as high as ever.

With a bit more luck and some hard work we are still capable of getting right up there. There are some great sailors after me and the ‘dock chat’ was of the 25 guys who could still win this - so 15th is perfectly respectable for now.



Fixing a kite in Lanzarote

In previous editions of this race there have certainly never been so many experienced guys with sorted fast boats, a testament to the fantastic growth of this truly international class. I must say a huge well done to my rival Phil Sharp on my old boat now renamed Le Gallais. He was there all the way with the front guys and pushed so hard his fourth place was a great reward for him. He is just under ten hours ahead and has it all to do again especially as he unfortunately had to cut a kite free from his keel after a typical ‘only on a Mini’ style wipe out and will be one down for the next leg as you can not replace them only repair. We are all agreed that sleeping at that speed was nearly impossible and it seems that nobody got much over ten hours sleep in seven days. What a great way to start this famously tough adventure.

We re-start on 8 October and I have plenty of time to repair my sails and check the boat and rig over. Everything is in hand and I feel very relaxed. The big test is still to come and I will be ready, I am planning that dream start once more and will give the fishermen and their nets a very wide berth!