Gruelling 50 hours

Clemency Williams reports on her win in the two handed division of the RORC Eddystone Race

Exhausted, I am back behind my desk reflecting on a wonderful weekends racing. Nick [Bubb] and I raced for 50 hours battling calms, wind shifts and spring tides to claim victory in the 2-handed class in the RORC Eddystone Race.

Nick took us across the start line in pole position just under the Royal Yacht Squadron and we led the fleet short tacking down the Island shore. It was hard work. I think we did nearly 30 tacks in all to get out of the Solent past the Needles and there was a moment when I wished we had a few more crew!

Often offshore races just turn into drag races but not this one. There were opportunities for gains and loses throughout the race which meant we were constantly making tactical decisions. We did not manage to get much sleep in, especially on the second night when we were trying catch every zephyr to prevent us going backwards on the adverse tide.

The most exciting element of the race was the battle with Voador. As we approached Brixham, after crossing Lyme Bay, we thought that we might be leading the 2-handed class but then through the dawn Simon Curwen and Paul Peggs appeared on the their J/105 Voador. As we cracked off around Start Point they gained on us, taking a short cut through the rocks, they overtook us. By the time we reached the Eddystone Rock they were 25 minutes ahead of us. Now we were on a mission to re-gain our lead.

We followed Voador pretty much all the way to Portland Bill, where we made the decision to keep further offshore in order to try and escape the worst of the tide; Voador went inshore. This was our winning decision. During the night the wind disappeared and at one point we were going backwards. When the wind picked at dawn we headed inshore towards Anvil Point and the finish. As the sun rose we kept looking for Voador through the binoculars hoping to have over taken them. And suddenly we spotted them, we were ahead!

The race was by no means over as once again the wind died and we had to wait until the sea breeze built to get us over the finishing line. Voador were slightly further offshore by this stage and we kept a constant eye on their boat speed. Although Voador did get the breeze before us the First 34.7 outpaced the J/105 and we crossed the line, exhausted and jubilant, 20 minutes ahead of Voador.

As we motored up the western Solent amidst the race boats and cruisers out enjoying the wind and sunshine, I could not have felt more content. We had sailed a race in which we felt we made good decisions throughout, we had put our all into it, and most importantly we had won the 2-handed class proving the First 34.7s great potential as a short-handed race boat.

Results (RORC Eddystone Race - two handed division)

Pos	Boat	Type of Boat	Owner	Elapsed	Handicap	Corrected	Points
1	Jos of Hamble	First 34.7	Clemency Williams	2 - 02:52:31	0.994	2 - 02:34:12	92
2	Voador	J/105	Simon Curwen	2 - 03:08:18	1.016	2 - 03:57:24	86
3	Jambalaya	J/105	Andrew Bird	2 - 04:30:25	1.018	2 - 05:27:07	82
4	Act of Defiance	Hustler SJ35	Paul Davies/William Collins	2 - 13:08:15	0.96	2 - 10:41:31	78
5	Diablo-J	J/105	Nick Martin	2 - 12:53:00	1.015	2 - 13:47:48	75
6	Mustigo II	Sigma 38	Stephen Scholefield	2 - 17:11:00	0.987	2 - 16:20:09	72
	Chichester Psalm	Sigma 33	James Porter		0.915	DNF-Did Not Finish	10
	Sonic Boom	First 31.7	Simon Brady		0.944	DNF-Did Not Finish	10
	Dasturi	J/109	Emma Wilton		1.033	DNF-Did Not Finish	10
	British Beagle	Sigma 36	Marco Nannini		0.922	DNF-Did Not Finish	10
	Outlandish	JOD 35	Graham Wilkinson		1.024	DNF-Did Not Finish	10
	Rainmaker	Lightwave 395	Julian Nichols		1.025	DNF-Did Not Finish	10