Update
More J Class ‘activity’ in the Solent. We’re not even going to get into the show you could put on with a bunch of new J Class yachts, the massive presence, the superb match racing in evenly matched boats sailing more slowly… that would take a bunch of owners who could afford these leviathans… Wait a minute. We get why it’ll never happen, you can’t turn back the clock. But it’s still a fun idea
NO DRIFTATHON POUR MOI – Terry Hutchinson
6am early flight to Santa Barbara for the Farr 40 North Americans, bit last minute this one as I was meant to be in the middle of the Irish Sea aboard Bella Mente… Hmm! The month started with the Bicentenary Regatta of the Royal Yacht Squadron. Classes ranged from the J Class down to J 70s and I must say that it was just spectacular. The venue is impressive and, having not raced in Cowes and the Solent since 2001, the feature I do remember best was that the racecourse is tricky. Local knowledge paramount and for Bella Mentethis came with Ian Moore and Adrian Stead.
Ado and I share the tactician/strategist role on both Quantum
Racing and Bella Mente and successfully evolving this onboard relationship is critical. Balancing onboard responsibilities with the right level of input when it comes from someone as qualified as Ado takes time and fortunately he is patient with me. Put both Ado and Ian in the Solent and, well, hard to not say that it is best just to let them do their thing and keep the boat pushing forward. Now the downside for an RYS rookie (aka me) is the occasional monumental mistake that comes with inner marks, outer marks, ranges for a startline and lots of traffic. In particular, we had one situation in which I coached Hap [Fauth] into a glamour start outside the starting pin… oops. If this was with DC’s Stars&Stripes programme I would be hands down for the bonehead award. The racing itself features lots of twists and turns. It is quite challenging and on a boat like Bella Menteit is a balance between the right sail call and the time it takes to execute that call. Several times you would hear the next run is 2 on port 1 on starboard, basi- cally enough time to get the jib down, plugged back in and re-hoisted. Needless to say, Doogie and Mickey on the bow get a workout. There were four races including the original America’s Cup course around the Isle of Wight. Within IRC 1 we had a range of boats:
10 SEAHORSE
the TP52 Gladiator, Rambler 88, Leopard 100and a Swan 90. Our focus for Bellaother than winning was the other Maxi 72 Jethou. This is the first time we had lined up against another 72 since Key West and we were all anxious to get a read of our performance. Pre-start bonehead mistakes and all, Bellawent reasonably well.
Jethouwon two of the four first crosses and yet Bella’s boathandling allowed us to slip through. It is pretty cool to see the high quality of racing in the 72s. The trick for Bella Mente was to try not to tangle too much as it is all loss of time to the other boats. The eventual winner was Tony Langley’s Gladiator. The final race saw the fleet finishing into a 4kt tide and, well, the wind gods did not play nice. Bella had a monumental lead and yet it took us 90 minutes to sail the last 5nm. The same leg took Gladiator40 minutes, as she was able to slip through in a building sea breeze. From Cowes it was off to Palma Mallorca for the Copa del Rey. I was back with Quantum Racing with the father/son helming duo of Doug and Dalton Devos. Having not been with the TP52 for much of 2015 it was nervous times, to say the least. We all want to win and yet with a helmsman swap midweek I kept telling myself to manage our expectations; the unique feature here is that it keeps everybody really focused on all the detailed items. Very quickly you lose your ideas of where and what the other competitors are doing as there is so much gain rate to come out of the helmsman- trimmer- tactician-strategist communication that we just focus on the process of racing well. Prevalent the entire week was the following: Copa del Rey – put it on the bucket list, an awesome event. But be ready to be hot and sweaty as Palma has that nailed. The racecourse – very subtle with a predominantly left-hand track because of a geographic shift. How you get to the left is key: leeward position, mid-line or windward end? Surviving until Saturday. That was our mantra all week: let’s just get to Saturday with a chance.
The first two days featured Dalton (23, and extremely accomplished in the Melges 32) on the stick. It is clear Dalton has had some great teachers in Jonathan McKee and Morgan Reeser.
INGRID ABERY
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