But finally we too were off. Into the
Irish Sea and out to find the conditions Paul and I had been looking forward to – power-reaching. Sure enough the foils were soon doing what they are there for and Initiatives Coeur took off. Now it was a case of hanging on and trying to maximise the highest average speed. We took it in turns ‘on watch’ – keeping
a sharp look out from inside the cockpit roof (that is no longer watertight from wave impacts at speeds above 20kt) and trim- ming main and jib to keep the right balance. The Madintec autopilot is absolutely
brilliant and drives better than us, so that aspect is simple at least. Much else becomes impossible – we were hitting speeds of up to 33kt and averaging high-20s when onboard it becomes pretty dangerous to move around. On hands and knees only, making sure you have good hand-holds at all times. No more heating water, cold snacks only. Off-watch was spent in charge of downloading position reports, weather files and running routeings. We tried to have some rest as we knew we had to hold out another 24 hours with plenty of very physical sail changes and manoeuvres in front of us… All the time praying not to hit any floating objects at these speeds. Once the front hit us, and after the sail
change, we got faster and faster. Then the alarm started going off. Water detected in the boat. Pants. Where is it (I have six dif- ferent zones each fitted with a detector)? I realised it was in a compartment for-
ward of the mast. Impossible to get there (through a tunnel above the foil case!) at 30kt boat speed without risking serious injury. We risked it to carry on as we knew the end of the front was not far off and after it passed we could check it out and bail. But more and more water was com- ing over the deck as we steadily became bow-down over the next 30 minutes… Through the front the wind shifted, we
slowed down, now upwind in a huge sea state. Maître CoQ and PRB had caught us up in the last few miles (surely because of our flooding). As soon as we’d re-trimmed the boat I left Paul on deck and rushed into the bow. Sure enough water up to my thighs. It was an indoor seawater swim- ming pool (with waves inside too!). Immediately I saw that one of the inspec-
tion hatches on the foil case had let go, so no reason to panic (not the first time this has happened to me – both in the Figaro 3 and also in Imoca previously). My boat was not damaged. However, I had to pump and do it quickly as there was about 2,000 litres there and my boat was two tonnes heavier than it should be. Luckily I am equipped with a great emergency pump that is very efficient; however, in the rough sea state it took a while to organise and a fair amount of energy (my physical energy and my boat’s batteries!). We lost a bit and PRB and Maître CoQgot past us. Upwind to the Rock we were in good
company with the top six boats all in a close match. Time to dry out and eat a hot
56 SEAHORSE
Crossing the finish at Plymouth breakwater 5th Imoca 60 and less than one hour behind winner Jérémie Beyou on Charal – the only current-generation design racing (the brand new Arkea Paprec did start the race but retired early on). All eyes were on the speed of Charal against the previous-generation boats but the Fastnet’s mixed conditions were not representative of power-reaching in the Southern Ocean when the latest foilers – with hulls created around their foils rather than the other way around – will really shine
meal in between tacks, shaking out reefs and changing back up to the J2. We went around at nightfall, no time to
appreciate the view as immediately we eased sheets and hung on tight as speed shot back up to the high 20s. This time it was dark too, again a sharp look-out for other vessels, maybe other competitors on their way out. And also for PRB who had an AIS issue as well as a tracker failure – we didn’t know where they were and we certainly didn’t want to run into them. After less than an hour I heard a strange
noise under the boat, the boat speed dropped – we’d caught something on the keel. We slowed down to check with the big torch under the transom but couldn’t see anything. Unsure if it had got stuck or slipped off, we tried to accelerate again but only made it to 20kt and no higher. Something was wrong and we still had
the unknown gremlin stuck on our keel. We had to do a back-down. It’s not easy double-handed, simply furling the J2 takes time and distance, then we have to stop the boat and back down without losing control as this could risk wrapping our gremlin around the keel which can be fatal (and require a swim to clear it.) Don’t forget it’s pitch-black middle of
the night. Not easy with the stack, a full ballast and the foil sticking out!! I man- aged, though, and even managed to get us going on the right tack afterwards… The whole manoeuvre took us 15 minutes to be going at top speed again – and when you are averaging 25kt that means we lost six miles, an expensive gremlin!!! As this was going on we had Arkea
calling us on the VHF to check we were OK as they’d seen us stopped right in their path… Safety at sea is always the priority and in our shorthanded fleet we look after each other with calls between competitors
not uncommon to check everyone is OK. Maybe it all fired us up a bit. After this
we were faster than ever and managed to reel back some miles on the fleet. It was fast and fun sailing. Probably my favourite part of the Fastnet Race. Always on the edge, keeping an eye on the loads in the rig and trying to avoid any alarms going off!!! The following morning we peeled to the
A3 as we were a bit high and sent it down to the Scillies. The last 90 miles along the south coast of England were downwind, the top seven Imocas all in sight of each other. Close racing and fun pushing our boats as hard as we could. Paul and I were on the edge of our
physical limits, after 48 hours of intense racing and very little sleep. We could feel the fatigue and took it in turns to each have a 30-minute nap, simultaneously try- ing also to stay on deck to get the maxi- mum out of the boat right to the finish… when we would both collapse! Unfortunately our choice of A3 was not
the right one so we lost a bit to those who used their spinnakers. Any sail change on an Imoca is costly, so you have to get the choice right first time and then stick with it. This was my eighth Fastnet and by far
the fastest… 2d 2h 11m 49s. We crossed the line in a respectable fifth place, on the edge of exhaustion as ever at the end of a Fastnet Race. We were wearing the same clothes as we left in. The boat was wet inside, we had given it 100 per cent. No regrets. Can’t wait for the next race. It was great to be met by our shore crew,
Anne-Claire and Eneore, who hopped onboard and let us go ashore in Plymouth for a beer and a burger before heading back to France in delivery mode. On the way back they sailed the boat and we slept in a deep coma for most of the way home!!! Sam Davies, Port la Forêt
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