February's Fast Cruise to Gins Farm

Yet again the February's Fast Cruise provided plenty of interest and challenges for the participants finishing with International Rugby and a well attended dinner in the clubhouse. I was sailing on Juno, recently relaunched after the winter and raring to go although, as it turned out, a crew that hadn't benefited from a rest. Also, as practice for the up and coming offshore season we had seven crew on board a 34ft yacht!

The first incident happened several hours before the start when I received a text message from Julie Coleclough on Day of the Races. She informed me that our finish mark, Raymarine (March to October on the chart), was not in the water on 26 February. Plan B was immediately put into action and the finish line was moved to Lepe Spit buoy, about half a mile further from the entrance to Beaulieu.

The weather forecast for the day appeared to be varied, depending on the source. I saw some forecasting 5 knots, others forcasting 35 knots but most suggested a westerly veering to north west during the day. This meant that the wind, along with the flood tide during the whole of the cruise meant that it would be a challenge as the course went from NE & SE Ryde Middle in a generally westward direction to Lepe Spit by the mouth of the Beaulieu. Progress to the start, however, was quite leisurely for us as we had the tide and a westerly of 10 to 15 knots to help us. 

The first leg to Mother Bank was a beam reach and we decided that the wind was just free enough to fly our assymetric spinnaker. I was trimming the sheet and couldn't read what the sail was telling me. There was much rippling along the leach suggesting that it was oversheeted but at the same time the luff was folding in telling me to sheet in harder. It wasn't until we were talking in the bar at the end of the day that Barrie Martin noticed that we had the sail back to front, with the clew tacked to the bow and the sheet attached to the tack!! A new form of air brake.

Luckily this was a fairly short leg and we then turned across tide to Browndown followed by an up tide leg to East Bramble where one or two tactical errors were made aboard Juno. The course then took us south via the Ryde Middle buoys to Peel Bank where we had the spinnaker ready for hoisting but the wind angle proved to be too narrow.

From Peel Bank the course continued along the Island shore to Norris before going back to Lepe Spit on the north shore. Most boats went close into Osborne Bay to avoid the tide but the wind was fairly light and with the sunshine it had a spring-like feel. The leg from Norris to Lepe Spit was a beat and we elected to take port tack towards Bramble Bank. It was very close to low water. With someone watching the echo sounder we continued north as the depth went from 19m to 4m in about a minute. At this point we lost our nerve and tacked off but I later heard that Pagan continued until 2 metres. She is a smaller boat and our depth gauge is showing actual depth, not depth under the keel.

The course then went back to the Island shore on a fairly fine reach followed by a close reach from Gurnard Ledge to Salt Mead. Here we had about 16 to 17 knots and all the crew, except for the helmsman and the mainsheet trimmer, were sitting on the side deck to drive the boat hard. We were commenting to each other about the bank of black rain clouds in the distance over the New Forest when suddenly the wind began to increase, going from 17 knots to 32 knots in the space of about two minutes accompanied by a heavy hail shower. Two reefs were put into the main but we were still being overpowered and so the jib had to come down. (No roller furling on Juno). The annoying thing was that whilst we were trying to control our boat Shearwater, who was just behind us, seemed to be standing up to the squall much better and sailed past us effortlessly.

No sooner had the squall hit us than it had passed and we were sailing in bright sunshine in about 10 knots of wind, badly under-canvassed. So it was up with the jib, out with the reefs and then northwards to West Lepe on a close fetch. The final leg, back to Lepe Spit was free enough to fly the assymmetric spinnaker and this time it went up the right way round and behaved perfectly.

All boats arrived at Gins Farm in time for most of the crews to gather in the bar, in front of the TV, to watch England beat the French at Twickenham. This replaced the traditional end of Rally pontoon party and was followed by dinner for 60 Fast Cruise crew. During dinner Barrie Martin presented a prize of his special home-made marmalade to the first boat home, Shearwater owned by Andy and Avril Ormsby. Thanks must also go to Barrie Martin and Keith Irons for ferrying crew from boats that had to moor mid-river to the pontoon and back.

Remember, it is less than two weeks to the final Fast Cruise to Ocean Village and I will need to know your food order by 4th March.