How to win a yacht race

TheDailySail's Andy Nicholson recounts a good day in the Farr 40s at Key West

The mood on Bambakou perked up significantly today after a couple of good results taking us up into fifth overall and into the real hunt.

I do, however, have to explain in detail the first three minutes of the second race, which will go down in the annals of Farr 40 racing.

We have a new B and G RaceVision2 that has been developed by Diverse Yachts in the UK and it’s a powerful piece of kit. The main development over the previous product is that it is now wireless, using Bluetooth to communicate with the boat, this means that our pit man Justin can operate it in the middle of the boat and keep everyone informed.

During the pre starts we have been ‘pinging; all three boats on the start line (it has a mid line boat too), this then very accurately calculates our time on distance to the line. While cruising along on port from the pin end, Ian Walker, decided to make a bee line all the way to the committee boat end, which is an easier decision when the RaceVision concurs the time to the line.

We crossed behind the entire fleet and squeezed behind the last starboard tack boat to take the boat end at full speed on port. Added to this we were sailing on a nice 10 degree port tack lift, with all the other boats still bedding down on starboard.

It gets even better though. 200m into the race a 15 degree right hand shift comes in, we put a tack in. If yacht racing has a money shot this was it. Within two minutes of racing we had put a minute on the entire fleet and it prompted several boats to ask us back on the dock if we started on the same line as them.

Despite good attempts by Kokomo and Riot, we maintained this lead throughout the race to take the gun. It was shifty all day and Ian sailed a smart tactical race, avoiding looking behind too much and focusing on taking the shifts and covering the favoured side of the course.

The only thing about the first race of the day I can say is, check you kite is clipped on! We worked ourselves up into a solid ninth place and I spun the gear and 'clipped' it on the spinnaker for the next set. The chute went up and promptly came straight back down when it hit the top of the mast and the clip opened. A swift recovery, which involved just about everyone in the crew doing a task they are not normally accustomed to got us back up and running again. For some reason the crew now wander past me going “click!”

Pendragon continues her charge with a 2, 6 today, which moves her into second overall, not bad considering this is their first big Farr 40 event. The owner John MacLaurin is 71. Crocodile Rock, with Vince Brun on tactics, leads the field with all top ten finishes. There are three races to go, so all looks set for a tense day on the water tomorrow.

Results

Pos	Boat	Owner	R 1	R 2	R 3	R 4	R 5	R 6	Total
1	Crocodile Rock	A Geremia/S Harris	9	2	8	9	3	8	39
2	Pendragon V	John MacLaurin	6.8 avg1	22	1	3	2	6	40.8
3	Warpath	Steve & Fred Howe	10	6	7	1	1	19	44
4	Barking Mad	James Richardson	2	8	6	8	16	4	44
5	Bambakou	John Coumantaros	12	11	4	13	9	1	50
6	Riot	Marc Ewing	18	12	3	6	11	3	53
7	Mean Machine	Peter De Ridder	6	7	18	5	6	12	54
8	Sotto Voce	Arien van Vemde	5	14	9	7	8	13	56
9	Atalanti	George Andreadis	8	1	10	17	5	16	57
10	Samba Pa Ti	John Kilroy	3	13	11	4	15	11	57
11	Solution	John Thomson, Jr.	14	15	17	12	4	5	67
12	Twins 2	Erik Maris	15	18	2	10	13	10	68
13	Virago	Stuart Townsend	7	17	14	2	19	15	74
14	Joe Fly	Maspero Giovanni	10 p40	4	19	19	7	20	79
15	Breeze	Vincenzo Onorato	19	3	5	15	18	21	81
16	Sled	Takashi Okura	11	20	13	18	12	7	81
17	Dynamo	Eric Moog	20	5	22	16	14	9	86
18	Kokomo	Lang Walker	16	16	21	22	10	2	87
19	Nitemare	Tom Neill	4	21	16	14	20	17	92
20	Le Renard	Steve Phillips	22	19 p40	12	11	21	18	103
21	Flash Gordon 4	Helmut Jahn	21	9	20	20	23	14	107
22	Phish Food	Alexis Michas	23	23	15	21	17	22	121
23	Impetuous	Paul Zabetakis MD	17	19	23	23	22	23	127