A Maverick Fastnet - Part Three

1 september 2015 - The Road Less Travelled In the hours after turning northwest toward Ireland we pulled ahead of our neighbors, though Jolly Jellyfish, a fully crewed J-122 (a more modern and typically faster replacement model for the J-120), shadowed us a mile behind. With only a few boats on the northern route we had little idea

The Road Less Travelled
In the hours after turning northwest toward Ireland we pulled ahead of our neighbors, though Jolly Jellyfish, a fully crewed J-122 (a more modern and typically faster replacement model for the J-120), shadowed us a mile behind. With only a few boats on the northern route we had little idea how we were faring against the rest of the fleet, but having a well-matched boat at our heels helped keep us focused on trim and boatspeed. Through the afternoon and night we sailed steadily on toward Fastnet Rock, and as day broke we could make out sails far to the south converging with us.

The first Fastnet race was held 70 years ago, with 7 yachts participating. Fastnet Rock, a small rocky crag rising 100 feet above the sea and topped with a tall lighthouse, made for a prominent rounding mark in the era of limited navigation aids. It has since become the most iconic and revered symbol of offshore sail racing. For many sailors rounding Fastnet Rock represents the fufuillment of a dream, a big check off the bucket list, even a cathartic and emotional experience.

During the 2011 Fastnet I was preoccupied with helming and trying to get the youthful crew to stop making Fastnert Rock selfies and pay attention to sailing, and missed the opportunity to take in and appreciate the Rock. In 2013, doublehanded with Christian Jeffery on So What, we approached in the mist and rounded at a cautious distance; alas the Rock and lighthouse were but an amorphous blob.

The wind and seas built steadily as we approached Fastnet, and we were joined by boats from the more southerly route and tacked together toward the Rock. It was momentarily deflating to see that many of the boats were from the class behind, but at least the ones near us represented the best in that class. Mist shrouded the green hills on the Irish shore, and we lined up for the last tack to round the Rock I confided in Ken that I’d missed it before and really wanted to see it closer this time.

 It was blowing over 20 kts and we tacked early, along with the well known and successful French boat ‘Foggy Dew’, and side-by-side we drove through the seas toward Fastnet. We passed close enough to hear the surf pounding the rocks, and to take in the cliff and lighthouse looming far above. It was close enough this time.

The Race Home

After rounding the Rock we eased the sheets and pulled swiftly away from Foggy Dew. Rounding Fastnet is the climax, while the last third of the race is a near straight-line to Plymouth and seems to pass quickly. There is only one headland and none of the complex tactical dilemmas as on the outbound route and it is primarily a downwind drag race to the finish. We soon passed another exclusion zone and hoisted the Code 0, and a few hours later switched to our heavy reaching spinnaker. We eventually found ourselves among group of boats with similar speeds and ratings, mainly form our class, and though the night and next morning we took it as a challenge to try to trim and keep up with our crewed competitors.

 Though certain of a lower half finish, we took comfort is close racing with First 40.7 Anticipation - -- the season leader in our IRC 2 class, and with nearly the same rating as Maverick. Past the Lizard Point we hoisted the bigger running spinnaker for the last 40 miles to the finish. We could not sail as deep as Anticipation or other boats with symmetrical spinnakers, and sailed side by side with the fully crewed sister J-120. With shifting and periodically gusting winds we treated the boats behind to a few noisy round-ups, but Mav recovered well and it was not costly.

Crossing the finish at Plymouth is always memorable, and to make it even more exciting we executed two late gybes to make the line. Our last gybe gave us a hot angle to the finish, and we crossed with an impressive head of steam close to our Dutch friends on the ever-quick BH36 Intention. Once over the line we enjoyed a smile and moment of private celebration, and then exchanged a few waves and thumbs up with the boats finishing just before or after.

 The Results

Throughout the race we were haunted by time lost the first evening in anchoring and then trying to get the damned thing back up, but a breakaway by the top boats was fortunately only a fantasy. On arriving shoreside we learned we had done much better than anticipated -- though not as well as we would have liked. A slow early race helped push lower rated boats to the top places, but we improved considerably in the class and overall standings after rounding Fastnet Rock; Maverick moved up from 27th at the Rock to 20th place at the finish out of 54 in the doublehanded class. We bested our sister J-120 Nunatek as well as the newer J-122s in the doublehanded class, and finished in the top third against the crewed boats overall as well as in the strong IRC 2 class (23rd/72).

The nine-strong Dutch doublehanded contingent had a solid performance overall, with 6 of 9 entries finishing in the top half. Xcentric Ripper impressively earned top honors for the group (7th doublehanded, 4th IRC 2, 1st IRC 2A), followed by Joost & Vrolijk (15th), Splendide (18th), Maverick (20th), Il Corvo (23rd) , Junique (25th), Arethusa (31st), Firestorm (34th) and Panther (38th).

Postscript

Fastnet competitors continued to cross the finish through the evening, and over the next two days. Sailors dockside clapped and took lines from the later finishers, competing crews met and shared stories and beer, and sailing friendships were forged or strengthened over the race. While it is an established contest with a range of impressive trophies and prizes, it is ultimately a sailor’s race, celebrated and savored over time. Just as the biggest and smallest boats share the same water at the start, there is a sense of common and communal accomplishment at the finish; the cheers and congratulations for the final finisher, an older 32 foot Dutch boat named Picolini, were no doubt as loud, genuine and heartfelt as they were for the overall winner.