Myth of Malham Debrief
The famous Myth of Malham Race run by the Royal Ocean Racing Club was shaping up to be a spicy one a few days prior to the start. The weather forecasts showing a strong south-westerly breeze meant reaching Eddystone lighthouse would be tricky for some. How would the newly refitted Jolt 6 (Carkeek 42) perform in these conditions was something we were questioning wether to find out..
I started my long journey to Cowes (UK) from Lorient (FR) on Thursday afternoon. The journey consisted of 3 buses, 2 trains and 2 ferries which was slightly difficult for me after having just recovered from a stomach bug ( Norovirus). However after sleeping well on the overnight ferry from Caen, I woke up in England ready to race and felt well prepared after the previous training block over easter weekend.
Arriving in Cowes by 09:00 and after a quick briefing with most of the team, we were straight into getting the boat prepared and ready for the afternoons shakedown sail. The boat had recently been fitted with a brand new Halls spars mast, so there was a few mandatory jobs to complete in order to have no doubts when we take the start of the race. This weekend we had two new and important members join the boat for the first time. Our skipper Pierre Casaraghi and Boris Herrmann, the two founders of Team Malizia that will bring a new dynamic to Jolt, with Boris bringing his ocean racing experience and Pierre his energy and hunger for victory.
Morning of race day Cowes was bustling with sailors dressed in their foulies and ready for a wild ride. The forecast had increased slightly from the previous days, now 22 knot westerly gusting 25 off the start line with an outgoing tide meant exiting the solent would be extremely tough on the sailors and the boats. From the start onwards the weather would only get more challenging as a cold front coming from the upper Atlantic would bring more wind and bigger waves. An upwind beat to Eddystone lighthouse 130 miles away became not just a hard task but a dangerous one, with the chances of breaking or damaging the boat in these conditions being incredibly high.
A decision was made by the navigator and leaders of Jolt sailing team that attempting to race the full length of the Myth of Malham would impose a big risk to the boat, hense we would take the start of the race and retire before arriving to the exit of the solent. Our main goal as a team is to win the Admirals Cup in July, so keeping our boat in one piece was imperative. Alternatively our idea was to use the weekend as an opportunity to train within the solent in strong winds and test some sailing configurations.
11:00 a cannon fired off the Royal Yacht Club and we were off, our (fake) Myth of Malham race had started. We tacked our way up the western solent, having some nice line up against other 40 footers that we will face in the Admirals Cup. Some good practice against competition in those conditions with great learnings taken away. We reached the furthest point we were willing to sail and happily withdrew from the race, rewarding ourselves with some lunch and snacks. After the short lunch break it was time for a downwind send..
A4 was the spinnaker of choice, as we hoisted it and took off downwind. The boat lit up, reaching speeds of 19knots and lots of water washing over the bow. An awesome opportunity to see what the boat can do in those conditions. We made a few gybes and had one wipeout, After 30 minutes of downwind with the spinnaker we changed the sails to a reaching configuration and sailed on for another hour of wet and wild sailing. Turning around after just exiting the eastern solent we set for home, reaching the dock with wet sails, a wet boat and wet sailors. The weekend concluded with a short sail on Sunday morning, a quick downwind blast before conditions quickly escalated to 27-30 knots of wind.
In final, all of the team were happy as we left Cowes with a pocket full of learnings and a boat in the same condition as we arrived. Performance is looking good as we fine tuned our crew work around the boat and had some fun while doing so. The next racing being the IRC national in mid June will be a different ball game, as we will be faced with most, if not all of our competition for the Admirals Cup. It will be a true test to how we stack up against other competition.
Lastly A big thank you to the shore crew and technical members at Jolt sailing team who put in a lot of work to get the boat ready for this race.