This weekend, I was sailing on the TP52 ‘John Merricks II’ for the RORC Myth of Malham trophy to Eddystone lighthouse and back. The Yacht Racing Academy sailors on board Chernikeeff 2 were also competing in class super zero.
The weather forecast was for generally light winds, which certainly proved to be the case, with a couple of parkups and a spot of anchoring waiting for the tide to turn! See pictures in the gallery. The young crew worked the boat very hard in changeable conditions, including 12 sail changes in the first 12 hours and around 20 in total, which was great practice for the Fastnet race in August!
We were second around Eddystone rock (we think - it was pitch black), with a very tight rounding just a few boatlengths from the rocks:
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We were eventually first across the finish line, after a nailbiting final duel with (ironically) Chernikeeff 2.
Chernikeeff 2 is the provisional overall winner of the Myth of Malham trophy and of class super zero, with John Merricks II second in class and third overall.
Today, for the in-port race of the Volvo Ocean Race in Boston, USA, two sailors who I have worked with over the past few years were sailing on board Green Dragon . Freddy Shanks was on the bow with Scott Millar on runners/traveller. Freddy has been on board for the whole race, while Scott has joined the boat for the Boston in-port race only.
Freddy participated in the very first Bear of Britain crew trials which I ran in 2002, and was one of the outstanding intake of that year. He sailed on board Bear of Britain for several seasons, including winning the Commodores Cup in 2006. He went to to sail on the TP52 Patches for several seasons, where he met Green Dragon skipper Ian Walker. Freddy was recently profiled for the Volvo Ocean Race website: http://www.volvooceanrace.org/news/article/2009/May/6-BOSTON-SHANKS/
Scott has been a member of the RYA Keelboat Programme for the past three years, including co-skippering the Farr 45 John Merrricks for the 2007 Fastnet campaign. He met Ian Walker at Cowes Week that year, and joined Green Dragon Team in 2008 in the leadup to the start.
Congratulations to both, and I hope that, in some small way, I have helped you get to where you are today!
The early May bank holiday weekend was the first offshore race of the season for the young crew on ‘John Merricks II’, which I was skippering. The sailors worked hard to get the boat ready during the few weeks before, including an offshore training session the previous weekend. Last Friday was an opportunity to get some final jobs done, offshore kit loaded and food prepared before an early start on Saturday morning - no one likes a 5am alarm, especially at a weekend!
The race started at 0830 with a light air beat out of the Solent to the west. We were jostling for position with the other TP52 ‘Cutting Edge’, the CM60 ‘Venomous’ and Farr 52 ‘Cherneeff 2′, and also weaving our way through the smaller boats who had started earlier. We reached the turning mark at Needles Fairway in second place close behind Venomous, who we overhauled quickly following a slick spinnaker hoist on our part. From then on, it was a drag race, tight-reaching with a spinnaker, straight towards Le Havre. Cutting Edge did overhaul us briefly, but we re-took the lead some 30 miles out from Le Havre, and managed to hold this in very light conditions into the finish to take line honours. After finishing shortly after dark, we headed straight for home, hoping to avoid the worst of the forecase northerly winds for the return trip, and arrived back in Hamble at lunchtime. After a full packup of the boat and a quick snooze to try to catch-up on lost sleep, it was out to celebrate our success!
Full race report on the RORC website: www.rorc.org
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