This weekend I hosted Volvo Cars UK and their guests the for the JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island. Volvo had chartered both the 52′ race yachts I work with - ‘John Merricks II’ and ‘Chernikeeff 2′. On board ‘John Merricks II’ we had double Olympic silver medallist Nick Rogers, his Dutch wife Fanny (who had give birth to their first child only weeks before), a number of the Keelboat Programme sailors and 10 guests - mainly motoring journalists - only two of whom had ever been on a sailing boat before! ‘Chernikeeff 2′ had a similar crew, led by Nick’s 470 Joe Glanfield and 2.4m sailor Helena Lucas.
Things were pretty busy on board, but once we got into our stride we worked out how to sail the boat effectively and, by later in the race, had several of the guests involved with sailing the boat including helming. A bold tactical decision on the south side of the island saw us heading close inshore, attempting to stay in the north westerly gradient breeze, while the majority of the fleet headed offshore to try to pick up a developing sea breeze. This paid dividends, however, as we ended up some half a mile ahead of ‘Leopard 3′ at Bembridge Ledge turning mark, artistically photographed here by Scott Millar (who also did this website!):
The guests all seemed to have a great day and were all keen to return for more next year.
Last night, I presented a race debrief session on the recent Myth of Malham race at RORC in London. This was attended by around 30 enthusiastic sailors from a range of classes, all of whom were keen to share their experiences and learn as much they could with a view to improving performance in future races.
The evening was based around a presentation I gave about the overall weather and tide and consequent race strategy we employed on ‘John Merricks II’. The evening was very open, and other people were welcome to add their comments throughout, which certainly added to the evening.
Although this was the first event of this type that has been hosted by RORC, participants seem to find it very useful, as John Dickens commented afterwards: “The debrief was really good, presented very well in a comfortable informal manner by Luke, yet full of useful and interesting facts.” More specifically, Nigel Symington outlines the ways in which the evening is going to help him going forward: “I am navigator on our boat and it was really valuable to hear what sources of information Luke had used, how he had interpreted them and what course he had sailed as a result. It all helps to build a tactical plan for a race - and to give me more confidence if I have a different take on the data from my skipper!”
The next debrief will focus on the St Malo race, and will be held on 14th July at RORC. To book a place, please contact Siobhan Geraghty at RORC: sg@rorc.org.uk.
