Winning Co-Skipper Victoria Cox recalls Saturday's (May 20th) marathon race across the Irish Sea from Pwllheli to Dun Laoghaire, where she says perseverance and determination in light winds were just as important as sailing skills onboard the J109 Mojito
We had a great start, timing the Pwllheli tide beautifully and putting us in the lead early on, but fellow J109 Ruth’s superior handling in light airs soon saw the Shanahan family of Dun Laoghaire take the lead and put a mile between them and the rest of the fleet.
Peter Dunlop and Vicky Cox's performance in winning (the 1.2 weighted) May 6th Dun Laoghaire to Pwllheli race plus last weekend's return fixture on May 21 – and the IRC Welsh Championships in between – means they go top of the 28-boat Irish Sea offshore fleet and a favourite for June's Volvo Dun Laoghaire-Dingle Race Photo: Afloat
Then Bardsey Sound! We knew we’d struggle to get through due to our tardy arrival, but we actually seemed to be catching everyone. We thought we’d done it till trying to get out into the Irish Sea.
The tide ripping south off Braich y Pwll at the end of the peninsula spun the bow round with such force that I lost steering in the 2-3 knots breeze, and backwards we went. It looked like Ruth was having the same issue, being swept south towards the deadly rock ‘Maen Bugail’ at speed.
Peter [Dunlop, co-skipper] decided that we should spin around, retrace our steps and start again. We had three goes before we could finally get across the tide. We were so disappointed to see Ruth having to retire as we’d lost our rival - those guys really push us and keep us sharp.
The 24-hour length of the race was in Mojito's favour, having the lowest handicap of the competing ISORA fleet Photo: Afloat
As it was, the lack of any wind and strong tide off Bray Head reset the race once again, and as we anchored, Rockabill VI [Paul O'Higgins] floated back behind us.
A few zephyrs offshore in the early hours of the morning, with lessening tides, enabled us to make further progress, gaining ground on Checkmate all the way to Dalkey.
We were swept to the east of Dalkey Island, where we witnessed Rockabill being swept sideways through Muglins Sound, making amazing progress, so we duly tried to follow.
In the end, the length of the race was in our favour, having the lowest handicap of the fleet.
