Even in the inky darkness, there was no mistaking the exuberant mix of sheer joy, relief and final deliverance for Skipper MACIF duo Charlotte Yven and Lois Berrehar when they crossed the finish line off Gustavia, Saint Barths, in the small hours of this Friday morning to end a prolonged, intense three-cornered battle with victory in the Transat Paprec double handed race from Concarneau.

At the end of this 16th running of this renowned two-handed one-design race to the French West Indies, which was first contested in 1992, the pair triumphed by just 16 minutes after 18 days and 9 hours 1 minute of racing. This Transat Paprec is the first edition exclusively for 'mixed doubles' following an initiative to deliver a pathway for more female racers to build short-handed ocean racing experience.

The top three raced through the final days and nights of the course no more than 2.5 miles apart.

Provisional final standings before jury
1. Skipper MACIF (Lois Berrehar/Charlotte Yven) finish time 06:03:33hrs UTC, elapsed time 18 days 19hrs 01min 35secs
2. Region Bretagne-CMB Performance (Gaston Morvan/Anne-Claire Le Berre) 06:20:06hrs, 18d19h18m06s
3. Mutuelle Bleue ( Corentin Horeau/Pauline Courtois) 07:02:30hrs 18d20h00m30s
4. Region Normandie (Guillaume Pirouelle/Sophie Faguet) 09:24:10hrs 18d22h22m10s
5. Cap Ingelec (Camille Bertel/Pierre Leboucher) 10:08:45hrs 18d23h06m45s

A team of German scientists has suggested that offshore wind farms in the North Sea could significantly impact the ecosystem.

The scientists from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon Research Institute used numerical modelling to show how there could be physical disruptions to the marine environment, along with sedimentation and wind flow from turbines.

They forecast sedimentation could increase by as much as ten per cent as a result of transforming wind into electrical power.

Increased sedimentation could occur not only at the offshore wind farm clusters, but may also distribute over a wider region, the scientists say in a paper published in scientific journal, Communications Earth and Environment.

Their model also projects an increase in sediment carbon in deeper areas of the southern North Sea due to reduced current velocities, and decreased dissolved oxygen inside an area with already low oxygen concentration.

They say that their results “provide evidence that the ongoing offshore wind farm developments can have a substantial impact on the structuring of coastal marine ecosystems on basin scales”.

The paper explains that the North Sea is a shallow shelf sea system, in which “the interactions between bathymetry, tides and a strong freshwater supply at the continental coast foster a complex frontal system, which separates well-mixed coastal waters from seasonally stratified deeper areas”.

“The shallow coastal areas and sandbanks combined with stable wind resources make the North Sea an ideal area for renewable energy production and have made the North Sea a global hotspot for offshore wind energy production,” their paper states.

“ The recently negotiated European Green Deal to support the European target to phase out dependence on fossil fuels will further accelerate the development of offshore renewable energy, and a substantial increase of installed capacity (212 GW by 2050) is planned in the North Sea as a consequence to Europe´s strategy to be carbon neutral by 2050,” their paper points out.

They explain that underwater structures, such as foundations and piles, may cause turbulent current wakes, which impact circulation, stratification, mixing, and sediment resuspension

While increased sedimentation could see the North Sea adding more “blue carbon” to its seabed, and phytoplankton productivity may increase as a result of clearer waters in some areas, muddy grounds such as those inhabited by Nephrops or prawns would be negatively impacted.

The authors explain they cannot predict with accuracy which species will benefit and suffer as a result of wind farm developments offshore.

The full paper can be read here

Is most “ocean racing” today really oceanic? Does “offshore racing” really involve going truly offshore? Are boats touted as being “cruiser-racers” ever really used for genuine cruising? And are sailing enthusiasts who like to think of themselves as being devoted adherents of some - or indeed all - of the above, surely tending to over-egg the cake more than somewhat, in order to cut a bit of a dash and enhance a reputation for seagoing toughness when they get together to socialise with other sailing enthusiasts?

It’s an effect which is accentuated when such dedicated matelots are meeting within earshot of civilians at mid-week. And it’s much more prevalent in England or Scotland or France, where many sailors live at some considerable distance from their boats, whereas in Ireland, we’d tend to regard such a situation as plain silly.

Be that as it may, in the profoundly English rural depths of the Cotswolds, there are so many weekend sailors living in the area that they felt such a need for mid-week get-togethers that they formed the Chipping Norton Yacht Club. It would meet at least once a week (and may still do so) in some totally non-nautical pub (the Pug & Ferret perhaps) in order to talk boats, and the members tended to wear their sailing clothes – or outfits, or whatever you want to call our unmistakably salty gear – at these gatherings, and chat with increasing volume about the past weekend’s experiences, and the excitements to come.

Far from the sea in the Cotswolds, clear definitions of “offshore” and “ocean” come with added significance Photo: Saffron Blaze/Wikimedia

Thus any non-sailing country-living typically straw-chewing hedge fund manager or venture capitalist doing a spot of ear-wigging nearby would be increasingly impressed by the frequent use of the word “rawk”, particularly once he or she had cottoned on to the fact that it meant RORC. For its use implied that the weather–beaten speaker had just returned from a weekend’s rugged participation in some major event staged from the South Coast by the Royal Ocean Racing Club.

THE AURA OF GREAT OCEAN SAILING LEGENDS

Yes indeed, the use of “ocean” implies regularly taking on the risk-laden deep sea challenges faced by Slocum and O’Brien and Chichester and Knox-Johnston and Tabarly on a daily basis. Whereas the reality has been a cross-channel summertime sprint to northern France, and no greater risk than some allergic reaction to an over-indulgence in fruits de mer and calvados.

Don’t get me wrong. The Royal Ocean Racing Club does indeed stage some genuinely trans-oceanic events in its busy calendar. But the use of “Ocean” in the blanket title of a distinguished organisation which will begin celebrating its Centenary in just 26 months time tends to muddy the waters as to our meaning for various terms in defining non-inshore racing.

SIT-REPS FROM ISORA AND ICRA

Last weekend’s publication of what we might interpret as Situation Papers, from both the Irish Cruiser-Racer Association and the Irish Sea Offshore Racing Association, underlined the increasingly blurred borders, and the fact that the racing of boats with a lid – “truck racing” as dinghy sailors call it until they get involved – is going through one of its inevitable upheavals, as people’s changing commitments and societal and family expectations interact dynamically with a complex sport which is always quietly changing in itself.

Peter Ryan of Dun Laoghaire, Chairman of ISORA, at the helm on Mojito during the 2013 Fastnet Race

Thus names and categories which might have been completely appropriate fifty or even twenty years ago have become almost misleading in recreational sailing today, and inevitably produce an adverse reaction in those traditionalists who take the basis of their definitions from the great days of commercial sail, when “ocean-going” and “offshore” and “coasting” had clear legal meaning, and straightforward significance.

COMPLYING WITH THE DEFINITIONS OF THE DAYS OF SAIL

Consequently, when Dublin Bay’s Corinthian-emphasising Royal Alfred Yacht Club ran one of its regular races from Dun Laoghaire to Holyhead in the late 1800s, it would be described as a Cross-Channel Match. No casual use of “offshore” or “ocean” there. But that said, when the ultra-pioneering 1860 race from Dublin Bay to Cork Harbour was staged, it was promoted and reported as “The Ocean Race”, a name which has such a zing to it that years later, the annual Cork Harbour to Kinsale Race for cruisers and Cork Harbour One Designs on the August Bank Holiday Weekend became known as “The Ocean Race”.

The start of a Royal Alfred YC cross-channel “match race” from Dublin Bay to Holyhead in 1888

Cork Harbour ODs dominate the start of the “Ocean Race” from Cork to Kinsale in the 1940s – the two cruisers are Michael Sullivan’s Marchwood Maid (left) and possibly Denis Doyle’s ex-6 Metre Vaara. Photo: RCYC

So in the midst of these confusing angles and interpretations, let us grasp what is tangible. The ICRA report of its many prize-winners – topped by Mike & Richie Evans with their J/99 Snapshot – reveals that 109 boats were eligible for the title. And those of us who raced with ISORA in its first defining decade in the 1970s will recall that in its peak years its annual championship – based on a minimum of seven genuinely offshore races – was contested by 107 boats.

ISORA boats in Howth in 1978 at the end of the James C Eadie Cup Race from Abersoch were (left to right) a North Sea 31 designed by Holman & Pye, a Sadler 25, the J/24 Pathfinder (Philip Watson), the S&s 40 Dai Mouse III (David Hague, now Sunstone), the McGruer yawl Frenesi, and the High Tension 36 Force Tension, skippered by Johnny Morris and line honours winner of the first Round Ireland race in 1980. Photo: W M Nixon

Thus ICRA is now – and has been for several years – accommodating the sport of a fleet of boats comparable to ISORA at its height. Yet when ICRA was first mooted in 2002 by Fintan Cairns of Dun Laoghaire and the late Jim Donegan of Cork in a meeting at the notably ecumenical location of the Granville Hotel in Waterford, there were many – this writer included – who felt that an association of potentially offshore sailing boats based entirely around a land-mass would be unhelpful for the development of a sport in which the enthusiastic use of definably offshore waters was surely essential.

But the ICRA promoters made the point that inshore cruiser-racing - right up to regatta level - was the fastest-growing area of interest in Irish sailing. And its adherents – particularly those who had no wish to go far offshore and most particularly had no wish to spend nights racing at sea – were a very significant sector of the sport, a sector which urgently needed meaningful representation in a dedicated national Ireland-oriented organization, rather than solely by some sea area-based setup.

With ICRA, you certainly do get to race round the Fastnet, but it’s at Calves Week out of Schull. In winning form aboard 2022 ICRA Boat of the Year Snapshot, it’s Des Flood on the trim, Richie Evans on the tiller, and Mike Evans reading the runes. 

TWO CORRECT YET OPPOSING POINTS OF VIEW

Both points of view were right. ICRA has become such a central part of the Irish sailing scene that it is difficult to imagine the contemporary world afloat without it, with its enthusiastic committee playing a key role in giving day-racing cruiser-racer sailors - with their prestigious annual regatta-style National Championship and season-long series for the “Boat of the Year” - a major role in the bigger picture.

And the growth of ICRA in turn has accelerated the decline in numbers of those prepared to dedicate themselves to the traditional offshore pattern of an extended weekend – sometimes a very extended weekend - with its time-consuming deliveries and crew-location logistics challenges, and all in order to race just one classic offshore race.

But ISORA itself is continually mutating in order to accommodate new trends in its members’ enthusiasms. Last weekend’s convivial prize-giving and celebration in the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire of its Golden Jubilee may have saluted memories of great Irish Sea offshore races of times past, and the special flavour of competitive nights at sea. Yet a straw poll indicated a preference for more coastal races, with the double implication that no nights are going to be spent at sea, and the race will end comfortably back at the home port.

And though the deservedly-lauded overall champion, the J/109 Mojito (Vicky Cox & Peter Dunlop, Pwllheli SC) has achieved honours in serious offshore events as various as the Fastnet Race, the Round Ireland, and the Dun Laoghaire-Dingle, she is equally at home at the front of the fleet in a regatta in Tremadog Bay.

This blurring of roles is further emphasized – in what was a very good year for J Boats – by the J/99 Snapshot’s taking of the ICRA “Boat of the Year” title in the same year as she won the “Best Irish” with a very close second in her first major offshore event, the Round Ireland.

Snapshot gliding to a seemingly effortless overall class win in the Beshoff Motors Autumn League 2022 at Howth, one of the many successes which contributed to her becoming ICRA “Boat of the Year”.

Until then, Snapshot had seemed the regatta boat par excellence. And though Richie Evans had sailed a couple of Round Irelands, his co-owning brother Mike hadn’t done any. Their approach to the challenge of the big one seemed to be to regard the round Ireland as a string of full-on day races with some brief but intensive June night contests in between. It certainly worked. Their impressive closing in on the winner’s lead in the last dozen miles, leaving all other opposition in their wake, was sailed with the dedication and energy of a crew who might have stepped fresh on board only that morning.

YOUNG TURKS AND SENIOR SAILORS HAVE DIFFERENT PRIORITIES

With this blurring of distinctions between long-established categories, we find other divides emerging, and some seem to relate to age and professionalism. The more senior sailors enjoy a one-race-per-day event, with an attractive coastal element. They tend to think that the excitement of just one heart-rate-accelerating start sequence in each daily programme is quite enough to be going along with, and they reckon a coastal course, with its scenery and the chance of some cunning work with tides, is what cruiser-racing should be all about.

But the Young Turks and the Pros want longer races to be kept away from coastal influences, and they’d happily charge into at least two starts every day, and more if it can be arranged. As for the senior sailors’ lack of enthusiasm for one damned windward-leeward course after another, it’s something the Young Turks and the Pros don’t understand at all – they’re gladiators when all is said and done, they can’t get enough of confrontation and very direct competition.

Classic offshore racing – a cross channel ISORA race gets under way from Dublin Bay. Photo: Afloat.ie/David O’Brien

And then of course there are still those who think that the only authentic competitive use of a cruiser-racer is a straightforward passage race from one port to another, with your proper social duties fulfilled at start and finish. It may be more time-consuming in the long run, but it has an attractive simplicity in planning and purpose.

FACING UP TO 2023

In looking at the diversity of all this with its new interpretations, it’s fascinating to see how the different organisations are facing up to the season of 2023. ICRA will not hold its annual conference under Commodore Dave Cullen until the 4th March next year, but that’s perfectly reasonable as it has been known for a long time that the ICRA Nationals 2023 will be staged at Howth from 1st to 3rd September 2023, and other events contributing to the “Boat of the Year” award are date-dependent on the clubs and organisations running them.

But ISORA with its cross-channel membership faces a much greater diary challenge, and the preliminary draft of the 2023 programme was in circulation before the Golden Jubilee party. No matter how you look at it, it’s quite a complicated document, and it’s interesting to note that there’s the likelihood of a northern element being involved once more through the Royal Ulster Yacht Club. 

The ISORA Draft Programme for 2023 reflects the demands made on a cross-channel organisation

Back in the hugely ambitious first season of 1972, Chairman Dickie Richardson was heading an ISORA organisation whose events took in venues all the way from Scotland to Dunmore East, using both sides of the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George’s Channel in addition to the Isle of Man.

Despite the many events available, as the season drew to a close, northern skipper Dickie Brown with his own-built 35ft Ruffian may have been topping the Class 1 points table, but he was still one race short of the necessary seven with no more events scheduled for the North Channel. So he brought Ruffian to Holyhead to race the southern section’s final event, from Holyhead round Rockabill to Dun Laoghaire, and I was press-ganged to join in Holyhead to make up numbers in a motley crew for this final overnight dash.

Northern star – John Minnis’s A35 Final Call II (RUYC) racing to he class win in the Wave regatta at Howth at the beginning of June. Photo: Annraoi Blaney

The foredeck was being run by two legends of northern sailing, Victor Fusco and Colin Gleadhill – who were both well into their 50s, but well on top of the job nevertheless. This was just as well, as the first leg was a screaming spinnaker reach in a sou’wester, conditions in which Ruffian was unbeatable - if you could only hold onto her. But when you couldn’t as a long squall arrived, it was up to our seniors to snap the spinnaker in and then set it again as soon as possible, which they did very well, and so much better than most men half their age that when we arrived in Dun Laoghaire, the only boat ahead of us was Paddy Donegan’s lovely little 36ft Robb yawl Casquet from Skerries winning Class 3, but then her division had sailed direct, and didn’t have to make the long haul up to Rockabill and back.

Other Class I boats began to arrive in with the Class 2 winner, Bill Cuffe-Smith’s Mark 2 Arpege Leemara from Howth, successfully among them. But nobody challenged Ruffian’s lead and she took the race and the overall title, as did Leemara in Class 2 and Casquet in that race in Class 3, so we were quite the little Winner’s Enclosure that cold morning rafted against the East Pier in Dun Laoghaire.

Winners in Dun Laoghaire at the end of 1972’s first ISORA season were (left to right) Leemara (Bill Cuffe-Smith, Howth YC), Ruffian (Dick & Billy Brown, Royal Ulster YC), and Casquet (Paddy Donegan, Skerries SC). Photo: W M Nixon

Thus while ICRA and ISORA have to keep moving the goal posts in order to accommodate the changing patterns of “offshore” and “cruiser-racing”, it’s good to know that ISORA now also looks north again, where John Minnis’s A35 Final Call II is the Ruffian de nos jours. Offshore and cruiser racing formats may be changing, but the sport and the spirit and the camaraderie are as vibrant as ever.

A Plus (Archambault A 31) is a smaller version of the renowned A35 from the drawing board of Joubert & Nivelt.

Here is a thoroughbred racer for bay & coastal racing and well able for offshore racing & passage making. With a ballast ratio of c 40% and a TCC of 975 this is a yacht that will perform against the bigger 36-footers.

Boarding the open stern one could be on a larger 35+ yacht. A large open racing cockpit which will accommodate a crew of 6/7 in comfort. Carbon tiller with a handle extension. Aft of the helmsman is a large lazarette hatch which will store a liferaft, fenders, fuel cans and the like. The mainsheet trimmer has to hand a 9:1 main and 8:1 backstay. Outboard there is a removable swim/MOB recovery ladder.

All running rig lines are led back to the cockpit with a row of clutches above the companionway. Lewmar 46 two-speed winches for the 105% foresail and two Lewmar 40’s on the coachroof. Barber haulers and jib card lead to the cockpit.

Below there is c 6 foot head room and a practical and well laid out interior that has a standard of finish that exceeds that of many contemporary racing yachts. To starboard there is a navigation station with timber finish and grey work top. Here there is the newly installed B&G Zeus. To the port side a galley with timber surround and grey work top. Here there is a two burner cooker and a cool chest. The varnished timber sole and table contrast with the white internal moulding of the cabin top and sides. Grey settee berths to either side with Alacantra type fabric with the Archambault red sail logo in the centre of each. The coordination of colour in the fabrics and materials makes for a pleasing and comfortable interior that has been coordinated by a designer rather than a production manager, the interior has comfort and style. The forward cabin is accessed by a grey zip flap that can be left open to facilitate the storage of long furled sails. There are plenty of internal grab rails. Aft to starboard is the heads with holding tank. There the fuel tank is stowed and with its opaque PVC allows for easy check on fuel level. The easy unincumbered access to the engine, gearbox and sail drive is a mechanics dream. On the opposite port side a zip flap access to the aft double cabin. Six berths in all.

The Archambault A 31 is the ideal club & offshore racing yacht with fast passage ability. “A Plus” is very well maintained with many upgrades and renewals. Viewing by appointment with Ronan Beirne of Leinster Boats - Network Yacht Brokers Dublin.

Read the full advert on Afloat here

Wicklow-based designer Mark Mills has been working on a 60ft foiling ocean-going version of the current America's Cup AC75 boats, and the new machine has just had her first sail, full story and pics here

Saturday's ISORA race from Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire now has over 21 entries for the first cross-channel race since the COVID epidemic.

A buoyant fleet of eight Class Zeros, seven Class One and six Class Two yachts are now entered with one of the biggest and smallest boats being the latest entries into the 60-miler. 

The First 44.7 Black Magic (Barry O'Donovan) will add extra spice to special Class Zero that includes champion JPK10.80 Rockabill VI (Paul O'Higgins)

At the other end of the size scale, the First 310 More Mischief is joining Saturday's Class Two race. 

Saturday's ISORA race from Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire entry list

As Afloat reported earlier, the race counts towards points for the overall ISORA Wolf’s Head trophy, the race is significant because it marks a resumption of normal ISORA activities between Ireland and Wales in the association's golden jubilee year.

The race will start in North Wales for Class One and Two yachts at 09.15 and finish that evening in Dun Laoghaire Harbour. Class Zero starts at 10.00

The boats will race between the two ports leaving ISORA's Dublin Virtual Mark to starboard.

An Apres sail party and “Jack Ryan Whiskey” prizegiving in the National Yacht Club soon after the last boat finishes.

Having previously straddled Europe, visiting other major yachting hubs such as Cowes, Cork Harbour, Marseille and Sanremo, the seventh edition of the prestigious IRC European Championship this year will take place over 25-28 August in the Netherlands, alongside Damen Breskens Sailing Weekend.

This will be first time that the IRC European Championship has been held since 2019 after the pandemic forced the last two editions to be cancelled. In 2019 the championship for the simple, single number rule, operated internationally by the Royal Ocean Racing Club and the Union Nationale pour la Course au Large, was dominated by two Marseille-based boats: the winner Yves Ginoux's Farr 36 Absolutely II and Jean-Pierre Joly's GP42 Confluence Sopra DPMF, finishing ahead of the local boat Gianluigi Dubbini's Italia Yachts 9.98 Fuoriserie Sarchiapone.

Close to the Belgium border, on the south side of the River Scheldt leading to Antwerp, Breskens is well situated as a yacht racing centre, offering direct access to courses both in the estuary or in the North Sea.

Following a day of registration, equipment inspection and measurement on Wednesday, 24 August, racing will take place over the following four days. Nine races are scheduled, including one ‘long coastal’ of up to six hours duration (and carrying a 2x scoring co-efficient) and up to three shorter courses each day on either windward-leeward or coastal courses. One discard will be applied once five or more races have been sailed and two if the full nine-race schedule is completed.

The fleet will be divided in three: IRC One for yachts with a TCC of 1.050+, IRC Two for those with a TCC of 1.000-1.050 and IRC Three for 0.900 to 1.000. To ensure accuracy of the rating and absolute fairness of the competition, entries must have an Endorsed IRC certificate, but to obtain one is straightforward and not costly using local IRC measurers and without the need for any complicated hull measurement or inclination requirements.

In addition to a group of FAST40+ yachts due to enter the event will be Commodore of the Royal Ocean Racing Club, James Neville with his heavily campaigned HH42 INO XXX Photo: Paul Wyeth

Once again the event aims to promote diversity with one extra crew permitted, over and above the number stated on a yacht’s IRC certificate, if that yacht’s crew includes at least two females or two youth of up to 25 years of age.

The 2022 IRC European Championship is expected to attract a highly competitive fleet. Already entered is one the hottest yachts from the area: the Ker 46 Van Uden, skippered by three-time Volvo Ocean Race veteran Gerd-Jan Poortman and with a crew of young, up and coming Dutch sailing talent from the Rotterdam Offshore Sailing Team. Now into its sixth year, the campaign was set up to help prevent youngsters dropping out of sailing once they had finished in dinghies. It is funded by a business club and supported by the marine industry, with her crew carrying out the majority of the maintenance work themselves.

The team is planning on a competing in the Solent early in the season including the IRC Nationals in Cowes over 10-12 June, before returning home for the IRC Europeans.

Poortman has competed at Breskens Sailing Week for the last 20 years and recommends it. “It is a fantastic sailing place. There are tidal waters – it’s right on the North Sea. I love sailing there. You can do nice offshores and windward-leewards. There is a lot of room. It is always well organised with great tents and the Breskens people are always very friendly. Breskens is a small town but I also like small towns because everyone stays close together and you have a lot more fun… It is far away from anywhere in Holland, so everyone stays there. There is a nice little town centre with lots of restaurants and bars.”

The 2022 IRC European Championship is expected to attract a highly competitive fleet when it takes place between 25-28 August in the Netherlands, alongside Damen Breskens Sailing Weekend

In addition to the local boats, a strong fleet of IRC boats is expected to make the relatively short passage to Breskens from the UK and France. In addition to a group of FAST40+ yachts due to enter the event will be Commodore of the Royal Ocean Racing Club, James Neville with his heavily campaigned HH42 INO XXX that will also compete Round Ireland in June.

“I am greatly looking forward to visiting Breskens and seeing a grand gathering of the IRC fleets from across the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany along with a strong turn-out of entries from the UK and France,” said Neville. “It will be a good opportunity to showcase IRC with all the benefits of its simplicity and accuracy in a new venue for this championship.”

Breskens Sailing Weekend is one of the biggest multiclass regattas in the Netherlands. It is organised by Stichting Breskens Sailing, on behalf of Watersportvereniging Breskens, the Royal Yacht Club of Belgium, Koninklijke Roei- & Zeilvereniging ‘De Maas’, Koninklijke Nederlandse Roei- en Zeilvereniging Muiden, Koninklijke Antwerpse Watersportvereniging SRNA and under the authority of the RORC.

The Notice of Race for the 2022 IRC European Championship is downloadable below. 

The RORC Transatlantic Race enters the fifth day with the potential for a real twist of fate at the front of the fleet. Peter Cunningham’s MOD70 PowerPlay (CAY) still leads the multihulls, but as the first boat into an area of light winds, the ‘hunters’ are catching up with their prey. Jason Carroll’s MOD70 Argo (USA) and Giovanni Soldini’s Multi70 Maserati (ITA) are homing in on PowerPlay. The 100ft Maxi Comanche (CAY), skippered by Mitch Booth is over 100 miles ahead with one hand on the IMA Trophy. However, Volvo 70 L4 Trifork (DEN), helmed by Joern Larsen is reeling in Comanche. L4 Trifork is riding on better pressure from the northwest. News from the fleet includes the latest from Gunboat 68 Tosca (USA), co-skippered by Ken Howery & Alex Thomson.

Comanche’s navigator Will Oxley (2100 UTC 11 JAN): “1,680nm to go. It has been a very messy Atlantic weather pattern and that looks set to continue into the finish. So far so good. We are happy with our more southerly approach in comparison to L4 Trifork. For the moment they are sailing very fast in close proximity to the low. It looks quite difficult though to extricate oneself from the north; one of the reasons we rejected this option. We watch with interest to see how it plays out. The low does seem to be playing havoc with the fleet. We are sailing in 10-15 knot northerlies with the low still disrupting the trade winds. We think we can join the dots into the finish OK but we will have to be careful to avoid some very light air on the 13th. ETA still 16th January.”

MOCRA

Paul Larsen on board MOD70 PowerPlay (01:00 UTC 12 JAN): “Protecting the exits. That’s the strategy on PowerPlay at the moment with respect to our hunters and the narrow band of pressure we are in. So far so good today; we’ve seen some pretty glamorous sailing with clear blue skies and a warm, clear moonlit night. All the while we coax PowerPlay as deep downwind as every wave, puff and shift will take us. We don’t mind too much if it gets a bit light as that suits our more conservative foil configuration nicely. The band of wind that takes us across this mid-latter stage of the course is narrow. We try and keep ourselves between Argo and the westerly extreme of this breeze. Life onboard is very pleasant and even leads to stupid talk like – I wonder if you could cruise on one of these? Offshore sailors have such short memories!”

Two ORC50s are competing in the RORC Transatlantic Race: Club Five Oceans (FRA), skippered by Quentin le Nabour and GDD (FRA) skippered by Halvard Mabire, racing Two-Handed with Miranda Merron. The pair are having their own private duel within the MOCRA Class. Club Five Oceans leads by over 50 miles. GDD racing is playing catch-up after a big issue at the start, as Miranda Merron reports from on board GDD:

Miranda Merron on board ORC50 GDD (23:00 UTC 11 JAN):

“We made a conservative start as we are new to the boat. We had the fractional spinnaker up for no more than two hours when the spinnaker sock strop broke and the whole lot ended up being trawled in the sea. Apart from the halyard, which is obviously still up the mast and needs retrieving when the sloppy sea-state abates, the spinnaker survived intact, but we need to make a new sock strop. Soaking wet on the first day from the wet spinnaker and the sheer effort of getting it back on board! Beautiful starlit night on GDD tonight though!”

Ken Howery has reported on his Instagram feed that the boat and crew of Gunboat 68 Tosca have safely arrived in The Azores. The boat had taken on water which meant they “could not run the basic electrical systems necessary for the safety of the crew,” Howery concluded. “We hope to be back on the way to Grenada in the next few days.”

IRC SUPER ZERO

L4 Trifork is now estimated to be leading IRC Super Zero after time correction from Comanche. The Austrian Ocean Race Project’s VO65 Sisi, skippered by Gerwin Jansen is ranked third after gybing southwest after making a big gain to the north.

L4 Trifork’s navigator Aksel Magdahl contacted the RORC media team, giving an insight into the complex weather for the RORC Transatlantic Race: “Suddenly we got a routing dilemma today. I have all the way been looking at ways to get south without waiting until the last low pressure. As with the last one, we have to take what we get. This afternoon weather models suddenly showed an opening to cut south ahead of the fleet. I don’t like to jump onto a sudden change in the models, but it was an interesting opportunity at the same time as the west and north routing was looking slightly more upwind to get south to Grenada.”

IRC ZERO

The decaying low pressure system in front of the teams racing in IRC Zero has caused a real change to the ranking in IRC Zero. Mark Emerson’s A13 Phosphorus II (GBR) has made a massive gain north of the low and is estimated to be leading the class after IRC time correction. The most southerly boat, Botin 56 Black Pearl (GER), helmed by Stefan Jentzsch, is still leading on the water, and looks to have made a big gain on their close rivals Max Klink’s Botin 52 Caro (CH) and David Collins’ Botin 52 Tala (GBR). Caro is set up to slingshot north of the low; which way Tala will go is as yet undecided. The British team are perilously close to the wind void at the centre of the low.

Christopher Pratt checked in from Jean Pierre Dreau’s Mylius 60 Lady First III (FRA). The team are representing the Yacht Club de France in the RORC Transatlantic Race:

“At the start of this fourth evening aboard the beautiful lady we are grappling with calm, which should occupy us a good part of the night before attacking the ‘big chunk’ of this crossing of the Atlantic: the depression which disturbs or rather destroys the trade wind since our departure ...We are trying to make repairs to the sails that we damaged at the start of the race, but the manoeuvre is not easy when everything is soaked after a whole afternoon under a downpour ... The Atlantic in January, this is not really what it used to be!

IRC ONE

Richard Palmer’s JPK 1010 Jangada (GBR) racing Two-Handed with Jeremy Waitt is still estimated to lead the class after IRC time correction. Ross Applebey’s Oyster 48 Scarlet Oyster (GBR) is still ranked second, but by a bigger margin of 12 hours. Andrew Hall’s Lombard 46 Pata Negra (GBR) is leading on the water and ranked third after IRC correction. The next conundrum for the leading boats in IRC One is how to manage the decaying low pressure system in their path. The problem is that the weather change is coming to them and in a state of flux. Choosing the correct course to activate a chosen strategy is far from perfect science. Jacques Pelletier’s Milon 41 L’Ange de Milon (FRA) has made his decision; the Atlantic veteran from the Yacht Club de France has gone just north of the systems trajectory - time will tell who will make the right decision.

Romain Pilliard and Alex Pella set off on Tuesday January 4, 2022 on the Round the World Record Upside Down. The trimaran Use It Again !, the former Ellen MacArthur boat, crossed the starting line at 17 hours 36 minutes and 04 seconds between the Pen Men lighthouse on the Isle of Groix and the Kerroc'h lighthouse in Lorient. This Round the World Tour against the prevailing winds and currents has never been successful in a multihull, a real sporting challenge for Romain Pilliard and Alex Pella.

In a north-north-west flow of around twenty knots, at sunset, the bows of the trimaran Use It Again. crossed the starting line at 17 hours 36 minutes 04 seconds between the Pen Men lighthouse on the Ile de Groix and the Kerroc'h lighthouse in the east of Lorient.

In front of Romain Pilliard and Alex Pella, a 21,600-mile round-the-world tour on a direct route but nearly 30,000 miles in reality. During more than a hundred days of racing, the Franco-Spanish duo are determined to show concretely that it is possible to think about performance and to live exceptional adventures while minimizing its impact on the planet.

* Eighteen hours after the start, the Trimaran Use It Again! is progressing at 12 knots in the Bay of Biscay at the latitude of Bordeaux. As expected, Romain and Alex had to deal with a weaker southerly wind during the night but should touch up a stronger northwesterly flow during the day to get around the Spanish tip.

"It shakes this morning, the sea is rough. We reduced the sails to preserve the boat. "explained Alex Pella this morning.

"They had a rough night with a few grains and fired as expected in soft around 7:30 this morning. Everything is fine on board, for the time being they are faster than the initial routing". said Christian Dumard, shore-based router.

With the three named Atlantic storms of Arwen, Barra and Corrie already logged and leaving behind trails of varying degrees of disruption in Northwest Europe, we in Ireland don’t need to be told that the winter of 2021-2022 has been registering as hyper-active in terms of adverse weather.

But at least for those of us snug ashore, most houses in Ireland are built to successfully withstand such conditions. Then too, increasingly sophisticated weather analysis and improved methods of predicting and accurately warning of the approach and track of such storms have made it a matter of taking timely precautions and remaining indoors if at all possible.

So what must it be like to find yourself in a sailing boat far out in the open North Atlantic – albeit in its more southern portion – when such winter weather starts to develop around you, and there’s no getting away from it?

Pamela Lee of Greystones is one of Ireland’s most dedicated offshore sailors. In 2021, her most recent success had been on November 19th in Genoa, taking second overall at the finish in a fleet of ten boats in the two-handed Nastro Rosa Race round Italy race (started at Venice) for Figaro 3s. But then as winter closed in on Europe, the approach of December found her in the Caribbean, in Martinique awaiting the finish of the Transat Jacques Vabre, as she’d been giving the dream commission of bringing one of the hottest boats, the Mach 40 Redman, back home to France.

Redman in “The Happy Place”, wind well free and making many knots - but still the spray flies everywhere.

It was an opportunity not to be missed, as the Class40 has already committed to the 2022 Round Ireland Race in June, and in Martinique Redman was crowned as winner of Class40. So even though it would be mid-December, with average conditions they could hope to be back in La Trinite on France’s Biscay coast in time for everyone to be home for Christmas. But conditions weren’t to be quite normal. Pamela Lee takes up the story:

THE ATLANTIC IN WINTER

Around noon on Midwinter’s Day, Tuesday 21st of December, a slightly bedraggled crew of three French men and an Irish girl finally pulled into the Marina at Horta, Ilha do Faial, in the Azores. Although an originally unintended pit-stop on our way from Martinique to La Trinité while bringing the Class40 161 Redman back home after her victory in the Transat Jacques Vabre, we were pretty relieved to chuck the line to the very helpful - although masked-and-gloved - marina manager.

The trip from the Caribbean had taken us 12 days, much longer than anticipated on a boat that should comfortably average above 12 knots boat speed. A few factors played into the delay, not least that we spent 48 hours under only the Tormentin J3, which is essentially a bright orange storm sail, while we hunkered down waiting for the three massive low pressures to pass over us, and hoping that we’d stay upright while waves smashed over the top of the hull.

Where will it all go….? Provisioning a two-man boat for a crew of four presents special challenges.

Early stages in Caribbean conditions

Unfortunately, prior to this, we had also suffered a small tear on the J1, and during the storms the same on the upper leech of the main sail, all of which contributed to a small window of wind angle and strength in which we could get anywhere near hitting our polar percentages.

This said, we still managed to squeeze in some incredible sailing and I really got a chance to witness this winning Mach 40.4 JPS Production at some of her best showings. And at some of her worst showings too, for the limits-pushing scow hull shape – to optimise waterline length and hull volume within the 40ft LOA limit – can be teeth-shattering to take to windward in a steep sea.

North Atlantic grey day, but great going….they managed 27 knots in one speed burst.

You needed to get fully under the low-headroom cockpit shelter when the spray sheeted over like a hail of bullets

SPEED OF 27 KNOTS

On the plus side, at one point we topped out our boat speed on 27 knots SOG. TJV winner Antoine Carpentier (with Spain’s Pablo Santurde Del Arco as co-skipper) claims to have achieved 29 knots in the sprint westward, so we weren’t too far off. But whether we achieved this through sailing prowess, or should rather give credit to the exceptionally large wave that we happened to be surfing down at the time, well, that’s another question……..

For as you’d expect, with the scow bow hull shape, this interesting racing machine comes to life when off the wind – as soon as you can get the Gennaker up, you are in a happy place. While still in the Caribbean, we had some incredible sailing from Martinique up to St. Marten, with almost 24 hours averaging over 20 knots SOG in those wonderful trade winds.

A gap between the storms, with a selfie for Pam as Redman makes smooth progress under autohelm

Yet even with the scow bow, it was still wet - very wet. The cockpit shelter is actually surprisingly low to minimise resistance in what is a very serious racing machine, so unless you are really tucked in underneath it you are getting a good dowsing on a regular basis. Similarly, on the helm, you are sitting abaft the cover and pretty much out in the elements. Although not really necessary in the Caribbean trade temperatures, dry smocks are a must onboard.

We had a few more wonderful runs with the Gennaker and some lovely sailing with the big Spinnaker, but as is the case with trying to get back across the Atlantic at this time of year, we were faced with a larger proportion of upwind angles to contend with. This boat, as with many, was not built for upwind, but the slamming or ‘Tappé’ as the French call it, is on another level when you try to attack the swell in any sort of unfavourable angle.

Life goes on – sail repairs and cooking under way in the cramped night-lit accommodation.

For this reason, we spent the first third of the trip heading due East, and even sometimes Sou’east before we could finally wrap around the outside of a system and gain a favourable angle Northwards, though it did feel like Morocco might be the best pitstop option for a while, and we were glad to make the Azores on Tuesday this week to let further storm systems go through before (we hope) heading on for La Trinite on Sunday (December 26th)

This was my eighth time crossing the Atlantic, as through my career so far I’ve done it in a varied number of boats in both directions. This trip was motivated purely by gaining as much experience, on the water in the Class40 as possible, and what better boat to do this on than leader of the class and the winner of the TJV?

When a negative result is a positive – COVID tests rewarded with lemon tarts

Horta at last. Who would have thought a washing line could be such a beautiful sight?

It has definitely been the most challenging of the trips so far (and we haven’t even finished yet, as I’m writing this from Horta on Christmas Eve). So even though I knew what I was signing up for, the contrast between leaving the warmth of the Caribbean and sailing towards the North Atlantic in December is dramatic and almost comical. Similarly, the intensity and speed of the weather systems that we had to navigate through was a different story and for me, it was an excellent opportunity to get back into ocean weather system analysis after two years mostly of coastal racing in France and Italy.

My role onboard is Watch Leader and second to the skipper Arnaud Aubry, so my goal of learning the boat and gaining useful miles onboard has certainly been achieved so far. Although not without its hardship including probably the biggest sea state I’ve experienced to date, not to mention sharing a bucket facility with three French guys and missing an intended Christmas at home, these feel like small prices for the bigger picture goal, and sometimes in offshore sailing, it’s good to be forced out of your comfort zone, just to remind yourself that even at the low points, you still love it – well, I certainly do anyway!

And if you have to miss Christmas at home, the deservedly legendary Peter’s Café Sport in Horta was as ever a home-from-home for Christmas Eve, even if there’s a shut-down from Christmas Day. But all being well, when that comes in we’ll be on our way.

It may not be Greystones for Christmas, but it will do very nicely…… Christmas Eve venue before the latest lockdown was the legendary Peter’s Cafe Sport in Horta.