#isora –Following our post race ISORA report on Monday, Peter Ryan follows up with an indepth report on last weekend's very frustrating, sociable and enjoyable offshore racing weekend. 

Race 4, from Holyhead to Douglas, started at 19.20 on Friday evening 22nd May. Race 5 was the return race from Douglas to Dun Laoghaire and started at 06.35 on Sunday 24th May.
To facilitate the setting up of the race on the YB tracker system, the course had to be set on the previous day. At that stage the forecast for the weekend was bleak. Light northerly winds were forecast for the Friday night and moderate south westerly were forecast for the Sunday. This would provide a beat for the full duration of both races. For this reason the Sailing Committee decided to have the course for both races direct from start to finish. Another complication arose for the Friday evening race. The course took the fleet through the traffic separation zone to the north of Holyhead. To avoid any possible dispute about the use or abuse of this zone, the Sailing Committee decided to treat the zone as an "exclusion zone" for the race.
The start of race 4 in Holyhead was not its usual format as works to the pier prevented the usual starter position at the lighthouse been used. Dawn Russell of Holyhead Sailing Club took control of the committee boat and anchored at the opposite end of the line at the Clippera buoy.
18 boats for the entry list of 20 came to the start line. "Mahalar", a new entry from Conwy and "Adelie" headed direct to Douglas and did not take part in the race. All boats taking part were fitted with the recently acquired Avery Crest YB Trackers.
Wind conditions at the start of Race were very light and there was a strong south going tide ripping across the pier end. The boats bunched on the line struggling to get going. "Sgrech" was the first boat to break out west towards fresher winds and headed on its way towards Carmel Rock and the exclusion zone. Soon after, the fleet started moving. "Jackknife" persisted east and this paid off hugely when they shot up the Carmel Rock in a back eddy while the remainder of the fleet plugged the last of the foul tide.
Avoiding the exclusion zone was not a problem for most of the fleet. It kept them bunched. At this stage the tide has turned and the usual Irish Sea north going tide was now flowing east towards Liverpool pulling the fleet in that direction.
The winds during the night were fluky continually coming and going, backing and veering. By day light, most of the fleet had stayed bunched but some had managed to break away. "Aurelia" appeared to have headed west immediately after the exclusion zone despite plugging the east going tide. This paid dividends as he appeared to cruise to the finish line in Douglas while avoiding the huge holes that laid in wait for most of the fleet. "Jackknife" appeared to have missed the holes as well and crossed the finish line after "Aurelia".
Frustration awaited the rest of the fleets as the winds died and the boats were being pushed, first east, then west while looking at the Isle of Man and Douglas. After several hours the sea breeze started to fill and one by one the boats bunched out in the Irish Sea started to peel away and head for the finish.

Chris Power-Smith "Aurelia" receives his prize from the Sea Cadets on the Isle of Man

"Aurleia" took Overall and Class 1. Class 2 was taken by our Isle of Man resident, Kuba Szymanski and "Polish manx". Kuba also took Silver Class.
The fleet were met by the Sea Cadets of Isle of Man who distributed a complimentary hot meal to all the crew while they waited on the Visitors Pontoons for the bridge to rise to access the Inner Harbour. The cadets also arranged a BBQ in Douglas Bay Yacht Club that evening. A special prize giving was also arranged by the cadets – the prizes had little to do with racing!!!

The 20–boat ISORA fleet moored up in Douglas

Most of the crew retired reasonably early as the fleet had to vacate the Inner harbour at 05.45 latest on Sunday morning to go to the start for the 06.35 start. A record 22 boats from the 23 entries came to the start. "Mahalar", who was to race had to pull out of the race and generously acted as Committee boat for the start.
The winds were fresh north westerly, up to 20 knots. This was looking like a "drag race" to Dun Laoghaire as the fleet blasted along the IOM coast and head to seas towards Dun Laoghaire with the ebbing tide.
"Jackknife" led the charge with "Lively Lady" behind along the coast. "Aurelia" took the alternative route, taking a more southerly course. Expectations for a fast race were dashed at Lambay island where another hole waited to trap the then weary fleet. "Jackknife", who was just a dot on the horizon for most of the race, started to get "bigger"!!! "Lively Lady", "Ruth" and "Mojito", who were some distance behind the leader, started to slow. The fleet seeing this attempted to circumnavigate the hole by heading out further to sea. All this was fruitless and the fleet stopped. This was not to be a fast race.

Bam from Howth arrives in Dublin Bay on Sunday evening

Zephyrs eventually started to appear and eventually "Jackknife" broke through the hole and head past Howth head to Dun Laoghaire. "Lively lady" and "Bam" were next to get going and turned into the bay only to smash into what can only be described as a "wind wall"!!! The two boats came to a sudden halt. "Bam" stopped but "Lively Lady", who was close to "Bam" at that stage, managed to keep momentum and broke through the wall. The wind on the other side of the wind wall was from a directly opposite direction.
Most of the fleet did not witness this strange wind effect. However "Sgrech" who was following did, and tried to take the same route as "Lively Lady", but to no avail as they also slammed to a halt beside "Bam". Along came "Ruth" who took a more northerly path around "Bam" and Sgrech" but again slammed into the wall. Next to attempt the wall was "Adelie" – same fate. 2-handed "Jedi " – same fate. When all chances of getting through the wall appeared to have failed, "Mojito" approached the wall and a door opened and they stalled for a brief moment, sails backed onto the opposite side and they dashed off towards the finish line. Very slowly the remaining boats made their way, tacking and gybing, towards the finish.
"Jackknife" took Overall and Class 1 while "Desert Star" took Class 2 and Silver.
All told, it was a very frustrating, sociable and enjoyable offshore racing weekend.

#mythofmalham – Over the Bank Holiday Weekend, a tense, tactical and complex yacht race played out along the south coast of England. 141 yachts, racing in the Royal Ocean Racing Club's Myth of Malham Race, enjoyed a dress rehearsal for the start of this year's famous Rolex Fastnet Race. The Western Solent was a magnificent sight with over a hundred spinnakers flying, heading for the Eddystone Lighthouse, off Plymouth Sound. At one stage it looked very promising for Anthony O'Leary's Catapult from Royal Cork but light winds later in the race thwarted any chance of overall victory giving the Ker 40 ninth overall by the finish.

The complex tidal flow along the 229 mile coastal course, was a crucial part of the race. Before sundown on the first day, the larger high performance yachts seemed to have the upper hand, enjoying an advantage of water line length in positive tide, as well as rig height and sail choice more suited to light airs reaching. However, several smaller yachts made the crucial tidal gate at Portland Bill to stay in touch with the larger rivals. During the first night and the second day, light airs persisted and with the high performance yachts not able to achieve planing speed, the smaller yachts were in with a chance of overall victory.

The winner of the Myth of Malham Race was Géry Trentesaux's French JPK 10.80, Courrier Du Leon, racing with a highly experienced team including UNCL President, Marc de Saint Denis and the founder of the JPK Breton Boatyard, Jean-Pierre Kelbert. Courrier Du Leon had a tremendous battle with Nicolas Gaumont-Prat's French First 40.7, Philosophie IV. After over 36 hours of racing, Courrier Du Leon won by one minute and 26 seconds on corrected time.

"It is a great feeling to win this race, it was a very competitive, especially as there were 48 yachts on our start line." commented Géry Trentesaux. "In our class we knew that making Portland Bill before the tide turned against us was just possible but we knew we would have to sail to the best of our ability to make the tidal gate. Our navigator, Marc (de Saint Denis) is our magician, judging precisely when to tack for Portland after leaving the Solent, making the best use of the current that was with us before turning for the headland. Only a few of the smaller boats made it to Portland Bill before the tide turned and that was a major point in the race. During the first night we concentrated on finding wind, we have a good crew on board with a lot of experience and everyone was looking for any signs of wind on the water or in the sky. On the first night, our tactic was to stay inshore but not too close to the land and we were encouraged by seeing big boats around us. I must congratulate the team racing Philosophie IV, it was an outstanding performance from them in a much older boat. We only won by a minute or so, one small mistake from us and they would have won, Philosophie IV sailed a great race and we had to work very hard to beat them."

"It was a fantastic battle and to receive praise from Géry (Trentesaux) is very nice to hear." commented Nicolas Gaumont-Prat. "Philosophie went very well, literally match racing Courrier Du Leon for most of the race. However, on the way back, approaching Portland, Courrier Du Leon decided to go offshore and we preferred inshore, which was a good choice and we did make some gains there, so Portland was crucial on the return as well. However it was not quite enough to win the race but this has been a great start to the season for the crew. We have a crew of seven and for this race, we used our proposed Fastnet watch system; two watches of three people and myself, as navigator, out of the watch. One watch is all English and the other French, so there is plenty of competition but they all agree that their superb performance makes the navigator look like a tactical genius!"

Mikey Ferguson's IMOCA 60, Artemis Ocean Racing took line honours in the race and the IRC Canting Keel Class by just over an hour and 20 minutes from Chris Le Prevost's IMOCA 60, Rosalba, skippered by Andy Greenwood. In IRC Zero, Piet Vroon's Tonnerre 4 was the winner from Windward Sailing's CM60, Venomous, skippered by Derek Saunders. In IRC One, Mike Bartholomew's South African team, racing GP42 Tokoloshe II, was the winner of the highly competitive class and placed third overall for the Myth of Malham. Steven Anderson's Corby 40, Cracklin Rosie sailed well to take second in class from former RORC Commodore, Mike Greville, racing Ker 39, Erivale III. In the 32-strong Two Handed Class, Louis-Marie Dussere's French JPK 10.10 Raging Bee was the winner, retaining the class lead for the RORC Season's Points Championship from Rob Craigie's Sun Fast 36, Bellino. Patrick Bauné and Jean-Eudes Renier's JPK 10.80 Shaitan was third.

36 yachts were racing in IRC Two and the winner by less than 12 minutes on corrected time was Andy Theobald's J/122, R&W. Peter Newlands' First 40.7, Anticipation was second, just 11 minutes ahead after time correction from Simon Bamford's Arcona 410, Kestrel.

"The J/122 is a new boat for us and we are delighted with the boat speed." commented Andy Theobald. "We chose to start on the island shore and stay away from the carnage at the pin end and in clear air we got away well. However, we knew we couldn't make Portland Bill before the tide changed, so we stayed offshore and found plenty of breeze, so it was a great start to the race. We did hit a big hole in the wind off Lime Bay, which was frustrating, but a pod of about a dozen or so dolphins were all around us, we could hear there blow holes and that cheered us up no-end, especially for Christine Allen, who was taking part in her first offshore. The crew on R&W is a mixture of the team from our previous Sigma 362 and people who work for my R&W Civil Engineering. It is really encouraging for newcomers to offshore racing to do so well and see such a fantastic sight as dolphins in the wild."

On Monday evening a small number of boats are yet to finish and a number of protests have been received by the Race Committee. None of these will detract from Géry Trentesaux's overall win, but there may still be some changes in other positions.

Géry Trentesaux's JPK 10.80, Courrier Du Leon is the new overall leader for the 2015 RORC Season's Points Championship, just a single point ahead of Rob Craigie's Sunfast 36, Bellino. Louis-Marie Dussere's JPK 10.10, Raging Bee is third overall and leading the Two Handed Class. Racing for the championship continues on 5th June with the De Guingand Bowl Race from Cowes to Cherbourg via Marks.

#offshore – After a thrilling Round Ireland world record last week that saw the Sultanate of Oman's flagship MOD70 Musandam-Oman Sail break Steve Fossett's 22-year-old time around the Emerald Isle, French skipper Sidney Gavignet and his 50% Omani crew high-tailed it back to French waters to compete in the Tour de Belle Ile, finishing a respectable second to Gitana-Groupe Edmond de Rothschild.

"We were delighted with the Round Ireland record – with big seas and up to 40 knots, it was a huge challenge and another incredible achievement for Oman Sail," said Gavignet.

"We were also very happy to be able to make it back to France in time to race the Tour de Belle Ile, it meant that we could keep the intensity high which is a big part of my Omani crewmates training for 2015."

This was Musandam-Oman Sail's first Belle Ile and with 470 boats on the start line, it was quite a spectacle. Conditions were perfect for the multihull fleet with a steady 20 knots and a gentle ocean swell. "We had an excellent race against Gitana-Groupe Edmond de Rothschild and Paprec Recyclage and were happy to finish with a second," said Gavignet.

With just a few days rest between regattas, Musandam-Oman Sail's next event kicks off on Thursday at the ArMen Race sailed out of La Trinité-sur-Mer. The Sultanate's flagship will have a new skipper at the helm in Roland 'Bilou' Jourdain, a veteran of offshore racing and – amongst other victories – a two-time winner of the Route du Rhum. Bilou, as he is better known, will stand in for Sidney Gavignet for the rest of May while he steps on to the Chinese Volvo Ocean Race entry Dongfeng for the Leg from Newport to Lisbon. Alex Pella will also continue to sail on board the MOD70 lending great depth of experience.

"Bilou is the perfect fit for Oman Sail, he really understands the Omani sailor development programme and what we are trying to achieve and he knows the MOD70s well. Musandam-Oman Sail is in good hands," said Gavignet.

"For my part, I'm excited to be returning to an event that I really enjoy and to be doing the transatlantic leg with a team that has such great spirit. There are quite a lot of similarities between Dongfeng and Oman Sail in terms of the development of sailors – we met a few of the Chinese crew in February at EFG Sailing Arabia – The Tour which they were using as a training platform."

Roland Jourdain is excited at the prospect of sailing the MOD70, but is approaching the next few weeks as custodian conservatively: "I was lucky enough to sail with the team briefly for the Tour de Belle Ile, it was a good experience and a chance to get to know everyone. The atmosphere on board is very good and I have been well briefed on the objectives while Sidney is away – the main one being for everyone to continue learning. I was pleasantly surprised at the level and the teamwork amongst the crew

"You have to be constantly alert on the MOD70, it is a highly tuned beast, but the team already has excellent reactions so we will focus on reinforcing the fundamentals. It is going to be very interesting – I have been following Oman Sail for some time now and this national initiative is an excellent way of using sailing."

As for Fahad Al Hasni, the original MOD70 Omani sailor and an integral part of the offshore team, he is delighted to have the opportunity to learn from someone new: "We have worked hard on building a strong team and are seeing the results, we have made a lot of progress in the last couple of years. My Omani crewmates and I know the boat very well and are hungry for the challenges that are coming.

"I met Bilou on the European Tour and am familiar with his illustrious career, it will be an excellent opportunity for us to sail and race with him as he will look at us with fresh eyes compared to Sidney who knows us very well."

Post ArMen Race, the MOD70 will head to Kiel Week for the Welcome Race and an attempt on the boat's own record set in 2014. Before that happens though, the crew will race the team's M34 at Normandy Sailing Week (11-14 June). "And of course we will be supporting Sidney from afar during the next leg of the Volvo!" added Fahad.

Dun Laoghaire offshore sailor Kenny Rumball has won his class in the Tour de Belle-Ile Race onboard the Open 7.50m 'Cool Runnings'.

Rumball, the owner/operator of the Irish National Sailing School in Dun Laoghaire, was crewing onboard the Jochem Visser skippered yacht with Thorkild Juncker and Tom Whitburn. Rumball told Afloat.ie he found the big 500–boat French race fleet 'hard to comprehend'. See vid above. 

The Tour de Belle-Ile is a sailing event created in 2008 and open to all sailing yachts measuring 6,50 metres or more, and is the French equivalent of the UK's Round the Island Race.

The Tour de Belle-Ile is around 41 nautical miles: starting from the middle of the bay of Quiberon (Brittany, France), rounding of Belle Île leaving the island to port and returning to the departure/finish line. 

A month ago, Rumball finished sixth overall at Spi Ouest regatta in western France, on the same boat. 

#isora – Today's ISORA offshore race has been confirmed as starting at the DBSC Pier Mark on Dublin Bay with a direct to finish at Holyhead, a distance of some 54–nautical miles. Follow the race on the tracker above. Winds are forecast to be light for the crossing, west to north west in direction and no more than 12 knots. Stroner winds from the south are due this evening. The reigning ISORA champion Ruth skippered by Liam Shanahan was the winner of April's first race coastal race of the season, a fortnight ago and is racing again this morning. Today's race features 18 starters made up of 13 from the Irish offshore fleet and five welsh boats. The start time is 0800 hours. More information and a copy of the sailing instructions is here.

#offshore – Skippering a yacht on an ocean going passage is a serious undertaking requiring significant skills and experience. Getting those skills and experience has always been tricky and every year the rescue services are called out to assist yachts and skippers that have gone beyond their means.

Previously, a skipper looking to build ocean-going experience has had few options other than to join a delivery yacht or maybe crew on the ARC. This gave mileage and some experience, but was no substitute for expert tuition from ocean-going instructors.

To fill this skills gap, a UK sailing school operator, Rubicon 3 has launched a series of three Ocean Crossing Masterclasses, running between October and December 2015.

Based on Rubicon 3's specialised 60' expedition sailing yacht, each masterclass comprises an intensive two weeks of tuition at sea, taught by two instructors. The syllabus has been developed from their skippers' huge experience of expedition and ocean sailing and is a mix of practical and theoretical lessons on how to skipper a boat across an ocean. Every day sees a structured lesson plan, with all critical skills covered. These include route planning; weather routing; yacht preparation; fixes of common problems at sea; celestial navigation and heavy weather techniques, including practical demonstrations of storm sails, tri-sails, drogues and storm boards.

These masterclasses are open to everyone, with ten places on board each one. There are watch leader positions on each masterclass ideally suited for those looking to gain their RYA Ocean Yachtmaster qualifying passage.

Bruce Jacobs, director of the company said, "It's critically important that before skippering a yacht far offshore, you have the practical skills and experience to match your theory. Whether it's how and when to deploy a tri-sail, or conditions are getting nasty and it's time to launch a drogue - the first time you do it should not be the time you really need it. These masterclasses are the very best way to prepare yourself to skipper offshore and to vastly widen your cruising range."

Masterclass dates, routes & prices

Bristol, UK - Baiona, Portugal: October 18 - November 1, 2015. £1,395
Baiona - Madeira - Azores: November 7 - 22, 2015. £1,495
Azores - Madeira - Gibraltar: November 28 - December 13, 2015. £1,495

#‎lendingclub‬ – Renaud Laplanche, co-skipper Ryan Breymaier, and the crew of the 105' trimaran Lending Club 2 have today established a new world sailing speed record for the 635-nautical mile course from Castle Hill Lighthouse, in Newport, Rhode Island, to Kitchen Shoal Beacon in Bermuda. The new record, subject to ratification by the World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC), is 23 hours, 9 minutes, 52 seconds at an average speed of 27 knots.

It was only four days ago that the WSSRC ratified Lending Club 2's record-setting passage of early April from Cowes to Dinard (across the English Channel) to confirm their place in the sailing record books; Guinness World Records has also confirmed that they will include the record. That 138-nautical mile passage, at an average speed of 26.36 knots, was completed in 5 hours and 15 minutes – 8 minutes faster than the previous record which had stood since 2002.

The Lending Club Sailing team had been on standby at Newport Shipyard for a week while the crew prepared the boat and waited for suitable conditions – a moderate reaching breeze and manageable sea conditions which allow Lending Club 2 to reach speeds over 40 knots. They crossed the starting line at Castle Hill Lighthouse at 05 34 40 UTC (1:34:40 EDT), making roughly 5.5 knots. Three and a half hours into the passage, they had reached speeds of 30 knots, and by the 12 hour mark were half-way to their destination. At 04 44 32 UTC (1:44:32 EDT), the new record was set, an electrifying 15 hours faster than the old record, by virtue of Lending Club 2 averaging 27 knots over the 635 nautical miles.

"We set our sights on three speed sailing records for the 2015 season: Cowes-Dinard, Newport to Bermuda, and the 2,215-nautical mile Transpac," said Laplanche, who had surpassed 40 knots during the passage. "Newport to Bermuda was a challenging 23 hours, 9 minutes and 52 seconds. We have had an exciting ride down here, and with two new world records now under our belts, we're more primed than ever for the Transpac."

Until today, the record for the Newport to Bermuda passage had belonged to the late adventurer Steve Fossett for 15 years. Fossett's record time of 38 hours, 35 minutes and 53 seconds was achieved on the 125' catamaran Playstation in 2000 at an average speed of 16 knots.

"Steve Fossett was a great sailor who I had the honor to sail with on Playstation," said Breymaier, a member of the Royal Ocean Racing Club. "We are very happy to honor his memory with such a fast time! He would have been content to see his mark bettered with such a great time. We're thrilled with the record we set today – it's fantastic to have the wind at our back as we head to the Transpac."

Laplanche, who makes his home in San Francisco, personally chartered the 105' trimaran (originally launched as Groupama 3 in 2006) for the three record-breaking attempts in 2015. With success in the first two attempts, focus will now shift to mid-July's Transpac, the longest ocean race in the world. At stake is not only the Transpac course record but also the outright sailing speed record across the Pacific to Hawaii.

Lending Club 2 will return to the City by the Sea following the Newport-Bermuda passage and remain at Newport Shipyard until the end of April. The yacht will then head to New York for a week before sailing through the Panama Canal to arrive in San Francisco in June.

The Lending Club Sailing team is an international crew with a mix of American, French and German sailors. Training and racing together since the start of the program, the same team will race all three record attempts: Co-skippers Renaud Laplanche (FRA/USA) and Ryan Breymaier (USA), who is also the Project Manager; Captain Jan Majer (USA); Navigator Boris Herrmann (GER); Roland Jourdain (FRA); Jean-Baptiste Le Vaillant (FRA); Stanislas Delbarre (FRA) and Quin Bisset (NZL) who handles onboard media.

#isora – Yellowbrick (YB) satellite trackers will be fitted to ISORA offshore boats for the 2015 Irish offshore season transmitting critical boat data including boat speed and position for a series of races across the Irish Sea.

YB Tracking are responsible for tracking most of the classic and high profile offshore races all over the world inlcuding the Rolex Fastnet race.

ISORA Chairman, Peter Ryan said "I am delighted that the 'ISORA Avery Crest Ski sponsored Offshore Series 2015' can now be followed by our supporters at their yacht clubs, on a computer or even on their smart phones. Spectators will now be able to appreciate our experiences as we race in challenging conditions in keenly fought races as we cross the Irish Sea. This device will also provide us with additional safety information. "

The ISORA calendar attracts 20 to 30 boats for a series of offshore races across the Irish Sea.

Followers will be provided with a visual representation of the race on a computer generated chart with 'leader board' and league table. 

#Offshore - They say you should never leave port on a Friday – and following his rescue after more than two months lost at sea, American sailor Louis Jordan will surely be ruing that decision!

As TheJournal.ie reports, the 36-year-old beat the odds when he was picked up by a container ship some 200 miles off the coast of North Carolina yesterday (Thursday 2 April).

It brought an end to a 66-day ordeal for Jordan, who had departed Bucksport in South Carolina on Friday 23 January on a fishing trip, but ran into trouble when rough weather disabled both his boat and his communications gear.

While his family prepared for the worst, Jordan survived in the open sea by drinking whatever rainwater he could collect and fish he could catch. TheJournal.ie has more on this remarkable story HERE.

Elsewhere, the people of Sakhalin on Russia's Pacific coast have been devastated by the loss of at least 56 sailors after the sinking of a Russian trawler in the Sea of Okhotsk.

According to the Guardian, questions have been raised about whether the owner and international crew of the Dalny Vostok, based at Russia's largest island, had been cutting corners in their hunt for a big catch.

#BaccyBoat - It was a tale almost too good to be true when a cheeky sailor opened a tax-free floating off-licence in international waters just off the British coast a decade ago.

But now Phil Berriman has written a new book, The Baccy Boat, detailing the true-life exploits of his "tax-avoiding wheeze", as the Daily Mail reports.

The ebook tells the story of how Berriman moored his yacht The Rich Harvest some 13 miles offshore from Hartlepool, just beyond the UK's territorial waters limit, and began selling cheap booze and tobacco stocked up from tax-exempt Heligoland in the North Sea.

His roaring trade was shut down by customs officials just three months later - but while his stock was seized and destroyed, a High Court judge later ruled that he had not broken any laws.

The Daily Mail has more on the story HERE.