Myth of Malham race report.
Crew: Martin, Nigel, Andy, Nicky, Hugh & Kane.
Around 140 yachts in the race, 41 in IRC4. Start time 8am.
Forecast for the race is mainly westerly winds starting very light & increasing throughout the day on Saturday. Light overnight, picking up for Sunday and Monday.
Around 5.30am We had a MOB drill, I threw a fender into the water and yelled man over board, this was a surprise to all the crew other than Martin. I’m happy to say it was a successful drill, immediately Andy took the spotters job and pointed at the casualty while the crew prepared to retrieve. Thankfully the fender was rescued and unharmed. Good job guy’s.
06.30: We passed the identity gate and sail towards the start marks to plot their positions. The breeze is just 5 knots from WNW. 5 minutes before the gun we are 200 meters from the north mark, 2 minutes before the gun the wind eases to almost nothing.
We cross the start about a minute late, not bad given the wind speed. Slowly we tack our way west out of the Solent, very slowly the wind fills in and started to back towards the west. We were having a good battle with the 3 x 72ft Challenger yachts near Hurst castle swapping positions every tack. By 13.40 we exited the Solent ahead of Challenger 3. Tactically Jubilant could sail into shallower water and in less foul tide for a few minutes each tack giving us the slight edge at this point.
One of our closest competitors in handicap was Breezee. Tacking our way towards the Eddystone lighthouse in 15 knots of SW we were slowly pulling away from Breezee. By 10pm we were some 25nm south of Portland bill with the wind easing to below 10 knots but a beautiful clear moonless night.
We continued tacking and catching a couple of boats, by midday on Sunday a good 18 to 20 knot breeze had set in from the SW along with a fog bank reducing visibility to less than 500 mtrs, we were in a good battle with 3 other yachts now, Breezee, Amokura & Agamemnon, we also had returning yachts to look out for. I had 2 targets on AIS heading towards us from different directions, out of the fog 2 large spinnakers appeared, one on a port gybe, the other on a starboard gybe we were on a starboard tack, all 3 of us converged together, a great sight to see these big sails come out of the fog.
By 7pm on Sunday we passed Start point in front of the 4 boat battle. The wind was supposed to veer to the NW, but it hadn’t, so our carefully planned route was compromised forcing us to make a couple more tacks to reach the Eddystone rock.
We finally rounded the lighthouse at 1am Monday morning after a tough 40 hour slog about 5 hours behind our time 6 years ago. Now we were downwind for the next 120 nm and another stunningly clear night ahead.
During the upwind leg we had 2 pods of dolphins on the bow and seen 3 sunfish lurking on the surface. A first for me, I have seen plenty of sunfish in the western approaches and off the west coast but never in the English channel.
By daylight on Monday morning we were extending our lead over Breezee & Agamemnon but Amokura being almost 50 ft in length was always going to leave us on the downwind leg. The largest pod of dolphins we saw joined us for a good 20 minutes during the day, probably 25 strong with new born calves. I find these visits absolutely magical.
Magical Dolphins ride with Jubilant.
We sailed on downwind gybing our way back east slowly extending our lead over Breezee & Agamemnon but now we were not loosing time to Amokura instead we were hanging on a few miles behind them. Its going to be a close one between us 4 on corrected time by the end of the race.
The final gybe to the finish was made around 8pm with around 20 miles to go, a good fast sail for the last few hours saw us cross the line at 23.15.15 on the 27th May 2019, 63 hours 15 minute & 15 seconds. 9 hours behind our previous 2013 race time. Jubilant has qualified for the Fastnet yacht race, always an exciting moment. A bottle of bubbly to celebrate the moment just as the first rain came, but that didn’t dampen the crews spirits.
We had a couple of mishaps but nothing serious, a couple of accidental tacks, and a few spilt drinks. All crew safe, no breakages & crossed the finish line = successful race. We covered over 300nm during this race with winds between 5 and 25 knots.
Well done Jubilant qualifying crew. Kane and Hugh will sadly not be sailing the main event but we are grateful for your help in qualifying Jubilant. Good job guy’s and a friendship for life.
Job done 🙂 Fastnet yacht race here we come.
I have now sailed with Skipper Martin for a couple of thousand miles, he is one heck of a skipper, never loosing his cool, always discussing tactics and sharing his thoughts. A great teacher and sailor. If I had to choose someone to race across an ocean or around the world with, my first choice would be Martin without any doubt. I have complete trust in him, I sleep with ease knowing who is on watch.
Sailonline were running a mirror race to our’s. The results for the virtual race were 1st WRmirekd. 2nd Bimmer. 3rd Garagiste. Well done SOLer’s.
Thanks to sailonline.org for your support. We would not be sailing in this campaign or 2013 without SOL & Gilles who first made suggestion.
Thanks for looking. Next it’s the big one over 600 miles.
Nigel Gilchrist.
Live tracker for the Myth of Malham race
20th May updated forecast.
Saturday, Northwest 10 – 16 knots. Sunday, NW backing West 8 – 17 knots. Monday, West backing Southwest 10 – 20 knots. Main wind & gusts.
15th May Weather forecast.
Early indications are for light Northeasterly Saturday, very light overnight, turning West by Southwest Sunday afternoon, strengthening to 25 knots Monday.
Jubilant’s second chosen qualifier is The Myth of Malham race 8am 25th of May
Approximately 260 nm. Starting at Cowes, rounding the Eddystone lighthouse off Plymouth and returning to the Solent, once again the course will be set close to the start date.
Jubilant will be on AIS for this race, link to marine traffic below.
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-1.032/centery:50.793/zoom:14
Video’s, photos & race report will be posted here & live video feeds on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Jubilant-Fastnet-campaigns-2013-2019-530474330298394/
Jubilant & SOL 2019 Fastnet Challenge 