Hola from Santander in Spain where we are just about to set off on the return leg of this years Transgascogne race.
The race started as usual from Port Bourgenay near Les Sables and has four categories, singlehanded proto, double handed proto and the same for the series boats. I entered as solo proto on domosofa.com having had a really hard delivery down from Poole where I had been working on the sails with the guys from Kemp.
The prologue was really fun with a nice 10 knot breeze and I was lucky enough to be joined by Pim and his very young daughter Clearly. Pim is an ex mini veteran having completed 2 transats including the very windy 99 race, so it was great to chat with him as we cruised round the course with the stereo blasting. We had a great start and ended up rounding the course and maintaining 5th position all the way up to and over the finish line. This included a rendezvous with one of the ribs to drop a now very sleepy Clearly off to her mother Annabelle!
The weather sites and files for the first leg to Santander were all showing strong winds from the south and west as a deep low moved into Biscay and a brave decision was made by the organisers to race on a slightly shortened course (normally we would have sailed north, up and around Belle Isle before heading off across the bay of Biscay). I think due to the recent cancellation of the Mini Fastnet race, the organisers had a lot of pressure to get this decision right, it was a 'damned if they do, damned if they don't' kind of scenario.
The French Meteo briefing talked about 30 knot winds from the south south east veering to southwest as a front passed through, I looked at the grib files and saw some areas of 35 and knowing how grib files work was expecting some 40's at times... that's exactly what we got!
We set out in and nice 10 knot breeze with a lot of excited chatter going out over the VHF, however, this gay banter soon started to peter out as the winds began to fill in and the glass dropped steadily. The decision was how far west to continue on before tacking as the front was not forecast to veer all the way out to the west. I tacked over in about 25 knots when I steering a course of around 265 degs, this was ok for heading, but as the front had not long passed through I was left with a large swell from ahead which I could have done without.
From here on it just became a case of hanging on and making sure things didn't break as the winds increased up to a solid 35+. At the peak, for a few minutes I saw wind speeds of 50 knts whilst a squall came through. Off course at this point I had lost my VHF antenna and so had no idea of the chaos going on around me, four complete capsizes and dismasting, four airlifts plus a lot of other injuries and damage.
I was lucky enough only to have ripped my Solent as I was replacing it with the storm jib plus a couple of other minor breakages. Also I suffered a knock down as the boat surfed sideways down a wave, luckily I was below and found it quite funny as everything that I had stacked to windward placed itself perfectly in the stacking shelves on the opposite side of the boat!
I managed to keep up a reasonable speed during the race and crossed the finish line 8th in class and 10th overall. Now we are repairing for the return trip ironically in very light airs. Also ironically, the boats have suffered a lot of damage in the port as they are tied up in a very unprotected pontoon and have been bashing into each other and the dock as a merchant ship passes at high speed. Yesterday, my stem fitting broke, more damage than I received in 45 knots of wind and large seas.
I have uploaded a couple of video clips from the race so click here to view them.
you can also follow the second leg by clicking here
cheers, Andrew
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