Regent Express performs well in the Harken RI race

There is a full write up on this annual event sailed in almost perfect conditions. A misjudgement of wind strength by the race committee saw the start times of the faster boats being slowed too much resulting in many of the smaller class 2 boats doing well. Go to http://www.pacer27.co.za/ for the full story

Epic return trip to Cape Town

I think yesterdays sail back must rank as possibly the most enjoyable of my life. 

With only 230 kgs of crew mass on board I went ultra conservative and rigged a reefed main and the North “#4” small jib despite the forecast indicating only 14 knots of wind.

It howled all night at our home and when I picked Joshua and his pal Allesandro up in West beach it was pumping there as well. I was fully expecting to abort the trip on arrival at Simonstown, but strangely the south easter was very much as forecast with the odd white cap here and there. Very much sailable.

We left at 0800 sharp and tackled that very long beat to Cape Point. We were fortunate to have a large school of dolphins swimming with us for almost 40 minutes. When we tacked, they came with us. There was one ‘little un' of only 2 ft length learning to surf bow waves. At that point I knew our trip would be a good one. We also sailed close by a whale but luckily it was swimming to the west and away from our track. The wind remained fairly steady in strength and we were able to sustain 6.0 knots upwind speed most of the time. Josh helmed most of the way to the Point. It was getting quite chilly near Cape Point as the sky went gray and overcast.

The sea was exceptionally rough at Cape Point. It was so bad that I didn’t want to risk putting the kite up, so we 2 sailed reached about half a mile clear of the land before hoisting the R1. There were at least 30 commercial fishing boats active in the area west of Cape point, so we planned to keep well clear of them. I was a bit concerned whether we would be able to hold the boat upright with the big kite up, but the boat behaved itself nicely and soon we had 10 knots + on the log. We had set the kite to clear Slangkop light, but typically we ended up sailing tighter angles than expected. I could feel some kelp on the keel, so when we gybed to clear Slangkop, we did a Mexican drop, reversed to clear the kelp, then got the R1 back up and headed back out to sea. We stood out far, until I was certain we could clear Karbonkelberg on a single gybe. The only boat we saw after Cape Point, was a large cargo vessel which passed us about a mile off heading south. There was something eerie about being the only pleasure craft at sea on a midweek working day.

After the next gybe, the breeze picked up to 20 knots and our speed started hovering on 12 knots with the odd foray into the 15 knot zone. I have never felt this boat so light and responsive, no doubt a product of the light crew mass. It was a fantastic sail from Scarborough through to Camps Bay – all of it on the starboard gybe. At one stage our ETA showed 1.30pm! The seas were very rough with huge swells off Hout Bay, but other than a few nose dives, the boat recovered well and sustained very high speeds with images of Volveo Open 60s with decks awash in white water. Josh did all the downwind kite trimming – he is a fast learner and soon got the hang of recovering the kite after those blistering surfs. I think he probably slept better than me last night!

At Camps Bay, the breeze started dropping rapidly, so we gybed back out to sea and picked up some fresh breeze. Here the seas were much flatter and we nailed 16,2 knots quite easily. Two more gybes got us to Green Point, where the breeze finally petered. Time for the donkey and we motored in past the breakwater at 4.15. 8hrs 15 mins from when we left. We sailed the whole way back with a reef in the main.

It was waaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy nicer than being at work!

Total distance: 65.1 nm

Max speed: 16.2 knots

Average: 7.2 knots

Time: 8hrs 15 mins