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18 July
Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta 2007
It's not often one gets an invite to join the crew of an international Regatta winning yacht so when I got a call from James a few weeks ago I started to wonder why. Was it down to my exploits in the recent Round the Island Race or was it because they weren't taking this particular event too seriously. Either way, I accepted as did Pete Spedding who was to be the other honored Dee SC guest for the event.
I'd not heard much about the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta before but a quick look at the website was enough to clarify a few things. For starters, it is a big event. Run jointly by the four Yacht Clubs based at Dun Laoghaire , it is held every two years in rotation with Cork Week and attracts entries ranging from humble Fireball dinghies up to the £1M+ TP 52's. All in all this years event attracted 522 entries. Spirit of Jacana was entered in Class Cruiser 0 which actually included a broad mix of production Cruiser Racers and One-off race boats. With yachts such as the Scottish Series overall winner Jump Juice to contend with, it was clear our Class was going to be very competitive.
We caught the 08.55hrs Sea Cat from Holyhead on Thursday morning and arrived in DL 1 hour and 45 minutes later to meet up with the rest of the crew. James and his brothers Bruce and Alan have a regular bunch that have sailed with them for many years on this and previous boats. There's Bruce's wife Judith, twins David and ?Young' Bruce, ?Boy Band' Jonnie, and Neill. There is of course one final member of the crew, James' mum Anne who takes her place at the aft end of Jacana to keep an eye on her boys.
After dumping our bags at the Marina House (Budget Accommodation Hostel of which I will talk more about later) we all met at the boat to head out for the one race scheduled for Thursday afternoon. I'd been given the job of assisting David with trimming the headsail and sharing the flying of the huge asymmetric spinni. These are both very important jobs. Pete however, was given less important jobs assisting with sail changes. Now, those of you that know both Pete and I will know that Pete's the better sailor but unfortunately for Pete I'm 15 stone and so I'm banned from going forward of the mast. Pete on the other hand is a relative shrimp so is ideal for that position. The learning from this is that if you don't own the boat but want a job at the back end make sure you're a bit on the lardy side. I'll apologize now for not going into too much detail about the individual races as much of the rest of the weekend is still a blur. Anyway, I can at least check back on the results and we kicked off with a 10 th . At least with only one race we were able to get ashore smartly and start drinking. The set up onshore was very good with all of the Clubs having beer tents, even the posh ones. After a break for a belly full of tapas in town we returned to one of the Clubs to continue drinking before heading back to our luxury hotel for the night.
Passing the Royal Marine Hotel I wondered whether Bruce had got the booking mixed up. Unfortunately, there was no mix up and back at Marina House we surveyed our accommodation. At 22.50 Euros per night you don't get much but it did the job adequately. One has to admire the skills required to squeeze two home made bunk beds into a broom cupboard. As for the en-suite shower room, at least we had one but it wasn't designed for anyone taller that 5ft. Sat on the loo it was definitely more comfortable for anyone with long legs to have their feet inside the shower tray such was it's proximity.
Three races were scheduled for Friday with a sociable 11.00hrs start. The rain was particularly heavy on Friday which tested even the best of our kit and it was reasonably breezy but not overly so. It certainly wasn't the sort of wind strength that would tempt Mark Emptage out on Animal for the annual gear breaking session. Anyway, after a short 55 minute race in which we finished 9 th , the Race Officer bizarrely abandoned any further racing for the day much to the astonishment of us all. The previous weeks events involving youngsters sailing dinghies at DL may have been praying on the RO's mind but as someone said, ?we're big %&$*$! boys on big %&$*$! boats? (you have to say than with an Irish twang to get the full effect). The rumour was that the wind was forecast to increase but it didn't so we were left to the mercy of a longer spell in the beer tents. This was to be my undoing or at least the start of it. What really did the damage was the large and compulsory Pink Gin later in the evening. The learning from this is never put ?Young' Bruce in charge of ordering Pink Gins.
Saturday's weather was much improved although the winds were considerably lighter and somewhat shifty but once again the weather had a major part to play in the days events. Three races were again scheduled but only one was possible due to the shifts which seemed to prevent the RO from setting an ideal course. I think we'd have been happy with a slightly less than ideal course just to get some racing but as it was we were out on the water for the best part of seven hours just for one race. Despite feeling very dodgy I managed to keep everything in place as did some of the others who were starting to look somewhat pale and jaded.
And so to the final day, the pressure was certainly on the RO to not only get the one scheduled race in but also try to catch up with one of the unsailed races Conditions again were not ideal but the RO did manage to run two races one of which we won convincingly taking first across the line and on handicap despite the visibility being down to less than 500m. With one discard, this put us 9 th overall and considering there were only two production Cruiser Racers in the top ten, a good result I think. Back in the marina there was enough time to tidy the boat and get a couple of beers in before the three of us headed off for the 18.00hrs return Sea Cat to Holyhead.
So from Pete and me it's a big thankyou to James, Bruce, Judith, Alan, Anne, and the rest of the boys for a great few days. I certainly intend to be back in two years time but hopefully in our boat. One thing's for sure, Brige won't stay in Marina House if we do so it's the Royal Marine Hotel for me next time.
www.dlregatta.org
Words and pics: Alasdair Davidson
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