Kleinwort Benson Channel Island yacht Challenge
10th June 2006 - Guernsey to Jersey
An annual race between Guernsey and Jersey, starting from each island in alternate years. This year's race was Guernsey to Jersey. Prizes are given to the best individual boats, several subsets, team entries and the inter island result.
tacKticians:
John (our revered skipper!)
Sam Rouxel - music maestro, beer attendant and assistant navigator
Kenny (upwind) Witney
Sarah Parks
Georgie Fiskens - victualling officer
James Ede-Golightly
Dave Pimms Costen
Claire Creasey (the Deserter)
Paul Wade
Sadly absent - Amelia (Bow Girlie) who belatedly realised that with imminent 'A' levels she ought to put some revision in!
The crew assembled at the GYC slipway at 08:45 and the dinghy and much abused outboard were soon doing sterling service. The skipper was late and by the time he was piped aboard the navigator and his assistant had worked out what proved to be a stunning tidal strategy and Sam was abusing the deck speakers in his usual fashion.
Out into the Little Russell in plenty of time - a huge line but with 105 boats it ended up busy enough. tacKtic made a clean start, on the line if a little short of boat speed - nonetheless in clear air and we were soon making good progress in clear air in a lovely SE F3.
Once past Lower Heads the fleet split with a majority choosing to cross the Great Russell to Sark and a substantial minority electing to head South. We tacked South once we were in the strong tides of the Russell and settled down to a long but very pleasant beat (Kenny in his element as he really only likes upwind sailing at 20 degrees heel - strange man!) Crew happy, morale high and concentration, always the key, good.
A few beers appeared, in due course luncheon was served and we continued making good speed in a steady, slightly reducing SE 3. Lovely! The wind went down for a while, shifted a little which gave us a better angle and when it went back we tacked.
As we started to close Jersey it became apparent that there were very few boats around us and a great fleet appeared still to be off Sark - that'll be the smaller boats thought we! More beer, more food and the usual inspiring music and life was fine.....
As we tacked down the West Coast of Guernsey we were exchanging tacks with an X362 Sport - "got him beat" said a smug skipper! More was to come. Rounding La Corbiere we identified Quicksilver IV - a J 133 that should have been miles in front - this is looking promising, but presumably most of the really quick boats rounded half an hour ago, although we couldn't see any.
Quicksilver finally passed us a few minutes before we bore away at east Rock to the finish. We were just behind the X. Having been beating for over 4 hours the chance of even a very quick spinnaker reach was not to be missed - up it went, and more impressive was the speed that it came down after the finish with about 100 yards before we would have been in the Ro-Ro dock - do Jersey boats really have so little room near their line?
A brief sojourn at the fuel berth as Claire, being the most nimble, was despatched up the ladder to put in our time declaration to St Helier yacht Club - Kenny remarks that there seem to be very few boats!
Finally berth in the marina, Dave does a splendid job with an uncounted number of Pimms bottles, several beers and a mystery bottle of WKD. We begin to realise that we probably did quite well - maybe 5th across the line? Maybe a top 10 result?
Finally, after a dinner in the Thai across the road, not a moment of which this writer can now remember, it was off to the Yacht Club for the 10pm prize-giving - this was going to be good, huge confidence - definitively top 10.
And so the count-down began. Only 33 boats made the finish before the 7pm time limit (out of 105). Down to the top 10, Kenny smiles, 9, 8, 7 - now we are all beaming - 6, 5 - Skipper and Kenny anxiously wonder if Claire did hand in our declaration correctly? (Very unfair Claire - sorry), 4, the X362, 3 - Spanker - and 2 tacKtic! Simon Henning and Alice II won, after 25 years of trying. And Guernsey completely trounced Jersey in overall numbers and the team results so more smiles all round.
Well we had won 2 beer glasses so what were we supposed to do with them? To be honest the remainder of the evening is shrouded in mystery with vague recollections of telephoning BowGirlie to pass on the glad tidings (no idea what time), a pub, several pontoon parties and finally passing out in my berth - and with a slightly fragile head on waking. Sam, who slept on deck, grumbled that the deck wasn't clear until after 6! Apparently he enjoyed both hours sleep!
We left about 9ish to return to Guernsey - our deserter had left several hours earlier to return on Guffin, which was leaving earlier and she wanted to do some revising (some hope!), to be replaced by Sarah. Everyone was strangely quiet, the skipper retired to his bunk and (I think) James steered most of the way back - all motor sadly as absolutely zero wind! Finally more lunch and back home.
The skipper was reported to be smiling like the village idiot for the next 2 weeks!
Fantastic! With thanks to all the above mentioned "tacKticians"!
