The Rendez-Vous 2017 Tall Ships Regatta fleet is making steady progress in the moderate south east winds that they have been experiencing over the past 24 hours and are beginning to spread out.
Paul Bishop, Race Director, Sail Training International gives us an insight into vessel tactics.
“With some complex weather patterns forecasted over the next week it is unclear which strategy will pay off. Rona II has taken the most northerly route and is sailing to her optimal wind angles. This is a bit of a gamble as she will have to sail a greater distance. Alexander Von Humboldt II has taken the most southerly route and might be the first to benefit from the westerly winds when they fill in over the next couple of days .
“Peter Von Danzig is ahead on the water and Spaniel is not far behind,but is on a more direct route to the south. It will be interesting to see over the next few days if the vessels continue to spread out on their different strategies, or begin to converge as the wind comes around into the western sector.”
PositionS overall and by class
- Blue Clipper (UK) (1st Class B)
- Oosterschelde (Netherlands) (1st Class A)
- Jolie Brise (UK) (2nd Class B)
- Gulden Leeuw (Netherlands) (2nd Class A)
- Atyla (Vanuatu) (3rd Class B)
- Regina Germania (Germany) (1st Class C/D)
- Rona II (UK) (2nd Class C/D)
- Vahine (Finland) (3rd Class C/D)
- Peter Von Danzig (Germany)
- Spaniel (Latvia)
- Alexander Von Humboldt II (Germany) (3rd Class A)
Note: Positions and placings are correct at time of publishing. Check out YB Satellite Tracking for the latest information.
CREW NEWS
Off We Go Again: Rona II
6 August: Day 5 in the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean felt slightly like Groundhog Day as we prepared for the race restart. Everyone had slept well, as Rona II spent the night hove to in front of the start line. The Mongols watch leader, Sam Wareing, had his boat birthday alongside the celebration on board of Labour Day. To celebrate the Mongols invited the on board gentry (the Skipper and Mate) to compete against Sam Wareing and Matt Robinson in a game of six pin bowling in the saloon gangway. Dressed in their casual attire of blazers and ties the gentry won narrowly, demonstrating little respect for Sam’s birthday as well as keeping the working class in their place.
Over lunch the Mongols created some decorative numbers in the shape of ties as our representation of Labour Day, as we didn’t know exactly what Labour Day was supposed to represented.
After some memory jogging spinnaker training and some speed wooling from mother watch, we crossed the line at 17:53 UTC, tactically only just making the closing deadline at 16:00. Viking watch took us across the line dressed in full Viking battle dress. Capes blowing in the wind, beards drenched in sea water without mentioning the cheeky breeze up the tunic. They definitely looked the part and we zoomed across the line at lightning speed. I think we can see Ireland already!!
Dinner was one of the best so far on the race and turned Rona II into a full on Italian restaurant. A creamy lasagne and a glorious flatbread was followed by a pineapple crumble. Dinner was topped off by a whale sighting off the starboard side, which rallied the crew onto the deck where they delighted in ticking yet another animal off their check lists.
Planetary Encounter: Rona II
6 August: The first full day of the newly-started race proved to be an eventful one. In the early hours, the on-watch Mongols had an alarming encounter with a bright light appearing on the horizon with a bearing apparently drawing straight towards the boat. After a nail-biting period spent failing to get the binoculars to focus on the strange object drawing nearer, the Skipper finally informed the watch that in fact Jupiter had risen, and they’d been having kittens over the appearance of a planet in the sky.
As the sun rose, with low winds, the crew put up as much canvas as they could to harness everything the wind could give us. Today we were celebrating the birthday of the loud on deck, louder in his bunk, ever snoring Angus Elliman. None of us have birthdays during the trip, but the Afterguard have cleverly compressed the year by nine times from our date of departure in order that everybody gets to have theirs celebrated. Today was Angus’. His watch all clubbed together to buy him a haircut but alas he was uninterested. So instead Mother watch (the Mayans) wrote him a three sentence book about a whale called Angus who had a haircut. It was critically
acclaimed.
Mother watch kept themselves busy, taking boat cleaning and maintenance to a whole new level – literally. For the first time today, mother watch went Bilge Diving. Harry Normanton bravely nominated himself as tribute. Mother picked him up, turned him upside down and dangled him by his ankles into the bilges below. Armed with a dustpan and brush and a head torch, our hero descended as a crew member and returned as a god. Bilge Boy was born.
As the day went on the wind progressively picked up. We hit our greatest heel so far of 25 degrees and screamed along at a dizzy 8.5 knots and often reaching above 10 knots in gusts.
During the quieter times, Mother Watch treated themselves to an aft-deck shower with the help of the Mongols, the second of the trip so far. This one was unique in the new addition of the ‘George Hopkins Power Button’. In an attempt to supplement the slow drip of the sea water shower, a push of the button will cause the Mongols’ watch officer to empty a fire-bucket of water onto the shower’s occupant. The experience was simultaneously shocking and effective.
The Mongols were jealous of such a service and intended to do the same after dinner. Unfortunately they got their wish a little earlier than anticipated, as sail changes on the bow gave the entire watch a full sea water wash down. Unfortunately they’d all neglected to take their shower gel with them.
In race progress news, we finally left Newfoundland behind us this afternoon and set out into the real Atlantic, over a Grand Banks plagued by intermittent fog. Our speedy progress also had us overtake race competitor Blue Clipper. After ditching some alarmingly explosive tins of chicken curry, the crew ended the day with corned beef hash, ratatouille and cheesecake.
Current Tactics: Rona II
7 August It’s early morning, still dark, and has been a busy night as we’ve changed steadily down from genoa, staysail, full main and mizzen, to no 2 yankee, staysail, second reef and mizzen. The wind has come aft a little and we are trucking along.
Tactically over the next couple of days we’re trying to play to Rona II’s strengths. She’s an absolute weapon with the wind a little aft of the beam and around 18 knots of breeze, so with more wind (and a higher sea state) to the north west, and less of both to the south east, we’re adjusting our (generally north east) course to try and keep ourselves in exactly that much wind. Ultimately it looks like we’ll go quite a long way north before turning east, covering a longer distance in order to stay in Rona II’s sweet spot for as long as possible.
It’s too early to properly know what the rest of the fleet is doing but we suspect we’re the most north westerly boat. If so, it’s a classic gamble – we may do very well out of this strategy… or very poorly!
CREW QUOTE
7 August “On our calculations Rona II covered 203 nautical miles in the 24 hours to 12:00 UTC. We’re currently running at 9.5 knots so should increase that number over the next few hours. Everyone very happy onboard!”
Follow the Fleet
Watch the action as it happens and follow the fleet’s progress using YB Satellite Tracking.
Banner and Feature image: Rona II on the Transatlantic start line – Valery Vasilevskiy.