Last year's race was something of an epic event. Sailing and running races can develop into epics when there is either too much wind or no wind at all. The windy epics are white knuckle rides with the runners gingerly watching the sailors control a racing yacht surfing down big waves with a massive spinnaker up: the sailors nervously walking the tightrope between speed and instability. The windless epics turn into cat and mouse games trying to catch little wafts of wind by luck, judgement or by the physical exertion of rowing between the wind patches. Last year's race was essentially windless. I think we won it partly by sheer determination on the rowing.
Is a bigger boat always a better boat? Usually, yes. The critical word is "usually". In light wind conditions in the Three Peaks Yacht Race, smaller boats could have an advantage. When a boat cannot achieve "hull speed", when size matters, lightness matters. Tactix is a light boat. When you have to row, the less boat you have to slug through the water, the faster you'll go. This year we've taken a punt on conditions and have chosen to race in Tactix, a light X-99 type racing yacht. Tactix is 32ft in length and will be one of the smaller yachts in the fleet.
We have been much more fastidious in preparations this year. In May, some of the sailors and runners sailed and ran the Scottish Islands Peaks Race (Mull, Jura and Arran). We got quite a few ideas from this race and ironed out some of the potential problems with both Tactix and the way we live on Tactix (it is important to be able to live well on the boat in order to preserve strength of both body and mind in an endurance race). I fell in love with Tactix on this race. She's an absolutely fantastic racing yacht.
We rowed for long distances on the Scottish Islands Peaks Race, giving us ideas about how to battle against the calm conditions that we're hoping for in order to do well on Tactix. One great idea Geoff had was to enlist Piers Copham into the crew. Piers is a great all rounder, being both a sailor, rower and runner. Piers has been busy applying himself to optimising Tactix's rowing ergonomics. As a national-standard oarsman, Piers needs a tip-top rowing set up on board and has been making visits to Tactix with saws, wood and drills in hand. With a national standard oarsman and an ex-university rower on board, we are hoping to make good rowing progress this year.
The two runners (Martins Beale and Indge) have been competing in the Runfurther UK ultra-running championships and are feeling both confident and nervous at the prospect of the running stages. Snowdon was recce-d the Sunday before the race. Scafell PIke and Ben Nevis have also been climbed recently.
Geoff, Gary and Piers are our primary sailors. Geoff owns Tactix and knows her well. I'm hoping that he has become akin to Tactix's massive new kevlar-reinforced mainsail during the Scottish Islands Peaks Race. It is unlikely that we'll be under-canvassed in this race! Gary and Geoff have been planning tactics for the race and are meeting up on Thursday night in Barmouth to make the final sailing preparations. As past winners in the race, I know they'll be keen to give things a really good shot this time.
A little story from the preparations....
I visited Tactix last week in Barmouth harbour. I needed to go and take some measurements for Piers. It was getting late in the day and the water taxi service was not operating (due to the late hour). I used my own dinghy (from my yacht, Cervisia) to get out there. It was an extremely exciting affair (in a small blow-up dinghy). A spring tide was rushing into the harbour: it looked like a fast flowing river. I aimed well upstream of Tactix and paddled like mad. As I was paddling across, I could see my upstream advantage being rapidly eroded as the tide was rushing up the estuary towards Dolgellau. I landed pretty much spot on top of Tactix, which I was most relieved about: a happy combination of brute paddling force and good judgement. I spent more than an hour on Tactix. This was both to measure up for Piers and to wait for the tide to abate. As the sun was setting, I plucked up the courage to head back to dry land. The tide was still like a maelstrom and I was getting washed towards the Barmouth railway bridge despite my paddling efforts. At the level of the last boat in the harbour, I got out of the tidal stream and felt so relieved as I calmly paddled through the calm water to the slipway and safety. I've never had quite such excitement with a tape measure before!
No comments:
Post a Comment