Onboard Ichiban Heading out for Race 1 of the Sails East Port Shelter Regatta, despite a discouraging forecast, the wind looked to be heading up to 10+ knots, which would be great if it held. Onboard Ichiban, due to the recent loss of many regular foredeck crew and the absence on leave of their replacements, the team was looking a bit light on foredeck experience. This was compounded as Captain Rob had been attacked by an oil slick in the car park at work on Thursday evening and had badly twisted his knee. He was confined to a position aft of the steering wheel. The pre-start (and race) was a rare experience for Ichiban— as we don’t enter many Typhoon Series Races—due to the presence of the IRC A boats Jelik, Zannekin, Lighthorse, Rampage, etc. ‘Keep Clear’ were the watch words! A couple of times during the races we had a port/starboard crossing with Jelik, when you don’t get a lot of time to decide what to do! For the HKPN start, Ichiban was positioned well, about two boat lengths from the Committee Boat and just to the lee of AmaZe; with Lazzy Piggy further to windward. All was set up, until about 1.5 boat lengths from the line, when AmaZe decided to bear away into Ichiban’s path, forcing us to do the same to avoid a collision, while calling for AmaZe to “go up,” which she initially did. Only, seconds later, AmaZe steered down again across our bow within half a boat length
(presumably fearing they would be OCS), forcing Ichiban into further evasive action. We shouted again for AmaZe to “go up” which they did, so a collision was avoided. On the helm, Robert decided he had had enough and shouted, “Protest!” and raised the red flag (a very fast move for an injured man with one hand on the steering wheel!). This was Ichiban’s first ever protest and it was fortuitous that the red flag had been placed in an easily accessible location (and was not still in its carrying case below, where it is normally!). Amazingly (or maybe that should be “predictably”) AmaZe completely ignored the protest despite a number of shouts and continued to race (more on this issue later). Onboard Ichiban we had an OK run to the first mark and dealt well with the three or four close crossings—including one with Jelik. From a handicap perspective we were where we should be, in mid-fleet, so still in the race. It was only when we were setting up for the first spinnaker hoist that things started to go wrong, as spinnaker sheets, guys and halyard were not properly set up. The re-running of lines cost time as we rounded the mark and headed toward Cascade Bay still under white sails. By the time this was sorted and the spinnaker hoisted, we were very far right so a quick gybe was called for (though everyone was still suffering from the prior exertion!).
29
RACING
Words Simon Jones