Pornichet Select 2013

The Pornichet Select is one of the more challenging mini races with a high attrition rate. Always in the back of my mind is the 2009 race where I went overboard single handed and towed on my harness. So this race and I have a history. This year turned out to be, as this race goes, fairly easy since the weather was relatively good and it wasn’t as cold as it often is.

I had completed all my planning and the boat, I felt, was ready to go. Because I was moored in by so many boats, I never managed to get out the port for a test sail but I felt confident that everything was okay. This would come back to haunt me, and is a good reminded that nothing should be assumed at this level of competition

Race day was nice and sunny with winds around 10 knots. I got out early to get in the rhythm of sailing and to focus on getting into race mode before the start. Shortly after getting out into the bay, I was sailing along and the autopilot suddenly gybed the boat. I reset it and tried again this time upwind and again the boat just auto tacked. This was a big problem. I tried to see what the issue was and decided that, since there was 1 hour before the start, I would sail back to the port to try to fix it. Thanks to everyone who rushed to help me. We moved the electronic compass and reinitialized it. When I left again it was working but then, just before the start, as the boat leaned over in a gust it just went off again and I almost collided with another boat. I worked on it off and on in the race but could never resolve the issue. So I ended up sailing the 300+Nm course without a functional autopilot, helming for the 60+ hours that it took me to complete it.

I started the race with a plan to race up east side of Belle Ile. I was mid fleet when I noticed most the top boats enter the bay of Quiberon. I never thought that this option was going to work and so had not made a plan for it. I kept on with my original plan as there was still time before I had to commit if I was going to follow the lead group. I managed to grab a chart and have a good look and to check the tide table. It was going to be close on the tide and the current to be able to get back out of the bay as the west side is partially closed in by a chain of islands and shallow navigation hazards. We had gone through the bay of Quiberon on the way to Pornichet but we were double-handed and had had time to check all the navigation. In the end, I decided to go for it: I tacked over to port and headed north in building breeze. I grabbed my handheld GPS which has some waypoints that I could use to get out the bay. I needed this as I had to stay on the helm with no autopilot. I decided to use the north-most exit point since we had used that in the Demi Cle race and so I was more comfortable with it. It turned out to be a problem since, by the time I got there, the tide had changed and I was fighting 1 -2 knts of current. The leaders had exited a few miles south to get out before the tide change but that was not an option for me: the navigation has to be spot on since there are lots of rocks and shallows. The wind was going lighter and going more NE and so I put up the code 5 and sheeted on hard and could lay Birvideaux light. Other boats went with Genniker and in the end that was the correct plan. Exiting the bay the wind built very quickly and I was really maxed out on the Code 5 and full main but could not get a reef in so I just held on for the 10 miles to the light where I was to turn south. If I made a change to a genniker now I would have been without a spinnaker for about 15min and would have slowed down to about a 3 – 5 knot deficit to the other boats. As it was, I was very overpowered but only lost a little bit

At Birvideaux Light, I rounded and and headed south. It was a good conditions for the big spinnaker but I went with the medium spi as I needed to be conservative in the night time. This point in the race, on the way down to Les Sables-d'Olonne, is the point where you should but I had to up all night helming. In the morning the wind dropped and it was light air gybing down back side of Isle d’ Yeu. When the wind dropped all together, I got about 20 min sleep. The wind slowly filled and came in from the NE and managed to get to the east . I made nice gains here, passing about 5 boats. This wind would build all the way down until near the turning mark and I was fully maxed out on full main and big spinnaker. Now the trouble was I that needed to get it down to round the mark just off of the shore and head up wind. This is challenging with no autopilot and 3 other minis all racing hard with me to get inside at the mark. I have to say this was a close call but I managed it. One of the boats rounded up in front of me in gust and I just managed to duck under the stern. It is hard to imagine that after 24 hours of solo sailing the mini sailors are fighting for inches to get inside and around the mark first.

Going back north the sea state and chop was bad and, south of Yeu, I could not get the boat going well. I was very despondent as I thought I was off the pace and losing spots. It turned out that everyone was struggling. I had hedged to move out more to the west before getting north. Once tacked over I saw a couple of boats on the AIS that I had been next to at Les Sables and they crossed a couple miles behind which lifted my spirits. South of Belle-Ile was the key point of the race: if you were early you could get up the inside, but the wind was always going to fill from the west and strengthen from the NW. Late that night I got into a little thunderstorm that gave me a great shift to head NW for 2 hours and I took it. Later in the night the wind slowly died and went north again and so I used this to move out to the west. This moved me up to 3rd place as the wind filled from the west and slowly lifted me up above Groix. I had in fact gone too far and had to reach the last 5 miles to the island as I was overstood but three pogo 2s all rounded together in 2 3 and 4th place. Then it was a great downwind leg to the finish where I needed to stay away from a naval restricted area with live firing exercise.

Fatigue started to overcome me as we sailed south. I could not sail the fast line with the spinnaker as I kept passing out for a few seconds and losing control of the boat. I desperately needed the autopilot now. Instead, I had some more coke and granola bars. I tried all I could to hold on but the other boats broke away and, as I approached Pornichet in the early hours of the morning, 3 more minis closed in from behind and managed to pass me. It was a hard sail to the finish in the narrow channel approaching Pornichet with reefs on both sides. With the lights of the city behind it is impossible to pick up the navigation lights and I was verily struggling with the simple math of trying to calculate a new bearing to the mark on the gybes. When you reach this level of tiredness your brain just wants to turn off all the time simple tasks seem impossible you sort of have to sail the boat by instinct and memory.

In the end, I came in 7th place. And, with the Demi-Cle and Pornichet Select completed, am now qualified for the 2013 Transat.