AZAB off to rocky start?

skyflyer

skyflyer

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Heard from a “reliable source” today that 6 AZAB contestants are returning to UK and there has been a dismasting with the St Mary’s Severn Class enroute to assist.
Could be rumour and hype of course. Nothing on AZAB site.
Anyone know anything to confirm or deny this?
 
Scrolling down the tracker list I see "Boogie Nights"...oddly serendipitous given that only last week I managed to append a youtube clip of Sugar Kane's movie eponym to the oceanlord thread.

Are any other forumites competing?
 
I believe British Beagle, lost and cut away his mast then motored back.

From the AZAB facebook page

Well that was an interesting day!! Wishfull Thinking in Newlyn, Autarky heading home with some water ingress issues, British Beagle dis-masted and now looks to be heading for Falmouth, Jurate retiring to Guernsey and then to cap it all Bigfoot has a keel problem and taking in water. Purple Mist stands by and escorts back towards Scillies and the good old RNLI from St Mary's now taken over escort. Stirling job by Purple Mist - well done.
Everyone is safe.
Let's have a quiet night shall we!!!
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Went down to Newlyn to meet a very tired and disappointed David Knowler. He'd had a fall in the night, may have cracked ribs and twisted knee. Made the right call and lives to fight another day. See you in 2023 David.
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How does a boat that has been prepared for a Biscay crossing and racing to boot lose it's mast in only moderate conditions?
 
Fr J Hackett said:
How does a boat that has been prepared for a Biscay crossing and racing to boot lose it's mast in only moderate conditions?
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I do not know the boat but speculated that there is a lot of new stuff that has not been tested before the trip. It is easy to assume the new bits are good, correctly assembled. The last few weeks have not give much opportunity to test a boat in windy conditions.
 
sailor211 said:
I do not know the boat but speculated that there is a lot of new stuff that has not been tested before the trip. It is easy to assume the new bits are good, correctly assembled. The last few weeks have not give much opportunity to test a boat in windy conditions.
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The boat in question is a heavily and successfully raced Sigma 36. If you are going to race a boat on a 2000 mile 2 leg race you don't leave it to the last few weeks to test a boat in "windy" conditions low 20Knts is not windy it is ideal offshore conditions.
 
Fr J Hackett said:
The boat in question is a heavily and successfully raced Sigma 36. If you are going to race a boat on a 2000 mile 2 leg race you don't leave it to the last few weeks to test a boat in "windy" conditions low 20Knts is not windy it is ideal offshore conditions.
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I know both Charles and Beagle well. I will maybe post his story when he has got some sleep . He got in v late last night.
The boat was very well prepared but the conditions were lumpy. I'm sure a few armchair sailors will huff and puff about 'only 20 kts of wind' but it was high twenties in the SW approaches and if you have been there you might remember how bouncy that can be.
 
doris said:
I know both Charles and Beagle well. I will maybe post his story when he has got some sleep . He got in v late last night.
The boat was very well prepared but the conditions were lumpy. I'm sure a few armchair sailors will huff and puff about 'only 20 kts of wind' but it was high twenties in the SW approaches and if you have been there you might remember how bouncy that can be.
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I and I am sure others would be interested to hear the story, I was in no way questioning the boat hence the comment highly and successfully raced, I was more questioning the testing of a boat in windy conditions in the weeks preceding an offshore race.
I know just what 20knts and far more is like in the SW and Western approaches.:eek:
 
boogie nights is owned / sailed by Jayne Toyne. Shes repaired my previous boats sails and made me curtains before, have her on facebook. just seen her boat and her home was dismasted :ambivalence:
 
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We were in Falmouth some 15 odd years ago at the time of the start which we watched from the water. I think that about half a dozen boats returned within a few days on that occasion too. One experienced solo lady found the first two or three days without sleep in murky and windy conditions spoiled the fun somewhat, and a Dehler had a backstay failure, so retirements in the race are not unheard of.
 
johnalison said:
We were in Falmouth some 15 odd years ago at the time of the start which we watched from the water. I think that about half a dozen boats returned within a few days on that occasion too. One experienced solo lady found the first two or three days without sleep in murky and windy conditions spoiled the fun somewhat, and a Dehler had a backstay failure, so retirements in the race are not unheard of.
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It nearly always has a spell of boisterous weather.
 
doris said:
I know both Charles and Beagle well. I will maybe post his story when he has got some sleep . He got in v late last night.
The boat was very well prepared but the conditions were lumpy. I'm sure a few armchair sailors will huff and puff about 'only 20 kts of wind' but it was high twenties in the SW approaches and if you have been there you might remember how bouncy that can be.
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well said
 
UK-WOOZY said:
boogie nights is owned / sailed by Jayne Toyne. Shes repaired my previous boats sails and made me curtains before, have her on facebook. just seen her boat and her home was dismasted :ambivalence:
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Jayne is a bit of a sta. I am sorry to hear the news but if there is one thing I know about her, she WILL be back for the next one.
 
Aye, so just to clarify a bit, yeah, my mast chuffin broke didn't it. At night. In the dark.
It was a five and half year old selden mast, (entirely replaced the rig and sails in late 2013/ commissioned march 2014)
We'd sailed conservatively, it was just a f5-6 with smoothish sea state. We had 2 reefs in and a little bit of jib rolled away.
Selden refuse to believe the mast would snap.
I assured them it did, because I heard and saw it go. Very impressive too. I felt every single shroud under tension as the mast lay like an inverted L shape hanging over the side. Every line, cable and shroud had to be cut away.
Less impressed with losing the lot nearly 400 miles from port, but there you go.
Boogie Nights is currently having a little rest in the lovely island of Sao Miguel while I earn the money to get a rig made and sent out.
Current plans are to sail back at first weather window in spring 2020 and get a shuffle on for the start of the yachting monthly triangle race in June.
Offshore sailing carries risks. But they're calculated. I was more prepared for hitting a submerged container and losing the rudder than for dismasting. Thankfully the spare spin pole I carry around for emergency steering also works well as a jury rig A frame. The rest of the boat, even through the f8-9 and rough stuff we had earlier in the race was tickety boo thanks very much. The Dehler 36 CWS is a stonkingly fun boat to sail and a you get a heck of a lot of boat for, relatively speaking, not a lot of outlay. (Except for paying for two entire rigs in the space of 6 years I don't want to dwell on that)

It's certainly not put me off racing offshore, if anything it's made me more determined to get my old boat fixed and carry on some more.
 
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