Fastnet Race 2015

Halcyon Yachts

Halcyon Yachts

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www.halcyonyachts.com
It has long been a dream of mine to skipper a yacht in the Fastnet Race.

Although I have passed Fastnet several times on delivery, I have never sailed around and gone straight back home again!

Does anyone have any advice as to who I could contact to put myself forward as skipper (either a commercial charter company or private owner)?

Also, for anyone that has competed, do you have any top tips?

Many thanks,

Pete
 
Top tip:
Start organising it now.

Check the boat and potential crew meet RORC requirements.
You may need to do sea survival and other courses. Check what you need to do and where and when to do it, in good time.
Find out what you and your crew need to do in the way of qualifying races and mileage.
Find out what you need to do to your boat to comply with race requirements.
Have the crew pay something towards the cost then they will commit to the race.
 
Have a quick PM with Martin J who posts here as ...... (sailing amnesia ! , sorry). He put together a cooperative effort last year which was very well structured and organised. I even think the crew were still speaking with each other after the race.


M sails out Portsmouth I believe. Someone must know him :)


Having done three of them as navigator, my only suggestion is that it might be more enjoyable in the fresh air :eek:
 
There will be lots of favourite tips. Here's my tuppence worth, from having 'been there, done that....'

It's not about straight-line drag racing. Consider how many tidal headlands/gates need to be passed, and have your tactics pre-planned for negotiating each one of them. Dozens get 'parked up' at each 'cos they haven't prepared their game-plan.

Do some research about what smart tactics have resulted in improved positions. Adlard Coles' writings have some hints which are still valid - such as being prepared for deep-water kedging if the breeze is very light. Know where - The Shambles Bank is a possibility. Did that twice on the 2003 race....

Have detailed tidal stream chartlets for as many sections as you can find e.g. 'Inshore Along The Dorset Coast', 'The Isles of Scilly', 'Tidal Stream Atlas of the South Devon Coast', 'Tidal Stream Atlas of the South Cornwall Coast'..... Using this latter allowed us to avoid a small incipient race off The Dodman on the way back; our closest rival didn't and got stuffed for a while. As a direct result we won our Class and the Class Series.

Enjoi....
 
Sounds like you want to get paid for it...

There's no shortage of boats doing it as pay to sail, but it's a big commitment, as they have training weekends as well as the qualifiers. I don't know how many would need skippers though, as they tend to be long term gigs for the regulars.

Private owner that you don't already know, and you want to skipper...? Not going to happen, anyone who doesn't skipper his own boat will have a long term skipper, and the chance of you being able to get in are minimal. Plus that won't be for just the fastnet, so I don't know how that would fit with your delivery stuff. Spot as crew, more than possible, easy even, but almost certainly unpaid.

If you want to get paid I'd say start with whoever hired you to drive a corporate boat for the RTI.
 
writing from a mobile on the train, so I'll be brief..

first response to Flaming's comment... he's right that any owner will wish to be named as PIC (person in charge) but each boat also needs a named second person in charge..

if you're wanting to take your own boat, you will come to realise that the ISAF safety requirements are quite different to any coding requirements that you might be familiar with.

download and read the isaf cat 2 offshore requirements..

if you'd like to read about our entry last year just search the internet for... Jubilant Fastnet Campaign...

You will see the crew was from as far afield as Brazil, Bermuda, Boston and Germany..

and thanks to Sarabande for the bright orange trysail...eeish, it was fun sewing the sail numbers onto it.

Halcyon... if you fancy a chat over a beer to run through the ISAF requirements just call...

We've just added the dsc handheld to the grab bag and AIS Tx from the masthead to remain compliant just in case..
 
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There's always a Sunsail boat or two out on Charter for the Fastnet Race. (Clients have to Charter to do the qualifiers as well.)
However, presumably Pete your Yachtmaster Offshore is commercially endorsed so there is no reason why you couldn't approach several sailing schools and say this is what I want to do. They may be looking for people to skipper. You don't need to be an instructor.
If you can't get a school to take you on then you could put your own team together. Charter a Sunsail boat and split the costs. You could even put together the YBW Fastnet Challenge team.
 
Perhaps we could enter a forum team.

As a non-racer even I might be interested. Earl Grey tea and Highland Park would need to be imbibed.
 
Talulah said:
There's always a Sunsail boat or two out on Charter for the Fastnet Race. (Clients have to Charter to do the qualifiers as well.)
However, presumably Pete your Yachtmaster Offshore is commercially endorsed so there is no reason why you couldn't approach several sailing schools and say this is what I want to do. They may be looking for people to skipper. You don't need to be an instructor.
If you can't get a school to take you on then you could put your own team together. Charter a Sunsail boat and split the costs. You could even put together the YBW Fastnet Challenge team.
Click to expand...

That's a great idea... Unfortunately though I have just spoken to Sunsail and they say that they don't have any yachts entering and that they don't charter yachts for the event due to coding requirements!

Pete
 
Halcyon Yachts said:
That's a great idea... Unfortunately though I have just spoken to Sunsail and they say that they don't have any yachts entering and that they don't charter yachts for the event due to coding requirements!

Pete
Click to expand...

Should also add you don't need a coded boat. Providing the boats meets the ISAF requirements the requirement for coding is suspended.
 
I didn't realise that Sunsail actually have any boats that were compliant with ISAF Category 2 plus RORC prescriptions - Or they didn't when we looked around a couple of years ago.
 
Pete - We did however find one company last year that would have chartered us a boat for the Fastnet and for a couple of the qualifying races.. but it was going to be prohibitively expensive. I can search out details of that company if needed.

All the other sailing schools insisted on two of their staff on board as the two Persons in Charge..
 
Martin_J said:
I didn't realise that Sunsail actually have any boats that were compliant with ISAF Category 2 plus RORC prescriptions - Or they didn't when we looked around a couple of years ago.
Click to expand...

I haven't done the Race for a few years and the ISAF requirements have changed.
However, it wasn't hard to get a boat coded for Cat 2 (Upto 60 miles fom save haven) to meet the ISAF requirements at that time. You just borrowed some additional equipment (i.e. Trysail) for the race.
Since then additional requirements have included AIS but since the Sunsail boats all have AIS that shouldn't be an issue. I can't remember what the other requirements are but there will be many sailing school boats coded for Cat 2 in the Fastnet Race.

https://secure.rorc.org/app/html/downloads/2014-osr-checklist-offshore-races-en.pdf
 
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You have to be careful reading the RORC checklist.. It's a bit of a brief summary of the full regulations.

The checklist for example just asks for AIS transponder check. The full Cat 2 requirements state the antenna for the AIS must be at the masthead.

The full requirements also state the maximum loss on the antenna cable - This is missed out on the checklist.

Out of interest.. (since I've not been on any of the current Sunsail boats).. I wonder if their current boats have two manual bilge pumps permanently installed and also have a way of keeping the washboards permanently attached to the boat and a latching sliding hatch..
 
Martin_J said:
Out of interest.. (since I've not been on any of the current Sunsail boats).. I wonder if their current boats have two manual bilge pumps permanently installed and also have a way of keeping the washboards permanently attached to the boat and a latching sliding hatch..
Click to expand...
I wouldn't look too closely at a lot of boats entering the race. Many fall foul of the regs.
 
Talulah.. You're right there..

I did notice at the start gates last year that a number of boats sheeted their Trysails to the end of the boom. The requirements specifically stated that the Trysail must be totally independent of the boom and must be capable of being hoisted with the mainsail still in it's place in the lowered position.

Anyone is free to call RORC beforehand and ask for a free inspection.
 
Halcyon Yachts said:
It has long been a dream of mine to skipper a yacht in the Fastnet Race.

Although I have passed Fastnet several times on delivery, I have never sailed around and gone straight back home again!

Does anyone have any advice as to who I could contact to put myself forward as skipper (either a commercial charter company or private owner)?

Also, for anyone that has competed, do you have any top tips?

Many thanks,

Pete
Click to expand...

Having completed 12 Fastnets as Crew, Skipper (both professional and amateur including class wins and 2nd overall), worked as a professional delivery skipper sailing over 40K miles I would comment that running a race crew on an offshore/ocean race such as the Fastnet is nothing like delivering a boat across an Ocean. In my experience boats looking for a professional skipper are looking for an seasoned RACE skipper who has completed this before.

I think you should do some serious offshore racing including the FASTNET as crew or say Navigator/Tactician then perhaps try putting your own campaign together. On the other hand maybe you will find someone that wants you to take them around the course. Don't forget you have to qualify by completing a number of offshore events in the boat to be raced with the majority of the crew before hand.
 
As an aside I found the Fastnet Race pointless. It's about time the finish line was moved to Ireland.
Why go all the way to Ireland to go around a rock and end up in Plymouth? Just doesn't make sense.
 
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