Ker 46 Lady Mariposa, skippered by Daniel hardy, is the overall winner of the 2018 RORC Myth of Malham Race.

Edward Broadway’s Ker 40 Hooligan VII is second, winning IRC 1, and Nicolas Gaumont-Prat’s First 40.7 Philosophie IV third winning IRC 3. Other class winners include Christian Teichmann’s Figaro II Abu 43 SH (IRC 2), Chris Blackburn & Simon Dipple’s Sun Fast 3200 All Or Nothing (IRC 4), and Ian Hoddle’s Sun Fast 3600 Game On (IRC Two-Handed).

The 230 nautical mile race around the Eddystone Lighthouse produced an astonishing variety of weather conditions. The Squadron Line featured a picturesque gentle spinnaker start, but as the gradient breeze veered east the wind piped up to 15 knots, 20 in the gusts.

On exiting the Solent, the teams experienced fast running conditions in blazing sunlight towards the famous Eddystone Lighthouse. For the first part of the race, the majority of the teams remained offshore in positive tide but with a dying breeze. A hot and humid night resulted in a violent thunderstorm, accompanied by torrential rain.

By Sunday morning, the majority of the fleet were experiencing light southerly winds, and chose to go inshore before Portland Bill, to escape the worst of the tide. Searching for sea breeze to enhance the extremely light southerly wind, those teams that went all the way into Lyme Bay reaped the rewards.

“Baraka got a better position on the start line and we had some difficulty passing competing yachts, so Baraka was in front of us going out of the Solent, which put us on the back foot.” admitted Daniel Hardy, skipper of the overall winner, Lady Mariposa. “The wind was all over the place, with constant 30-40º wind shifts making for testing conditions. We decided to go a bit further inshore and found a nice patch of breeze near Salcombe. In flat water we were doing 20 knots of boat speed for about an hour. The glamorous racing changed however when the thunderstorm hit, we had an amazing light show, torrential rain and dolphins around the bow for about four hours, it was like a scene out of Avatar!

“We only just beat Baraka around Eddystone by five minutes. On the way back, the wind speed was very unstable, ranging from 8-18 knots – probably the biggest gain was not changing the headsail too early, to keep the boat going. Our watch system was very strict, so we had key people still fresh for the finish in dying breeze, the last few miles took us over three hours.”

Nicolas Gaumont-Prat’s First 40.7 Philosophie IV put in a stellar performance to win IRC 3, just 47 seconds ahead of Ian Hoddle’s Game On after IRC time correction. Philosophie IV, Game On and Rob Craigie’s Bellino, had a dog fight all the way to the Eddystone Lighthouse, and a photo-finish after 42 hours of racing.

“We decided to stay close to the rhum line for the first part of the race, which worked well. When the storm hit we had a masthead spinnaker up, and we were very close to a Chinese gybe.” commented Gaumont-Prat. “We managed to get in control, and keep the spinnaker flying – it was full on for over an hour, but if you want to win yacht races you have to turn moments like this to your advantage. We had a real battle around Eddystone with the leaders of our class all going inshore. We decided to go all the way in at Lyme Bay – we were five metres from the beach and got into lifting and building pressure. However, we made a mistake after Portland by kedging too early, costing us 15 minutes. It was an anxious finish, as we ran out of wind first. We watched as the other boats sailed up to us, so we were very relieved to just take the class win. In a race like this everybody makes mistakes, but the key is to limit the damage that they cause.”

The 2018 RORC Season’s Points Championship continues with the 130 nm East Coast Race from Harwich to Oostende on Thursday 21 June. For full results and information about the Royal Ocean Racing Club: www.rorc.org

Reporter: Louay Habib
Pictures: Paul Wyeth

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