The mistral has continued and once again sorted the men from the boys. 25-30 knot consecutive days have seen masts break, crewmembers go over the side and collisions happen. Racing through the archipelago that scatters the north east coast of Sardinia and then through the straights south of Corsica can cause havoc for these vessels especially when they are generally 100 feet + without taking into consideration the rocks and shoals that we have to zig zag our way through.
Yesterday after a superb cocktail party the evening before which epitomised the purpose and style of the maxi class, we set off to only discover that pushing a predominantly cruising boat in 30 knots, around a race course results in damage. A ripped sail and a broken halyard hampered our race, but did not end it unlike some who sustained ripped mainsails and broken masts.
A steep learning curve earned us a disappointing yet acceptable 6th in fleet, and this morning we went out in force with another heavy airs reachy course. Today was much better and with only a small amount of damage caused to our big genoa, we fired round the racecourse and came 2nd to Velsheda.
In these conditions, my job as downwind trimmer is very wet and whilst the rest of the crew shelter from the waves towards the stern of the boat I am left hanging onto the shrouds calling the trim of the jibs or spinnaker depending on the wind angle. Wet but fun is how I would describe it, although I am just glad we are in Sardinia and not England!
Tonight we have a lovely dinner in store once again before the 3rd day of racing and then a big night tomorrow night as Thursday is a layday…. Lets hope for more wind tomorrow… the pirate ship loves it!