One More Knot's 2008 Round the Island race report

28th June 2008

One More Knot claims a 4th consecutive top ten spot in the 2008 Round The Island Race
CREW: Phil Duff, Barry Duff, Darrell Duff, Phil Bailey, Julian Coates, Glenn Wilkinson, Joe Bailey

One More Knot on the way to do battle in the 2005 Round the Island race
Picture courtesy of Eric Whitelaw, from Elissa; Old picture from 2005.
We were negligent this year and forgot about cameras!

The Round the Island race stands proudly on the world map of yacht racing. This year, a record 1875 yachts entered the race, with 1557 making the finishing line. For One More Knot, this is the biggest and most important race of the year. A strong breeze made for an exciting and fast rounding. This year One More Knot managed to knock over an hour off our best time, for a personal best of 7 hours 52 minutess and 6 seconds.

Our record to date has been 26, 25, 4th, 5th and last year 9th in class. This year's target was another top 5, but we missed .... by one!

Once again, Thursday before the race was a big boat clearout. The suspension on the car was left groaning. The bottom had been cleaned on Tuesday, with another top up wipe on Thursday evening.

On our usual Friday practice, we had all but Barry on board. It was an exciting sail. We had the kite up in upto 29 knots. Having avoided broaching all day long, we managed to make the final drop of the day difficult by dipping both the kite and Joe's legs in the water! Joe was oiked to safer territory and the kite was recovered quickly. It turned out to be quite a realistic practice for what was to come. We had also manage to jam the port spinnaker halyard. A quick sail home was required to get Joe into warmer clothes, so the #2 jib was hoisted and the set about getting back to harbour. On the first tack, we the managed to swipe the steaming light from the mast, scattering bits over the deck. Fortunately we rescued the main part of the broken shell, which gave us an indication of what to replace it with. It now became a race to get back into the marina and up to the shops before they shut! Once back ashore it took a quick dash to the shop to buy a new steaming light. Phil was then hoisted up the mast to make the repairs, just like the big boyz on their pre-race evening. It was a real team effort so get everything done quickly. The steaming light was made good and the halyard jam was released. Within an hour and a half from coming back into the marina we set for the mornings race so we went off to eat. As it turned out, the practice was representative of the next days race conditions .... so at least we were up to speed.

This year we were in ISC class 5B, racing under a 'white' flag, starting at 07:10. Our handicap, 1.003, put us as one of the faster boats in our class, althoug there were some bigger boats in the the start. Once again, our handicap put us in with mostly larger boats, predominantly 36 to 41 footers.

Last year, Melody, another Elan 333 won the class. We wanted revenge! We shared our start with the Contessa 32 fleet, which history has shown have very good speed. By rights, our handicap should mean that we would be way out in front but this is hard to achieve because they are usually very competitive. We find them a good bench mark for our performance on the water.

The results

ISC handicap : 1.003

Finishing time : 15:02:06

Elapsed time : 7:52:02

Corrected time : 7:53:31

Fleet Class Position Finishers (Starters)
ISC Handicap Class 5B 6 36 (41)
ISC Handicap Start Group 5A-5D 11 150 (176)
ISC Overall 4A-7D 51 684 (875)

Full race results : RTI 2008 (courtesy of the Island Sailing Club)

More info from the Island Sailing Club RTI website.

Race day log

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Replay One More Knot's GPS track here

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GPS track of the 2008 Round the Island race
One More Knot's 2008 RTI Race GPS log (red)

Our start time was 7:10am as part of the white fleet. We left the berth at 5:15am and probably with the crew in better shape than previous years. We had made an effort to limit the pre race beers and to get to bed early.

At the start, there was already a good F4, with the forecast for more. We elected for the full main and #3 jib. Once again, we chose to start about half way along the line. By using the GPS, we have a good idea where the line is, and how long it will take to get across it. This is always tricky given the 2 or 3 knots of tide trying to push the fleet over the line. We found ourselves hanging back from the rest of the fleet until about 40 seconds to go. From here we were able to harden up and feather the main to control our speed for the final push to the line. Once again, most of the fleet were reaching along the line, however, as they approached us they were the give way boats. We were able to sheet in with 15 seconds to go and this allowed us to get a cracking start. According to the GPS we crossed the very long (and difficult to judge line) about 17 seconds after the gun. We emerged through the fleet of yachts still winching and grinding as they hardened up into the beat to the Needles. As we raced toward Gurnard, off Egypt point we were straight up onto the pace, mixing it with the top ten in our start

The clean air and water allowed the leaders to quickly strectch a gap from the bulk of the fleet, who were probably getting in each other's way. We fought neck and neck with the other top white flag boats, which included some Contessa 32's who were doing well in the stiff beat. We saw a number of the regular "white fleet" top boats and cross tacked several times with many of them. Typically the boat to the south showed small gains, and our course showed that we followed the island side of the main channel. It didn't take long for us to be overtaking the stragglers from the earlier starting fleets.

A report from the "Round the Island" website reported that the first "White" flagged boat passed the Yarmouth pier at 8:36. However, according to our GPS we passed it at 8.33 ... so we were up there, 3 minutes ahead of the reporters! The GPS showed that we had maintained a consistent 7-8 knots over the ground from the start to Yarmouth.

After we passed Sconce, the GPS shows that our SOG increased to over 9 knots as we passed through the Hurst narrows and tracked down the Needles channel near the Shingles bank. Eventually, we made our final tack toward the Needles, with a view to the option of going inside the Vavassi. We were surprised by the rapidity of increase in the wind strength, from 18 to 24 knots. We considered putting a reef in the main but perservered without because we didn't have far to go. Despite being one of the inside boats we still rounded well outside the wreck due to the strong tide at 09:15. A mere 2 hours and 5 minutes after our start to make 13nm to windward as the sea gull flies!

On completing the rounding, we took a minute to assess the conditions and observe those around us. The direct route was a broad reach across Freshwater bay to St Cats. About 10% of the fleet were flying kites, or attempting to. Of these, probably about 50% were having some difficulty. The swell was much bigger than yesterdays practice.

We elected hoist the kite. By running deep and following the shoreline we were able to surf down the waves and keep the boat upright. Surf after surf hit 11.1 knots. The crew and helm were concentrating, trying to keep things control by responding early. After about 20 minutes, we lost the plot and broached. A bit of nifty steering on the next wave and we managed to get the boat back under the sail and we were off again. 20 minutes later, the same thing happened again.

We were much faster than boats without kites despite the wind having increased 26 knots and gusting to 32. Eventually, we overtook "Just In Time", on of the Portsmouth Parhelion regulars and a boat that we have close racing with. They had started 30 minutes in front of us. However, shortly afterwards we broached twice in 2 minutes and the managed to sneak back in front. We elected to drop the kite and sail under white sails. Following the coast allowed us to make the angles a bit better, so we didn't lose too much speed under white sails. We would have had trouble with holding the spinnaker anyway. Our speed was good under white sails and was more than a match for under white sails taking the direct route across freshwater bay. As we approached St Cats, we got our final big push from the tide in the eddy. We rounded St Cats at 10:54; 12.4nm in 1 hour 40 minutes.

At St Cats, we were very broad again and on an inside track through the overfalls, it was a bit choppy. We prepared for a kite hoist but elected to hold off until the sea state calmed a little. Once the chop and then the swell had eased we hoisted the kite. The hoisted was clean and One More Knot set off like a bat out of hell again .....for about 400yds .... when ...

A huge broach followed by a failed attempt to dump the sheet becasue of a riding turn. In our efforts to correct the situation we gybed and put both the pole and boom in the water at speed. We elected to dump the kite from the head. The theory being to spill the wind by putting the kite in the water if necessary. It also meant that the bottom corners were still near the boat. The kite ended up being blown into the sea in front of the bow. For the first time ever, Phil realised that we might run over our own spinnaker. We had seen plenty of pictures of this from the big boyz. Now it was our turn! At least with the kite in the water the boat stood upright and steerage had returned. With a rapid slew to port, we put the kite alongside the starboard rail. Two of the crew set about retrieving ... others were reminded it wasn't a spectator sport and soon afterwards with 4 crew on the rail the kite slide easily back on deck. Fortunately, no damage was done, other than everything being soaking wet. The RNLI inshore RIB saw our antics and arrived on the scene as we bobbed backup. They asked it we were ok .... we said "Yep .... did you take any pictures?" The reply was "No" accompanied by chuckles all around. The GPS showed that it took us 3 minutes from losing it to getting back to race speed. Even so, we averaged 4 knots in the right direction.

From here, we raced under white sails towards Ventnor. Alongside was a little Parker 26 going like a train with their kite up. They stayed alongside for a long time until the sense got the better of them and they dropped their spinnaker. Surfing down the waves was fun!

Across Sandown bay, we jousted with other boats, trying to keep good angles in clear air. We sailed much more inshore than most of the fleet, pretty much a straight line to Bembridge. We found ourselves amongst the highest (closest to the Island) 3 boats of the whole fleet in our area. All across the bay, the two Phils were discussing whether to hoist the kite again. On the plus side, the water was much flatter now we were in the lee of the Island. On the minus side, the wind was now a steady 29 knots and we were having at times we trouble staying on our feet under a full main and #2. Looking at the other boats, there appeared to be little speed difference between those few still with spinnakers and those without. We didn't put the kite back up.

As we approached Bembridge we needed to run a bit deeper to drop downwind. Most of the boats near us didn't appreciate that the tide was trying to wash them inside the mark. We had to holler at a few other yachts to warn them .. in our own interests of course! By getting them to change course we could stay on our prefered course despite being the give way boat, but we were doing them a favour too. After a tight rounding at 1238, we then hardened up for the drag race to the forts.

We could see the usual upwind tacking frenzy beyond the forts and upto Ryde Sand. So on rounding the fort, we were one of the earliest boats to tack ..... too soon ... the tide washed us back onto the fort. It took a double tack to get out of trouble but we then went agressively inshore to cheat the adverse tide. After some good progress, we needed to come out again to round Ryde Sand. We cut inside the marker post .... following a couple of other boats, but all too well aware of how steeply the sand shelves.

We spotted last years class winner, Melody and we raced along side them for a while. They had a heavily furled jib and deep reefed main. With our #3 and full main, we had better speed but were having a tricky time keeping it going in the gusts. Darrell was maxed out on the main. On balance, there was nothing between the boats as we frequently lost out our gain. Off Ryde Pier we crossed tacks with Candida (Sigma 41) who subsequently went on to win our start group. As we approached castle point, we took a timeout to drop 2 reefs in the main, fearing the wind may be even stronger around the headland. The reefed main helped the boat control significantly but sadly the wind didn't increase around the headland. This year, we stayed well out of the deep water channel and adverse tide.

At Castle point,we found ourselves neck and neck again with Melody. We tracked into shallower water first, while they perserved a little longer. Sadly for us, Sunsail 9 (Sunfast 37) had come across our bows on Starboard and then tacked high of our line. This meant that we would be in her dirty air so we elected to tack again to get clear. This cost us a few seconds and allowed Melody to get clear. As we crossed the line, we realised that we had overstood on our final tack, although it allowed us to cross the line free of worry about the other yachts and being washed onto the committee boat.

This year, we completed the course in 7 hours 52 minutes and 6 seconds, taking over an hour off our previous best. Our corrected time was 7 hours, 53 minutes, 31 seconds.

Our finishing positions were 6th in class, 11th in the group and 51st in ISC overall. Analysis of the 'corrected' results show that we were 12 minutes 35 seconds behind winners of both our class (5B) and our start group (white flag); Candida (Sigma 41). We finished 53 seconds behind last years class winner Melody (Elan 333) .... grrrr!, although slight handicap differences put her in class 5A. What might have been ..... We missed out on a top 50 result by a mere 30 seconds in the ISC fleet of 703 classified finishers. We had started the race hoping for a top 3. We missed our target by less than 7 minutes.

As for the start group line honours, which is rewarded by a cannon shot, we missed out by 13 minutes and 52 seconds from Wight Leopard (Hanse 400).

We could probably have pressed a little harder across Sandown bay by using the kite, however we may have lost more time by having trouble. Who knows ... We are still losing a bit of time on the final leg, from Ryde to Castle Point. We need to work on this. All up, a good result and one that we feel is fair and justified. This year, by finishing within about 10 minutes of the group winner, we were much closer to the top of the fleet than we have ever been before.