Arcsine on the 2015 Fastnet

Published 11:46 on 27 Aug 2015

Arcsine returned from their Fastnet challenge in torrential rain at 1.30am on Sunday - very tired and wet!We had an amazing race, although our final position was disappointing considering where we were after the first 2 and half days. Those of you who followed on the Tracker or on AIS will know more than we did! Apparently about 2/3rds of the way up the Celtic Sea, closing with THE ROCK , we were 4th in Class 3 and 8th overall-that it 8th against 309 other yachts, many with huge budgets and professional crews. We were very pleased that our tactical decisions plus the crews dedication to their roles onboard had earnt us such a incredible position. Finally we were 84th, still very creditable place out of 310 top international crews.Many of you have said what a slow race, actually it wasnÄôt - we were in about 8pm on Thursday. We had calms at Start, middle of Sunday and Monday nights - great for tactical work.Why didnÄôt we hold that position you might ask? Well the final¬2 legs were both off wind assymetric points of sailing and our Class contains many very quick assymetric designs so they gradually ate up the miles from behind!3 out of our small crew of 7 were from WSC; Kathy Claydon as skipper, Nick Munson as foredeck and maintenance,and Al Doughty as trim, helm, nav and logistics.Here are just a few comments from Nick and Al, as we intend to run a talk in October comparing what you saw on the Tracker re the reality onboard Arcsine!A Fastnet campaign really needs to start 2 years before the race but Al and Nick joined ArcsineÄôs team for the JOG Offshore Races and RORC qualifiers this year. Starting with Cherbourg at Easter; NickÄôs worst memory was the 100nm beat to Le Havre in early May-very cold and wet, Easterly overnight, on the deck much of the time, chilled to the bone.Al remembers the chill winds of that Easter race to Cherbourg with a sea temp of 7 degrees.Nick remarked that throughout these races and the Fastnet itself he was learning new skills constantly and Al remarked that even so we still had certain manoeuvres in certain wind conditions not yet practiced.Both Al and Nick have really taken to Offshore Racing, as Nick said doing a headsail change at 4am, wind 25+ knots was proper Offshore sailing.On the other hand enjoying the camaraderie of offshore sailors in the bars in a variety of foreign port was also great.A discussion of Tactics will have to wait till October, we were very encouraged by those who tracked us and kept in touch by texting us our latest position-in particular Andy Gaunt, Eddie Harper and Rob Barton from Bristol for their weather info.Kathy Claydon

Last updated 15:13 on 28 July 2025