Race to Alderney, and a lively time at Braye Harbour!
Published 21:55 on 15 Jun 2026
Chat in the Bar on the Thursday evening before the club's first trip to Alderney in some year's all centered on the weather. There would be 3-4m residual swell the next morning, forecast gale force winds for the Saturday with Braye Harbours mooring bouys the only relief from the elements, and a hoped for abating of the wind on the Sunday to allow everyone to return safely. A number of experienced boats had already decided to call it off. Who would make such a trip!
At 6 am the next morning the start time for the race to Alderney came around and between P&Q, 3 boats could be spotted as the clock chimed 6, Effusion, Remedy and Elsa. Effusion's crew were quick off the mark and quickly hoisted their spinnaker. Elsa's crew were still largely asleep and Remedy started to rumble ominously into an early lead. By the time Grove point was abeam Remedy was starting to get into the increasing swell, Effusion had dropped their spinnaker to adjust course for the rhumb line to Bray Harbour and Elsa were within hailing distance. Remarkably, Effusion and Elsa remained within close contact for the next forty miles. Close reaching with average speeds of 7 knots and a large swell running they tried to break free from each other coming higher then lower, trying to anticipate if their arrival would before or after the turning of the tide. Should they aim to be up tide of Braye but have to beat against the wind when the anticipated shift to the south arrived or play to the wind and keep height with the risk of fighting tide to get in to the harbour. With 15 or so miles to go separate strategies emerged. Effusion hedged towards a tidal tactic and Elsa towards the wind. Remedy had chosen a similar option to Effusion and finished approx. 20minutes ahead of Elsa who were 20 minutes ahead of Effusion and all within sight of each other after 60+ of racing.
The surprise came when it became clear that whilst there may have been only 3 boats on the starting line there were plenty more from Weymouth Sailing Club who had decided to make the trip. Into the harbour came Carpe Diem, Rhum Runner and Rhapsody 2. All of whom started earlier and endured far bigger seas! With WSC boats making up the majority of yachts on Braye Harbour's moorings it was time to settle in for the night (after some local bars were sampled by WSC members).
The night set in and some people slept better than others, some boats got less salt spray from the nearby breakwater, and other boats had less chaffe on the mooring bouys than others. The wind peaked at a recorded 53knots the following day and all the mooring bouys held. The local RNLI crew commented that they wouldn't be able to get back in to the harbour if they had to go out on a shout. Nobody had to decide whether they were going to be leaving on the Saturday.
After a jolly time onshore the day before the 9am start time for the return race to Weymouth was largely ignored by the fleet and Effusion and Elsa were left to battle it out once again. With the wind on the beam and occasionally aft of the beam the tactical split took place immediately. After passing safely clear of the harbour entrance Effusion hoisted immediately and started to rumble off into the distance, Elsa decide to to head up closer to the wind and their courses diverged. After and a couple of hours and into the shipping lanes Elsa and Effusion had lost sight of one another. Past the shipping lanes and with four hours of reaching and some tasty pigeon pie under her belt Elsa decided to hoist and bear away onto a course heading for East Shambles some 30 miles still to run.
In the meantime Effusion managed to keep their spinnaker flying and with the boat powering on at speeds topping over 10knots. With visibility at only a few miles and haze over land it wasn't clear who would be ahead as the shambles approached. As Portland finally became distinguishable from the dull low lying cloud the wind stepped up from a fairly steady 17knots to a more punchy 19-20 knots and increasingly finding her self overpowered and rounding up Elsa made the decision to drop the spinnaker as the circle of WSC racing marks was entered.
An entertaining weekend with some great racing, and it just proves the weather forecast can be accurate sometimes!
Last updated 20:56 on 15 June 2026