As some of you know, Susanna and I have taken a temporary break from the RaRa cruising, and spent the Aussie winter in Europe, mostly Sweden where we have most of the family. It doesn’t stop the urge to get on a sailing boat though, so when an old friend of mine called me the day before the start of the annual around Gotland race asking me to come along as one of his crew had gone sick, I just couldn’t say no 🙂
There was just one small problem, I had no sailing gear suitable for a Baltic Sea offshore race (t-shirt and shorts just doesn’t suffice), and I had less than 18 hours to prepare and get out to the start area in the outer part of the Stockholm archipelago. Luckily the boat owner, and old friend of mine, has the same size of clothes and a few spares… In an hour or so his wife had gathered a comprehensive list of things for us to pick up from their house:
- PFD and wet weather gear (jacket and trousers)
- Sailing boots
- Merino wool underwear of various kinds
- puffer jacket
- socks
- wool jumpers
- sleeping bag
- and more… all sorted!
Susanna and I picked up all the sailing gear in the early Sunday morning and continued out to Sandhamn via car and boat, which we reached at 10am, with the start off-shore scheduled for 2.15pm… plenty of time.
A few facts about the race
- Organised by the Royal Swedish Yacht Club, KSSS
- Length of course 347NM, although this years race shortened to 314NM due to postponement/weather.
- Number of boats: 250 – max capacity and it’s normally fully booked
- Handicap rules: ORC and SRS (Swedish Rating System, similar to PHS).
- Our division, SRS D, had 24 entries
Heading off to the start
Around 12.30 we left the KSSS marina in Sandhamn, a slightly chaotic task as boats are rafted up, sometimes 8-9 side by side, and all 250 boats heading out to the start area. The forecast was a bit on the windy side (gusting 30kn) and it was rather cold, and by the time we reached the start area the Racing committee made a very unexpected call, delaying the start to earliest 8pm due to the current weather situation (with a rather nasty storm expected later on). The start had never previously been postponed in the history of the race.
As all the other boats went in to seek shelter awaiting the new start time, we decided to stay out and practice spinnaker manoeuvres! I had never before sailed on his boat Cappucino, a 33ft sloop of Swedish design and build Albin Nova, and needed to “learn the ropes”. All went well and nothing broke.
Later a second postponement call was made by the racing committee and our new start time set for 6.10am Monday morning, with a slightly shortened course as well. We enjoyed a good dinner and some sleep before an early wake up call at 4am.
The start went really well, crossing first in our division and we headed south with a spinnaker set in around 25kn breeze. Gradually the weather improved and we ended up in glorious sunshine and still a good breeze, leading our division. Our first real challenge (setback) came late Monday evening east of Gotland when the wind died completely and we were drifting for many hours. A couple of boats managed to get some wind before us and we dropped a few places before we were getting some new wind late Tuesday morning.
The watch system on Cappucino was unusual and very flexible. Basically we took turn having naps “as needed” and with respect to other crew members needs. It worked surprisingly well and everyone got a fair amount of sleep in. We took turns driving the boat (steering), so that no one steered for more than about 1-2 hours at a time.
Apart from some upwind sailing approaching Hoburgen we had the spinnaker up almost all the way around the course – so lucky!
Cappucino finished 4th, out of the 24 in our division. A result all of us were very happy with, and maybe more importantly we had a really good time together as a crew.
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