Ginto first Race victory

Following the foggy conditions of the TMAP the week before, the weather forecast was announcing a pretty fair weather for the start of the 06 Mini Fastnet, the most popular annual Mini Race. After a intense week at work in Paris, I jumped into the TGV early Friday afternoon to reach Morlaix 4 hours later, meeting with Fabrice Guillerm, my partner for this race. Fabrice is an experienced sailor from Carantec, with whom met during the 03 mini season.

9PM, my phone is rigging. The Winches Club is reminding me that all the formalities should have been closed by 8PM... After some talk, the deadline is fixed at 10am on Saturday for closing all the security check; achievable target for a yacht that has been racing the TMAP the week before, but synonymous of an early wake-up.

Saturday. After having finished the inspection and cleaned the hull we have the intention to go at sea to do some practice before the prologue, and test the new Genaker from Elvstrom. Unfortunately the 422 is blocked by an impressive number of minis who are not ready to leave; the fleet of 100 minis is blocking the harbour, and makes the start line quiet erratic. Our start and our race, although it will be under the sun, will not be that great, but nothing astonishing, this was not our primarily target. On the evening, after having checked the bowsprit axis, and taken the weather forecast, we go for a good meat dinner.

Sunday: the light conditions forecasted for the coming days are probably the best for the Ginto, and we have some good chances of doing well. Nevertheless the competition will be fierce with experienced mini sailors.

We leave the harbour with a light breeze of 5 to 10 knots. After a average start, we are of the first to tack to the other side of the bay in the direction of the cap de la Chèvre, in order to avoid the lighter breeze close to the shore. This appears to be a good option as we are ahead of the fleet when they cross us back, but not for long. As they really go close to the shore of the Cap de la Chèvre, they enjoy a superior wind to us, and we are in the gruppetto at the Basse Vielle. A VHF call to the Pointe Saint Mathieu will confirm us that the thermal breeze is installing itself as the wind there is showing 40 degrees different to what we currently have. Slowly we bypass the production fleet and we are in the top 5 reaching the Vieux Moines, which is the entrance to the Chenal du Four. Our first attempt there is to go in the middle of the way to maximise the effect of the tide. Unfortunately the more we go far away from the shore the less wind we enjoy. In front of Le Conquet, we are back to the 10^th... Going clearly to the shore in the Blanc Sablons puts us back in the race, and we are again in the top 5 while crossing the Valbelle. The next way pint is Wolf Rock at the south west of England.

Surprisingly, despite a VMG clearly in favour of the starboard, many minis are still going along the coast, up to the entrance of Lanildut, my home town. This will help us to create a difference with the fleet. In the evening, we are in the leading group of the race together with the two Pogo2 543 and 538, and the Finot Proto 291. The two protos 198 and 424 and leading the race. The night is very quiet with a light wind from 6 to 11 knots. We clearly favour the speed, as the wind is to veer on the Monday. In wind below 9 knots we experienced our Genaker which gives us some additional speed.

Monday: The Pogo 2 are now 1 mile in the back and are in the front of the race together with another Ginto the 453. We still stay in these starboard upwind conditions with a slightly veering wind until mid of the afternoon. The 453 will tack an hour before us, which will appear to be a wrong choice, the wind veering by 30° just after we tacked. At the arrival to Wolf Rock the wind increases to 17-18 knots. We pass the lighthouse in the 1^st position in the production, 2 miles after the first prototype, and 5^th overall. Immediately after the rock, we install the Genaker, and then as the wind lighten and continue to veer we install the small spinnaker (perfect in such close to the wind conditions). At the night while installing the big spinnaker, we are close to break the bowsprit. It will take us half an hour of high adrenaline to repair the stuff and continue our route.

Tuesday: As soon as the light is back the wind continues to veer and we jibe to stay the closer to the direct route. The day will extremely hot, with an incredibly light wind between 4 to 7 knots. At mid day, we are anxious about two minis coming from our back and are please to note that both of them are protos (417 and 191). At the end of the day, as we are approaching the Irish coast, they will have just bypassed us by few hundred meters. The Ginto is definitely a speed killer in those light conditions! As the night is coming, the wind is veering back. We are heading up to 55° from the apparent wind with first the big spinnaker and then the small one, and as we are going down the direct route to the Fastnet, we can go closer by 10° compared to the protos. This will finish in the night by installing back the Genaker, then the Genoa. The dense and wet fog now surrounds us, and at the end of the night the siren from Fastnet lighthouse helps us to find our way.

Wednesday: At 5am the first prototypes are announcing themselves while rounding the rock. As we are only few miles far away, we are please to see we are still part of the game. We will turn the lighthouse at 6:30, as the fog starts disappearing. Fastnet lighthouse will give us a superb view of itself emerging from nowhere as we are only few hundreds meters far away. 417 and 191 have not passed the rock; we are still first production boat and 7^th overall. While rounding the rock, we can enjoy a discussion with the organiser yacht, on which Julien, our new GintoLab member, is. As we start our route back to Douarnenez, we are astonished to learn that part of the fleet has been blocked in severe calms. Most of the production minis are more than 10 miles in our back, and some prototypes as well. The closer production mini is the Ginto 522 that we have crossed as we were 1,7 miles far away from the lighthouse. Until the evening, we will struggle with still very light wind from our back, together with some waves coming from nowhere (what we believed at that time...). During the evening the wind will veer to upwind conditions but stay in light breeze.

Thursday: In the morning the wind and the sea starts to increase. By 12, we are with the Solent and one reef in the main, in pretty shaky conditions. The waves are totally disorganised and make perfect springboard for the Ginto. Landing is then hurting both the yacht and the crew. By 4PM we are with two reefs, while the VHF announces dismasting of several minis, including the Ginto 520 from Jacques. This reinforces our willingness to be very cautious with the hardware. The night will just be a nightmare.

Friday: The wind lightens a little bit during the morning, as we are in the west of Ushant. As the weather forecast is announcing the wind to veer SE in the end of the afternoon, we decide to continue our SE route until the latitude of the Raz de Sein. This again has been a very good tactic. The wind just moved after we tacked, enabling us to head for the Basse Vieille directly. At that we still think we are still ahead of the race. As we are 1,5 miles from Basse Vielle, we hear the VHF call from the 522 announcing its entry into the bay. Shiiit! With these now very light conditions again we have nothing to do than try the utmost to regain these 1,5 miles within 10: quiet a challenging task! As the wind decided to pick up a little bit, we install the small spinnaker and head the wind like hell. Without any waves now, we reach close to 6 knots of speed, and if the 522 is not wearing its spinnaker, we have some chances. The more the time is running the more the tension is increasing, and as we are few hundred meters far away from the finished line, surrounded by the fog the wind just stops. We can see the 522 finishing its race in a light blow of air. Shit can happen...