Hello everybody,
sorry for not turning up earlier, but returned Wednesday morning at 01.30 on wifes Range Rover while she took the Eastleigh Flying option on Monday eve with kids.
Tuesday spent packing and sailing back to the North Island from IOW.
There lifting Cinzano at Universal Marina.
Then parking on M25 and 'sailing' again on Channel Tunnel, a few hours later back home.
Today the Office came first and now after having read the others (took only another few hours I guess) it is my turn.
You know a lot by Simon's report already, but lets head a bit further back in time first.
Some might remember last years South Coast Marathon being true English Autnum time and therefore held on a Force 0 (yes, flat calm) day.
We were leading Dean to the North Head all over the race and then, when he knew where to go, he opened the throttles and eased by.
Mr. Hendricks decided the CUV had some left and spent on new Engines and Props for 2010!!
Those were all tested in Ireland and even if it was known that we were overpropelled for the rough, it did work well enough to stay as matching for top speed concept.
On top we found to have much less fuel consumption and would well live without the 6th forward tank. We also changed the 4 forward buoyancy tubes into one triangular lighter 4.700L one (thats why Cinzano is a RIB now actually, only an internal one, but it is rigid and inflatable
).
Again less weight upfront.
All this has been done without testing thereafter.
When we came to Cowes on Tuesday after refuelling at Hamble it was a full storm in the Solent and heavy rain.
So we defered testing with Simon, who had never been on board in the water before. As we tried to get the Raymarine running on NEMA and speed next day the test went down completely...
On the Cowes 100 so it was first to learn the impact of the changes on Cinzanos Balance.
There we also had to fight from start against the oversteer and imprecise behavier of the steering that already had airbubbles after the first mark off the Needles.
I well remember shouting (gently?!) at Simon to keep the boat upright as we were landing on either flat side of the V-bottom in the confused seas and it might well have been a reason for having made a funny move to hit one of my kill switches in retrospective.
Now for the CTC we knew that our Trimming was more a breaking position than a trim and that acceleration out of the low 3000 revs was miles per minute.
I well remember to have a bet with Vee after the Race on running 3800 revs when he came alongside in the 100 at 65mph and he would bet I think 10000pds on that being wrong, but it still is (if trimmed in) our matching number for the speed.
In short terms we were completely wrong prepared for the CTC.
Hering didn't deliver short props in time. Eric said changing gears or drive ratios is too late and no material available either.
So, all we could do was hoping for a weather fairing in the last minute as in 2009, when we had a force 8 on the night before but 17knots while the race was on.
Still it was very rough 2009, but much easier to cope with.
By now many photos have been published and you can see Cinzano leaving The Haven nose flying high compared to others as Silverline.
On the various shots of us jumping the seas the level was better then exemplary the Apaches41 and others always flying nose up, but to the cost of speed.
If we had kept about a 100 galons in the forward tank until we needed them it would have worked as in Ireland, but the tank was gone...
Now the race.
Shortly after the start we reached speeds where my conservative trimm was slowing us down and as you can read from Simon we ended up following Hot Lemon into Lyme Bay.
The Surprise was another twin boat to theirs similar as Shelleys in 2009 making good speed and by the Skerries we had as much distance to them as they to HL.
The Episode when 111 made the extrem sidemovement had them in front, but not far either.
Our part came heading towards the skerrie mark and eating up the distance even to Hot Lemon.
We were seeing 6000 revs on the meter with a bit of help from the strong wind after turning outwards again. Still not knowing the SOG, but
we measured 95mph on 5300revs in Ireland on the 32pitch props.
After I got the Yellowbrick data from the tracker today it unfortunately had invalid data on this part showing us somewhere in Devon on the Hard and marked invalid, but I am sure we well exceeded the 100mph barrier for a minute or so.
The odd movement Simon described came later and after we passed HL and were closer to the anchored vessels.
I had the trim plates on -1 even at that speed and it stabilized the side wash well.
Now down the Seas we found a relaxed but still relative slow pattern that had us landing much nicer then before against the seas and the uprevving of the engines was not too often showing us flying detached.
We only once had a bit of green water coming over nearer to Portland, but nothing in comparison to specific other people...
As it still was a 'slow' speed I expected HL to turn up again but they waited till the crazier patterned area around Anvil to turn up again.
I was by then a bit tired and not as much pushing forwards as the slightly better conditions might have allowed and found much motivation in having HL to go for as an aim.
We went exactly in their wash on a sensible distance and as you can see on other pictures had caught them up just after turning into the Solent.
I still saw them being on speed but exactly as Hannes last year they stopped at virtually the same place behind us. (maybe there is a WWII U-Boot down helping)
Well, I started to say that it happened to us in the SCM with Dean, so I know the feeling.
Not knowing Hot Lemon being out, we went down the solent on about 85 mph with plates well down by -1.5 and drives up 1.75.
This was controllable and as I was not in my best state I didn't wanted to overdo things in the chop just for showing off more speed.
Still it was a trimm where within small changes a lot speed would have been available for fighting of anybody turning up unexpectedly.
Slowing down after the line I noticed how weak I was and took all available extra water and laid myself rested flat on the area behind my cockpit stand with feet level on the dash.
It helped but only after the 3rd bottle I really felt livier and on Shelleys interview I must have been quite pale and exthausted.
It took an hour or more to feel back to normal and this was never felt on any race before.
When we had to go 220 miles in Ireland even down to the Fastnet and thereafter with 12knots maximum boat speed up into a force 8 Atlantic Sea with white crests, I didn't feel that bad.
Maybe I was overfighting the harsh landings at CTC and the Coffee in the morning was a bit more, but I will be prepared and have a wet bar installed for 2011.
A word to the Protest.
It is a fact that Kerakol came in well on that position and would not have been faster without that little extra weight, but as Jon and Nick turned to find the Helmet for not being disqualified, we should expect Kerakol to do the same, or them accept that it is a mayor device missing.
As far as I understand not the powers of the Protest Commitee decided to be able to judge whats correct but a layer was asked and gave unclear statement on the formulation wheter the gear has to stay permanently or only on the start.
So feel encouraged to throw overboard whatever you like as long as you do not interfere with the minimum weight???
Actually I don't want Kerakol disqualified, but make clear what the rules on this are for all paticipants and for all devices as to know when its needed to pic up my lost helmet eventually.
I heard somebody once lost crew?! This seemed to be a clear no go.
The rest is nice stuff to debate on Boatmad over the winter.
So give the Powers (not Woodpowers) your opinion and lets hope for them picking it up for the future. (who called me sunshine here before?)
If I recall more the next days I will try to give futher details of Cowes2010.
As we had a professional permanent 3 Camera System from the official Camerateam on board at C100 and CTC I hope to recall more after watching it soon.
Don't forget we sponsored the BPRC for being able to have the Helicopter and therfore the TV Filmproduction, so I expect that some Footage will be available.
DGS will make his usual Film from behind the sceenes, too. So we all can expect some nice entertainment soon.
Brgds
Markus
Linear Mode
