Delivery for the season’s first race
Having spent two days in Paris for business I finally made my way to Lorient on thursday night. Although I had to work on friday I still managed to pick up the new Code 0 from Incidences and the remote for the autopilot from nke.
Friday after work things started to get busy for me as I had to get the boat ready to deliver it to Pornichet this weekend.
Between me and my departure were a couple of todos (copied from my todo list):
– fit & install new rudders
– inspect and install rudder / tillers
– remove old stickers from boat, apply new ones
– wash the deck
– drill and prepare spare “V” for the bowsprit
– sew new markings into the main halyard for the different reefs
– attach reflective stickers to the liferaft
– install liferaft
– put the boat into the water
– install nke windvane at top of mast
– check rigg / tighten screws at the spreaders
– change bungee cord for the backstays
– install boom & all lines
– attach main sail
All of this was finally done on saturday night around 7pm which was the first time I checked the weather forecast for my delivery. For that night there were 5 to 15kt from S to SW forecasted, on sunday it would be the same direction albeit 20-25kt.
I wasn’t looking forward to a windy first delivery so I decided to spontaneously leave rightaway while there was still a bit of light left.
After a quick bite I was already short-tacking my way out of Lorient and heading into the night.
Once out of the bay of Lorient I was able to just lay Île de Quiberon and took some naps.
Île de Quiberon appeared to me only as an orange haze as it was extremely misty with poor visibility of about 1/2nm.
Around me the boats that were sailing the “Lorient Bretagne Sud Mini” race appeared – they had already rounded Belle Île and Île de Groix and were now on the way to Pornichet as well.
Now we were able to bear away a bit after every island we passed and it became a nice reach.
I did not hoist my code 0 and stayed outside the field to not mess with the guys in the race.
When we finally rounded the cardinal buoy “Goue vas du Four” and headed into the bay of pornichet I hoisted the medium kite (reefed, again not to interfere with the race) and we trucked along nicely with 7-8 knots, being able to stick to the boats that were racing.
In the morning haze I finally arrived in Pornichet causing a bit of confusion as the committee assumed I had finished the race in 18th place (ooops – although I announced that I was on “convoyage”) and was finally moored in the marina at abou6 6:30am.
That’s a 6kt average – not bad.
Now a week in Pornichet with race prep / security checks and working before the first race of the season begins on saturday: the Pornichet Select 6.50
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