The Holms Race, 4/9/2021  – report by Bob Buchanan

Yacht. MG Spring 25 (‘Spring Fever  ’) berthed in Portishead marina

Skipper. Geoff Louch 

Crew. Bob Buchanan  , Rob Daniels  and Paul Ashbee  .

We were all on board by 07.30, ready for a lock out at 08.30. At 08.00 we grabbed bacon butties from the local café, and headed to the lock.

Once out, we hoisted the sails in a very light NW breeze, The weather forecast was NE going to East later in the afternoon, but we had NW all day.

There were starts at 15-minute intervals, and we crossed the start line, Battery Point and the Newcome buoy, at 09.30. Low water was about 12.30, so with the wind on our back starboard quarter, we had a very steady sail down to the North West Elbow cardinal, where we changed course slightly to head for Flat Holm. We now had the wind behind us, so goose winged with the pole out and a preventer on the main. With the tide running with us we were up to 7/8 Knts (max 8.1)

We got to Flat Holm at 12.30 (low water) removed the pole and preventer and went on to a beam reach over to Steep Holm. We passed Steep Holm a bit too near it, and as a result lost a lot of wind, this resulted in us doing an unexpected 360°. We managed to sail out and pick up a bit more wind; looking back, a few other yachts had the same problem.

After rounding Steep Holm, we were now close hauled and tacking all the way back. The wind had now increased to about F4, so we decided to reef in the Genoa a bit. With the tide running with us we were up to 7/8 Knts again (max 8.8)

We crossed the line at 4.30 pm

We locked back in, berthed the boat and had a well-deserved beer.

There were 55 yachts in the race. 47 completed. We came 38th (covering 44nm)