Some other shots taken around the same time show the washing-machine type conditions caused by strong positive tide over shallow water against the direction of the breeze. We got knocked around so much the reefing line in the main snapped soon afterwards.

Early in the race we had bad weather crossing Georges Channel (the same conditions in which Rambler dramatically capsized at the rock), but by the next evening we were in perfect conditions making directly for Fastnet Rock, sailing into an amazing sunset.

We rounded the rock in light airs well placed within the fleet. The leg to Bishops Rock was to be a straight line drag race. Myself and Andy got a lot of rest on that leg, knowing the light airs approach to the finish line would be tricky and would need our full attention.

As predicted there were very light airs approaching the finish. Eventually the breeze filled in, bringing over 140 boats to Plymouth at the same time, regardless of how well any individual boat had performed in the five days of the race before that. In the photo below, you can see the horizon full of boats. Not a very normal sight five days into a race! Since there were over 130 finishers within one hour, effectively the boat with the lowest handicap won. Dinah didn’t feature in the results, but the event was amazing for many reasons. Thanks again to everybody who made it possible, and well done to Barry & Andy.

The much travelled ‘Dinah’ owned and skippered by Barry Hurley from the Royal Irish Yacht Club put in a strong performance over the whole week, scoring no lower than 2nd in class in every race. Consistency proved key in the no discard series, with Hurley eventually finishing 1st in class and 3rd overall.

In a few weeks time on August 14th Barry will be joined again by his usual crew Andy Boyle, also of the Royal Irish Yacht Club, as they set off on the Rolex Fastnet Race double handed against a fleet of over 350 boats.

Purely as an experiment (and to have fun!) we put a full crew on Dinah for the Sovereigns Cup in Kinsale. We acheived our goal of having fun… but from a results point of view sadly we proved the adage that offshore boats shouldn’t do inshore regattas.

Crew work was superb given that we’d never sailed together before, and only Barry had ever sailed the boat before. Thanks again to Barry Hurley (skipper & helm), Keith Kiernan (nav & tactics), John Scott (main trim), Luca Zoccoli (jib & kite trim), Andrew Hegarty (jib & kite trim), George Tottenham (pit & crew comforts officer), Anna McWilliam (mast & mid bow) and James Ryan (bow).

Barry & Andy sailed the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race double handed in June 2011. They were the only double handed boat to actually finish, after many boats struggled to deal with a “bit of a blow” along the south coast.

Finishing the race in just under 48hrs they set a great double handed benchmark for future iterations of the same race, and indeed for the first half of the next Round Ireland Race.

As well as winning the double handed class, they also managed to come 6th overall against the many fully crewed boats. In tough conditions this was a great result.

Well done to the National Yacht Club for being progressive enough to include a double handed class, and to Dingle town for a fantastic party after the finish!

We were up early again the next morning to sort out breakfast, last minute weather forecasts, and prepare the boat for the race. It was a wet, windy morning and we opted for two reefs in the main for the start.

We got a good enough start and had great height and speed in the first half hour, but cutting inside one of the islands we were slightly underpowered for a few minutes against the fully crewed boats who had already switched up to bigger sails. Soon after clearing the channel we were able to shake out the reefs and match the fully crewed boats again, but they had pulled out a good lead by that stage. From there it was a long close hauled drag race across the irish Sea from Bardsey to North India Bouy off Wicklow. We rounded 1.3 miles behind ‘Lula Belle’ and ‘Mojito’ with only a few miles to go against the tide to Wicklow.
We made an unusual call heading South against the tide rather than heading to shore after the other two looking for tide relief, but we were both convinced that there was more pressure out to sea and it would pay better than the tide relief along the shore. It was the right call as we managed to pull back to 0.8 miles behind ‘Lula Belle’, and only 0.4 miles behind ‘Mojito’. It wasnt enough though and our result really didn’t reflect the hard work put in all day. As we’ve seen again and again Dinah needs some downwind legs in order to sail to her handicap and this was another completely upwind race. Surely we’ll get to put a spinnaker up sometime this season?

It was a great fun weekend though. Wicklow Sailing Club put on a BBQ for us on arrival and the view from the roof of the club at sunset was as good as ever. Barry and Mick brought Dinah back to Dun Laoghaire early on Sunday where she’ll be prepared for the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle Race in two weeks time. The season is really hotting up now with something big happening almost every second week until the end of September! Fingers crossed we get some downwind sailing in the most important races…

The start was at 08.00, and true to form Dinah was at the favoured end of the line, travelling at speed, in the right direction. Unfortunately another competitor had a moment of madness (at least I hope it was a moment of madness, because if it was a deliberate action then it would be wrong of me not to protest) and very nearly caused a huge collision on the startline. All the long hours of work over the winter flashed through my head at the thought of Dinah being holed on the startline of her first race of the season. Nothing but luck prevented the collision, and I reckon at one point there wasn’t a hairs breadth between poor Dinah and the other boat who probably weighs four times as much and who had no rights to be there!

We had wanted to go right anyway to get the most out of the slackening tide, but ended up forced to tack away from the start to get out from under the boat that caused all the consternation. As we headed out to sea there were plenty shifts to play, and about two and a half hours into the race we managed to cross in front of the fleet as we came back in from our position on the far right of the course. This was great given we are one of the lowest rated boats in the fleet.

The breeze built quickly to between 20 and 25knts. We slabbed in two reefs and went to ballast up. Rather stupidly I managed to get an airlock in the ballast system. It’s something I learned to avoid years ago, and I have no idea why I did what I did this time. I have nobody to blame but myself, and we struggled for about half an hour with the boat very overpowered. Eventually we got the ballast tank full and started to hit our target numbers again, but we had lost the leaders on the water by that stage.

It was a long hard beat the whole way to Holyhead. Big confused seas. Nausea from lack of sea legs at the start of the season. Frustration at having given away so much time due to the ballast issue. But we soldiered on… On the final approach to Holyhead we converged with ‘Lula Belle’, our old sparring partner. During the Round Ireland Race last year we spent days side by side. In the final race of last season we finished 1 second apart (!!!) after a long race across the Irish Sea. And here we were again, side by side with only a few miles to go to the finish. We crossed tacks a few times, and Liam’s ace crew sailed really well getting through us when we fell into some adverse tide. Even though they finished just ahead of us, Dinah was the victor on this occasion as we rate slightly lower than ‘Lula Belle’.

Overall we were 5th in the fleet of 18, which is not bad considering we were double handed against full crews, and the negative impact of user error with the ballast. The boat is now well tested after her winter, and we’re looking forward to a busy season. Barry and Andy are out training a few nights a week at the moment so as to keep improving right up to the Fastnet race in August. The next race is in a few weeks time from Pwllheli to Wicklow. That should be fun!