Becca Warren

After waking at 04:45, tidying up my cabin, and the arrival of our other crew member, Sean, we assisted the 3 yacht crews, rafted up alongside Flair IV, to set off and start their passage motoring through the swellies under the two historic bridges across the Menai Strait. There was just about sufficient light at 05:30 to see and navigate safely but we all had our nav lights on. The tidal stream through the swellies, on neaps, was not overpowering and we all arrived on the western side of Britannia Bridge without incident. Shortly after passing Plas Newydd thick cloud and heavy rain restricted visibility most of the way down the Strait finally clearing for a while as we approached Caernafon Bar in some short exciting swell. The individual start timing commenced after rounding C2 mark as we headed north towards Rhoscolyn Head on a great beam reach. The weather conditions were much more favourable once we had passed Ynys Llanddwyn and as usual our line, to gain the benefits of the eddies in each bay, took us quite close to Rhoscolyn Headland and then to Maen Piscar where we could see the white water swirling around the drying rocks. As we sailed further north the wind veered more to the West requiring us to go close hauled until our two short tacks approaching Porth Dafarch. Once clear of this headland, with a clear view of South Stack, we tacked again until we were opposite the RSPB centre at Tŵr Elin when we made our final tack to clear South and North Stacks. By now we should have flown the spinnaker for the last leg to the end of the breakwater but we were so far ahead that we didn’t think it worth it so we continued with the jib and mainsail watching carefully as the Stena Adventurer was sailing to the entrance to the Ferry Port. We had a conversation with Stena Adventurer to make her aware of our intentions and the radio operator kindly said that they would keep clear of our passage. Once round the end of the breakwater we only had to make one more short tack to clear the inner distance mark on the finish line. Once attached to our mooring we organised the cockpit table and had lunch, finishing up most of the uneaten food from the weekend, a fine way to finish the event.

Up early to continue with my preparations including adding fuel to the tank. Unfortunately as I poured fuel, from the plastic jerry can, I saw a lump of diesel bug flow into the tank. I had left the tools I needed, to drain the bottom of the tank, at home but fortunately Catharine saved the day by bringing said items up to the club. So having resolved that issue and with the crew onboard we managed to leave the mooring with 10 minutes to spare before our pursuit race start time. As there were light winds as the slower boats started up to an hour and a quarter earlier the pursuit race concept was somewhat compromised as the winds picked up as we rounded the end of the breakwater and we caught up with all the competition, bar Panther, as we sailed round Carmel Head. The winds along the North of Anglesey were dead astern and with the tide race this meant very light apparent winds so we flew the spinnaker without any mainsail. This continued until we came to Puffin Sound when we dropped the spinnaker, raised the mainsail and unfurled the jib to sail upwind along the Menai Strait. During which time we completed 40 tacks! Tess doing remarkable stuff on the winches! On arrival at St. George’s Pier we made fast ensuring sufficient space was left astern for Moonraker to fit on the remainder of the pier, which seemed to be shorter than I remembered. So Moonraker (LOA 44) and Flair IV (LOA 40) moored against the pier and prepared for the other 4 yachts to raft up alongside, 2 on each raft as they all arrived within a short interval. Once we were all settled in place a family of swans came visiting: Tess, Richie and Sean left with Sean due to return in the morning and after clearing things away we walked into Menai Bridge to go and eat. Matt arrived a little later and joined us at the Indian restaurant for dinner. Since we were due to depart at 05:15 - 05:30 in the morning we returned good and early so that I could discuss the arrangements for day 2 with the other skippers. We then worked to free up the mainsheet cam cleat, which had been slipping on our relentless tacking episode. Then we retired to our bunks.

A beautiful evening with clear skies and steady F4-5 W winds. A good turnout of 6 yachts. The race was complicated by the squib flees rounding the Clipera mark at the same time as the offshore fleet but in the opposite direction! Then, due to the continued closure of Terminal 3, the Irish Ferries left terminal 5 and the Stenna ship entered the port just as the racers were sailing across the port entrance. Our thanks go to the ferry skipper’s consideration and to Holyhead Port Control. All in all a great event after a long wait for good sailing weather!

Weather conditions F4 gusting F6 out in the bay 27kt recorded at one point. Aqualibra and FlairIV racing with Houdini having set off for the Isle of Man earlier in the afternoon. After Becca completed the works to the jib halyard redirector Flair IV we had problems raising the jib and inserting the vertical battens in the high winds, which was why we were a little behind Aqualibra at the start. As usual this season Dawn assisted by Dave Meacher (OODs) set course 1 again, this is now the norm for a May Wednesday evening race! Aqualibre remained ahead as we followed the Squibs out of the New Harbour but then Aqualibre got confused and rather than follow course 1 she followed the quibs going to Clipera. Flair IV followed the proper course and even so passed Aqualibre on the beat to Penrhos where the depth of water was a little less than 2m below the keel. Nothing eventful occurred during the race until Flair IV was sailing back into the New Harbour where she had to alter course to avoid one of the Squib Fleet which was being towed by the safety boat as she had lost her rudder. This meant that Flair IV was now close to the wall as she approached the knuckle but we managed to pinch sufficiently to get past, and then head for the new IDM. We could have done with some sunshine as it became quite cold on our way to the mooring. A good sail shame there is not more competition!

it was our intention to sail to the Skerries for lunch but the forecast had underestimated the wind speeds. . As we approached the entrance to the new harbour and called the Port Control we were warned of two ferry movements 1 on its way in and one outbound. we turned to port and headed back towards our mooring. once the Ferries were clear of the entrance we turned a d headed out but soon realised that the winds had increased and turned more northerly hence our decision to abandon our plan.