Theresa Kudelska

A great day for a sail with the remains of the ebb tide around North Stack. Choppy through the overfalls south of South Stack then a quiet sail into Treaddur bay. No time to anchor so we turned and sailed back, the overfalls were quite rough with the westerly wind over the area close to the coastline. Once round the stacks it flattened out for an easy passage back to the New Harbour.

As arranged all the yachts split away from St George's Pier at 06:15 to go through the Swellies at Slack Water. In perfectly flat conditions we all motored through the Swellies and as the wind didn’t fill in as hoped we continued to motor towards Caernafon Bar C1 buoy. At 09:53:00 the wind had reached approximately 4kt from the NNE while our SOG was 3.0kt which allowed us to start the race. The winds continued to be light variable but we hugged the coastline to gain benefit from the eddies in the bays as the ebb tide continued to push the other yachts backwards as they had stayed out to the West. The winds picked up several times as we continued to concentrate on maximising our VMG to the next waypoint; finally filling in as we passed Aberfraw and from here on we had nice consistent winds but with the wind with tide both against us we made 31 tacks and 1 gybe on Sunday! As we approached South Stack we put in a couple of tacks to get closer into Abraham’s Bosom with Twr Helen glowing white in the bright sunshine. Conditions around the stack got a bit choppy with wind against tide but by no means the worst! We arrived at the finish at 15:40:40, back to the mooring and a clear up before a sit down and a pannad before catching the launch to go ashore.

Quite choppy overnight on the mooring with the NE wind but as I prepared the boat for the arrival of the crew the winds turned more NE and apart from the odd motor boat passing close to the mooring all went well but again it was too windy to drop the jib to do more to free off the roller furler. Once the crew had embarked we stowed gear away and prepared to sail off the mooring. We set the Code 0 and prepared the spinnaker as planned for the day’s weather. Unfortunately as 2 of the yachts had cancelled their entries the fleet was smaller than anticipated. Some of the yachts started a while before us as planned as start times and finish times were left to the crews to record. We set off across the start line at 11:40 in 12kt NNW wind making it quite tricky close to the breakwater. Once out of the new harbour we made rapid progress overtaking the other yachts by the time we passed West Mouse. This is the SailTies app screen showing the recorded wind speeds. Once round Carmel Head and heading towards Harry Furlong buoy we deployed the Code 0 and had a wonderful leg along to Point Lynas although past East Mouse the following swell increased and made helming quite difficult. We had then to sail someway past Lynas to avoid a commercial tanker, at anchor before we deployed the spinnaker to turn onto the course to Puffin Sound. With the spinnaker pulling nicely we enjoyed a lunch with Henrie’s very tasty Spinach Pie. The winds were nice and constant most of the way until we got near the Puffin Lighthouse when the winds, as expected, dropped a little but we turned onto a reach to sail SW along theStrait and maintained our speed until we passed Gallows Point when the winds coming over the woods on the shoreline became very fickle. Fortunately before the winds changed we sailed through the local Menai Strait boats in one of their races, we were very careful to sail to leeward of the racers and to give them clearance as the leading boats rounded the mark and sailed back towards Gallows Point. Once past the Gazelle Hotel the winds filled back in with a more constant direction and allowed us to maintain one final tack all the way to cross the finish line. FlairIV Finish Time 17:11 We rafted up alongside the Windfarm service vessel and waited for the other yachts to arrive, which didn’t happen for quite a long time. Once Panther had arrived we helped them get moored alongside us and arrange to meet them at the Indian Restaurant in Menai Bridge; however when we got there both Indian restaurants were full so we moved on to Hydeout, a BBQ cafe. Once back on board we enjoyed a whiskey tasting session thanks to Theresa before retiring to bed around midnight along with members of the other 3 yacht crews who had finally made it to St. George’s Pier.

Lovely start sailing from the mooring with 12kt SW winds. Once out of the harbour we headedto the Skerries on a broad reach with great boat speed. We arrived close to the leading line and furled the jib; then with the engine on we dropped the main and moored into the lagoon. The lagoon entrance was guarded by a family of seals and the skies full of arctic terns, common terns, puffins and gannets. Once on the mooring we sat and enjoyed the atmosphere. Due to the falling tide we didn't stay long but as we started to hoist the main the halyard shackle failed and we lost the halyard to the mast head. However. now with wind over 20kt we sailed back on the jib alone, achieving 8kt SOG. Thick fog now shrouded the area around the harbour as we completed our day out.

2026-06-21 Helen Michael Tess Mark I arrived onboard just after 11:00 with the other crew already in the cockpit. We agreed to have a hot drink before leaving the mooring. We followed Soulmate out of the New Harbour and started to sail towards the Skerries until we had a Helen HOB (hat over board) moment which accounts for the deviation on the track! After several attempts we managed to capture the cap and returned to our northerly course towards the Skerries. With the moderate NE winds we made an average of 8.5kt and arrived at the Skerries too early. We hove to and drifted north of The Skerries while we had lunch. In 20 minutes of steady drifting the tide took us well to the East of The Skerries and had to battle against the currents to get round the West Coast of The Skerries before turning on a broad reach to head for Clipera. After several attempts we managed to capture the cap and returned to a northerly course towards the Skerries. With the moderate NE winds we made an average of 8.5kt and arrived at the Skerries too early. We hove to and drifted north of The Skerries while we had lunch. In 20 minutes of steady drifting the tide took us well to the East of The Skerries and had to battle against the currents to get round the West Coast of The Skerries before turning on a broad reach to head for Clipera. As there were no ferry movements due we headed directly for the end of the breakwater having informed Port Control of our intentions and observations of the James Joyce, still 15 minutes from Point Victor. Back on our mooring for 16:00hrs we cleared up and waited for the launch to come alongside to take us to the groyne.

Delayed start due to F6 gusting F7 winds up until 11:00. The club was holding its annual jumble sale and try a sail day so it was a very crowded carpark! We eventually goot the crew, Tess, Sam along with his son Nathan and me to the top of the groyne but by then it was the Launch Driver’s lunch time, so a short delay waiting to be taken out to FlairIV. When we got onboard we decided to have lunch while we were on the mooring and then to go through the checks before leaving the mooring with the engine running but sailing on the main as we navigated through the various moored yachts. We had decided to do a ‘round the cans’ sail to give Sam and Nathan some experience of what happens in a race. With the jib unfurled we sailed downwind to the club start IDM [inner distance mark] and then followed course 2, which took us close to the Viking Cruise ship berthed on the Aluminium Pier. Sailing between this and the berthed Ferry gave a demonstration of the effect of two large ships close together in a strong SW wind. Sailing down to Penrhos mark the winds were gusty and showed the crew how to manage sudden gusts and counter the healing action. As the buoy is in a shallower area of the opening to the Cymyran Strait we watched the depth on the instruments and discussed the depth below the keel and the likely dangers. After gybing round Penrhos we headed due North to the Meath buoy, tacked round and back to Clipera before sailing back into the New Harbour to the finish line. Once over the line we picked up Sam Meade from the club rib and sailed around in the more sheltered waters of the harbour. Sam J then offered to do a mast climb to try and fix the new steaming light unit but this was unsuccessful as the position of the choc block connector made it very difficult to set the multi strand cables into their appropriate location.