AZ(AB) 91 - The Race had started from Falmouth

The race had started from Falmouth and was organized by the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club. Peter Kelleher who had volunteered to do the return leg, helped sail the boat down to Plymouth along with his girlfriend Susan. My wife Anne continued with the boat to Falmouth for the Scrutineering and compulsory socializing. The RCYC boatmen are skilled in many arts, like helping you board with your supplies in overfull, busting, supermarket plastic bags, not forgetting the art of helping "tired" competitors find their boats after closing time at the bar! To fill in the hours between sleeping and drinking, the club arranged races in Cornish Shrimpers and Falmouth working boats.  All in all, busy socials programme, a very friendly club and fantastic food. I even started to question why we were going to subject ourselves to days of discomfort, plain food and a distinct lack of parties! John McGlasson was busy at work, and only just arrived in the nick of time to crew on the outward leg.

June 1st dawned and there was the usual pre-race activity, fond farewells to loved ones, sails being hoisted, the rhythmic noise of winches, throbbing diesels squeezing the last map into battery banks, and the splash of mooring chains being released -adrenaline was now replacing the alcohol of last nights party.
People's characters seem to change on the start line, eyes narrow teeth grit and life suddenly becomes very serious. John and I decided that with 1,250 nautical miles to go to he Azores , it wasn't so important to be first across the line, and as our sponsors were ourselves, there was little reason to cross closest to the TV cameras. The wind could not have been more perfect for the start, as the gun on Pendennis point made a dull thud, it was blowing from the North East at force 4/5 , chilling the brave band of relatives and Civic dignitaries to the bone. We were creaming along on a course of 210 magnetic, making 6-7 knots.  Once we had hoisted the spinnaker land soon disappeared. The faster boats, were drawing away, but we were doing well, keeping up with boats of our size and even some 10 foot longer. When you are ocean racing in a small yacht, it is good for moral to compare handicaps, and predict the distance you can "give" others, and still beat them on corrected time. Our Channel Handicap was 0.805, which is largely explained by the "spare keel". During the next day the wind went down to force 2, but our tails (not to mention the spinny) were still up, having covered 92 miles in the first 14 hours. We were still in radio contact with 8 or 9 boats, which meant, they were within 12 miles and judging from the orange skins floating past they were "dead ahead."