“Yacht racing at Cowes on the Black Sheep”

A Beneateau 44.7 ‘Vespucci’s Black Sheep’ was the boat I was to be sailing on for my first experience of Cowes Week 08. Named the Black Sheep by its rather eccentric previous owner, it offers a fantastic racing experience. Run by the yacht management company Universal Yachting, I was able to get out into the heart of Cowes and experience the world’s oldest and largest regatta.

Under a blue sky and with great winds we had an excellent race up through The Solent. Our eventful beat up wind was exciting and exhausting. Tacking in and out of our competitors up the shoreline of the Solent, we are working hard to keep up in our class. On our port tacks we are headed for shore, with great boat speed our depth reader is dropping slowly to a nervous depth. Suddenly its reads “zero – tacking!” Back to the island, and then we tack again and face the same nervous scenario but able to take each lift as we keep close to the wind.
Having now done more winching and tacking than I will probably do in one whole leg in the Clipper race my arms were certainly feeling the burn.

Our next challenge is the spinnaker run. This is where it can all go a little wrong with an inexperienced amateur crew. We have our positions and I am on the guy ready to control the spinnaker once it’s flying. Thankfully it goes well and we are flying down wind towards our next mark. Next before having to round our mark and drop the kite we get a chance for food and water. The tide is now running at huge speeds, and with our slightly slow spinnaker drop we overshoot the mark considerably and loose a couple of places. For this loss of time, we are going hard on our next beat upwind, our tacking is quicker and we are gaining on our previous competitors. The gun goes and we are over the line, exhausted and sunburnt but wow what a day. I loved it!

The event was great, I thoroughly immersed myself into the sailing world. I learnt a lot from being on the water, and value the opportunity to be able to experience different yachts. This all helps prepare me for what lies ahead in the Clipper Round The World Yacht Race. I am keen to develop more over the coming year racing tactics, sail trim and my girly biceps!!!!

www.universalyachting.com