The Vice Admiral's Cup, 18-20th May
This weekend I was competing in the Vice Admiral’s Cup, the
inshore selection event for the Brewin Dolphin Commodore’s Cup. Results from
this event, combined with the Morgan Cup (the offshore race I did with the
British Keelboat Academy two weeks ago), will be used to help the RYA selection
committee choose three teams of three boats for the GB entry. 
I headed over to Hamble on Thursday afternoon to make the
final preparations for the event. It had been a long day for me since I had
been up at 04.30 in an attempt to revise for my final year Speech & Language Therapy exams; one of which
I had at 09.00 on Monday, straight after the event! It was a bumpy and salty
ride over, which always makes the Red Jet look like a fun boat trip. Again I had an early start on Friday (half past four…) managing to get some revision in before three hours of sailing before the first start gun at 11.30. We needed to get some training in and have a look at the new sail; unfortunately the stitching had come undone at the tack, and the boltrope needed to be extended!
The wind was very light to begin with and quite shifty,
between 6-12 knots for racing along Ryde bank. As we hoped, we did quite well
in the light airs, posting a 5th in race 1, three seconds off 3rd
place. We also placed 5th in race 2, but then had a bit of a shocker
for the last race of the day, finishing in 14th! Despite being over
the line at go, we managed to make some big gains, only to get in a muddle with
the Farr 45s who didn’t have a spreader mark at the top of the beat. Things got
a bit tense…luckily there were no crashes! Straight after racing we took the
new main to Jerry the sailmaker; he sorted the boltrope in plenty of time for
the rest of the crew to head off for a Steak BBQ at the Royal Corinthian. I
made do with a pastry from the Co-op, a can of Red Bull, and an evening of
reading about dementia.
Going in to day 2, we were looking to discard our 14th
place. We had three races, in no more than 12 knots, racing up on the Hillhead
Plateau. We finished with an 11th, 9th, and 7th,
leaving us in 9th place overall at the end of day 2. To top it off,
we had been sailing in shorts and t-shirts all day. Having secured some
sponsorship from Polaroid sunglasses, it was cool to spend the day living in
HD! Back at UKSA we spent some time discussing future events, crew weights and
further training needs. By this time it was late in the evening, so I gave
revision a miss and went to the Italian restaurant instead for my favourite
dish of pasta, bacon and butter beans.
Day 3 bought with it some fresh breeze from the NNW,
averaging 16 knots with gusts of 18-20. We found that our boat handling was
good, but that we will need to keep developing our trimming skills to be able
to work through the gusts. We found ourselves down the pack in the last day,
with an 11th and 14th. The last race of the day had
required some orienteering, with a long spreader reach and 3 runs. We were well
in the pack making some gains during the first 2 runs, but then lost out on the
final legs, crossing the finish line with Salvo. It was nice to finish at
Seafarer’s Ale, just off Cowes; not far to go for parking at the Royal Yacht
Squadron and getting a refreshing orange & lemonade!
Overall we finished in 11th place. With the final
call as to who has made the cut for the Commodore’s Cup being announced this
evening, fingers crossed we will have proven ourselves worthy…