2013 Season

A summer at last!  The season has been pretty busy - hence the lack of posts - we covered a little over 2100 nautical miles, split evenly between cruising and racing.

Pre-season included replacing all the standing rigging and guard rails and then a full survey for coding.  We also took the opportunity to scrub the bottom, but left antifouling to the planned summer lift out.  So it was, with a clean bottom and shiny new standing rigging, that we delivered Pipedreamer to Holyhead on 30 Mar.

The early part of the season included 3 charters.  The first was boat handling for some prospective Yachtmasters.  The second was a family day trip to Rhosneigr.  The third was noteworthy as it was the first time Pipedreamer had played host to international guests - from Russia with love!

3 May saw us positioning Pipedreamer in Dun Laoghaire for our first ISORA. The delivery was a beat into a force 6, but we arrived in good time.  The race itself was to be a drag race to Holyhead via the M2 buoy.  The wind was still W F6, which meant a reach to start followed by a run.  We were first over the start line and stayed high on the wind in the hope of gaining an angle to fly the new asymmetric later on the leg.  The Js held a much lower course and flew their spinnakers from the start, with varying degrees of success.  Our tactic appeared to be working to start, but then a series or errors compounded to push us back through the fleet.  Despite the true wind gusting to 30kts, we had gained sufficient of an angle to fly the new spinnaker and were making good speed downwind.  However, a change over on the helm led to an accidental gybe, which nearly put a member of the crew overboard.  Consequently, the next 20 minutes were sailed very conservatively and we lost ground to the fleet.  The second error resulted from a misplotted waypoint on a handheld being used by some of the crew!  So, despite the skipper's protestations to the contrary, the crew maintained a course to the wrong waypoint!!  By the time we had found the correct waypoint (M2) we had sailed at least a mile further than the rest of the fleet.  Finally, adding insult to injury, we flew the spinnaker from the top of the mast for a good 10 minutes when the sheet escaped overboard!  That said, we were still in sight of the leaders at the finish - a marked improvement on the same race last year.

The next ISORA for us was 19 May, Douglas to Dun Laoghaire, with a party in Douglas on the Sat evening.  So, to make it in time we set off from Holyhead at 2030 Fri night, aiming for HW Douglas at 0530, and were tied up alongside by 0700.  Unfortunately, the new Lopolight Tri-colour was not working, which meant a trip to the top of the mast where the absence of anything untoward led to the conclusion that the light itself was faulty, which indeed turned out to be the case.  The party was excellent, but the race that followed proved to be a real test of stamina and perseverance for the 3 on board.  The winds were very light and variable and the 80 miles took 21 hours.  After a couple of
hours kip, we were back sailing, heading for Holyhead, which we made by 1830, Mon, 20 May.

The 21/22 May saw a circumnavigation of Anglesey with friends, just beating the NNW gale on 23 May.

24 May and it was another overnight trip to the Isle of Man.  This time it was for the TT practice sessions.  Light and variable winds meant a lot of motoring, but there was a spectacular sunrise by way of compensation.  The TT itself was great.  I had not been before and I was impressed by the atmosphere as much as by the incredible speeds achieved by the bikes.  We had a quick day sail on 26 May and took the opportunity to put some more fuel on board.  This proved just as well as our return journey (again overnight) involved a good deal of motoring, after we discovered a rigging problem on the starboard intermediate shroud.  We were back in Holyhead by 1430 on 28 May.

The following weekend comprised a circumnavigation of the Island via Rhoscolyn (overnight), Porth Dinllaen, the Swellies and Moelfre (overnight), in near perfect conditions.

After anti fouling, the next big race was the Lyver Trophy from Holyhead to Howth, via a virtual mark down by Bardsey Island.  This was another overnighter!  Again there were only 3 of us on board and, if truth were told, I think we were getting tired by the end.  This resulted in a reluctance to swap spinnakers at the end of the race which probably cost us a place or 2.