Hugo's story:
During the 3rd stage of the SAS last August, the course started from Roscoff, rounding the DST of Ouessant, leaving Rochebonne to starboard as well as BXA, the open water mark in front of the Gironde estuary before heading up to the Ile d'Yeu, to be left to starboard to finish the race in front of Les Sables-d'Olonne.
The first 24 hours were particularly difficult. First of all, getting out of the bay of Morlaix, or wind against the current offered us a famous rodeo in the meadow, then upwind to the DST by pulling square edges.
Once past the windward mark, we can finally get down to windward, not much, but we find ourselves 80/90 degrees from the apparent wind with 15 knots set, enough to send the small gennaker and let the Maxi 650 express itself. Particularly powerful in these points of sail, all Maxis are starting to climb on the Pogo 3 at 0.5 or 1 knot faster.
Unfortunately after a few hours, the party is over, the wind is picking up from the left and everyone is back on the high speed and solent. We were expecting a front at the end of the night/early morning, and indeed, the wind is picking up and the sky is charging. 18 knots set, I take my first reef in the mainsail and then in the solent when the wind stabilises at 20 knots. On the 4 o'clock strokes in the morning, the pressure drops and the wind picks up 20 degrees to the right. No doubt the front is coming, I take my second reef GV which was ready to go and in the minutes that follow the wind rises above 30 knots.
At 70 degrees from real, the boat is making nearly 8 knots, the sea is big and is starting to break, it's tough, but the challenge is still ahead.
Two or three hours later, the pressure stabilizes, the rain stops and the sky clears. The front has passed and the wind drops a little, around 25 knots, but with regular slaps has more than 30.
I know that I have to send back some canvas to keep my position, at this point I'm in the lead pack, between 3 and 5 saw AIS. So a gennaker? A Code 5?
I sent out my big gennaker while preparing my manoeuvre well and the boat started instantly, going from 10 to over 17 knots. Even though the Maxi is stable, I jump on the helm and take over the autopilot, the sea is still big and the risk here is to gain too much speed and catch up with the wave and crash into the opposite wave at full speed, endangering the structure of the boat and the rigging.
The boat is constantly being planned, and you have to find a way between the waves to keep the speed, without luffing too much at the risk of heaping up, or too much toppling over at the risk of sank. After barely 4 minutes: BANG! The gennaker clew loop breaks, leaving me with the gennaker feathered between the halyard and the end of the spinnaker pole. After a hell of a battle with the furling line (it's a wafer, an endless furling line, which allows the gennak to roll on itself) I manage to roll it and lower it.
So I ask myself, is it a good idea to shuffle around like a shuffleboard? On the VHF, the calls from other competitors are multiplying: "I've blown my spinnaker", "my bowsprit has just dropped", "I've just put the mast in the water"... I'm waiting: what's the aim of this race for me? Top 10 of course, but also and above all to finish the race. Because in order to be able to enter the Mini Transat at the end of the year, I need to be able to justify 1500 miles in the race. However, if I don't finish this race, it's the 1400 miles of the SAS (the sum of the 3 legs) which pass right under my nose..
So, I put my gennaker away, I shock my reefs in the GV and the Solent, I do a lyoph and go to bed for an hour. In an hour or two, the situation will be more manoeuvrable and I'll be sending up some canvas.
Going fast sometimes also means knowing how to go slowly, I would finally finish this race in 7th position and without any major damage to my boat.
