Team Bomby Robertson - The 2021 Fastnet Race - Ep 4

[Music] [Music] today is fastnet day it's finally here we've been talking about it quite a long time looking at the weather it's it's not kind to the forecast we start off in 35 knots wind against tides really bumpy so really brutal start to this race but the thing about the fastnet it's long and lots happen so we just need to get through each stage in good shape um so it's going to be a really tough start we haven't sailed in any conditions like this all season um and and no neither is anyone so you know we're looking at over 30 knots wind over tide and leaving the solent hurst is going to be you know really quite hectic so i think you know the main thing for us is to to get out of the solenoid safe in good shape and then start to head south and make our way and just kind of get get stuck into it really [Music] yeah so the fastnet is quite a tricky race to do anyway for the crude but kind of doing it double-handed really is the next level really in in terms of difficulty we have um you know only two of us on board um so between um you know there's very little rest a lot less rest than you would get um on a fully crude boat it's just that much more physical the boat is quite small will get bounced around a lot you know it's it we're in for a tough time but i think we're ready for that we're mentally prepared um and you know we've been preparing for this for a long time and so we're just kind of right now we're just keen to get out there really [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] it's just 2 30 where i'm just stolen it's really really wavy um sorry the wind with the waves really hard smashing down just like that we had a bit of an issue on the stars or fault really the narrow but uh we got kind of trapped by another boat and then step over the line so not ideal and uh anyway it's going well fast so far so good but it's pretty uncomfortable [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so it's quarter past nine on the first night [Music] we've just had a jib peel so on to our bigger jib now the wind has dropped to kind of 16 knots as low as 14 so we're through the uh the big wind and the big waves just passing portland now and we've got a jib to tidy up before before night time [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] it's raining [Music] so it's morning on monday just gone through the first night um all went well we've got two double heads double handed boats in front of us and uh we're just coming up to sulcum just past start point and uh all going well just go curve getting birds by the helicopter [Music] so [Music] shirley and i haven't eaten a meal yet we've been surviving our sausage rolls pizza bars looking like it's going to be quite calm this evening though so hopefully we'll get our first hot meal inside us as we prepare for the long trip across the rock [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so it's sunrise on tuesday morning here it is we're in good shape and today's all about getting across the irish channel and then i'm coming back very nice daylight i'm having a good breakfast [Music] [Applause] the good news now the sun is out if you enjoy our kit almost 48 hours of being wet a bit cold we can finally dry our stuff out i can just see rambler over there on our way back from the rock probably leading the monohull class [Music] [Music] [Music] here we are halfway across the irish sea making good progress now eight nine knots over the ground so currently heading straight for the rock 57 miles to go should be around sometime during the third night sometimes this evening [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] so it's been a really good crossing of the irish sea for us we're now up to second overall only one boat ahead of us just behind me is the fastnet rock just going around at exactly 2am pretty cool to think of everyone involved in this campaign that's helped us get around this rock thank you very much to everyone we're in second place chasing down first [Music] here we go [Music] around [Music] so [Music] it is pretty miserable well deck race just started [Music] so the rain stopped the wind went right to 300 and we have a spinnaker up for the first time in the race [Music] but something's different next to you it's like my soul is set on fired but oh i'm starting to feel tired cause i can run but [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is are you [Music] we are just coming up to the silly isles now we've had a good finish to the irish sea really um we made a move to go a bit more east and as we approach the sillies it's going to be a really really difficult night keeping the boat going and making sure most importantly that we go the right way [Music] [Applause] we are 170 miles from sherbet from the finish and it feels like it's absolutely everything that's played by this could be as henry pointed out before we started the trickiest part of the race where we finished the race will be determined by the next 24 hours for sure so it's really important [Music] the good news is that um leon and alexi who started out at the beginning of the night about five miles ahead of us and we're now due north of them with an opportunity to take the lead from them if um if the next kind of hour plays out how it is so good time [Music] [Applause] [Music] here's something you don't see every day double olympic gold medalist shirley robertson [Music] [Applause] i've just been doing a little bit of uh math trying to work out what we need to do here to beat leon uh on corrective time long story short over the length of the race that we're doing we need to finish an hour ahead of them currently they are six miles behind us so we've done amazingly well on this last leg to be able to eke out a really good advantage on them um let's just go and see how the chips fall at the end [Music] it's really light leon we can see is closing fast but extremely windward so we do what we can [Music] so here is a whole load of boats not moving the finish line is here and we're trying to do around the outside like a few other boats have done to try and avoid the light winds just on the finish line [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] we just crossed the line and shower buckets just before five o'clock what a mad five days but um pretty phenomenal race we think we finished a really close second to leo and what a battle all the way but incredible what a what a time yeah it's been really good and i think you know we put ourselves on the back for the beginning but you know i'm really proud of how we sailed to um to get ourselves back in it and to actually be six miles ahead of them and and over an hour which is what we needed to be at one point from where we were is um it's pretty awesome so it didn't go our way in the end i don't think but yeah we can definitely very very happy with seconds for sure [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] that i know

Channel: Shirley Robertson's Sailing Podcast

Views: 41,512

Rating: 4.9595141 out of 5

Keywords: Henry Bomby, Shirley Robertson, Fastnet Race, offshore sailing, sailing, Sunfast 3300

Id: MS6RTBTMZMg

Length: 18min 56sec (1136 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 23 2021