2008
Tall Ships 2008
Race 1 - Liverpool - Maloy (Norway)
The Captain’s Daughters win their class in the 1st leg of the Tall Ships race to Maloy:
After a year of planning, hard work and perseverance we successfully completed the first leg of the Tall Ships Race. The sail from Liverpool to the start line gave the crew opportunity to gain their sea legs, and we crossed the start line at 10 knots flying the spinnaker. After the high speed start the wind gradually dropped off to nearly nothing - ideal conditions as Assarain II never did less than 2 knots - even in force 0! We gained several places and by the time we were reaching Cape Wrath the wind had filled in and we were back to the 7 knot pace. With 2 reefs and the number 2 jib we beat up to the north of Shetland. By the time we had reached the oil rigs in the middle of the North Sea the wind had calmed right off again - and seemed to steadily drop till we reached the finish line.
The voyage was fantastic fun, and achieving first place an unexpected bonus. Special thanks to Ocean Spirit of Moray for lending us their Walker log, and the bacon sandwiches one morning, also to Urania for the awesome party they threw for us when we arrived in Maloy, and for giving us a tin opener, storm food, chilled lemonade, showers and especially for helping to fix our spinnaker. Thank you also to everyone else who has helped and supported us.
Race 2 - Bergen (Norway) - Den Helder (Holland)
Race two began full of anticipation. We held our spinnaker for 36 hours of strong winds aware that most of our class, heavier and larger boats, would be pulling out in front. The waypoint put us in 5th place and still flying our spinnaker with the wind dropping off then dying entirely. We all brightened up as it filled in again from in front a light south easterly perfect for Assarain II. A stowaway bird landed on the deck and we named it affectionately Penelope before making it a nest from an orange juice carton and measuring our time to the line as 20 hours to go. The evening report put us in 1st place again.
That night two tragedies occurred almost simultaneously lending evidence to the suspicions that birds are bad luck to boats. Penelope died at 03.00 hours and at 03.10 the backstay was reported loose, the mast began to bend backwards towards the deck…sails were promptly taken down. A solid metal pin had sheared signalling the end of the race. We secured the mast with the spinnaker halyards and breathed a sign of relief that we had not lost the mast.
Everyone was silent in the morning when race control was called to report that we had retired from the race and the disappointment continued all day until a more urgent problem took our minds off it: because of the high winds we were motoring into, only able to make 2 knots, we did not have enough fuel to get to Den Helder. When we called for assistance we learned the rest of the fleet were having troubles as well: Clyde Challenger was taking on water and required a lifeboat. Jolie Brise came to our rescue, still racing, they hove-to alongside and threw us a line down which they passed 100 litres of fuel in cans – Jolie Brise then went on to win their race.