Lonely Rock Race 2020
It’s just a few days to go until the RWYC Lonely Rock Race and as it’s my first race of the year it will be a real test since my refit.
Lonely Rock wasn’t originally in my calendar for this year but like most of us, COVID rearranged my calendar and now this race may be my only offshore event of the summer. So I’m looking forward to heading out to the start line in just a few days.
In particular I’m happy to be taking part in a new (old) British offshore race and supporting its organisers the Royal Western Yacht Club. It’s great to see another offshore course spring up especially in these times. We have a great culture of offshore and ocean racing in the UK and I am keen to support and join in wherever I can.
The race
The race starts in the Solent, the stretch of water between the UK mainland and the Isle of Wight, on Sunday morning. We head out past the iconic Needles Lighthouse, work our way west along the Dorset, Devon and Cornish coast, leave the Isles of Scilly to Port (on our left) then head off across the Irish sea. This stretch of water can be notoriously grim, typically we will meet a weather front with poor visibility, waves and wind. The dash across the Irish sea takes us straight from the Scillies to the Fastnet Rock which we turn tightly around, then back to the Scillies again. The finish of the race is in Plymouth. It’s going to be a key part of warm up and preparation for the Vendee Globe, it’s the first chance to push the boat in race conditions since the refit.
I’ve decided to sail this race with crew for a couple of key reasons: firstly I’m sailing with two people who can coach me en route, assessing my technique, giving feedback and input, stretching me out of my comfort zone. Secondly, collectively we can push the boat harder as a crew; we can test the changes we’ve made during the refit and uncover any weaknesses or ideas for improvements ahead of my next maintenance period.
It is a great pleasure to be sailing once again with Paul Larsen – world speed sailing record holder and a great mentor for my campaign. Paul and I had the most incredible Fastnet race together last year - we led the entire fleet on the first night - which you can read about here. This year we will also be joined by Mikey Fergusen. Mikey and I have raced against each other on the TJV this year where he was Ari Hueselas co-skipper. Now Mikey has joined my team, bringing his considerable years of IMOCA experience with him and as a fresh pair of eyes and an appetite to improve.
Testing, testing
The Vendee Globe race is about eliminating problems and risks and understanding how we deal with things when they go wrong, so three people putting the boat under stress will be more helpful than if I were out training alone. We’re almost going out to break the boat… we’re not trying to, but if we do push things to the point of failure we would be happy because we would have found it at a time when it’s not going to be detrimental to my performance – we’ve got the time to fix things.
The phase we’re in now is all about testing, testing, testing. We need to make sure the boat is in the best possible condition when we hit that startline later this year, and the only way we can do that is to test, repair and repeat.
We’re going into the Lonely Rock Race wanting to do well, to put in the best performance possible for my boat and my crew, however my main hope (as ever) is that I come out having learned a whole heap, with a big long list of work we are going to do to make things better and things for me to focus on. This race is work, we’re not going to sit back and cruise - these moments are precious and I want to take every single tiny second of value out of them as I possibly can.
We will be live streaming from the start of the Lonely Rock Race, there will be a tracker to watch and regular updates from the crew around the course. I’m looking forward to getting back out there to do what I love the most. See you at the start!