1000-Mile Double Handed Race news 

This was another 1000-Mile Double handed Race!
The competitors had to face the elements of the northernmost North Sea: becalmed for hours, strong winds, a delay of 24 hours of a start because of a serious Low passing, lot of fun in Lerwick at the Lerwick Boating Club, all ingredients were there for successful 1000-Mile Race 2017.

There is only one thing what remains to be done…: the results!
Of course we have a winner!
After Leg 2 the Insomnix and Bliss were on par. Both had 5 points. Leg 3 became a decisive part of the race for the crews. Insomnix won the last leg ± 30 min. before Greyhound. They had pushed the throttle hard and had a wild ride doing 8,5 knots on average.
The winner of 1000-Mile Double Handed Race 2017 is: INSOMNIX

1. INSOMNIX – 7 pts
2. BLISS – 9 pts
3. JAGER – 11 pts
4. GREYHOUND – 13 pts
5 VANDAL – 21 pts
6 POLISHED MANX 2 – 23 pts

The overview of all the results in the 3 legs you can download here.

The 1000-Mile Race will be back in June 2019!

(but first another 500-Mile North Sea Race in 2018, we hope to see you there!)

Tonight will be the Prize giving ceremony at the Bergens Seilforening. In the mean time enjoy some pics taken during the wild Leg 3 (by JAGER)

The provisional times of arrival in Bergen (Marstein) after Leg 3 (in CEST) on 26th of June:
GREYHOUND – 10:21:04
INSOMNIX – 10:46:00
JAGER – 11:45:45
VANDAL – 12:45:00
POLISHED MANX 2 – 13:19:11
BLISS – 15:18:10

Bergen here we come! #sailing #yachtracing #sailingphotography #shetlandrace17 #shetland #bergen #windy #sailfjord #sailnorway

A post shared by E + J (@sailfjord) on Jun 25, 2017 at 3:11am PDT

Today the postponed start of Leg 3 (Lerwick-Bergen) will take place at 1200 CEST.
Wind force will dominate the start of this leg just as it did in the previous one.
In Leg 2, because of the lack of wind; today the opposite. Yesterday a gale in the 30’s, today fortunately it slowed down to ± 23 knts near Lerwick but still more to the east.
The low pressure system has passed and steadily moves eastwards; the race fleet will depart in the wake of it. So the wind direction will be steady in NW. Later in the race it will gradually veer to NNW or perhaps N sometimes. Wind force will drop some but not that much. The crews will keep 22 to 28 knots on the port side. And it will be sunny 🙂

Situation Sunday at noon

The new schedule is:
Skippers meeting Sunday 25th July in Lerwick Boating Club – 0930 BST
Warning signal for the 3rd leg will be given Sunday – 1055 BST
Price ceremony in Bergen at Bergens Seilforening Tuesday 27th July – 1900 CEST

The ‘eye’ of the system is clearly visible (the blue dot)

We have final results of LEG 2 for you:

To download the complete file, click here.

BLISS has finally time to post us an update. They have been working hard in the second leg:
“Finally a quiet moment for an update. What a race so far on board Bliss!!
Firstly, that long calm just after the start (grrr). When we finally picked up some speed and heel, in the middle of the night we heard  the sound of splashing water from under the floorboards! When we took drinking water in Bergen, we spoiled a few buckets of water. We thought we found the cause then, but apparently we didn’t. In the middle of the night we had to take the floor away, pumped the water out, dried everything  and finally the co-skipper could jump into his bunk again and the skipper back to her night watch.

Later the wind increased to 20-25 kts. We enjoyed it! After a while, though, we discovered that the screws which attached the autopilot bracket to the helm came loose. In the pouring rain we tried to replace the broken screw with a new one. Unfortunately this was cut as well, after a few hours. We’re now supporting the bracket with tie-wraps and straps, which worked well as long as the weather will stay as calm as it is now.

A bit later we were hit by a squall and 30 knots of wind. Some increase of wind has been forecasted but not this much! BLISS was stil under full main an jib. Because of the shape of the main we could handle it quite well for a long time. Nevertheless we quickly set two reefs. Fortunately the wind dropped swiftly  again and the bunk watch could rest again.

Today all went well, despite a rather ‘unsafe meal’; it was even, thanks to the clear sunny weather, quite pleasant.
As we speak we are 53 miles from the finish and sailing windward in the lovely evening sun. We’ll expect a calm again and a windshift later, which could make it possible to get to the Bressay Sound without another tack.

We have no idea where we are in the race. A calm usually is in the advantage of the slower boats. We’ll see. The part between the calm at the start and the 30knts squall would have been perfect for a C0 of C5. We watched on the AIS the yacht which have such a sail sprinting away.., while we just could get to 7 knots with our 100% jib.

I think, it all will depend on if all the yachts wil get into that calm or only  just the slower boats. We’ll see, we just sail as fast as possible.
ETA 5AM CEST

Auto-pilot repair

After a night of proper sailing the wind is about to veer from SSE to W, a shift of more than 90˚. On the tracker chart it is clearly visible. BLISS can still steer W (wind hasn’t veered there yet). The leaders though, already changed to a more northerly course. Also a tactical issue is noteworthy: the more southerly boats (GREYHOUND, JAGER) have the advantage now, for they will get a position at the luff side (nearer to the wind) of the fleet.

1000-Mile & Shetland Race Fleet stalled after only 12 nm! No imminent change expected unfortunately..

VANDAL reports: “Almost no wind, 3-4 knots. A bit frustrating:-)” The yachts are drifting rather than sailing.. Speed 2 .. 2,4… 2.9 knots. The doublehanded fleet is trapped between areas of wind at the W (30 miles away) and E side. Marstein Lighthouse gives 5m/s or 10knts. They have to ‘suffer’ a bit more. Not sooner than early in the evening they will get into wind zone.. To their comfort: wind will be SSE then and increase rapidly to 20knts or more.

How to follow the race live? At the tracker page!

While the 1000-Milers and the crews in the Shetland Bergen Race are attending the mutual skippers meeting in the new clubhouse of the Bergens Seilforening in Hjellestad, let’s have a look at tomorrow’s events.
Early in the morning the joined fleets of the 1000-Mile yachts and this of the Pantaenius Shetland Bergen Race will head towards Marstein Lighthouse for the start at 1000 LT  of the leg to Lerwick. The distance to be covered is about 150 nm.
The course is straightforward, except for the final approach of the finishing line: either the yachts can enter the Bressay Sound north of Bressay of straight into the sound South of te Island. The finishing line can be clearly observed from the Lerwick Boating Club.

“This is not going to be fun tomorrow afternoon…”
Why is that? Well, let’s have a look at the wind chart.

Litle wind at the start at 1000

When the gunshot sounds at 1000 there will be only little wind from the north but probably enough for the propulsion of the boats and that will not change in the hours to come. Wind will decrease steadily though  until there is none left… Read more »

The results of the long leg 1 from IJmuiden to Bergen on handicap are:

The complete results can be downloaded here

CONGRATULATIONS GREYHOUND FOR WINNING LINE HONOURS Leg 1
The official times of arrival:

(times in CEST)

Exiting developments! A true battle for line honours is unfolding for the 2 leading yachts GREYHOUND and INSOMNIX. We made a quick drawing on the chart of events. Their average speed at the moment is ± 9 knots. They are on their way to the waypoint s of Fedje then onwards to the finish W of Herdla. They both are clearly visible on the AIS tracker page.

After a very calm, probably never-racking (for keeping the pace up), night they’re now clearly catching wind.

17th June 0200

17th June 0900

1000-Mile DH Race finish line control is now manned and active @ Herdla Fort

The yachts are approaching the Norwegian coast. Wind from NE force 15 to 20 knts (8-10 m/s). So they still can point directly towards the finish near Bergen. Probably most of them have set a first reef already, but will certainly do so soon, for the wind will increase early Friday morning.
Wind will develop even further just East of them, with strong winds in the 30+ knots (15+ m/s) at the S-Norwegian coast. The 1000-Mile teams will pass this area, with a max. of 25 knts later in the Friday afternoon. This will only stay shortly and the wind will drop steadily during the night with a dramatic outcome early Saturday when there will be a few hours of very calm weather; even chance of hardly wind at all!
Calm often means change of wind direction. So it will this time. When the wind kicks in again it will be straight from the South! Spinakers will be up again!
The downside is there is chance of some precipitation later on Saturday.

Early Friday morning

Friday during the day

Report from BLISS: “Wonderful day yesterday, tacking near the coast. We could use our local knowledge well! Excellent night under spinaker. We dropped it too soon perhaps, which meant that the others gained miles. We set the spinaker again. Wind start to shift to W now. Best from the Bliss.”