#arc2014

Some great pictures taken by Ebbe during the ARC 2014. Read his blog summarizing his experience onboard Scarlet Oyster here...

Yachting World Article "ARC 2014: A new course record and an impressive repeat performance, Matthew Sheahan reports from the finish in St Lucia"

There are easier ways to cross the Atlantic than peeling kites on an hourly basis, gybing on every lift and sitting on the weather rail whenever it might make a difference. But if you’re chasing a place on the podium in the racing class of the ARC 2014 and keen to add to a string of former successes, then these are the actions that will improve your chances. At least this was the view of Scarlet Oyster’s owner/skipper Ross Applebey and his crew.

Having won the racing division overall in 2011 and their class for the last three years in a row there was every reason to keep pushing to see if they could add another victory to their already impressive tally.

Setting goals this high, in what has become an increasingly competitive event, is to nudge the bar up once again. To attempt it in a 27 year old cruiser/racer is particularly impressive.

But as Appelbey and Co crossed the finish line here in St Lucia at 2040pm local on Monday night they not only took a class win, but took first overall in the racing division once again. But it had been close. The 100ft LOA supermaxi Leopard had taken line honours and smashed the course record by slicing two days 6 hours 45 minutes and 19 seconds off the previous best time. Yet on corrected time the unofficial reckoning had Scarlet Oyster beating Leopard by 22 minutes.

To quote Appelbey or his crew during an afternoon of celebrations ashore as they tucked into multiple rounds of well earned refreshments would be unfair, but it was clear to see how excited they were at both winning again and beating Leopard.

But the win hadn’t been easy, particularly during the last two days when they had calculated what time they needed to finish at to take the top slot. Apparently the mood on board swung wildly between nervous excitement and despair with each gust and wind hole that they passed through. During the last two hours no one spoke apart from Applebey to call ‘trip’ during a gybe.

It wasn’t just Leopard that they were racing either. Captain Blind, a French registered Grand Solei 43 owned by Yannick Richomme had fought with Scarlet Oyster for more than 1,000miles during the crossing. By the finish they were less than two hours behind.

Scarlet’s achievement is all the more impressive given the crisis they were facing 24 hours before the start.

Having lost their rudder during the Middle Sea Race in September, (you have to read the account in the Feb 15 issue of YW that earned the skipper and his co-skipper the RORC’s Outstanding Seamanship Award) and then building a replacement in a back street fabrication shed on a remote island, Scarlet Oyster then set off on a 2,000 mile delivery trip to the start of the ARC in Las Palmas. Having arrived in good time and with a new rudder manufactured in Denmark and on its way, the airline responsible for the shipping lost the package in Madrid and only finally delivered it 24 hours before the start of the race.

How Applebey didn’t blow a fuse is still the subject of much debate.

Shortly after Scarlet Oyster crossed the line there was a flurry of other finishers in the racing division that crossed the line overnight. Each had their own story to tell of the intensity of the racing over the last two weeks, the torrential rain, the lightening and the trading of food and beverage stocks against certain unpleasant yet necessary tasks.

The next few days will see a flood of finishers in the cruising divisions along with more tales of how, why and where their courses took them.

The Feb 15 issue of YW will cover their stories.

Hi All,

A few milestones reached, one significant one for the superstitious was that at 2343:13UT last night we were 13 seconds, 13 minutes, 13hrs, and 13 days into my 13th Atlantic crossing, I elected to play things very safe around that time! We had a big cloud approach us minutes before, but fortunately no dire consequences!

As of 1000 today we were 100miles to go, we just need a bit more wind and a bit of north in the wind and we can still beat the mighty Leopard, going to be close, but so long as we give it our all, it does not matter to me if they do prevail over us, we would be more than delighted with a fourth consecutive class win, and as with all crossings, a safe rewarding one, is a great outcome regardless of any race position.

It seems that the S played out well for the intrepid French team on Captain Blind, our routing 2 days ago suggested the same route, but then the forcast changed, to suggest a straight approach, unfortunately yesterday was not ideal, with crazy amounts of rain, lightning and very unstable winds, we had 40knots of wind hit us out of nowhere with 180 degreees shift in under 20seconds, whilst barely able to see the bow in torrential rain, 10mins later we had no wind again.

Last 20hrs have been kinder too us, and we will soon gybe to head to the finish, our VMG will jump up as we finally point at our destination, right now it seems there is more wind to the S and also a left shift still to come so we are hanging on to our SW heading for a little longer, also this covers captain Blind, it is likely to be close boat on boat to the finish with them, just as it should be after such a close battle for so long.

The wind has finally clicked to the due E as I write, best head on deck for our gybe towards the rum! Although the famous Mount Gay rum of Barbados is only 20 miles away, we will hang on for the nearly as palatable Chairman’s Reserve of St Lucia 75mile further away!

Bye for now

Hi All,

Been pretty frenetic here! There have been numerous squalls over last 3 days, good news is we have all had showers, and also plenty to do! The A3 has been our work horse, it has been hoisted and dropped at least a dozen times at all hours of the day, amazingly it is still in one piece, most unusual especially as it has been flown in up to 35knots on a few occasions! We must have used a couple of sheep’s worth of wool in stopping it with wool for each hoist!

The results have been great, and we have been racking up the miles. Hiking is a new discipline to ARC sailing, but makes a difference when pushing hard, we have 10 strong crew so have decided to capitalise on this, the weight is no use on the wrong side!

We got caught by a massive cloud system after 1600 yesterday, the cloud had its own wind system which was not conducive to speeding to st Lucia! It took several tacks gybes and 2 hrs to extract ourselves, very much like our rivals on Captain Blind had to deal with a few days ago! We therefore cannot complain about it being unfair, as they eloquently put it ‘it is the race…’

Island Girl looks to have had a similar problem, perhaps on the same system as it appeared to stretch SW to NE, others have also slowed in this line. To our North tonight we have seen a lot of electrical activity, fortunately we were aware of this and stayed far enough South. The moon has been very useful to provide a little light to help us manoeuvre the boat at night.

The ultimate goal is still achievable with a little assistance from mother nature, to beat the corrected time set by the mighty Leopard, we must cross the line in St Lucia before 0100UT Tuesday (conveniently the bars will be still open as it is only 2100 local time!) , we have lead them on handicap from the start, but the weather from here on in is to say the least looking tricky, every weather download suggests a different optimum route, the latest seems to be to sail straight at the mark, simple it may seem but we anticipate dozens of manoeuvres to negotiate the likely fickle conditions!

The team are up for it, we will finish this race as we have sailed it so far, giving it our all! Our latest target VMG to win is a seemingly very achievable 6.4knots to triumph over the big cat, I am certain this will come down to the wire however! Leopards time is spectacular axing well over 2 days off the record, this is hugely impressive, congrats to Chris and his team!

Was about to stick the kite on again but it has just started blowing 25knots again from the beam, not bad for a 10knot forecast, lets hope tomorrow brings similar over forecast conditions!

Bye for now from a slightly soggy but upbeat Scarlet Oyster! The rum awaits!

Day 12…

What a night! I will make no apologies in this update for describing the progress of the race from a more nautical perspective…

The early hours of the evening saw us meet with a very large ominous looking cloud moving in slowly from the S which potentially indicated a likely squall followed by unstable light winds, perhaps a wind hole… We were ready to make a Spinnaker change from our big A2 Kite to a jib as soon as it was called for. The wind headed quickly so we made the change. The wind then built to 25knots for a time, we could see on AIS Captain Blind who were further S had slowed drastically after the cloud passed, we could also see that the cloud had almost parked itself, as it was not moving in relation to the moon, we decided to try and stay to the North of the cloud and hopefully use the stronger winds on its leeward side to draw us around the worst of any hole, with perhaps a little help from ‘lady luck’ we kept a good steady speed. Our main competition ‘Captain Blind’ were less fortunate and it looked like they were trapped in the wind hole for some time, we were all the time waiting for our turn to park up!. The cloud finally engulfed us but critically we had progressed far enough West to avoid the worst of the hole, a quick change back to the A2 and we were sailing at 7knots in 10knots of wind under a clearing sky. For the next hours we then tried to avoid clouds and held a steady course with the big A2 kite flying beautifully against the moonlight pretty much on a beam reach. All was well… Or so it seemed…

Things then proceeded to get a little ‘tasty’! As Ross had the whole crew turn into meteorologists, each of us cloud spotting and having us weave around them, there was simply no avoiding one big black storm cloud dead in our path. The plus side was that it was moving and as we were steadily chugging along at respectable 8-9 knots, the whole crew were confident that we’d have a steady course through, but Ross had other ideas. He had crew on standby for an immediate Spinnaker drop…. 16 knots of wind changed to 25 knots in the space of 30 seconds (bare in mind that the limit of this kite is 20 knots)… Good call Ross! We had an effective drop, of which our Bowman “F***ing Hell” Joe deserved a particular ‘mention in despatches’ for his effort in spiking the kite in somewhat tricky conditions! The drop reconfirmed Ross’s experience and knowledge of this yacht, its boundaries, the course and the conditions… Although I think he himself would admit that we pushed it pretty far! The preservation of the A2 spinnaker is key to the last 4 days of this race as light winds are forecast. This call by the Skipper/Owner could have saved us the race.

Thereafter we have had a steady night/morning with a consistent reach and a crew in good spirits back into their routine. Joe, our bowman is currently fast asleep on top of the sail bags, fully kitted (including his hat!). His work ethic is outstanding and like a Duracell Bunny he just keeps on going… We all agree that we would love to be this fit and driven at the age of 64! He’s a machine!!

'Captain Blind' for the time being are a little behind (approx 10 nm) and although pose less of an immediate threat, are still worthy challengers. What makes their performance even more impressive is that they are a crew of 4 and we are a crew of 10… We are all feeling very tired with more bodies to share the workload… Hats off to CB! ‘Island Girl’ and ‘Xanadu’ also still remain good contenders. Although they are behind us in distance, their alternative location means that a change of conditions North v South could change the game in their favour. With winds forecast to drop, the chances of beating Leopard (one of the world’s fastest Mono hull Maxi Yachts) for the overall ARC Race trophy is looking less likely. Leopard finished the race several days ago in a very impressive new course record, despite finishing well before us, they have a much higher rating (handicap), so we have some time to play with, but conditions are not favourable at this stage…. I am sure the Leopard crew are enjoying a well deserved celebratory rum or 10 in St Lucia! The whole of the Scarlet Oyster crew send their congratulations to the team for beating the course record. We can only continue to sail the best course we can, minimise mistakes and keep the motivation amongst the crew.

4ish days to go….. Still all to play for!!

Day 11! The start seems another world away. We are fully into the routine having reached halfway on Day 8 … This was celebrated in style with a bottle of Veuve Cliquot and a few Abba and Bob Marley tunes blaring out of the Yacht’s sound system… ‘Ebbe’ (one of our Swedish crew members) used to work for the Abba Museum… It is therefore him that I blame for the fact that my memorable ‘half way’ celebration point in the Mid Atlantic will now always be tarnished with ‘Super Trooper’ and ‘Mamma Mia’! :)

The ARC race it would appear is clearly a ‘bucket list’ item for all of the 8 non regular crew…. One of the crew mentioned that is was No. 6 on his list, which inevitably led to inquiries about No.s 1-5… The subsequent chatting in the cockpit by the crew on watch and inevitable loss of concentration led to frustrated calls from the skippers for steering way from our most effective course! For our two professionals (Co-Skippers Ross and Mark) it is an opportunity to make ARC history with a potential 1st win for Mark and a record 5th (4th on this yacht) for Ross. Between them they have racked up over 20 Atlantic crossings.

The ARC was certainly a ‘Bucket List’ event for me. I came into this trip with my eyes open, not fully knowing what to expect. I am a amateur sailor, have sailed as a hobby most of my life, but have never been on an Ocean going trip. I envisaged many scenarios… Battened down hatches with gale force winds blowing overhead… And endless blue seas whilst getting a suntan. The reality is somewhere between the two… Clouds, rain, sunshine and a little bit of sleep deprivation and a lot of body odour! I work for a large Investment Bank and am, by nature, a very competitive person. The one thing that had surprisingly never really occurred to me when embarking on this trip was the possibility of us actually winning the overall class and event. The exciting reality of that happening is becoming ever closer with only 4/5 days left to go (depending upon weather conditions). We are currently still leading both our class and the overall race (based upon handicap adjustments). This is clearly a fantastic position to be in, but it also adds a great deal of pressure to the team and we all know that nothing is certain until we reach the finish line. It is both ours to win and ours to lose and 4 days and 800 miles is still a very long way to go. Any mistake, spinnaker damage, poor course or simply bad luck of falling into a ‘hole’ (an area of no wind) can cost us everything.

Apart from Ross and Mark, we are amateur sailors and this is first Trans Atlantic Crossing for us all. Life onboard this 48’ yacht is not very glamorous. 10 guys in a confined space inevitably leads to, although Mark did comment on the fact that we were a particularly messy crew! Although girls would be very welcome aboard for the race, I wouldn’t envy them right now if they were!! With nothing but endless water and our sleep patterns being hugely messed up from the 3/2/3 hour watch system, little things become more important… Imagine ‘Big Brother’ on yachts! We are all having bizarre dreams, have developed the ability to sleep through noise and sail changes (some more tactical than others!) and food is a constant topic of discussion. Food improves crew morale no end… Mark has been dishing up some great dishes (much better than I was expecting if I am honest!) although he admits himself that there are only so many things that you can do with meat, pasta, rice and potatoes… However the disappearance of the apples/oranges and the infamous ‘cheese stealing’ incident has caused a few rumbles amongst the crew! :) We have even had crew ‘discussions’ about the rationing of baby wipes…. Yes BABY WIPES!! Other such incidents include when I had a flying fish fly straight into me whilst I was on the helm the other night. It fell by my feet and was flapping about whilst I was trying to steer a strict course, much to my crewmates amusement… I think the word ‘pussy’ was used by our USA Bowman! Speaking of whom, Joe adopted the name ‘Goldylocks’ the other night after I found him asleep in my sleeping bag…Porridge was not served in the morning though as we had run out.

The sun has been beating down over the past few days and so we have all been trying to get a base tan in before we hit St Lucia. To the great amusement of the crew I have managed to get a suntan clearly displaying hand prints where I can reach round to my own back… I’ll be spending the next few days trying to reverse the affect. All minor examples of things that keep the Nautical Miles ticking over with some amusement, but I appreciate back home they are probably frankly rather droll!

Ross I gather is pleased with our performance especially given the strong competition this year. We have gelled well as a team, are constantly driving hard and despite settling into a routine, the simple truth is we are tired, at times out of our comfort zone and are occasionally making unforced errors. With only 4/5 days to go, we are absolutely loving it!!

Cy Lloyd Jones Crew Member ARC 2014, Thursday 4th December

Hi All!

As of this morning we are now through the 1000dtg mark, this is good news as our distance to waypoint on our helm display cannot go beyond 999, unfortunately this display has succumbed to either heat exhaustion, or it perhaps drowned in one of yesterdays squalls!

Our worthy adversaries on Captain Blind are sailing slightly quicker than we can manage, and choosing similar angles, occasionally they will lift off more to the S, but on balance we are trying to do the same thing ie sail as low as we can with speed in these lighter winds. From their blogs it appears they are getting wound up by our apparent following tactics!

We are sailing to our angles, as to do otherwise would give them an advantage, it seems that both boats like the same angles! Hopefully after rum in st Lucia they will cool down bit and we will all be friends! Increasingly it is becoming a 2 horse race in our class, as the lighter winds arrive it is important that we stay near them to reduce the chance they can make a break into more advantageous conditions than us, they are creeping away, an we are doing all we can to close St lucia as fast as we can!

Leopard has set the bar for the overall race course record and also a corrected time we would love to beat to be in contention overall racing. The current average speed we have made all race would see us ahead of this time, however forecast light winds before the finish for us could make this hard to achieve… Will be interesting to see how it plays out, at least we may all get to go for a swim if we do parkup…

We may have pushed too hard yesterday in pursuit of our allegedly partially sighted rivals! We broke our trusty running kite… The damage appears to be too extensive to fix onboard, so we are now limited to 4 spinnakers, the big a2 is looking to be the weapon of choice, but this sail is nursing a rather poorly looking tack, which we tore of it 4 days ago, the latest repair which involves a lot of sticky kevlar strips and a great deal of sewing seems to be holding.

Our A3 reaching spinnaker has had a better than usual ARC, I think we have blown its head off on every other ARC, this time it has survived 35knots squalls in pitch darkness, perhaps it has grown conditioned to this sort of abuse?!

Anyway enough ramblings already, need to look at new weather files which I can download from right about now, so we can work out how best to hunt down the French!

Bye for now