Strait Dealer wins gruelling race
For the avid sailors who monitored the weather forecast leading up to the classic Vega Offshore, they must have been confused as to how to prepare their boat and brief their crew. Local weather forecast compared to Windfinder was showing a different...
For the avid sailors who monitored the weather forecast leading up to the classic Vega Offshore, they must have been confused as to how to prepare their boat and brief their crew.
Local weather forecast compared to Windfinder was showing a different weather pattern for the whole week. Finally, the 25 knots easterly forecast by Windfinder came through... right on the nose.
While the start was brimming with excitement with spinnaker hoists, tacks, gybes and drops, the fleet steadied out once out of Marsamxett Harbour with a constant 13 knots of wind from the east giving the fleet a fetch heading north towards the Vega Oil Platform.
The conditions suited the longer, larger boats who enjoyed a quick fetch-up followed by a nice run down. However, midway through the day, the smaller boats were the ones who got the punishment with rain, thunder and squalls of 35 knots, thus forcing the whole Class B fleet to retire except for Anton Calleja on board Spirit of the Wind.
From then on, the wind veered to the northeast, thus making Vega on one tack an impossible task. From the larger fleet, Allegra had to retire due to gear failure. Mischief was first to retire with Martin Meachum claiming sail preservation as his final decision-maker.
This left Strait Dealer and Kerisma, the two out-and-out race boats, to do battle followed by Jon Gambin on TonTon, a Dufour 44.
They rounded Vega and finished in that order with David Franks just beating Sonke Stein on corrected time.
TonTon finished third across the line and on corrected. Strait Dealer eventually won by just 41 seconds on corrected time.
In Class A, Elusive finished in fourth place. It was followed by Rebel, Maltese Falcon and Liara B.
In Class B, the winner was Calleja (Spirit of the Wind) as he was the only one to be able to go through the storm and round Vega, thus a very well deserved top spot for Calleja and his crew.
Results
Class A: 1. Strait Dealer 12:14.49; 2. Kerisma 12:15.30; 3. TonTon 12:23.23.
Class B: 1. Spirit of the Wind 13:40.49.