Draig O’r Mor was in her element with some exhilarating sailing in strong breezes in the RORC Fastnet qualifying race last weekend. The De Guingand Bowl race started at Cowes at 0800 Saturday with a beat up the Solent to the Needles. Here spinnakers were launched and Draig revelled in a fantastic 8 hour rollercoaster ride, surfing on waves at 13+ knots to the Greenwich Light Vessel and rounding the mark at around 1800. From here it was a massive beat back to Cowes for the Finish at dawn, a total of 127 miles.

 

Draig really likes a blow and she never faltered as we watched others broaching and getting into trouble with their spinnakers. One yacht struggled for at least half an hour with a massive kite wrap before they were forced to retire. Some of the light displacement boats kept up with us on the spinnaker run but when we turned to beat back home Draigy’s weight really came in to her own and we left many behind as darkness fell.

 

With a team of 5 working well together we beat some strong competition and all the other Brits in our class and were delighted to finish 6^th out of 24. Now lying 7^th in the series the pressure is on to do well in the next race to Eddystone Light House and back over the bank holiday weekend.