We decided to head out to France over the Easter weekend with
the J24 to sail in the Spi Quest regatta. The venue was Trinite-Sur-Mer, which
is just east of Carnac in the North West corner of France. Spi Quest is probably
best described as the French version of Cowes week, with 450 boats entered,
predominantly split into one design class racing. The event attracts a
fantastically diverse international presence, with teams from New Zealand,
Oman, and the USA just on our race course. Unfortunately we didn’t get the
entry of J24’s that we were hoping for, and we were therefore put in the IRC4b
class with the five other J24’s for four days of handicap racing. As always
seems to be the case, we had one of the slowest ratings on our start line, so
the bigger and faster boat added a sometimes challenging dimension to our
racing.
The format of racing was three windward-leeward races, plus a 14
mile costal race each day. Unfortunately we were a little less prepared than we
normally choose to be because all the Sailing Instructions, the Notice of Race,
and VHF communication were posted in French. In the absence of Mark, our French
speaking expert, we were left a little in the dark as to the exact format.
Inevitably this was always going to catch us out, and it did! Between race
three and four the Race Committee radioed details about the costal race in
French, which clearly we were completely ignorant too! The result was starting
four minutes late, and following the fleet around, completely confused as to
where they were going! Despite that, we ended the day as top J24 and 5th
in our fleet, but most importantly slightly clearer on tomorrow’s format! The
rest of the week went really well. We sailed in a real variety of conditions,
from flat water and 5 knots, to big swell and 25 knots. We managed to win a few
of the races, including one of the costal races once we had a grasp on the
course. We ended the regatta in 4th overall and second J24. The
whole team is now planning hard for the rest of the season.....
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