RORC Fastnet Part 2: Surviving in a Doublehanded Boat - Seahorse March 2024

Written by Kate Cope

The 2023 RORC Rolex Fastnet race had its toughest weather conditions in recent years. Three frontal systems crossed its track, the first of which was a SW gale force 8, gusting 9 from the Needles to Portland Bill.  In these conditions, with only two co-skippers aboard, any equipment failures can have significant consequences as there can be little slack before you are overwhelmed by the conditions. After the race I spoke to a range of different boats in the UK Doublehanded Series fleet to find out what worked and what failed.

The biggest failure across the doublehanded boats was the electronics. Despite some carrying out extra waterproofing pre-race, the persistent rain water and waves found their way into the network and on most boats electronics failed. 

Autopilots are critical on a doublehanded boat, especially in a long race, so many shorthanded boats carry two autopilots.  On Cora the autopilot malfunctioned probably from a short circuit in a damaged cable elsewhere in the system. The pilot kept auto-engaging and trying to go hard over so it was fortunate they had installed a breaker switch specifically for the pilot. Another boat had the pilot auto engaging whilst they were hand steering and trying to tack the boat. Bellino has a second pilot that they can run without any data from the network, this proved fantastic as it was merrily steering the boat at boat speeds of over 20 knots as their primary pilot wouldn’t work because of corrupt data on the network.

Red Ruby had issues with the chart plotter after water incursion. It took on a life of its own and began creating thousands of man-overboard waypoints. On top of it all, the chart plotter turned to Polish and they subsequently had lots of grimacing fun trying to silence the alarms. On other boats the chart plotter just randomly shut off.

AIS was also unreliable. Some reported AIS data was very limited due to heel angles of the boat, on another the AIS decided to lose cable connection with GPS and therefore they stopped transmitting. Finally, laptop and phone chargers don’t like salty water either and charging problems were common. 

Knowing the electronic lay out and being able to fault find proved crucial. Jangada ran without instruments for six hours whilst they considered all options, including retirement.  Fortunately, time spent before the race indexing all the connections on the network meant they were able to clear the fault once the sea state had eased.   

Another common failure was loss of deck safety gear. Disko Trooper had a lot of safety gear washed off the transom/pushpit by the waves. They concluded the standard fastenings need reviewing for strength whilst retaining quick release mechanisms. On Jangada the Dan Bouy jumped off its bracket and self-inflated.  Black Betty had the life raft self-inflate after they had turned the boat around and got swamped by a wave, it then fell off the back and was towed for a while before detaching itself. This caused extra traffic on Ch16 as many boats called in to report it. 

Three boat I spoke to lost wind instruments, or part of them.  Jangada lost the sea water pump and toilet pump, both broke their mounts due to flimsy designs that could not withstand the battering if knocked.  

Its particularly important to secure heavy items, Bellino had fire extinguisher go flying, another boat had the EPIRB fall out the holder luckily not going off. JAGO had a cupboard door open and a spare bottle of gearbox liquid emptied itself with the awful smell making the skipper puke for next 48 hours. 

It was essential to have a handheld radio or VHF Speaker on deck though both proved difficult to hear in the wind. Cora sums up the reality of the situation for many boats “Despite having our radio on the loudspeaker upstairs it was so noisy, the Rolex backstay flag sounded like it was breaking the sound barrier 3 times a second, and the radio was largely drowned out. It is difficult to manage and monitor this when you’re trying to negotiate 35-40 knot breezes as a double handed team”. The upgrade most wanted was the ability to clear the VHF DSC alarms from on deck as this would have saved many precarious trips below.

When you are doublehanded in heavy upwind conditions it’s unlikely you are going to find the time or energy to go below to cook hot food. On Red Ruby it was 18hrs before either skipper went below for any significant time. Quick access snacks and sandwiches are essential with a mix of healthier (nuts/seeds, eggs, chicken, fruit) alongside the needful sugar and caffeine. Some packed foulies with bars other just had them ready in the cockpit bags. Ready-made breakfast milkshakes (oats, milk, sugar) were useful for getting calories in quickly. Orbit had food that heated itself up with cold water. One made hot drinks in flasks before leaving the dock which kept hot for 6 hours another had a big box of home cooked vegetable pasta ready to eat.  I’m told oranges proved a great source of energy in bad weather - no need to worry about the mess, it's gone with the next wave.

When you do finally get below for a rest don’t forget if you have heating to fire it up. JAGO got to Lands End and reports “… it dawned on me why not put the heating on…. oh, wow did it have an immediate impact on our wellbeing and mood!”

Thanks to the co-skippers of Fastrak, Jangada, Disko Trooper, Cora, JAGO, Surf, Solenn for Pure Ocean, Orbit, Black Betty and Mzungu! for sharing their insights.

If this has inspired you to join us then the UK Doublehanded Series welcomes new members into our supportive group. Our race schedule for 2024 is now live and the series includes the IRC Doublehanded European Championship  (Drheam Cup and Cowes Dinard St Malo) and the IRC Doublehanded UK Nationals