UK doublehanders get organised

RORC Yearbook article - Written by Kate Cope

From amateurs, youth and Corinthian sailors up to pros and potential Olympians, doublehanding represents one of the largest growth areas within offshore racing. This year a Class Association was set up to promote this discipline via a formalised circuit: The UK Doublehanded Offshore Series. 

The driving force behind this has been a volunteer team led by Henry Bomby and Kate Cope, supported by Ellie Driver who has been doing a great job with the sponsors and social media and Stuart Childerley, our technical support for the race series and results.

The objective of the Series is to cherry pick the best doublehanded offshore races on offer and to combine them into a season-long scoring series, designed to cater equally to the different experience levels across the fleet.

We also wanted to bring the community together to provide a better voice for this growing area of our sport. As an Association we have a stronger voice to work with the RORC and organisations overseas such as the Offshore Doubles in the USA, the group led by Larry Rosenfeld, representing doublehanded offshore racing internationally. 

We particularly wanted to support the mixed doublehanders, when at the start of the year this discipline remained on the Olympic sailing roster for Paris 2024. We also wanted to create a pathway for youth talent coming into the sport as it can be tough to get into doublehanding when there are only two spots per boat.

The Series provided not only racing, but training too, aimed at improving the skill across the whole fleet.

After just one season we are very pleased with our progress. We attracted 30 boats into our Series and we believe we are raising the profile of doublehanded offshore racing and encouraging its continued growth. 

The partnership with the RORC race team is growing ever stronger and we appreciate the efforts to accommodate the doublehanders. With our discipline naturally embracing social distancing we were lucky enough to be able to be first back on the water during lockdown. The RORC was kind enough to provide us with offshore racing at a time when racing fully crewed was not permitted. The RORC also funded a coaching session with Hugh Styles. 

Behind the scenes we have been running a crew match, matching co-skippers to boats and skippers. This has been particularly useful in providing pathways into the sport for young talent. Gavin Howe has been instrumental to this, setting up the Young Tigris programme offering his J/88 to under 25-year-old mixed crews to compete, some of them in their first ever offshore race. 

Racing

A brief look at the results in the RORC’s races is testament to the strength of our doublehanded sailors. Even though we have only two people aboard our boats it seems to have been no barrier to them beating fully crewed boats in the classes we compete in the RORC series, principally IRC Three and Four. Over 2021, in IRC Three our boats claimed five of the top six spots the RORC’s Season’s Points Championships, while in IRC Four we had four of the top six spots. Bellino (Rob Craigie / Deb Fish) and Cora (Tim Goodhew / Kelvin Matthews) won these classes respectively. 

In the RORC’s IRC Two Handed class, you would expect our boats would do well and indeed we won 11 of the top 12 spots. Amazingly 184 doublehanded boats took part in RORC races in 2021, showing just how popular two handed offshore racing is becoming. 

Double Handed Series Results 

The 2021 UK Doublehanded Offshore Series comprised six races: five RORC races, culminating in the Rolex Fastnet Race, which scored double points, and the ISC Round the Island. A lot of the races were very close with just seconds splitting the winning boats The Heavy weather at the start of Rolex Fastnet Race sadly took its toll on our fleet with boats like Gentoo (James Harayda / Dee Caffari) and Jago (Mike Yates / Eivind Bøymo-Malm) being forced to retire and surrender strong overall positions in the series. 

Overall winner of our 2021 UK Doublehanded Offshore Series was Cora, the Sun Fast 3200 sailed by Tim Goodhew and Kelvin Matthews. Cora has had nothing short of an amazing season: Our winners in the Round the Island and Channel Races, second in the Cowes-Dinard-St Malo and third in the Rolex Fastnet Race. Previously owned by the designer of the Sunfast 3200 himself, Daniel Andrieu, Cora was also won the prize for being ‘First Jeanneau’.

The Sun Fast 3300 Swell was second, sailed by Henry Bomby mostly with Shirley Robertson, but with a little help from Sam Matson and Miles Seddon. Swell has been getting better and better as the season has progressed, with results including a third in the Myth of Malham, fourth in Cowes-Dinard-St Malo and a third in the Channel Race. But crowning glory of Henry and Shirley’s 2021 season was their winning the Rolex Fastnet Race in our series and very nearly the IRC Two-Handed class in the race itself - at one point on the run into Cherbourg they were ahead of defending champions and ultimate IRC Two-Handed winners Alexis Loison and Guillaume Pirouelle on Léon. 

Third place Overall and winning the Masters and Musto Corinthian category was Jangada, the JPK 10.10 expertly sailed by Richard Palmer and Jeremy Waitt.  Richard and Jeremy have a great track record in doublehanded offshore sailing. They won the RORC Transatlantic Race in 2019 which paved the way to Jangada becoming the RORC Yacht of the Year in 2020. This season they have once again been consistently good with a third in our first race, followed by a second in the Round the Island Race, and a fourth in the Rolex Fastnet Fastet. Whether its coastal or offshore Jangada always seems to be among the frontrunners. At the time of writing, their 2021 season was continuing with the Rolex Middle Sea Race and another crossing to the Caribbean in January’s RORC Transatlantic Race

The winning boat in our Mixed Category was the Sun Fast 3600 Bellino, sailed by Rob Craigie and Deb Fish. They also scooped second in our Masters and Corinthian divisions. Like Jangada’s crew, Rob and Deb have a huge and successful track record racing offshore doublehanded. Bellino enjoyed another great season in 2021, both in our series and in the RORC’s Season Points Championship, where they won IRC 3 and IRC Two Handed and were even third in IRC Overall. Unfortunately, their Rolex Fastnet Race came to an abrupt end when at the start a boat on port smashed into their aft quarter. We reapplied the same redress for them in our series points as the RORC did in theirs.  

Fifth overall and third in the Corinthian division was Mzungu, the Sun Fast 3200 raced by Sam White and Sam North. They has had some great results, starting with a second place in our first race and ending  with a second place in the Rolex Fastnet Race, and first doublehanded boat in IRC 4 for which they won the RORC’s Berrimilla Dog Bowl Trophy.  However, their July vacation to race down in the West Country gave them a couple of DNCs which lowered their overall Series score.  

A consistent set of results for Gavin Howe and Maggie Adamson and the Sun Fast 3600 Tigris earned them third in both our Mixed and Masters categories.  This was all good preparation for them to represent Team GB at the EUROSAF Mixed Offshore European Championship and Hempel Mixed Two Person Offshore Worlds in Italy. September’s full tour of the Italian coastline in a Figaro 3, that neither of them had sailed on before, was always going to be a tough challenge and they had a steep learning curve. 

The winning Youth boat, and also second placed in the Mixed category was Purple Mist, surpassing all expectations for Kate Cope with the up-and-coming Irish Sailor Matt Beecher. Purple Mist was one of only five boats that finished all six races in the Series. Both Kate and Matt are still relatively new to offshore racing and Matt is sharing his journey into a professional sailing career with the intention of using our Series as a springboard into a Figaro campaign for 2022. For winning the Youth prize, B&G generously provided a Nemesis display and two Jackets. 

This was the first offshore season for Tom Fenemore and Jack Hanslope on the Sun Fast 3300 New Normal. Their previous experience was mostly on dinghies. Their results improved as the season progressed and a very credible sixth in the Rolex Fastnet Race left them in second place overall in the Youth category. 

The UK Doublehanded Offshore Series will continue in 2022 with a series that is likely again to include six races with possibly two discards. We plan to continue with more organised training. This November we are holding an Upwind Dynamic Tuning clinic sponsored by Cyclops where there’s the opportunity to try, without obligation, Cyclops’ load cell devices. 

Due to COVID, this year it was difficult to hold social gatherings, although we did have an enjoyable evening in Dartmouth after the Morgan Cup. We hope for a great post-race social program next year.

We must thank our sponsors who have supported us through the season. They are:

• Musto;

• Soak Insurance (providing cover for shorthanded sailing;

• Ocean Safety (product discounts);

• RYA (support and advice);

• North Sails (coaching and sails advice);

• Cyclops (prizes and upwind dynamic tuning clinic);

• Sea Ventures and Jeanneau;

• Meglio (conditioning advice and discounted products);

• Kingfisher (discounts on ropes via Advanced rigging); 

• B&G (prizes).

The UK season rounded out with the RORC’s Doublehanded Inshore Nationals. This was won by the Sun Fast 3300 Gentoo sailed by James Harayda and round the world legend Dee Caffari. They had a strong start to the season winning the RORC Spring Series in a close-fought battle with Kelvin Rawlings and Stuart Childerley on their sistership Aries. They also won the Myth of Malham race and had good results in the other races. With these results, Gentoo was in a great position going into the last race, the Rolex Fastnet Race. This took its toll on many boats, including Gentoo which suffered a mainsail tear on the first day forcing them to retire. Despite this they finished third in the Youth category.  In the RORC Doublehanded Nationals they were the reigning 2020 champs and defended their title in 2021.

Second in the Doublehanded Inshore Nationals was Jago, sailed by Mike Yates and Will Holland. This J/109 put in some really strong performances in our Series, winning the first race of the season and the Cowes-Dinard-St Malo Race. Going into Rolex Fastnet Race, they were in a great position, but the stormy conditions were not suited to the boat’s set-up and they retired.  

Father and daughter team, Jim and Ellie Driver on the Sun Fast 3300 Chilli Pepper had a wobbly start to their season after a close encounter with Gurnard Ledge put them out of action for 2021’s first races. However once back in action they had a strong performance in the Round the island finishing third in class. The RORC’s Double Handed Nationals saw some tight finishes in tricky light conditions, but Ellie and Jim managed to get into the chocolates finishing with a 3rd place.