All the competitors prior to the start of the RORC La Rochelle Race were aware of what was to come. From the weather reports and forecasts, they knew they were going to be taking a pounding; battling strong head winds in the English Channel in an attempt to round Ushant.

This gateway to the Atlantic was the turning mark for a heavy weather race where the competing yachts could finally come off the wind and head for the finish in the Bay of Biscay, off La Rochelle.

Several yachts withdrew from the race before the start and many retirements were to follow, with competing yachts pulling into ports all along the south west of England with damage.

By 10:10 hours on the morning of the 13th August there were just three brave yachts still racing: Bob Jackson's Elan 410,Hurrycane. Pascal Mouton's Grand Soleil 36,Foxy F Ewe (who were sheltering in Dartmouth and later retired) and Noel Racine's, JPK 9.6, Foggy Dew.

Foggy Dew reported in at 12:25 on Tuesday 12 August, having rounded Ushant making the smallest boat in the fleet, the overall leader. On Wednesday night at 20.48 Foggy Dew crossed the finish line, the smallest boat in the race taking the Joliette Trophy for line honours, the Griffin Trophy for IRC 2 and the Loujaine Trophy for best corrected time under IRC.

It was a monumental achievement by the crew of six and there was an element of 'D?j? Vu' as Foggy Dew had won class and been the smallest boat home in the extremely rough 2007 Rolex Fastnet, around the same time last year.

Skipper, Noel Racine spoke about the epic 450 mile race to La Rochelle with amazing modesty: 'We had a lot of wind, even at the start in the Solent but the boat is ideal for the conditions and we had a good beat to Eddystone. As dark fell we were approaching Ushant. I can't tell you how windy it was because the Windex got ripped off the top of the mast, but I would estimate that at Ushant the wind speed was constantly 40-45 knots, occasionally gusting up to 50 with 5 metre waves, at least.'

'We had three on deck and three below with two big reefs in the main and No.4. The aim was to keep making progress and we did, steering at 45/50 degrees off the wind, we were making 6 knots over the ground. On two occasions we had to lower the main as the slamming was becoming too much, but we always kept making over the ground.'

'We wanted to keep well away from Ushant and passed it by a good two miles before bearing away. After nearly 400 miles of beating, we put up the Solent and left one reef in the main. It was like a total release! In fact we got a bit too relaxed, we were really flying. I think the top speed was 17.3 knots of boat speed, but we also broke the rudder on the favoured tack (the boat has two), so we had to slow the boat down for the last 50 miles.'

With all entries accounted for, the only other yacht to finish the RORC La Rochelle race was Bob Jackson's Hurrycane, an Elan 410 kindly lent to Bob by Premier Sailing.

'We only had half an hour sailing in the boat prior to the start.' Commented Bob as he tied up the yacht in La Rochelle. 'When we got to Eddystone, it became pretty obvious that we were going to have a rough 36 hours if we were to continue. The crew on board have done a lot of miles together, Trans Atlantics, Rolex Fastnets and up in Scandinavia and I didn't doubt them for a moment. There was not a single cross word between us and everybody stood their watch and was made aware of why all decisions were being made.

Trusting each other and involving everybody in the decisions was the key to a smooth race in difficult conditions. It was a bit frustrating at the end though; the wind completely died and it took us eight hours to cover the last 15 miles, we thought we would be the last ones in and everybody would be up at the yacht club! It is great to visit our friends in La Rochelle, we have been looking forward to this race for a long time and I am sure we have all come out of it stronger from the experience.

by Louay Habib

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