Nastro Rosa – Double Handed Female Offshore European Championships 2023

The Nastro Rosa Tour is a series of events around the coast of Italy in Beneteau Figaro 3 and this year I was lucky enough to take part in the EUROSAF Double Handed Female Offshore European Championships with my co-skipper Roisin O’Halloran on the two legs covering over 650nm along the Italian coast from Venice to Taranto via Montenegro. As this event would mark our first double handed event together, with limited experience sailing double handed we had little expectations. However, after learning so much from the event, we walked away with a 2^nd place overall after a fantastic event. Overall, the event and the competitors were amazing and it was great to attend an event with such high support within the fleet. Sold on one design offshore racing, I look forward to my next chance to head offshore, but in the meantime, here is my race summary from the two legs.

Leg 1 – Venice to Montenegro

Overall, the event was made of ten teams from across Europe, and despite never having sailed double handed together before we were keen to test our offshore racing skills over the week. After a couple of days of preparation in the center of Venice, we headed to the start line on the 26^{th of} September. After tracking the weather, it was going to be interesting to see who would be best at chasing the wind and avoiding the developing wind holes across the course and with 350 miles till the end of the first leg, we hoped that the hours of researching local weather and tracking the wind would pay off in the long run.

Starting the race, it was time to put ourselves to the test, leaving the line in second behind Cat Hunt and Ellie Driver, code zero up and heading south. Already we could see variations in the fleets tactics, with some boats heading high towards the opposing coast, and other boats heading much lower with kites to chase possible wind on the Italian coastline we held course in the middle of the fleet in anticipation of a shift that would allow us to hoist kite and chase the breeze down the western side of the course.

Heading into the first evening, the wind had started to drop and back with our kite hoisted, forcing us towards the eastern side of the course than we had planned but remaining with some of the fleet, however with the fear that we were going to end up in the forecasted wind holes on the east of the Adriatic Sea we gybed back to head west. Slowly the wind picked back up again, increasing to a force five and veering, and so we gybed back, thoroughly enjoying the increasing breeze and surfing the boat down the waves, getting into the groove as we started to get to know the boat. Until the early hours of the first morning we pushed on, holding the fleet to our east and holding our boat speed to cover as much distance as possible before the wind trickled off again as per the forecast, dying completely along the Croatian coastline, concluding that we must stay right of course to remain in the breeze, gybing down the coast before crossing the Adriatic to Montenegro.

As with any sailing, plans fail and problems arise, as our kite ripped early hours of the morning, and with just the tapes remaining, it was clear no repair was going to be possible and with the rest of the leg forecasted to be downwind, we had no other option than to replan. To avoid having to clear the keel and rudder of our remaining kite we quickly sprung into action to pull what remained of our kite into the boat and hoisted the code zero to maintain downwind speed while we produced a plan. I was downtrodden, we knew it was going to be a long downwind race, and without a kite, we would have to suffer with wide gybe angles and slower downwind VMG towards Montenegro. At this point, we had no phone signal and no AIS data on the other boats in the fleet, and assumed we were at the back of the fleet.

Knowing we would have to push hard to keep the boat in the race, we gybed towards the Italian shoreline again, heading west of the course with the hope of picking up breeze running down the shoreline and out of the lighter breeze that was expected to the east. Mid-morning the coast was finally insight, and despite thinking we were in last after losing the kite, we were relieved to see not one, but two other boats beside us, both with code zeros flying, as it would turn out, the two other teams had ripped their kites the night before as well. It was the confidence boost that we needed, as far as we were concerned, we were back in play with the fleet and continued to push towards the coast. As predicted the closer we sailed, the more wind we gained with the wind veering as we approached. This shift favored the opposing gybe, allowing us to head down the coast in 18-22knots of breeze and with our code flying, we were enjoying surfing the waves, fun to compete in who could get the top speed as we sped along the coastline.

Eventually, both teams around us gybed, heading back southeast away from the coast, but making the decision to stick with our plan, we continued, knowing we would end up sailing extra distance, but it would pay off if the wind continued to build. As land came into sight, we watched the wind increase back to a force 5-6 as we headed down to the Vieste headland and San Domino Islands. At this point we had finally obtained signal and found ourselves in eighth place in the fleet, and with the exception of Ellie Driver and Cat Hunt, we were the only boat on the west of the course, with the rest of the fleet running down the Croatian coastline.

Slowly the wind lightened, we were heading to the end of the bay before we planned to push out across to Montenegro. Goosewinging the code zero allowed us to hold a better course than the wide gybe angles of the code zero and we stuck close inland. To remain in the breeze, we had sailed an extra thirty-five miles and were sailing on the opposite side of the course to the fleet who were aiming for the shorter distance by Croatia, and on the tracker, we were laying second, fighting back from eighth place after loosing the spinnaker! With enough connection to rerun the predict wind routing to the finish line in Montenegro we pushed out from the Italian coast pushing higher on course to avoid developing wind holes to the south as day two came to an end. Wind dropping as we approached Montenegro, the aim was to keep speed up and continued to increase distance between us and the fleet behind, which was successful until we met a wind hole fifteen miles off the finish. Finally, with the race committee desperate to start the next leg in 12 hours time, they ended the first leg and we motored to the finish, arriving behind the leg winners, Ellie Driver and Cat Hunt.

Leg 2 – Montenegro to Taranto

Now lying in second, we were keen to keep pushing in the second 250 mile leg to Taranto, a leg which would be mostly down wind before a final upwind stretch to Taranto. At the start line, due to an issue with the race committee and Montenegro customs, we were informed that despite having kites for the other teams who broke their spinnakers, there was not one available for us. With no way of obtaining a kite for the next leg, and now being the only boat in the fleet without a kite, it was going to be a challenge to hold our position in the fleet over the 250 miles to Taranto.

Frustrated and worried, the first step was to replan, as our previous routing accounted for a kite, but without, we would have to suffer with wider gybing angles and lower downwind VMG. According to the forecast, there would once again be stronger wind on the coast of Italy, and originally the plan was for a quick code zero reach to the coast before hoisting the kite and gybing to the bottom of Italy before the final upwind stretch to Taranto. Now, without the ability to provide good downwind speed compared to the rest of the fleet, we decided to go for a deeper angle on the code, knowing it would be slower initially but would reduce the downwind running we would have to do on the coast. As we set off to try and increase our sail area, I jury rigged a storm sail inside the code to try and increase our sail area as much as possible as we headed lower than the rest of the fleet into the first night.

Quickly it was apparent that without our spinnaker we would be fighting from the back of the fleet, and we would need to push as hard as we could to reduce the time between us and the fleet ready for the upwind leg. Compared to the last leg where fleet positioning was constant, this leg the main fleet were close together, fighting for each place and the rankings were changing regularly which made it challenging to work out where we would need to be to hold our position.

Once again, the Adriatic provided a lush force 4-5 with downwind swell, enabling us to maximize every opportunity to push the boat as far downwind as we could without sacrificing speed, reaching the last stretch before the upwind just hours behind the fleet, with a boat behind us.

Rounding the corner, we ended up stopped with the convergence of two opposing breezes running down the coast, but once we were through it was a beat in force 3-5 as the second night approached. With signal we could see the fleet beating up the coast to Taranto, a good indicator of wind speed and shifts as we approached from behind. Good boat speed and nice calls for tacking on the shifts allowed us to make gains all the way up the beat, reclaiming precious time in the fleet. The wind continued to increase as we approached Taranto with an increasing sea state it was into a mode change, learning how to push the boat in new conditions. The Figaro seemed happy with a good amount of sail area up in any conditions and provided us with the opportunity to push the boat as hard as we could into Taranto. With the anticipation of finishing and the rougher sea state, sleeping wasn’t an option so we pushed to the finish.

Finally, we made it to the edge of Taranto harbor, just 10 minutes behind the boat ahead! With little idea on how the rest of the fleet finished, especially with our own redress to be applied and protests to be heard we would not find out till the following morning, packing up the boat and to the hotel for a nap at 6am. Applying for redress due to the lack of kite availability for leg 2, we were lucky enough to be supported by the other teams in the fleet and successfully got a 3 hour redress which would put us somewhere in the fleet, with two other teams penalized by 2 hours for breaching exclusion zones on the course no one knew where they were standing. With the support of the other teams in our application for redress we were given 3 hours by the committee which would spring us into second overall, behind winners Ellie Driver and Cat Hunt.

Thanks to the support of friends and family and to the Royal Southern Yacht Club Trust grant which allowed us to compete.