Report by Roger Townsend
They were first to cross the finish line into Santander in the 2007 Santander Express, but the 510-mile Southampton-Santander Express race from the Solent to northern Spain presented testing problems for Andy Hill and Matthew Lathoud. On two occasions they could have sunk.
As it was, their race included lengthy spells of pumping as the J105 twice took on water and having to cope with short seas and 14ft waves.
"I can only describe it as a Solent chop but with much bigger waves,'' said Andy Hill, today.
Let Andy tell the story:
"The start in the Solent was benign, apart from the depressing rain and gloomy visibility that has already been reported on.
"Only Just had a good beat out of the Solent and even the Needles channel was quite tame. We decided on a three hour watch pattern, but out into the Channel Matt was already starting to feel ill, which was unusual for him.
"Almost immediately we realised that the interior of the boat was 6 inches deep in water and it was apparent that the previous user of the boat had left the galley sea cock open. This meant that I had to manually pump the boat out while steering the boat close hauled, which was pretty exhausting.
"However, we kept getting lifted and were able to lay Ushant from the Needles with only one tack. But that was probably the only good news. We started off doing about 6 knots, beating into 18 knot headwinds and driving rain, but the seas were becoming shorter and bigger.
"It was becoming a roller coaster ride! Just west of Portland we lost all power to our instruments and at about the same time, while Matt was below being seasick, we banged down off a big wave and he heard a rather different sound.
"He peered out of his bunk to see a fountain of water spewing up through the Depth Transducer, which had burst out of its opening in the hull. There was now once more a lot of water in the boat and our bedding, clothing and everything got wet through.
"Matt stoically replaced the transducer, getting himself soaked in the process, while I again took to the pump, which of course was not easy while close hauled and steering in these conditions. I pumped for over an hour, until I got cramp in each arm.
"Later the seas became even shorter, rising to 4.5 metre height (our lower spreader) with only three to four second intervals. I can only describe it as like a big Solent chop, but with much bigger waves. This bad spell lasted for an hour and all the time it was still raining hard. Matt was still unwell and at one point slept for seven hours, which actually helped his seasickness.
"We continued to get lifted towards Ushant, when the wind turned southwest and we made our only tack since leaving the Needles, to clear Ushant by two miles. The wind turned westerly as we headed south across Biscay and blowing 20 knots plus, was perfect for a J105. Even though we did not fly a spinnaker, we still covered 136 miles in 18 hours.
"However, at about 03.00 on Tuesday, when we were level with La Rochelle, the wind quickly increased. I was off watch below and when the wind increased more, Matt quickly called me up to help reef. I did not have time to put on my waterproofs and only wore my thermals, which of course got soaked in the breaking seas.
"We tried to furl the genoa, but could not do so and ended up having to take it down completely, which was not exactly the easiest thing to do in those conditions.
"We then sailed for over four hours with just the main, but still making 9/10 knots. The wind eased with the dawn, but there were still big breaking waves just forward of the beam and that was the first time that we had water actually coming across the boat. This continued until about 4 o’clock, when the wind dropped to about 12/14 knots for the last four hours of our race.
"We finished just before 20.00 local time. And it was raining!! It had really never stopped since we left the Solent, but we did not expect, or wish, to take the UK weather with us to Spain!
"If I could sum up the race, I would say that it was darned hard work, but we were lucky to have a boat that performed brilliantly in those conditions. A fantastic sea boat.
"Would we do it again? Both Matt and I are agreed. Absolutely! For sure! And that is despite Matt getting mad with himself for being seasick for the first time!''
