Team Oystercatcher Update!

We are officially entered into the Round Ireland Yacht Race as of yesterday. The majority of the yachts entering the Round Ireland usually hold out of officially entering until the closing date. This is in case any problems arise with boat or crew which would stop them from racing. However, the race office received our payment yesterday along with all the other relevant information.

Since our last post we have completed our mandatory 300 miles that is required for entry into the race. This was our first double handed passage in Oystercatcher and fortunately there were no problems. Except for the weather, but that is to be expected in Ireland!

We set off from Dun Laoghaire on Friday the 3oth April at around 7pm and headed north. Starting with a close reach in about 10knts of breeze. It was a beautiful evening and Oystercatcher was cruising at 5 to 6 knts with easy.

By the following morning the wind shut off. This left us with blue skies and a mirror like sea. It was frustrating at first but by 11am we realised that this could work in our advantage. It gave us time to do some maintenance and rope work.

It was about 10pm that Saturday night before the breeze filled back in. Its gradually grew to about 25knts from the north east and Oystercatcher was loving it! We had a reef in the main and our new (new to us) number 3 jib up. It was about 1am on Sunday morning by the time we reached our waypoint. This meant we could turn around a surf (try to) back down the Irish sea with the breeze in our aft quarter. Ideal conditions to rack up the miles!

We returned to Dun Laoghaire later that night at around 5pm. Just in time to see the SB3's finish racing in Dublin Bay.

The trip was overall a great success. We had completed our miles and had learned a few lessons in double handed sailing. We also got a better understanding how Oytercatcher will preform in certain conditions and hopefully can use this to our advantage.

Few people I want to thank,

Lucozade for there product sponsorship which gave a massive boost in both myself and Brian's performance during this qualifier.

Bob Hobby & Barry Hurley for the number 3 that we tested out and have since bought.

Crowleys DFK who have recently given their support to the Oystercatcher team.

Also like to thank Denis Hewitt for lending us there spare spinnaker pole for the race. This is very important to us and were extremely grateful to have it.

We also completed our first aid training with Sailing West on the 9th May. This is an essential course for any sailor and was extremely well run by Paul Adams.

Picture will be posted soon of our trips and progress.