Page 43 - QARANC Vol 14 No 8 2014

For most people the Summer Holidays offers the opportunity to relax; to recharge batteries and spend time with close friends and family. However, Summer Leave for eight Army women could not have been more different as the crew of ‘Redcoat’ embarked upon their challenge to become the first all female Army team to complete the prestigious Fastnet Race. The Fastnet covers 608 nautical miles and has a reputation as the most gruelling and tactically challenging of the classic offshore races. The event is the biggest of all the offshore races and this year saw 351 yachts enter the race, the largest entry of vessels in its 88 year history.
The idea of entering an all female team was the brainchild of seasoned sailor and Skipper Capt Lucie Allaway AGC (SPS). Her aim being to raise the sport’s profile among fellow servicewomen and encourage greater participation; especially by junior soldiers. Joint Service Adventure Sail Training Centre (JSASTC) supported her initiative and allocated Her Majesty Service Training Craft (HMSTC) Redcoat, a Sigma 38. Lucie ‘trawled’ the Army for willing volunteers and one of those to be selected was WO2 Caz Olive, QARANC. Due to operational commitments and the general pace of Army life, training opportunities as a crew were sparse. A couple of weekends in the Solent and the mandated Sea Survival Training provided an excellent opportunity to start getting to know each other, however, it wasn’t until 3 Aug 13,’ that Redcoat finally came together as a
crew and the enormity of what we were about to undertake finally hit us.
The first week together was to be used as an extensive training week to make sure the crew were on top form for the race. The first few days were spent getting to know each other and getting to know Redcoat; with boat preparation and maintenance featuring highly. As the training progressed there were some short sails and some longer offshore passages. As you can imagine the weather in the South of England in the summer is changeable. This lead to some training being very wet and windy, which was good practice for the race.
Sunday morning arrived and the crew set sail from the pontoon heading for the start line, if all went well we knew that we would not be back on dry land until after the completion of the race, in approximately 5 days time. The start of the race was fraught with tension and the Solent was awash with white sails, all eagerly anticipating the sound of the starting gun. At 1230hrs on Sun 11 Aug 13, the Gun sounded and we were off. The start is exhilarating and there is no time for anything else except complete focus on the race. With all hands are on deck and with so many yachts in close vicinity, survival is key. The first 3 hours of our FASTNET campaign passed in blur as we tacked, gibed and manoeuvred our way out of the Solent routinely avoiding our competitors with just inches to spare.
The Solent was glorious and we watched in awe as the Class One gigantic monohulls and trimarans screamed past us! Before long, the needles appear and it is not long before
the sea opens up and the chaotic melee transformed into an ordered procession across the waves.
Once past the Needles we broke down into our watches and embarked upon the shift pattern, 4 hours on 4 hours off, for the next 5 days.
Redcoat continued to sail well and the watch routine continued until Wednesday morning when the rock came into view. Both watches were then up on deck to see the Fastnet Rock. After rounding the rock on the Wednesday lunchtime we went back into the watch system and thoughts turned to the finish. With the weather forecast as it was it was estimated that we would be in Plymouth late Thursday evening.
On the Thursday morning the conditions were ideal for kite flying and we set about hoisting the Spinnaker to get maximum speed. This was the start of a long and emotional day of Spinnaker action. Our first Spinnaker hoist ended abruptly as a tear developed, and the Spinnaker ripped into shreds in a matter of seconds. We managed to recover the sail and undeterred, we hoisted the second Spinnaker. Ten minutes later there was a sense of déjà vue as we dropped the second Spinnaker to conduct a quick repair job after spotting a small tear. Thankfully the patch job did the trick and our speed increased as we wound the Bishops Rock Lighthouse and onto The Lizard.
Redcoat had been flourishing in near ideal conditions but with the lights of the City of Plymouth twinkling in the distance we suffered catastrophic Spinnaker failure. Thankfully there was no lasting damage to Redcoat and despite losing speed we were able to continue to steer and sail under white sails towards Plymouth. We were helpless as other boats caught up and overtook us, all the more frustrating as many of them we had passed in the last 24 hours. However, our aim at the start of the race had always been to get across the finish line and trusty Redcoat did not let us down. We finally crossed the finish line at 0211hrs on Fri 16 Aug with mixed feelings of relief to have completed the race, combined with the disappointment of losing a large chunk of time. We had achieved our aim and had successfully completed the Fastnet Race. Despite our Spinnaker dramas we achieved a credible 57th position out of the 85 competitors in our class and we were 4th service boat.
C A Olive
WO2 QARANC DMRC Headley Court
THE GAZETTE QARANC 41
Redcoat crew– WO2 Olive, standing 2nd from left