One of the two other crew for the race had kindly agreed to join me, as had Steve from the boatyard and SWMBO. The weather forecast was unispiring: very light breezes and heavy rain showers. Still, this was the appointed day and the only chance we were going to get.
As we boarded Arabella from the pontoon, it soon became clear that weight distribution needed careful thought. With three men, none of them overly lightweight, and a woman standing on one side, Arabella heeled over considerably, although I was pleased to see that her initial tenderness was replaced by much greater stiffness once a certain angle of heel had been passed, and her keels began to counteract the lean.
Arabella's outboard engine, freshly serviced, started at the first pull, and we slipped the lines and motored out the marina into the channel outside. With the same alacrity with which it had sprung into life, the outboard died and we quickly unfurled the genoa to catch what little breeze there was while we investigated the problem. It turned out to be fuel starvation - we'd forgotten to loosen the little breather valve on the external tank - and power restored, we motored out to onto the broad, grey expanse of Southampton Water.
Raising the mainsail, we switched off the outboard and Arabella heeled gently as she caught the light breeze and we headed upwind. Considering how little breeze there was - F1 -2 at best - she accelerated remarkably smoothly until the log read 2.5 knots. This seemed to be an underestimate to us and, taking advantage of the fact that we were at slack water, we checked the GPS for SOG, which suggested the log was under-reading by around three-quarters of a knot. I made a mental note to calibrate the log.
With wind in her sails, Arabella was noticeably less tender than she had seemed at the dock. Putting someone out on to the weather side deck, if not exactly the rail, made a difference, but there was no sense of instability. In fact, given the light airs, Arabella felt remarkably stiff and in the groove.
Upwind, her helm was, if anything, neutral - not what I had expected from a lightwieght GRP hull. It could have been the lack of wind, or it could have been the twin keels, but whichever was the case, she needed remarkably little effort at the tiller to hold her course upwind. Changing course felt almost like helming a dinghy, perhaps not surprising given Arabella's modest measurement. There was an immediate response to inputs on the tiller, and a nice sense of 'feel' transmitted from the rudder.
We turned our attention to the downwind sails once we had cleared the Hamble River entrance and come to a halt, in dead calm and pouring rain, off the Coronation racing mark. With Steve's expert help, we raised the blue and white ghoster, and ran gently downwind, getting the feel of her. Arabella's helm felt light and responsive to me, much less hard-mouthed than the previous Varne 27 that I had owned. But in these light airs, it was difficult to be certain. For sure, she was happier downwind than the old Varne, accelerating more quickly - but then, she was a much lighter boat - and with less tendency to wallow and roll.
Next up was the red, white and blue cruising chute. Although Arabella's rig was clearly set up for the use of a spinnaker pole, no such item existed in her inventory and I was keen if possible to rely on cruising sales, even for the race. Frankly, spinnakers scared me, I'd seen them take a boat out of control just once too often. It took a bit of fumbling to get the chute rigged and hoisted, but after quite a while we were up and running, while I feverishly tried to remember all of Steve's hints and tips as he rattled them off.
Once I felt I had understood how to set the chute, we ran off on a broad reach all the way back up Southampton Water, often just ghosting along as the wind weakened to F1 and occasional calms. The tide, as much as anything else, carried us back home.
Taking stock as we headed back to London, we felt we had done the best we could in the circumstances. The weather had hardly given us the chance to put Arabella through her true paces, but nothing had broken and we understood how to hoist, set and lower her downwind sails and by coming out with us, the man from the yard had seen where problems might arise and left armed with a list of urgent items that he could attend to in the week or so that remained until the race. In addition, upon arrival at the dock, we'd attempted to pump the bilges and discovered that although the pump sucked up water, it then lost it in a great spurt from the non-return valve, discharging it into the cockpit locker rather than overboard. That, too, went on the list for the yard.
Arabella had put the first 20 miles under her belt in this reincarnation. It wasn't much, but I felt reasonably confident that she would make it round the island. We had no ideal how fast she was, however, and as we drove back, we discussed what food and drink to bring with us on the big day. Clearly, we couldn't expect to complete the 55 mile course, together with the return trip up and down Southampton Water, in anything less than a very, very long day. The race was more likely to be a picnic. But she should make it round.
****
Conditions: F1 - F2, sea state smooth, heavy rain showers
Distance covered: 19.3 NM
Total distance covered to date (2007): 19.3 NM
****
