A few weeks back we asked to vote on a poll where we asked who you thought was the OSTAR favourite. Unsurprisingly Anne Caseneuve on her 50ft Tri jumped to top favourite with 32% of the votes. Anne has some 30 atlantic crossings under her belt, was fastest monohull woman in 2003 and 2004 and enters fully sponsored.
However, among the monohulls, the results took an interesting twist. Mike west and his Class 40 Keralia received only 5% of preferences (will he start?), Andrew Magrath and Roberto Westermann both sailing Open 40s were favourited by only 2% of voters.
Top of monohulls, with 20% of votes was La Promesse, a seriously fast Open 40 which will be skippered by Jan Kees Lampe. Second, with 18% of votes was atlantic solo rookie Rob Craigie with his series J122 Jbellino. Rob started sailing solo through Petit Bateau so we have tried to find out a bit more about him.
Rob started sailing dinghies at 13 years competing in Enterprise Open Meetings. Somewhat later he made some money in computing and bought first offshore boat, a Westerly 28 cruiser which he sailed all over the Channel for 2 years before going to night school and taking RYA Offshore course. His tutor, Ian Brotherton, opened his eyes to the weather and navigation and Rob has enjoyed making the best of these challenges ever since.
Rob's next boat was a Sigma 33 which he cruised 2-handed and raced fully crewed all over Channel for years.
In 1999 he changed to a Sigma 38 which he bought in Scotland and sailed to Cork where he kept it for some years. From there Rob Cruised Irish waters and raced in Cork Weeks then relocated to the Solent and raced cross Channel events. One year he sailed the boat five times across Irish Sea 2-Handed in races and deliveries for races.
Rob's first encounter with serious offshore racing started with the AZAB back in 2003. The race saw some heavy weather for first 2-3 days and Rob's was the only boat without a roller jib or spray hood – they won the class. Rob is still not sure they are necessary...
His next major event was a Solent –Santander and return race. He fitted a roller jib and the results were not as good as before.
Surfing the web and he came across Petit Bateau. He saw some boats he knew in previous RIOW so he committed to his first solo race – RIOW 06. There followed PB week. This included a windy night sail Treguier to Cornwall. Rob found this very stressful but having completed it he realised it was not as bad as anticipated!
From there followed the Petit Bateau bluQube Solo 1000. This included a 500 miles qualifier Kinsale to Santander. It was a bit windy and some boats were forced to retire. This was the first time he had sailed this distance solo he won it outright.
Robs says " The effort and drive required was huge and I decided that he would not compete in the OSTAR. However decisions are made to be changed so having taken on board all I could learn from the rough bits I have now entered.
The boat prep is well on the way. Lessons from PB - racing round cans in heavy air and spinnaker handling. I feel it could all be easier and quicker by now. I receive lots of free advice to remove the spi socks I use. I am still with them. How else can I get such a big sail down in a blow?
Other items to be addressed. Sailing Kinsale – Santander in heavy airs, found jib needed new shape to roll small, main reefs have high friction and chafe, storm jib needs to be permanently mounted ready to hoist. Going forward of mast to windward in big seas is bad idea.
Overall boat reasonably sorted."
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