Conclusions

Translemanique conclusions

Stay close to other surprises (no splitting too early see Ivoire when I went towards the right and the rest went towards the swiss coast to cross the lake a bit later) 

Better to be close to coast or in middle of lake. Something in between is bad. (Rob said that on the way down there were boats overtaking me close to the coast and in the middle of the lake)

GPS would have helped a lot, use early (goto function)

Cleaning the whole hull was key (even polishing the blue parts with hullkote)

Sail changes only if necessary

Why not using an autopilot next time?

Continuous headsail sheet was great, probably good to buy one for future

Rig was:  92 cm, 30/24/24, neutral. Would have been better to have 88cm on forestay to have the boat turning away from wind rather in to wind during gusts(to get checked with lenght of Genoa luff if possible)

Video

If you would like to see the video in better quality, you can click on the following youtube link:

https://youtu.be/YOf8OONE0XY

The Race

Pre Race
Instead of going to the sailing club at 7am for the breakfast, I decided to take it easy and have breakfast at home and check the latest weather forecast on the Meteo Swiss App before heading to Versoix to get Mic Mac. The forecast was saying that there was a chance for a Bise, with some strong wind, before dropping and changing wind direction in the evening.

When I got to Versoix, I then decided to use the heavier newer Genoa, which is better suited if the wind is a bit stronger. Swapping headsails and some other last-minute preparations had the effect that I slowly run out of time, if I wanted to go to the starting line in time. I left Versoix under Motor 40 minutes before the start of the race. On the way to the start I finally installed all the sheets and sails and just managed to pack the motor away, before the preparatory signal sounded. So much for taking it easy before the start....


The Start
On the starting line, I took the port end of the line, where it was a bit less crowded than on the starboard side, where everyone was battling for the best possible position. The start didn't go too bad, as far as I could judge from my position and I sailed along some other Surprises towards Ivoire. I was really happy at this point of the race and I felt I could really compete with the other Surprises around me.

Waiting for wind and a bad decision

Just off Ivoire the wind dropped, what looked like a steady Bise was suddenly a light, barely noticeable wind. While I was searching for some wind I could see a little bit of wind further on the right side of the lake, towards the French coast. I and some other boats headed towards it, we had to realise that it wasn't a good decision. That little bit of wind soon disappeared and we saw that the boats on the swiss side had better wind and now slowly moved away from us.

Bad decision II

After some waiting, the wind picked up again and looked the steady Bise Meteoswiss had forecasted. I made good progress and was in good spirits again, seeing I lost some time, but at least, now I was going at good speed in to the right direction. Far away I could see some very dark clouds, quickly covering big parts of the lake. Soon after, the wind started to pick up and the first whitecaps started to show on the lake. I thought that this was now the Bise and that the wind would stay like this. The boat also started to overpower and I had to tighten the backstay and ease the mainsail, so it would stop turning in to the wind all the time.
That's when I decided to take the big Genoa down and use the smaller Jib instead. It took me quite some time (much longer than in the training) to change the sails, but once it was up and sailing I was happy, until the wind dropped after ten more minutes.
Taking the Jib down and putting the Genoa up took me even longer than last time. Once the Genoa was up I tacked, only to find out that I had run the lazy sheet on the inside of the shrouds. Stupid me!!!!! It took me some more time again to sort this out. Looking around I could not see any boats around me anymore and realised that everyone else had left me behind. I was really in a bad mood and very disappointed with myself.

Windhole and spinnaker

At least the nice steady wind stayed with me, so I could cross the lake and head towards the the French coast. I even caught up to a Mirabaud Surprise and two other boats. We approached the coast and run out of wind.... After some ten minutes, the wind started to pick up, just from 180 degrees different where it was blowing before. I set the spinnaker and had a good run along the coast. Off Saint Ginolph, the wind turned again. It now came directly from the mark and I struggled to get the spinnaker down to go upwind again.

The turning mark

Now I had lots of wind, about 4-5 Bf, which carried me at good speed towards the turning mark. I was happy again to make good progress and that I made half of the distance before the sunset.

The way back

Sailing back, in direction of Lausanne the wind weakened again and started to change directions a lot. I had to tack quite a few times and changed my seating position lots of times to adjust the angle of the boat to the different wind strengths. For the next 3.5 hours, the wind stayed like this and the speed often dropped to as little as 2.5kn.
I was lucky that the wind picked up at around 11pm and my hope grew to finish the race before sunrise.
Just after crossing Ivoire the wind shifted and weakened again. It took half an hour and four tacks later the wind was back to carry me towards the finishing line.

The last bit of wind

At 3am I was convinced to finish the race within the next hour, the wind was coming from Geneva, but the angle was still big enough, so I didn't need to tack.
Just one nautical mile off the finishing line the wind almost disappeared completely. It took me over 40 minutes and several tacks to get to the finish. During this whole time, I had three other boats around me. Even though we were only separated by a few meters the difference in the finishing time was minutes, thats how light the wind had gone.

I was relieved when finally some music played when I was about to cross the line and very happy when I could hear the sound signal that told me I had finally finished the race.

At the sailing club, I was welcomed by Tim Huckstep, who got up in the middle of the night to help me bring the boat back to Versoix and unrig everything. I am very grateful for his superb help!!! Thanks a lot!!!!
I would also like to thank all the other club members (Tim F., Rob, Denise, Stefano, Andrés, Michal, Thierry and those I may have forgotten) who helped me with the trainings, good advice and preparations! And last but not least I would like to thank the club for letting me take Mic Mac for this adventure!!

Looking at the ranking (72of 107 on compensated time and in the Surprise class 26 of 31) I was quite disappointed about my positioning at first, I felt like I could have done better than this. but after some time in between the finish and now I came to the conclusion that after all I should be happy with my first participation.

My track

One more night till the race

The big day is tomorrow and then at 9.30 my first translemanique will start.

If you would like to follow the race you can do this on: suiviregate
You will find me either as Andrin Hunziker or Mic Mac under the SU class.

Over the last days I was quite busy with preparations:

I managed to go for a last training outing with Tim H. and Andrés(thanks a lot)
I cleaned the whole outside, Deck and Hull (including the underwater parts).
Waterprooved my sailing gear
Checked my torch
Got new spinnaker sheet and a handheld flare
Checked the sails
Changed some old ropes on Mic Mac
Lubricated all pullies and tracks with silicon spray
Prepared lots of food
Made sure I have some music if I run out of wind
Packed some warm clothing for the cold condisions(max of 16 degres during day/max of 9degres at night)
Got a camera of Michal to film some parts of my race( thank you Sir)
Got some additional sailing gear of Tim H (thank you Sir)
Rob tested the rig tension, wich is a very time consuming job (thank you Sir)
Got lots of encouragement and advice and via email ( thank you all)

I am sure I could have done lots more before the race, but I feel with the resources and time I had to prepare, I should be able to enjoy and try to sail as best as I can!

Two weeks to go

In the last week I managed to have three more trainings. The first one bringing Mic Mac to Founex, one in Founex and finally a night training, sailing Mic Mac back to Versoix.

Bringing the boat to Founex and training outside of Founex

Training at night, bringing MM back to Versoix

It is now also time to start about thinking how to get Mic Mac in to shape for a probably long and if there is a lot of wind, demanding race.

I should have a close look at the boat and start improving what I can. If I go through my head there are already following things coming to my mind:

-Someone made a remark on our e-log that a screw is missing on one of the winches (better I check     that soon)
-The headsail sheets are too short and I need to prolong them
-someone made e remark about the racing headsail, there should be a small hole( I better have a look soon, just in case it needs professional repair
-the haljard for the small spi is to thin and slips in the cleat in lot of wind
-the compass light is not working
-ne spinnaker sheet is way too big and heavy, I will get a proper one from Bucher and Walt
- I need to remove all additional wheight on friday before the race (for ex. cushions in the bow, old sheets that are stored in the boat)
-lubricate all pullies and blocks
-what about installing an electric autopilot, just in case I find myself somehere close to Lausanne on Sunday, without wind? This could make my way home a lot more comfortable:)
-

Dying bise

For this outing I was lucky to have Rob and Denise with me. Thank you for coming! They followed me on the Qboat, which allowed me to simulate real singlehanded conditions. The training was from 9.30am till 12.30pm.

The bise from Sunday was still blowing, after it had dropped during the night, but already less strong than the day before.

I was on the water from10am to 12pm

I started with a full main and the Jib, soon I felt like it would be better to use the Genoa to get more speed and better balance. I managed to change to the bigger Genoa, but it took me quite some time and I also did a involunarily tack at the end, which cost me lots of height and probably some places during a race.

Groundloss due to involuntary tack at the end of the sailchange

I also practised tacking, still room for improvement:

Steering with weight shifting
Rob also showed me how to steer the Surprise by changing the bodyweight, a technique that comes in very handy in case I have to work on the foredeck and the boat starts to turn....

It is pretty simple:

If you want to luff up the boat, you have to put your weight downwind
If you want to bear away, you have to move your weight upwind


Sounds easy. No?
The problem with this is that you have to react very fast (as soon as the boat starts to turn in a bad direction), if you wait to long, you wont be able to do anything anymore with your weight and you have to rush back to the tiller. A good reason to be very focused and check the bearing all the time while working on the foredeck.

I also practised more gybing and hoisting and lowering the spinnaker several times

A windy outing

Today's third outing was a very windy business. With gusts reaching up to 5bf it was challenging to keep controll of Mic Mac singleahanded.

Todays training

For today's training I was accompanied by Denise, who did a great job as a passive crew and back up if things would have gone wrong. While we rigged up the boat, the predicted Bise started to build up and by the time we left the harbour and put up the sails, the Bise had reached full force.

I decided to put in the reef to deepower the boat.
After this, we went upwind and I practised a few tacks. The strong wind made it hard for me to keep a steady course. Often I had to deepower the main by easing the sails. While I adjusted the headsails, the boat often wanted to turn in to the wind and I had to be carfull not to let the tiller go for too long.

Going downwind, I was first afraid to use the spinnaker. I then practised some heavy weather gybes, by sheeting in the main before the gybe. During the gybe I controlled the tiller with my legs, so I could gybe the jib with my hands.

My confidence grew and I decided to put up the small spi.
The hoist went well and after some flapping and noise the boat accelerated under spinnaker. I soon learned that the downhaul becomes very important in this kind of wind, because the spinnaker rises up and needs to be held down to controll it.
Coming closer to the shore, I either had to take the spinnaker down or gybe away from the coast. I went for the gybe.
Going on a deep run, I eased the spi sheet and pulled back the brace/tangoon. It took me several attempts to adjust the spi the way I wanted it. Once this was done I went to the front and changed the tangoon on to the new side. Then, I went back to the cockpit and gybed the main.
One gybe was enough and I took the spi down and we sailed back to the port.
It was a great outing!!

Gybe from stb to port and spinnaker drop before going upwind again

Second training part two

After tacking upwind, it was time to prepare the launch of the spinnaker. For this I locked the tiller, put the tangoon in position and then started to prefeed the tack. Once this was done I beared away on  to a broad reach and pulled up the spinnaker.

Once the spinnaker was up, I practised several gybes with the spinnaker.

My first two attemps didnt go very smooth. I gybed the main first and then went to the foredeck to get the tangoon on to the other side. I then had to find out that I didnt release the downhaul and I also had the sheet to tight. The result was that I could not attach the pole on the new side and had to release the downhaul before clipping in the pole. You can see this in my video (the difficulties with the pole start around 42 sec):

We then tried a second approach that worked better:
This time I went on a dead run and eased the sheet much more. I also didnt forget to release the downhaul this time:) After locking the tiller, I went to the foredeck and changed the tangoon.
On the way back, I tightened the downhaul again and adjusted the sails. Once this was done, I could  gybe the mainsail. Here is a video of this too:

 Too soon it was time to get the spinnaker down and head home to the port.

For dropping the spinnaker I unfurled the Genoa and started to ease the foreguy/line that controlles the tangoon, so I could start taking in the foot of the spinnaker. Once I had the foot, I  released the haliyard and packed the spinnaker in its bag. For the next time, I would release the haliyard a bit before the drop, so it would not require that much force to pull it down (you can see this in the video at 40sec).

Second training part 1

Today I managed to have a second training session for the Translemanique. After yesterday's training with almost no wind, the forecast looked much more promising. When we arrived at the port the wind had built up to a steady 2 Bf from north.
As my crew and advisors I had Magnus and Tim F. Thank you guys for coming along and helping me achieving this adventure.

We left under sail alone, wich was a bit challenging as the wind was coming from the north and we had to rock the boat out of the channel before we could set the sails. A good excersise in boat handling and very useful in case I want to do the race without taking the motor.

Briefing before the tack

First we sailed upwind and I performed some singlehanded tacks.
For the tacks I used the following technique:

-Cleating the rope at the autopilot, so I could start preparing the sheets
-Putting 2 turns on the lazy whinch/ 'soon to be' working whinch
-Preparing the working sheet, so I later can grab it easely
-Lowering the travaller, so it would be in the right possition after the tack= dont forgett to cleat it on the new position
- Grabbing the two genoa sheets
-tacking with the tiller between my legs, this allowes me to have both hands free for the sheets
-working the sheets during the tack
-sailing the new course, adjusting sails, vola!

Conclusions:
Practise makes perfect, I am glad I will have some more trainings:)
The headsail sheets need to be longer
It is good to prepare the sheets before lowering the traveller, otherwise I will loose too much power in the mainsail

Checking the winches after the tack

Part two to follow soon....

First singlehanded training

Today I finally had the chance to go out for a first singlehanded training. As Mic Mac was reserved by someone else, we weren't sure if it was even at the harbour (in our club people often book a boat and then dont go out). We arrived an hour into the booking period and to our delight the boat was not taken out.
The conditions were very light. Most of the time, the wind was so light that it was just enough to keep the sails from flapping. My main objectiv was to find out how the very simple autopilot works and how to put up the spinnaker and gybe it.
I managed to do two spinnaker hoists and drops plus four gybes. After a good hour of practise the wind dropped to zero, so we decided to call it a day. After a refreshing swim in the lake we motored back to the port.

My conclusions from today:

If the wind is very light, it is hard to fill the spi. It might help to roll up the genoa beforehand to make sure it doesnt block the wind.

Before the gybe, it is important to make sure all the lines are running free.

The line for the autopilot needs to be longer.

It is more fun to train if there is wind to fill the sails:)

The autopilot
The autopilot is made out of a rope that leads from one side of the cockpit to the other, this rope is than held by a little cleat under the tiller. This way it is possible to block the tiller and prevent the boat from turning, while adjusting sails or doing work on the foredeck

Geneve- Rolle-Geneve 10.-11.06.17

As a preparation for the TL en solitaire, I was able to do the Geneve-Rolle-Geneve race on Mic Mac. My crew were Heather, Kirill and Jean-Louis.
The GRG is one of the classic Lac Leman regatta and always attracts a lot of competitors. My motivation to do this race was, beside that long regattas are always lots of fun, to gain more experience on Mic Mac and also to get to know a bit more the parts of the lake that are further away from Versoix.

Here is my side of the GRG story:

The day started with a very promising breeze that allowed us to sail towards the starting line doing all sorts of manouvers. We felt this helped us a lot to get to know the boat better (1. outing in more than 1bf since the boat is back in the water) and to work as a team.

Start

After last years experice s a crew in Bol d or with a very crowded starting line and all boats bunched up,touching each other, I wanted to be more conservative. We stayed at the back of the crowd. Of course we soon found ourselve at the back of the fleet.

Upwind to Nernier

With lots of short tacks, playing the windshifts and staying close to the french coast we could catch up to the fleet and soon found ourself racing against Thierry and Tim.

Crossing the lake

The wind eased off around Nernier and we decided to cross the lake before the wind would get even lower.

During that crossing the wind dropped even further, giving our stiff genoa a horrible look around the sailing/shrouds. As soon as we had a windshift, we managed to set the spi and use it like a giant genoa. Crossing earlier, instead of sailing to Ivoire, didnt prove to be very in our favour, as the boats further in to the grand lac seemed to do have a tiny bit more wind and boatspeed.

Rolle

Crossing the mark at Rolle took a long time. After rounding the mark, we werent sure if we should cross back to the french coast or stay on the swiss side. So we just sailed a bit off the swiss coast while a big part off the surprise fleet stayed very close to the shore. Soon they found themself in a windhole and we were sailing past them, now sailing towards france.

Back at Nernier

The crossing went very well and we were happy about our position and that we have made it to the side of the lake that had good wind forcasted. Hoping to find that wind we stayed close to the coast, making very little progress. When the wind allowed we set the spinnaker, but mostly had to take it down after a short time again due to the very unstable wind.

The Night

Then we tacked in to a bay and got stuck for about 2 hours till 2am.

Thats when we tried to call YCG to announce our retirement. They didnt answer the call and we finally got some wind again. We decided to try to finish......

I The forcasted wind never returned on our side of the lake and in hindsight I think it would have been better to stay in the middle of petit lac during the night, like some of the other boats that slowly past us.

Morning

We made very slow but steady progress during the rest of the night. At 5am we were just off Coppet approaching Versoix and still had our hopes up to at least finish the race, but the wind stayed very light.

Towards the end..

At 7 am we could easily see the finishing marks ahead of us and also clearly hear the loud signal that told us that the finishing line was closed now. 

We quickly motored to the YCG to return the tracker before motoring back to Versoix.

Conlusions

-Seeing that the wind was very light during almost the whole race, I feel like it would have been good to use an older, less stiffer genoa.

-It paid out to tack early in the shifts and tack back once the wind changed again (not sure about this during the TLS, as tacking is much less efficient)

-To go closer to the shore did not proove to be the best decision at night. Some of the other boats, that stayed more in the center of the petit lac seemed to do better than us. 

-In the morning it would have been good to go closer to the shore (Collonge-Bellerive side).

For me as the skipper it was a very good experience and I think I learned a lot during those long hours. 

A big thank goes to my crew for the great time on the water, I am very happy with all of them and would sail with them again with great pleasure.

A big thank also to Tim, Kirill, Rob and all other volonteers for the long hours they spent getting the boat back in to the water and helping to prepare it for the race.

The Boat

To take part in the Translemanique, the most important thing  to have is a boat. Luckily, my sailing club (Yacht Club Cern) owns Mic Mac, an almost 35 year old Surprise. Despite the age of the class, the Surprise is still a very poular boat on the Lac Leman, in big races, such as Bol d'or it attracts more than 100 boats.


Maintenance
Because of its bad hull condition, some members of the club worked really hard (a special thank to Tim and Kirill) over the wintertime to remove old antifouling, sand rough areas, reseal the hull against osmoses and to put a new shiny antifouling on. We also replaced several pulleys on the mast to make it easier to hoist and controll sails.

Mic Mac's hull before the maintenance

In the beginning of June, just one week off the Geneve-Rolle-Geneve race, the boat was ready to be put back in to the water.

It was quite a shock when we found out that someone climbed over the fence at Ba 5 and not only vandalized the two trailers outside by smashing all lights, the person also scratched the newly finished hull whit a sharp object.......

Scratches on the hull after the vandalism

The keel was damaged the most

We managed to repair the trailer the same afternoon and towed Mic Mac to Versoix. The goal now wasn't anymore to have the boat in the water, we also had to re-sand the affected areas and apply new antifouling before we could even lift her in to the water. The work took us almost the whole evening and by 11pm Mic Mac was back in the water.

Mic Mac ready to lift in to the water

The next couple of days the mast got put up, the rig sensioned, the gelcoat cleaned and the sails came on. Now the boat was ready for everyone to sail again. A huge thank to all of you that contributed to get her back on the water!!!

The Race

The translemanique en solitaire is a regatta for single handed monohulls. The course went, until the upcoming edition, from Geneva to Lutry and back. It attracts around 100 sailors, local ones from surrounding Geneva and also international ones.

For the first time ever this year the race-commitee has decided to lengthen the course. The new course will go all the way to le Bouveret and back, which makes it to something like the length of the Bol d'or.

If you draw a direct line from the start to Le Bouveret and back, the total distance would be a minimum of 70 nautical miles or almost 130 kilometers. Given that it is almost never possible to sail the most direct way under sail and that the wind is more favourable on the swiss side, the actual distance to sail is way longer.
They race has now a similar character to the Bol d'or, with the difference that it is sailed singlehanded.
Making this race longer will certainly make it also more difficult to finish. The haute lac, the area from Lausanne towards the Valais is well known for its difficult wind conditions and will add to the challanges the race already provides.

February 2017, or sailing is calling

It is freezing cold outside and all the streets are covered with snow. Despite these perfect ski conditions, I cant wait for the beginning of the sailing season.
During this waiting time, my wish to participate in this Translemanique en solitaire is growing stronger and stronger.
By the end of February I made up my mind and sent the Commitee of the YCC Sailing Club an email about my plans and ask them for permission to use one of our clubboats to compete in this event.