Loro Piana Giraglia
This blog is posted later than planned, as It was difficult to post blogs during this trip.
Loro Piana Giraglia is an amazing 4 day regatta in the bay of St Tropez. Day 5 is the start of a 240nm offshore race element , from St Tropez, rounding the famous Giraglia rock off Corsica and finishing in Genoa Italy.
We rented a crew house in Port Grimaud, locally known as little Venice. It is a really lovely place with water ferries to our race marina and into St Tropez.
Our house had a 14mtr mooring right outside the rear patio. We thought it would be nice to moor the boat there and tried to do so, but our depth gauge was not working correctly and it is very shallow so decided to abandon our efforts one the depth gauge registered zero.
The regatta was good fun, the hard part is always the offshore element. The crew, Myself, Steve, Ian, John, Heikki, Howard, Clive and Linda split in to 3 hr watches with me, Ian and Clive on one watch and the others on the 2nd watch.
The wind started well, but we knew at some point we would sail into a predicted wind hole, which is exactly what happened about 30nm miles form the finish. We had raced well, but when I woke from my off watch we had only covered 1nm in 3 hours, at that rate it would take another 30 hours to finish, instead of what would usually be a somewhere around 5 hours.
After a bit, the crew started to discuss whether we could finish in time and if we could, it would likely mean we would arrive in the early hours, sort the boat then fly home without enjoying the Loro Piana hospitality.
It was a difficult decision for Steve to make, as the crew had flown in for the entire event, not just the racing, it didn’t matter to me as I was staying on to help pack up the boat in any event, but for me, I would have preferred to keep racing. I wasn’t really involved with the discussion, but I understood the predicament and it was decided to stop racing and to motor in.
As with all things sailing, when we tried to start the engine, we could not. The engine battery was flat. As was the emergency jump start unit, which Steve had forgot to recharge after its last use. I recollect, we used it last year in a similar situation. Anyway, I removed the engine battery and replaced it with the bow trustor batteries (easier said than done) and got us started. I was chuffed to bits when Steve, as an unnecessary thankyou, brought me a Yacht Club Italiano polo shirt, matching the yacht club belt I had brought earlier.
As usual, the Loro Piana hospitality was top notch, the prize giving, which we missed last year was very emotional, but great fun. All in all a great and memorable trip.