A Slow and Exciting Start
Posted by Erin on August 1, 2011
By Matthew Maples
It is the first night of our last race. There is little wind to fill the sails and the tall ship fleet is slowly sailing down the west coast of Norway. Red and green lights at all our sides bob like the colored lanterns of All-Hallows Eve, the only visible traces of our competitors. Even with our studding sails set on starboard we only make about 3 knots.
Even though the winds were not strong, the beginning of the race was exciting enough. Just before the race began nearly all the class A tall ships (the biggest size class) mustered at one end of the starting line just a few miles from Stavanger. As the race was beginning, the ships began to turn and hoist sail, making for the line. The Europa was in front, hovering just behind the starting line and we seemed to have waited until the last moment to turn. The cameras on our deck whirred like incessant insects as the entire fleet of class A’s headed straight for us. Leading in the front were the two big Russians, Mir and Sedov. Mir quickly pulled past us, her sail being hauled aloft to the tune of large deck speakers electronically barking orders in Russian to the sailors and cadets. Sedov came alongside our port, looming like a horizontally-placed black skyscraper over our comparatively tiny Europa. Sedov was close enough to us that Captain Klaas would later joke (was it a joke?) that we almost tapped them with our stern as we turned toward the line. With several dozen ships present there was a forest of masts, enough that it began to be difficult to tell which masts belonged to what ships!
In the jumble, both Pogoria and Morgenstern had turned too early toward the starting line, and had crossed it moments before the race had begun! Both ships were forced to do a 360° turn to penalize them for jumping the gun. I don’t know if it was true, but I heard that the race control remarked over the radio that the race had a slow and exciting start! The ships then fanned out for room, making south at a slow pace.
Already we came and went from Stavanger. It was a quick visit, only about 3 days. It was a crowded festival, especially among the ships, who, to fit in Stavangers small harbor, were tied together, sometimes as many as three and four abreast! With so many ships in such a small area, it was only natural that the ships would host many planned and impromptu parties and social gatherings for all the sailors and their friends.
Port time is over and we are all back on sea watches. On board, another group of new trainees learn to sail, most for their first time. It is a bit haphazard, maneuvering for a race and teaching, all in the same moment, but apparently that is what tall ship race sail training is about. It is a lot for them to take in, to see so many ships and our own underway what grandeur for a first impression! Perhaps the on-deck reality of pulling, sweating and coiling line brought earthy reality to the romantic image of so many ships sailing in the late afternoon sun.
Thankfully, we have a handful of ‘veteran’ trainees, many who have been on board since Waterford. They have learned enough that they are often leaders of the trainee watches and we on the permanent crew regularly delegate duties and even some sail-handling to them that we otherwise used to do ourselves. They are a huge help in setting good examples for the new trainees, as well as ease them into the nuances of watch schedules, eating times, cleaning times all the clockwork finesse that keeps us fed and the ship orderly. Some have even become our regular topmen who scramble aloft after setting our squares to overhaul the buntlines creasing the sails.
Like the other races, this promises to be a short one, only 270 miles. In just a few short days we will be in Halmstad, Sweden.
And for those of you who have been following, we did well in our last race from Lerwick to Stavanger and we placed fifth in our class. More importantly however, we beat the Pogoria in real time (not race-corrected time). Pogoria should be a faster ship than us, but we managed to cross the finish line before her. A notable achievement for us and our bark that we hope to replicate for this race.
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This entry was posted on August 1, 2011 at 1:46 pm and is filed under Bark EUROPA, Matt Maples, Sail Training International Races. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
