Plymouth - St Malo Race 4th - 7th June

 

Bare Knuckles was delighted to welcome on board Rob Cummings for the Plymouth to St Malo race 4th – 7th June 2009, Rob’s first race since recently withdrawing from the OSTAR 2009 Single Handed Transatlantic Yacht Race.

Bare Knuckles stormed across the finish line at over 9 knots and in second place to ‘Bling’. Overall results are still awaited, but the prediction on corrected times is that Bare Knuckles finished third overall in IRC class.

The race started from the Royal Western Yacht Club’s start line in the Cattewater on Thursday 4th June 2009 at 18.15pm. Bare Knuckles crossed the start line in third place and immediately overtook the x-332 ‘X-rated’ before reaching Mountbatten pier. From then on, the race order was set.

The race started with light easterly winds which reduced to 6 to 8 knots overnight making for slow progress. By day-break, the winds had increased to 12 to 14 knots from the South East, allowing Bare Knuckles to get up to speed and pull away from all other boats in sight.

The French coast was sighted about midday and Bare Knuckles crossed the finish line in style at 16.06, 5 seconds BST making for a crossing time of just over 21 hours for the 140 mile race.

The team enjoyed a well earned meal ashore in St Malo before the return crossing which was smooth until the wind reached 25 knots from the north-west which made for an interesting sail back to Plymouth.

The sun shone throughout (save for nights!) and the crew enjoyed basking in the sun as can be seen from the pictures in the picture gallery.

Well done to the St Malo team of Bare Knuckles and a big thanks to Rob Cummings!

The results are now in and we finished 5th overall with only 20 minutes separating 3rd and 5th after 22 hours of racing.