The JEBA Project

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Last Updated: 27th September 2007 

!!!!Fastnet Video!!! (Warning, takes a day to download) First you must install bittorrent

http://www.bittorrent.com/users/benandlucy/torrents/JEBA_-_Rolex_Fastnet_2007/66dff09ec9af522bfe58225c493f68cfa513df0c 

In May 2006, the Nicholas family ordered its 7th sailing boat, a Beneteau 40.7.

Fastnet Race 2007 ROLEX/Daniel Forster

JEBA rounding Fastnet Rock on her way to 4th in the 2007 Rolex Fastnet Race. 

Delivered in August 2006, it is the second boat to take on the family name – JEBA (John, Elaine, Ben & Amy).
This site will keep you up to date with the adventures of JEBA and her crew.

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Latest News

Rolex Fastnet Race 2007 Report

The 25 hour postponement had the desired effect as far as RORC was concerned. 51 boats finished of the 296 that started the race. JEBA was one of them. Having experienced the first blow as they bashed down the Channel, many boats had problems confronting the prospect of the second forecast blow, a swift veer to a northerly at Force 8 and accompanying cross seas in the middle of the Celtic Sea. Most ducked into Plymouth.

Of the ten boats that finished in IRC1, JEBA finished 4^th, one of 5 of the Beneteau 40.7s to complete the race. The leading 40.7 was Philosophie IV, who finished 37 minutes ahead of us, and was third on corrected time.

After an entertaining, sunny and rewarding Cowes Week, when we were able to work on boatspeed and went faster as the week progressed, the Fastnet was an entirely different experience. After a good start, we overstood the first mark, Gurnards, and had to reach back from the shore. Two boats skipped Gurnard’s entirely and had their photos taken by a RORC rib.

Fastnet Race 2007 ROLEX/Daniel Forster

JEBA can be seen clearly in this shot behind the boat passing the buoy. You can also see TFS Philosophie IV in the bottom left hand side of the shot, with Incognito ahead of her and Manhattan Furniture Playing Around to windward of Incognito. This was the setup for a 40.7 battle that had TFS rounding the Fastnet Rock first by two and a half hours, followed by Incognito, Jeba an hour behind Incognito, Manhattan Furniture Playing Around and Keel Over. Jaguar Logic and Scarlet Oyster had rounded about half an hour ahead of TFS. TFS started home without rounding Pantaneuos then doubled back to round it. This brought us closer.

The weather was ‘difficult’ rather than horrendous, although there were times when the owners thought a heading of 090 degrees to Poole Harbour would be a better course to steer. We suffered from lack of a second mainsail reef, which meant we had to go to trysail early each time, and back to mainsail late. I was down below in the first blow when Ben was up steering and the boat was rattling like crazy from the flogging of the reefed main. When all went silent, as the main was taken down, I felt relieved, as the major source of concern about rig and sails disappeared.

While we held out against Manhattan Furniture Playing Around on the slog out to the rock, TFS Philosophie IV and Incognito had the measure of us particularly on the Lizard to Fastnet leg. We sailed well in the last couple of hours up to the Rock, tacking on good shifts and sailing out to some new breeze under a nice-looking cloud. However, what really got us back in contention was the downwind ride. The decision to gybe at the Pantaneuos was definitely right, and based on a correct assessment that the wind would back during the leg to the Scillies. Well done whoever was upstairs at the time. We had the Code 4 symmetrical spinnaker up and yet again a broach or three showed what a tough and fast spinnaker it is.

The gybe onto starboard after we had been lifted for a while was perfectly timed. It was a chicken gybe. We hoisted the No. 4 headsail to prevent wraps, doused the kite, gybed the boat while Simon re-packed, and then re-launched it. As usual, the foredeck was screaming for the new spinnaker in their impatience to get the boat moving again, but it was all done pretty quickly. During a quiet spell from the Lizard home we put up the Code 2 symmetrical. This had two effects. It sped up the boat a bit and also ushered in an increase in windspeed to 25 knots true, so down it came and back up with the Code 4.

So we sailed by far the shortest downwind leg of the 40.7s, even taking a big chunk out of TFS’s lead, and passing Incognito by just enough to take her on handicap by 19 minutes.

The slowest part of the run to the Scillies was hitting the whale. The fastest was Simon’s JEBA World Speed Record of 22.8 knots, achieved down an exceptional wave and almost in the correct direction. We hope the whale is OK.

I have to say that JEBA’s rock-rounding photo (see above) must be one of the best ever taken. The lighthouse is framed between the two sails, the boat and crew are in complete equilibrium, and we’re smiling.

The crew:

John, Ben, Tim, Simon, George, Andrew, Pete, Jon, Dave and Jim.

And thanks to Elaine and Nick for a fantastic reception as we arrived on the dock.

JEBA was beautiful, and looked after us well, allowing us to take her on one of the most memorable Fastnet Races ever.

 

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