If you haven’t read part one about the Cong to Galway Race 2021, then I recommend you give it a read before starting this part.

As I sailed out to the start line a few things began occurring to me that I probably should have thought about before. I had been so caught up in the logistics of the event that I hadn’t paid much attention to the race itself. A cursory read-through of the sailing instructions meant I knew the basics, but I realised I hadn’t looked up which flag was the class flag and, whilst I could figure out the start line and first mark, after that I didn’t really know where I was going.

Of course, in the build up I hadn’t worried too much about that as I knew there would be catamarans and Fireballs and other fast boats that would leading the way, but I now realised that knowing the rough direction that I should be heading was not all that helpful when trying to make decisions about the best way to get there:

• How do you know which side of the run you should aim for if you don’t know exactly where the next mark is?
• Are the cats going to zigzag downwind as I would expect, or will they sail dead downwind as some were discussing before we launched?
• Would the Fireballs sail at a broad reach angle or are they quicker to just look for puffs and soak as low as possible?

What I did know was that the keelboats were due to start before us, so I checked out the line bias (pin end favoured), the course bias (more breeze on the right), got a couple of transits, and tried to make sense of the flags as there was definitely action on the committee boat.

I sailed about checking tactical compass readings and sail set-up for the short first beat, then sailed back towards the line only to notice that there was a Preparatory flag up. For the second time.

Hmmm.

And the Class Flag was definitely different from the last time.

Hmmmm.

As Rob and Rían (from my club) sailed past me in their 420 looking fairly serious about things I decided I should probably ask if we were about to start.

We were, in about 3 minutes.

Ooof.

Rían, being the gentleman he is, gave me a quick count so I could set my watch, but it is tricky to do in a hurry so I only had a rough idea as to when the gun would go. I got into position and went as well as I could but my start was only so-so. There was a short beat to the windward mark and then we set off on the race proper bearing away to the south to run down the lake before rounding an island and heading south east on a beam to broad reach.

The first half of this leg was pretty much a drag race, and the fact that the first portion was a dead run suited the monohulls a lot better than the cats. As we turned from the run to the reach the Fireballs had smoked off into the lead, and I was still right up with, and even ahead of, a good portion of the catamaran fleet. I had no idea what the PY differences were, but I knew that it meant they had a bit of work to do to get ahead on corrected time.

Most of these thoughts were fairly fleeting, though, because it was impossible to avoid being distracted by the surroundings. Living so close to Lough Corrib I had been on the lake several times before, but it is always breath-taking, and it is really something special to be sailing in a fleet of 40 boats in perfect conditions.

As the first leg went on some of the physical challenges became more apparent. Ninety percent or more of the first leg of the race was going to be sailed on one tack and, whilst there was very little close hauled hiking, there was a fair amount of reaching hiking, and a lot of in-and-out, fore-and-aft shifting to keep the boat planing as much as possible in the marginal conditions. Wind shadows and wind bends, thanks to the scattered islands and trees on the shoreline, meant there was little rest, and my legs and arms were starting to tire well before the end of the one-and-three-quarter hours it took to complete the first section.

And close competition also kept the pressure on. Had I had any idea about the various PYs of the other boats (which thankfully I didn’t), I would have lost any sense of the overall timing within the first 20 minutes anyway – it is simply impossible to know how you are doing with such a spread of relative speeds. Instead I had a decent battle with a very fast RS200, a 420 and another Laser who was keeping me honest.

We all tied up on a well-sheltered pier and I tried to behave as though I was fine despite my hip-flexors, quads and forearms all feeling the pain. And we were only half way there…