We finished at 07:52 UTC, in front of the East Pier of Wicklow, with three
fishermen standing under the lighthouse and a race committee member as our
witnesses, and a special welcoming committee: Marine, disguised as "bonbon
rose" with two bottles of champagne and thirteen glasses!
The last bit made for interesting sailing: beating against a strong current,
into a shore that treated us with valley-type winds and strange shifts as
you neared the hills. We chose to stay outside and attack at a large angle -
which helped us gaining substantial ground on the competition, who came in
from the inside of the banks. We approached in full main and blade, used our
new changing staysail for a near perfect upgrade to the Genoa #1 ("one
prefers not to arrive in miniskirt") and tacked on the pin. Excellent
helming by Taco, and good teamwork all around until the last minute.
We drank our champagne, had breakfast in the Wicklow Sailing Club with
sausages, bacon, bread and Guiness, toasted to Zwerver, Bas, our watch
mates, and some others we now have a leisure sail back to Dun Laghaore,
where Derek and Marine (who went by car) will join us in cleaning and
preparing Zwerver for her next trip. We just reinvented a new sailing boot,
started planning the 2005 Rolex Transat, and discussed new projects.
We all agree his is the best short blue water race we have ever done:
navigation and weather challenges, scenery, size and scale, character,
organisers... the Round Ireland Race deserves a spot in the ranks of
Fastnet, Newport-Bermuda and Sydney-Hobart.
Thanks Dennis and WSC for organising this BMW Round Ireland Race, thanks
Bruce, Eveline, Philippe, James, Beryl, Mickey, Marjo and Grace for your
e-mail support, and most of all, thank you Mike, Dick, Taco, Tristan, Arjen,
Bas, Bertrand, Michel, Robert, Cees and Derek for giving the old lady what
she likes best; it was, as usual, a pleasure sailing with you.
F.