Marblehead to Halifax 2015 (MHOR2015)

After doing MHOR 2015 on "Miss Red" in ORR class I decided to share some notes about the race. I was unable to find any information from previous years, except some anecdotal stories. Race documents here.

Miss Red at RNSYS after finishing MHOR 2015

The boat we raced on "Miss Red" is a cutter rig Valiant 50 designed by Robert Perry - a fantastic cruising boat with stunning cherry interior and all amenities. She was equipped with radar and B&G Hydra 5000 navigation system, which came quite handy. The hull was painted in gorgeous ruby red - hard to miss amidst the sea of white gelcoat boats. She is built like a heavy tank weighing 35,000 or so pounds.

Wind Instrument - Note TWS

B&G Hydra 5000

On the downside, the cutter rig makes tacking quite a bit of a challenge, the mainsail was lacking fine tuning - mainsail did not have adjustable outhaul or cunningham, the backstay tensioner was not usable and traveler was very hard to operate with control lines locked with rope clutches deep under the dodger. The biggest challenge was the lack of sail inventory - we had a single brand new cruising asymmetrical spinnaker, no light air jib or symmetrical spinnaker.



The race course itself is a mostly single-tack reach and downwind sail. The start line was several hundred yards long - more than sufficient for the seven boats in ORR class, so cramming for the preferred end was not worth it. After tacking around the first mark we maintained the same tack for the next 300 or so miles until we made our final gybe into Halifax harbor.

The Race Course on the chart plotter with no-go zones and VTS1 boundary at Halifax Harbor

During the first NE leg of the route from Marblehead to Brazil rock the wind was fairly consistent in the 15kn range with calm seas, we were able to maintain good boat speed with little effort using our asymmetrical spinnaker. Approaching the Bay of Fundy and coming into Brazil Rock is the tricky part of the route - Bay of Fundy is some the highest tidal ranges in the world with some local current systems. It is absolutely necessary to have Canadian Publication titled CURRENTS ATLAS - BAY OF FUNDY / GULF OF MAINE - $16.50 and worth every penny. The challenge is to estimate the position and time of approach to the Bay of Fundy to either take advantage of the tidal current - depending on the time of arrival it will be changing direction, so you don't get "sucked" into the Bay, deviate from course and have to fight against the current. At times we saw over 2kn impact to our speed due to the current. There are also local current systems, which can be taken advantage of, or have to be avoided. 

Our satellite data/phone and software did not work properly, so we were unable to obtain real time wind and weather forecast, we did not download GRIB data ahead of time while we had cellular data coverage, nor we did any proper weather routing, so we ended up sailing a rhumb line course. Hardly optimal.

Important note is that Brazil Rock is not an actual course mark, it was provided in the Sailing Instructions as a navigational target only.

During the North-NE leg from Brazil Rock to the finish in Halifax harbor we encountered periods of heavy fog with very limited visibility. Radar and AIS came quite handy and the B&G Hydra radar and AIS overlay made it very easy to track other vessels.

The during the North-NE leg of the course we experienced two very light air periods with oscillating winds, followed by fresh breeze with gusts up to 25-30kn. I believe the light air periods "compressed" the fleet and basically the race was decided within the last 100nm of the course. When approaching and entering Halifax harbor we sailed through 8ft swells.

8ft swells astern

The combination of gusty breeze, high swells and aggressively (and in my opinion dangerous and ineffective) overpowered boat with full mainsail and large asymmetrical spinnaker made the boat difficult to steer, we sailed most of the leg between rounding, recovering, picking up speed and almost rounding again at the next puff. Sailing with a more appropriate sail plan for the conditions would have resulted in much better average boat speed and much more efficient steering. We saw some amazing wild life - great white sharks, whales and birds many miles off shore.

Great White Shark

Part of the last East-NE leg, after the final gybe at entrance of Halifax harbor was downwind/broad reach, much more appropriate for symmetrical spinnaker, or at proper asymmetrical spinnaker (A2/A4-type). Cruising asymmetrical spinnakers just doesn't cut if for such deep angles, particularly with tack line which is not adjustable under load.

Surprisingly, the weather was not cold, even at night.

We arrived mid-day into RNSYS, cleaned up the boat and checked into a hotel. The people at RNSYS were extremely kind and helpful but the Squadron does not provide any facilities like a regular yacht club.

RNSYS with Heather's parents

I recorded most of the race on RaceQs.

1. Start Leg
2. Middle Leg
3. Bay of Fundy and Brazil Rock
4. Finish 

If I were to do it again (and I probably will), I would:

• Have a much more accurate performance data available in the form of polar charts of the boat - I had a set of polars generated by iPolar using dimensions from ORR certificate; they were surprisingly accurate in the higher end of boat speed/wind speed but very far from reality in the lower end.
• Have much better sail inventory, particularly for reaching/running - we encountered a very broad set of conditions - from 1-4kn oscillating winds to 25-30kn gusts, which demanded. different type of sails, that we just did not have. Having light air sails available would have given us a substantial advantage; having a running asymmetrical spinnaker or symmetrical spinnaker would have given us much better performance on the very last leg of the course.
• Clear instructions to watch captains when to switch sail plan
• Plan for taking much better advantage of the tidal currents

On a side note - Brewer Hawthorne Cove Marina in Salem, MA is not a great place to stay, services available are also minimal. Not sure what other options are available around Marblehead but I wouldn't go there again.

Photos are courtesy of one of our crew members Heather Fleming.