On Sunday 27 September I joined my first yacht race, the Yokohama Bayside Marina Yacht Club 秋帆走会, a casual, fun race. I was fully expecting to come last because Eothen is a Cornish Crabber 24’ cruising boat and not a racing boat. 

The wind was a northerly light breeze of around 6 knots and as anticipated, as soon as the race started I was quickly left behind by the rest of the fleet. With frustratingly light winds and very slow progress on the downwind leg, for the first hour I really was not enjoying myself, regretted joining the race and considered giving up. I was running directly downwind with the main on one side and the staysail out on the other, making at best 1.6 knots. With the wake of any passing motor boat Eothen would rock, sails would flap and flail, speed would drop to 0.5 knots, and I would curse. I was definitely not a happy sailor. Particularly so when the leading boats started passing me on their return leg and I was still only halfway down the first leg! 

I continued to plod on to the turning point, while all the other boats had long since disappeared on their way back. By now I was just determined to finish the race. After rounding the halfway mark and onto the upwind leg, my speed increased to around 3 knots and I enjoyed the return trip. 

I got back to the marina just in time to tie up at my berth and make it to the start of the post-race party. As I rushed to the venue I wondered (hoped) whether there might be some kind of ‘Billy’ prize to mark my efforts for the day.

While the race committee were calculating the results, one of them came over and smilingly commented that on a rating adjusted basis, Eothen had a surprisingly good score. So imagine my complete surprise and happiness when Eothen was declared the winner! I have my doubts about the accuracy of the rating system, but no one was complaining and definitely not me.

The race course was from just outside Yokohama Bayside Marina to the Okinone buoy outside Yokosuka harbour and back, a distance of just under 4 nm. The fastest boat was EVE-1 (funny, I’m called Eve too) with a time of 1 hour 49 minutes. My time was 3 hours 11 minutes.