After this year’s OSTAR race was postponed, a group of Corinthian skippers completed their own \u2018NOSTAR\u2019 transatlantic challengePunta Ala, Italy, November 2020
\nGuido Cantini Golden Globe Race 2022 entrant.
\nGuido Cantini aboard Hannah of Cowes the Vancouver 34 with which he will participate in the Golden Globe Race 2022.
\n\u00a9 Guido Cantini\/Hannah RacingFollowing the postponement of this year\u2019s OSTAR and TwoSTAR transatlantic races to 2022, a small group of determined solo and double-handed skippers set off on their own challenge, the NOSTAR transatlantic.
\nThe transat was initiated by Charlene Howard, who had entered the 2021 TwoSTAR race on her Sun Odyssey 45.2 AJ Wanderlust with co-skipper Bobby Drummond. When it became evident that the official races organised by the Royal Western YC were likely to be postponed for another year, Howard and a small group of other entries decided to cross together. She was joined by Scottish single-hander Jock Hamilton on his 32-footer Freya, Ertan Beskardes on his Rustler 36 Lazy Otter, and Guido Cantini on his Vancouver 34 Hannah of Cowes, the latter two having entered as part of their preparation for the Golden Globe Race.
\n\u201cWe all left together, on the exact day and time that OSTAR\/TwoSTAR was supposed to leave,\u201d Howard explained. \u201cWe were able to get the sailing instructions from the 2017 race just to confirm the course, which is very simple: you leave Plymouth breakwater, leave Eddystone light to starboard and then finish at Castle Hill, Newport 3,000 miles later.\u201d
\nThe \u2018NOSTAR\u2019 set off from Plymouth to follow the original OSTAR\/TwoSTAR course to Newport, USA
\nA tough transatlantic
\nAs is frequently the case for the official OSTAR, the NOSTAR transatlantic fleet faced a tough crossing. \u201cWhen we left it was blowing quite hard. The decision we made off the south-west coast of Ireland was I didn\u2019t want to go straight into big seas.
\n\u201cThe unintended impact of that was we got caught in the middle of a secondary low that was not showing on any of the charts, which forced us to go north because it was where we could make the best headway,\u201d explains Howard.
\n\u201cThat helped our race a lot because we ended up skirting above the low pressure systems and getting some tailwinds, whereas the other guys decided to go a more rhumbline route and I think they encountered worse sea state because of that.
\n\u201cWe actually had quite a nice crossing for the first 10 days or so because we were above the low pressure systems. We went as high as 56N so, then we had to climb back down and went through five days of near-gales and quite heavy seas.\u201d
\nHoward and her co-skipper Bobby Drummund
\nOnboard AJ Wanderlust they suffered a broken inner forestay, ripped mainsail and a destroyed wind generator, but were able to continue into Newport, arriving after 31 days.
\nMeanwhile, Jock Hamilton was dismasted. \u201cJock got about halfway across the track when he dismasted, and then showed very good seamanship and jury rigging [to sail back to] Scotland,\u201d explains Howard, \u201cErtan on Lazy Otter had three knockdowns in one night and lost their self steering gear, so they went to the Azores to get sorted out.
\nArticle continues below\u2026<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOSTAR 2017: David Southwood recounts an exceptionally brutal Atlantic storm<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCompetitors in the 2017 Original Single-handed Transatlantic Race (OSTAR) experienced the worst conditions since the race was initiated in 1960\u2026<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSolo Atlantic sailing: Lessons learned en-route to Madeira<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIt was just before midnight in the eastern fringes of the Atlantic Ocean, about 130 miles south-west of Cape Finisterre.\u2026<\/p>\n
Guido Cantini aboard the Vancouver 34 Hannah of Cowes \u00a9 Guido Cantini\/Hannah Racing
\n\u201cAnd Guido started with us but was immediately having issues with both his hydrovane as well as his electric pilot . So he returned to Plymouth and then started again.\u201d Cantini later retired to the Azores, leaving Howard and Drummond the default winners of the inaugural NOSTAR Race.
\nNOSTAR transatlantic challenge
\nHoward, who is American but lives on the Isle of Man, had originally entered the race in memory of her mother, Charlotte. \u201cSince we didn\u2019t have a sponsor I did the trophies and bought a bottle of Port Charlotte whisky that was meant to be our prize for this very Corinthian race,\u201d she recalls.
\nAmerican sailor Charlene Howard is trying to tick off as many of the big offshore races as she can
\nHoward is an archetypal Corinthian ocean racing sailor. She has raced some 100,000 miles on her production yacht, which she describes as \u2018fairly standard but significantly beefed up\u2019, with modified chainplates and tie-rods, and increased internal structures, plus a new strengthened rudder after an electrical fire saw AJ Wanderlust lose power and ground hard in January this year. In 2018 she even sailed back-to-back Round Britain races.
\n\u201cI just absolutely love being at sea, I love a long passage. I love racing because no matter how slow you\u2019re going, you can\u2019t turn on the engine. So you just have to challenge yourself to make 11 tons of boat move in 3 knots of wind. And I love the self-sufficiency of leaving and knowing that it is simply yourself and your sailing partner and your skills that have to get you to the other side.\u201d\u00a0
\nThe post No OSTAR? No problem! Corinthian sailors set up their own transat appeared first on Yachting World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After this year’s OSTAR race was postponed, a group of Corinthian skippers completed their own \u2018NOSTAR\u2019 transatlantic challengePunta Ala, Italy, November 2020 Guido Cantini Golden Globe Race 2022 entrant. Guido Cantini aboard Hannah of Cowes the Vancouver 34 with which … <\/p>\n