Mariquita Book - mk2.5

CHRIS TIBBS
Navigator
My involvement with Mariquita started with sail trials in the
Solent immediately after her restoration, and two seasons later I
was the main race navigator on board and have been ever since.
Navigating Mariquita is not just about avoiding rocks and
going around the correct course, but commences well before
we leave the dock in the choice of sails. As a meteorologist my
day starts early, making a forecast for the day’s sailing where one
of the most important calls of the day is whether we can use
the jackyard or not. This makes a significant difference to our
performance. If we get this wrong then we are left struggling
for boat speed in light wind, or when over-canvassed fighting
for control with increased drag and leeway; the loads on the rig
and boat also skyrocket. It is the same for a reef, relatively easy
when on the dock, but on the race course requires heaving to,
which effectively rules out a competitive finish.
We know that the wind builds in the Solent through the day
with a maximum speed mid-afternoon, but predicting just
how high it will rise is difficult. Although starting with a light
morning breeze, this can easily build to over 20 knots by midafternoon:
conditions that require a reef and small topsail. The
early morning forecasts and discussions on board are therefore
critical to getting the correct sails bent on for the day to come.
Once on the water one of the prime roles for the navigator on
Mariquita is timing, with a minimum of one minute’s notice
required for a tack, and preferably two or three, predicting
where we will be in this time frame is critical. Although
Mariquita is an elderly lady she is raced hard and with the
strong Solent tides, gaining a few yards by being out of the
tide in shallow water is imperative when racing, but so too is
limiting the amount of manoeuvres on such a physical boat.
Mariquita needs time to build up speed after a tack and it is
easy to tack yourself to a standstill whilst also exhausting the
crew before the windward mark.
With John on the helm and David calling tactics it is my
job to keep us in the right part of the Solent for wind and in
favourable tide, following the correct course and looking ahead
to the next leg. With Solent tides and an advantage being on
the north shore, many times this season the crew gave it their
all, tacking up the western Solent with just a few inches of
water under the keel.
Running downwind is no easier, as gybing the boat is a
massive task taking around six minutes from balloon jib set
to balloon jib set on the other gybe. Once we are off the
wind we have no electronic wind instruments as they are
blanketed by the topsail. Working out wind and gybe angles
to minimise the number of gybes whilst staying in the best
tide is all consuming. Getting this wrong and putting an
extra couple of gybes may take seconds on a modern boat,
but for Mariquita it takes minutes.
One of my overriding memories from the 2015 Solent racing
season was running with everything up past Gurnard Ledge.
Sailing dead downwind with John steering by the lee when
possible, any veer in the wind would have us on the Ledge
but dropping the balloon jib and gybing would take four
minutes, and require a gybe back again soon after. It was
touch and go whether we could have actually gybed before
hitting the rocks and the crew were therefore on standby. We
scraped past and then had a direct line to the finish. Everyone
was fired up from John on the helm, the crew on standby
and David calling the gusts.
Overall the 2015 season was special, Mariquita was pushed
hard in waters that we know well, and from the spectacular
Round the Island Races to the cut and thrust of ‘round the
cans’ the boat performed magnificently.
Navigating such a yacht is something special and to be
successful as a team we need exceptional teamwork: from the
deck crew working the sails, to the relationship between the
tactician, navigator and helmsman. This needs to be one of
mutual respect and, although some of our jobs overlap and
there can be lively discussions, keeping cool on the afterdeck is
important. We do use some modern technology with GPS and
electronic charts, but much of the sailing of the boat was how
it was sailed 100 years ago.
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