HiHo windsurfing week

Carl & Chris fighting for 3rd.  Photo courtesy BVInews.com

Here is my report on the 2012 HiHo
windsurfing race in the BVIs.  This was my 3rd time competing in this long distance inter-island regatta. My family was looking forward to living on a sailboat for a week following the racing.  Adding to my excitement, my son Phillip was also planning on windsurfing. The event started with some lows, and ended with some highs.

The first day after boarding the sailboats and heading up to the Bitter End on Virgin Gorda we got our gear rigged and headed out. I sailed an extended course making me go extra distance and lose places. I fell a lot in the gusty 20 knot winds and during a rain squall I was barely holding on to my 10m sail and lost the cool GPS watch I've been using for 3 years. I also poked a small hole in the sail on a catapult fall. Grr. I watched Phillip sail very well on his 6.2 but then struggle upwind of a reef with breaking waves before getting rescued. Phillip had used his FindMeSpot GPS to send a message that he was OK but needed help and the help actually arrived before the GPS message did.

Sir Richard's cool pool!

I think I was 8th of 15 starters and 11 finishers and we all chilled in Sir Richard Branson's spectacular pool on Necker island for the afternoon. (Sometimes the HiHo is lucky enough to be invited there for the afternoon!  And by co-incidence, we had met the nice builder of that pool who was also living in France with his family last year when we were.)  We then sailed off to Leverick Bay for dinner at a beach pub. I was tired but had fun dancing with my wife to the great after dinner jazz/funk/reggae band before heading back to the boat to sleep.

(We all had mixed emotions about the 20km offshore race to Anegada being cancelled due to the strong winds and logistics this year.)

That's me chasing the eventual Hiho winner, Wilhelm Schurmann

The next morning the skippers meeting described a 10km race first downwind from Leverick Bay to the Seal Dog Islands then across the wind past Spanish Town to the finish near the Baths. I'd fixed the small tear in the 10m sail and 14 of us were at the start line in the shallows waiting for the start flag sequence. I told Phillip I was proud of him no matter how he did. Maybe if I broke down and he finished he'd beat me for the first time - a real goal of his. We took off down the Mosquito Island Channel and around 2/3 of the way downwind to the Seal Dogs where the waves were getting bigger I had my 3rd catapult of the morning but this one cracked the boom. Luckily Jen, Katie and Geoffrey were very close by with our captain on our boat and they collected my gear while I derigged in the 1-2m swells and 18 knot winds.

We then all listened to the race radio VHF channel to find out where Phillip was. The race organizer Andy Morrell was sure that he saw Phillip round the downwind mark. So we headed toward the finish following a sail that looked like Phillip's. That sailor was then also rescued but it wasn't our son. It became clear that 9 sailors had finished and 4 were rescued. Andy thought that 13 was everyone but had mis-counted the starters by one sailor - so where was Phillip?

The two GPS signals that were sent before the SPOT died...
Then we couldn't locate Phillip for an hour.
Wind blows from the east - finish was south at the baths

(Un)luckily I had bought that GPS tracker so Jen could keep tabs on Phillip from the boat. Why hadn't he sent a message asking for help?  We logged in to see his trail but the unit had stopped sending his track right after the start. Dammit the technology was not helping us at all.  (While initially we thought the batteries had died, we found out later the unit was fried after sending just 27 messages in 3 days. So it may not be as waterproof as advertised but is being replaced under SPOT's warranty). After what seemed like hours but was likely 25 minutes we heard that a boat had picked Phillip up and taken him back to Leverick Bay. Much relieved but very stressed we were overjoyed when we finally saw him. He was totally cool. "My downhaul broke. I was fine, why were you worried?"

Phillip shared with us later that a small local ferry boat that serves the Bitter End had actually stopped to see why he was sitting on his board waving and said they'd call someone and then took off. Grr.  The second boat that stopped was a tender to a mega yacht and it actually collected him and his gear.  Nice. I still think the HiHo could benefit from a more serious system to track who starts each race and which marks they round.

Phillip heading out for race #3

Phillip was happy to see that his starts at least were moving him up the rankings. So the next morning he decided to race again. Good for him.

Son and Father heading to the start line!

This was a pretty simple 2km reach out to the Baths and then a 8km reach back continuing to the Dogs. I rigged an 8.5 and was much more comfortable, planing most of the time with the leaders off the start line, then slogging a bit and falling back from the pack but not being catapulted. Phillip made the start line and did the first part but then asked to be the 2nd sailor rescued - one other sailor couldn't even get to the start. I saw Phillip safe at the back of our boat as I went by on the return leg and then enjoyed the sail out to the finish. I came in 6th. Nice, but somewhat bittersweet as another competitor, Monty Spindler of Neil Pryde, ART and Loft Sails fame had fallen the day before and his bruised ribs and the resulting pain meant it was his last race. Yikes, this HiHo was seeming pretty serious.

The next day saw a downwind slalom and I was thrilled to come in 3rd of 12 finishers. It would have been an ideal race for Phillip as it was all on flat water down from Scrub Island Resort to Long Bay on Beef Island. But Phillip was done sailing.

My 3rd place didn't help my rankings at all when I checked the race board at dinner. I was still in 9th overall but the Pirate party at the Last Resort in Trellis Bay was so much fun that it didn't matter.

My wife cheering from the boat

Luckily the next day I had another 3rd place finish on the downwinder from Sandy Spit to White Bay on Jost Van Dyke. My family was on the sailboat heading downwind with us racers and my daughter Katie cheering off the front of the sailboat as I windsurfed by on some of the downwind broad reaches definitely helped motivate me for the last bit of the race. 

I sailed a bit farther out and downwind on the last reach and caught a good gust and then passed the 2 sailors who had previously been ahead of me right at the finish. There were tons of spring break type tourists partying at the Soggy Dollar beach bar where the finish flag was located. That lunch beach scene and shots being taken from a helicopter during the simultaneous 14km downwind SUP Painkiller Cup race made it a lot of fun. (Team Fanatic won the SUP race and $4,000). We all then enjoyed a Painkiller or two, the island's signature drink.

View of the boats at the finish - and us windsurfers on the horizon

That night at Foxy's for dinner on the race board my ranking improved dramatically as after 5 races there was now a discard - deleting my DNF from day two. Suddenly I was tied for third with my 3 time HiHo friend and cool competitor Chris Cole.

So on the last day we rigged for a quick course race near Little Thatch. Phillip declined to windsurf again and around 9 of us headed out. This was my best start yet, 3rd across the line as the horn went. I tried to keep the same angle of attack as the leader Wilhelm Schurmann BRA999 (a PWA professional) and super local Rusty Henderson who was doing the race again for likely the 10th time and was actually the race director in 2007 when I did the HiHo for the first time. The skill of those two sailors is simply incredible.

They actually had a helicopter to take photos of us!

As that final race progressed it became very exciting. I lost two places at the upwind mark to nice young local kid Josh Morrell and visiting sailor Darren Kell from the UK. I made those spots back on the downwinder, but then right at the downwind mark Chris Cole passed me. As Chris and I were tied for third place overall on the week, our final finish in this race would determine the final standings. I chased him but Chris also beat me to the upwind mark as we rounded it the 2nd time. Somehow on the final downwind leg I found better wind and angles and finished third. Having a world renowned sail designer cheering and congratulating us as we got to shore added to the fun. I helped Chris get his board out of the water and we had good fun chatting about our close race. 

We all enjoyed stone oven baked pizzas on Little Thatch and then headed back to the Moorings and the final ceremony. The SUP and windsurfing awards were given out after the last delicious dinner. The sponsors already had some great videos and slides to show of our exciting week. 

The HiHo is definitely a challenging and exciting windsurfing experience. Living on a sailboat for a week with my family and enjoying great meals on beautiful beaches and dinners at cool seaside bars is fantastic. It might be a while until we have the time and resources so we can do it again. Until then I have the memories (and first place Grand Master's windsurfing trophy!).

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