Cymraeg The Flag Officers and all at CHPSC wish our Commodore and Phil Jackson all the best on the AZAB race which is due to start on Saturday.
The two are sailing Jac Y Do, a Jeanneau Sun Fast 3200, in Class 3, there are 5 classes and a total of 50 entries. Tracking is via the YB tracker app, or on the website at www.AZAB.co.uk.
Mark said " ... we are now all prepared and ready for the start, the category 1 offshore inspection was very stringent and took a lot of preparation, but now completed. We are in good shape and looking forward to our adventure. "
The AZAB is a 2,400-mile ocean regatta starting in Falmouth and going to the port of Ponta Delgada, on the Azores Island of São Miguel. Leg two returns to Falmouth.
Competitors have time on the island for some R&R before racing back to Falmouth.
Falmouth has long been a venue for international and national championship events and hosting them has been an important part of the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club activities since the 1950s. The AZAB has been organised by RCYC every fourth year since the first race in 1975.
The race destination, Ponta Delgada, is the capital of São Miguel, one of nine Azores Archipelago Islands in the Eastern Atlantic, approximately 750 nautical miles off the coast of Portugal and some 1220 miles from Falmouth.
“Most yachts participating in the race take between 7 and 10 days to reach the Azores, allowing a week or so to relax and prepare for the return passage.”
The town of Ponta Delgada has many excellent restaurants and a wide range of shops and markets within walking distance of the marina, so competitors should have no difficulty in restocking for the return leg.
Since their discovery by the Portuguese in the early 15th Century, the Azores islands have been a popular stop with seafarers. Columbus visited one of Ponta Delgada’s neighbouring islands on his way back to Spain from the New World in 1493. In centuries past the islands were also a staging post for richly laden treasure ships, which made them a magnet for pirates and privateers of all nations.
