MailASail Azores and Back

One of my big races of 2023 was to do the Azores and back Race double handed on Asgard.

The MailASail AZAB is a 2400 mile ocean race starting in Falmouth Cornwall, and races all the way down to Ponta Delgada in the Azores and back. It is a two legged race where the vast majority of the fleet race double or single handed. This year boats were allowed enter and race 4 up these were not eligble for the overall prizes however.

On Asgard we had myself and Elin Jones from Wales do the first leg. This made us the youngest combined pair to compete in the races 50 year history. The leg down to the Azores was tricky for us as we started in light to medium breeze which was tough for us to get going against boats with longer water lines. After 4 days of racing and finding ourselves slipping back in the pack we made a tough call and gybed out further away from land in pursuit of better breeze. As the saying goes, big calls win big races. We found the wind we were looking for and shot up the leader board.

The 48 hours of 25-30 knots of wind allowed us really push the boat and close the gap to the boats in front of us. It was tough sailing at night in pitch black and with a big sea state, but it was certainly fun.

We arrived into Ponta Delgada after racing for 7 days, 16 minutes and 1 second. This was about 4 hours behind the leg winner on corrected time and half an hour ahead of the boat in 3rd on corrected.

We had about 10 days to rest, recover and do any running repairs on Asgard in order to get ready for leg 2. For the return leg Elin had to fly off to do a delivery instead we had Damien Dingwall join us who had not competed offshore in a little over a decade!

The forecast for the return leg looked similar to leg 1. Light to start followed by a building breeze. This time instead of being a North easterly we were in the standard South Westerlies.

A light start and a split fleet led to a somewhat stressful circumnavigation of the island. As we began to clear the island about 14 hours after starting and the breeze began to build and become more regular we got into the groove.

With the A4 up 14 hours into the race, little did I know we would not take it down until we could see Falmouth.

Big breeze and a good sea state meant Asgard was singing! With an all time top speed record of 25.2 knots from the little pocket rocket meant we were putting the pressure on the bigger JPK1180 Frida who did not expect to see us for dinner on day 3!

Our stonking run home had us finishing in 5 Days 14 hours 37 minutes and 57 seconds (05 Days 18 hours 24minutes 08 seconds in corrected time). This was enough to win overall, set a new overall course record as well as a new return leg record. In doing so I became the youngest skipper to win the event in its 50 year history.