{"id":389,"date":"2025-10-14T14:43:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T14:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yachtersworld.com\/?p=389"},"modified":"2025-10-14T14:43:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T14:43:27","slug":"5-expert-tips-how-to-run-a-succesfull-offshore-campaign-on-a-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yachtersworld.com\/?p=389","title":{"rendered":"5 Expert Tips: How to run a succesfull offshore campaign on a budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

Running a successful offshore campaign on a budget requires some smart thinking. Winner of the Rolex Fastnet Race Young Skipper trophy, Lawrence Herbert, shares some tips with Andy Rice.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Lawrence Herbert loves his offshore racing but he and the Corazon<\/em> crew are campaigning their J\/133 on a tight budget. Necessity being the mother of invention, the 28-year-old and the rest of his 20-something crew have come up with some ingenious cost-saving approaches with minimal or zero compromise to performance.<\/p>\n

Herbert learned a lot about boat maintenance<\/a> and reliability in the Caribbean where he worked for a few seasons on race boats including the J-Class yacht Lionheart. This hard-earned knowledge has equipped him well to run much of his own maintenance programme rather than paying others to do the work.<\/p>\n

Having been forced to retire from the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race<\/a> due to an injury to a crewmember not long after a stormy start in the Solent<\/a>, for 2025 Herbert was determined to leave no stone unturned in his quest to complete his first Fastnet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI must admit there were one or two stones still unturned before the start, and one was not replacing the main halyard<\/a>. When I heard a big bang, my heart sank as I immediately looked skywards,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately it was the Cunningham pinging accidentally out of its cleat, so no harm done. But mostly we worked hard to make sure Corazon<\/em> was ready for anything, even if it ended up mostly being a light to medium airs race this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are five of Herbert\u2019s best tips for bulletproofing your boat on a budget.<\/p>\n

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Faring a keel takes time so plan to sort big jobs like this well ahead of key races<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Plan your schedule<\/h2>\n

Identify your next important race and build your preparation schedule back from there. In IRC you want to optimise your rating as much as possible for the route. You need to know when the rating deadline is for your race and make sure you get a rating slot as late as possible before that. For the Fastnet we had our sails<\/a> re-measured two weeks before the start.<\/p>\n

Sails shrink over time, and just by re-measuring a headsail we got an improvement to Corazon<\/em>\u2019s rating. Get all the big structural jobs out of the way during the winter<\/a> when you\u2019re not likely to be sailing<\/a> so much. Do your hull<\/a> and keel<\/a> inspection super early in the year.<\/p>\n

We did ours in January and had our rudder<\/a> bearings replaced at the same time, which took longer than expected. Jobs like fairing the keel and the hull \u2013 all these things take time.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not sailing much for a few months, mouse all the control lines, sheets and halyards out and keep a bare deck while the boat isn\u2019t being used. Even in the winter you\u2019d be amazed how much UV damage can degrade lines. So take them home, put them through the washing machine with a small amount of fabric softener and vinegar (not soap!), and they\u2019ll come out almost as good as new.<\/p>\n

Winch maintenance<\/h2>\n

Elsa Swetenham is our winch maintenance<\/a> expert on Corazon<\/em>. She serviced our winches at the start of the year and again just before the Fastnet. For the early-season winch maintenance you want to put quite a bit of grease in there because it\u2019s going to be there for a few months.<\/p>\n

The downside of more grease is how much it slows down the winches, so unless you\u2019re doing a really long passage like a transatlantic<\/a>, for your pre-race winch maintenance you want to put in less grease. This means the winches will spin quicker, everything will run more easily, and all those small gains add up to a better performance on the race course.<\/p>\n

Second-hand sails<\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re mostly day racing on windward-leeward courses, your sail inventory is fairly well defined. But for a big offshore race like the Fastnet you have to be ready for pretty much all conditions and every angle. It could be blowing 33 knots at the start and three knots at the finish.<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t afford to buy new for Corazon<\/em>, so we\u2019re always keeping an eye out for second-hand sails. There aren\u2019t many J\/133s around, so we\u2019re looking for sails that are a similar size but might require a bit of recutting.<\/p>\n

Article continues below\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

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5 expert tips: How to be a yacht\u2019s watch leader<\/a><\/h2>\n<\/header>\n
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Although he\u2019s the crew boss and watch captain of 100ft Maxi yacht Scallywag in his own right, Pete Cumming is\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n