Crew Blog - Round Britain and Ireland Race 2010 

The Sevenstar Round Britian and Ireland Race is often described as one of the toughest and most challenging endurance tests. Follow the crew's blog here...

Wednesday 1 September 10:00

Chris Noble - Helm

Position - Heading 'home to bed!', Ketch Rigger, Hamble, 50.49.45 N, 01.13.85 W

We crossed the line of Cowes at about 0200 hours this morning finishing the race in 8 days, 11 hours and 49 minutes. I don’t think finishing it has really sunk in yet – but it’s a good feeling for sure.

It was quite a realisation coming up under the kite past the Needles after a year’s worth of work knowing at that point a year ago we were sitting around a table discussing the possibility of doing it after we had finished the Fastnet. Now it’s all behind us and we’ve done it, finishing in really quite a good position, feels pretty good! Some of the old Keelboat Academy sailors came out to meet us as we crossed the line with champagne and nibbles – that was great.

We’re really pleased not to have broken anything too major during the race. We heard all these stories of other boats breaking up around us and we didn’t really break anything. I think that is a testament to the amount of work everyone has put in all year. The boat was pretty prepared in the end and all the stuff we worked on we used it all and it all paid of really - you could see every little system we added highlighted as every stage of the race.  

It sounds a bit strange but once you’ve got into the watch system after the first 24 hours, once you commit to it, it’s good really but as we adjust to coming back to normal sleeping times over the next 24 hours it’s going to be quite tough! We’ve just packed the boat up and had a nice big breakfast together in Hamble so we’re feeling pretty exhausted after that. A bit of a sleep and good wash then we’re off to the pub to celebrate!

It think on behalf of everyone we want to thank LECG for their immense support of the academy stumping up the essential cash we needed to get to the start line just days before the race started. Also a big thank you to Smart Group, Mike Slade and his team on ICAP Leopard for their support, the RYA, UKSA and everyone else who has helped during the year to make this race a reality for us all. It’s been great and the experience we’ve gained will stand us in great stead for our future sailing.   

Steve Akien - Timmer

Position - A&E Waiting Room Southampton General Hospital

After hitting the dock quite high on painkillers, supplementing the effects with a little champagne and a few beers, I thought that my feet had magically fixed themselves. The only problem being that I couldn't put shoes or even flip flops on, but since the feeling had long since gone away with any heat that was left in them this wasn't really a problem either. 

Maybe I should explain a bit more........... Over the past 4-5 days I have had a few problems with my feet (left in particular) swelling up and becoming increasingly painful (and the colour of a packet of questionable chewits), to the point where getting boots on and off was a two man operation, and getting from the front to the back of the cockpit involved a combination of leaning on every single crew member and crawling. 

After an hour or so of slacking in Cowes we were told by our skipper that we would be doing the full boat pack up and clean before showers or sleep but on the promise of full breakfast in Hamble. 

We dutifully flaked all sails on the trinity landing while watching Tonnerre's supplies of rum and coke grow by the minute. On arriving back in Hamble we were greeted by the best shore crew in the world with bacon sandwiches and beers which I am sure getting to Hamble Yacht Services warm at 4 am was no small job. 

Having been bribed by the promise of breakfast, paid in full by the skipper, I was more than a little upset to find that I not allowed to attend the celebrations at the Ketch rigger. I was told in no uncertain terms that I was going to hospital RIGHT NOW!! 

So now here I sit in the hospital in full foulies smelling good enough to attract looks from ten yards only to find out that the nurses that give the bed baths are not in work today!

Steve is now on the mend having dried out what was though to be a bit of trenchfoot or cellulitis...

Tuesday 31 August 16:15

Hamish Macdonald - Grinder

Position - Heading 0079, off Portland Bill, 50.23.63N, 02.20.12W

The last 24 hours have been a bit of a mix really. We were just off the Scilly Isles and it all looked good as we were on the final run into home this time yesterday but as usual the western approaches of the English Channel turned round to bite us and we ended up stuck in absolutely no wind off Lands End for about 12 hours, literally not moving. It was pretty painful to go down off watch and come back three hours later to see we hadn’t moved at all especially when we got the update saying our main competition seemed to be doing 10 Knots at the time!

We weren’t just sitting there watching the sails flap - we were sending people up the rig looking for the next wind shift to tap into. Eventually we hooked into a little bit of wind which developed and developed and we ended up on 10-11 knots. We’ve held ever since really and it’s just been a long beat up The Channel now 50 miles off Bembridge and closing in fairly quick.

It’s definitely been a massively physically demanding race - I’ve been quite surprised. The first few days were really tough, the spinnaker run out of the Solent we were burning grinders every 15-20 mins and if that had kept up I thought we were going to have quite a lot of issues. As it turned out we did have 30 plus knots for three or four days and I was just really happy with how the guys coped with it – maybe they have been doing my gym programmes after all! We’ve not really had any crew issues due to lack of fitness and I’d like think that’s one of the reason we have done better than people expected us to on this boat because we are quite a fit crew and we’ve been able to muscle our way through where perhaps others haven’t.

I think the highlight of the race for me so far has been when we went on starboard tack for the first time rounding Muckle Flugga and I finally got my water maker running. I’ve been in charge of that and without water we wouldn’t have been able race for very long. Because of the design of the boat and where all the water intakes are I couldn’t make any water for the first few days. Getting that started was just immense relief really as I essentially had the race in my hands and I started to have nightmares about us dropping out because I had made a bit of a mistake in organising that to put it lightly.

We can’t wait to finish – these last 24 hours have been pretty frustrating,

Monday 30th August 10:20

Phil Miller - Bowman

Position - Heading 0154, off the Scilly Isles, 49.49.73 N, 06.17.90 W 

The conditions suited us more down the Irish coast so it was great to get up into third place. But now we’ve rounded the Scilly’s and we’re going up wind again I’m not sure we’re in such great conditions, we’ll have to see if we can maintain the gains.

It’s been very challenging up until now but we knew it would be – it hasn’t been comfortable  - definitely not – I’m just amazed we’ve made it this far really. It’s been very very wet inside the boat and we’ve had a hydraulic oil leak as well which has made the floors really slippery - basic things like getting in and out of your kit and bunk has been much more difficult than it should have been and that has made everyone a bit more on each other’s nerves! Nothing too bad though, we’ve worked really well together so no major fall outs.

I have to say I’m looking forward to fresh food and good ranch burger when we’re back. Freeze dried shepherd’s pie and spaghetti bolognaise is getting a bit tiring but we’ve had some nice  curries which have definitely been the favourite. Peri peri sauce has helped with the other flavours! 

It’s going to be a massive sense of relief and achievement when we get across that line.

Friday 27th August 10:00

Peter Knight - Trimmer

Position - Heading 0247, off north tip of Scotland, 59.37.92 N, 04.16.50 W 

We are just off the top half of Scotland, west of the Orkneys heading towards Ireland. Currently moving between rain clouds to get a bit more breeze under the rain. We have an idea where the other boats are and we think we are doing quite well. We just hope we get lifted into the next mark rather than headed by the wind. 

We had quite a hard first few days, but yesterday and today have been a bit more relaxed so we’re taking the time to clean out downstairs. Currently I’m on my standby watch – half of us are on deck hiking on the rail the other half are doing some maintenance and generally cleaning up down downstairs.

Morale generally is very high at the moment – probably because we’ve got a bit of sun rather than just rain and wind!

Unfortunately rounding Muckle Flugger it was just getting dark and there was a lot of fog so we couldn’t really see anything – I can’t really say from experience as I was asleep at the time - I think there was a mild celebration to be at the top but we all thought it would be easy from then on but since we’ve got round we’ve found it’s all more up wind. I think the big celebration will be when we come off the wind when we get to the next mark.

Sleep has been an issue – but it was more so when it was windy. Every three days each watch gets two lots of three hours off during the day so we’re now rolling through that – I had two three hours session off yesterday so I’m pretty relaxed now and today the other watches are having a more easy time of it. We’re just trying to stock up before our next serious blow.  We are expecting some more serious wind than we have now – hopefully we will get it so we can get round a bit quicker. 

We’ve gained quite a lot on Tonnerre overnight – if the wind stays as it is we’ll be gaining a lot we’ll still be in fifth maybe fourth.    

Thursday 26th August 12:10

Luke McCarthy - BKA Head Coach

Positon - Heading 0245 off Muckle Flugga, 60.25.53 N,00.07.17 W

The mood is a lot better today on JMII, it was a pretty long slog up the North Sea in about 20-25 to about 35 knots of wind so pretty cold and wet and miserable all the way up there. Today the wind has calmed down a bit and we’re now down to a full mainsail rather than the 2 reefs which is what we’ve had throughout most of the North Sea. A little bit of Scottish sunshine has come out today so everyone is a bit more back in the mood for it, now the majority of this slog in the North Sea is over and we’re hopefully now just 3 or 4 hours away from rounding the NW corner of the course.

We’ve come up with some alternative names for the Muckles Flugger (the rock which marks the most NW corner of the course) but we can’t really share those with you! They’ve been trying to find the most appropriate song to recite as we round but I’m not sure where we’ve got to with that.

Nothing major planned I don’t think as we round just excessive relief really that it’s downhill, or at least it feels a bit more like that and certainly from a wind point of view we’ll be going a little bit more downwind than we’ve had, and obviously generally going closer to home rather than way up north.

We’re not really sure exactly where the other boats are but I think we’ve been a bit further out east, a bit too far east really, other than that we’ve been pretty much hard on the wind since changing course.

It’s been pretty cold and wet and we’ve had quite a few waves over the boat so everything is completely soaked on deck and there’s quite a lot of water ending up down below through sails coming up and down and people coming up and down. We’ve ended up sailing with the wash boards in the companion way to stop so much water coming down the hatch….

Tuesday 24th August 23:00

Luke McCarthy - BKA Head Coach

Position: Heading 0445 off Lowerstoft, 55.54.10 N, 02.19.40 E 

So, a windy and wet first day of the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland race. The whole race has been spent with at least one reef in the main as winds have been between 20 and low-30s knots. We are currently (0445) reaching off Lowestoft with a double reefed main and number 4 jib in around 25-knots of wind.

While this makes for a somewhat damp trip, it does mean that we are going directly at the most northerly point of the course, Muckle Flugga, at some pace, even if this is still some 500 miles away!  

After so long preparing for the race and so much time being spent preparing the boat, it was a great relief to actually start the race fro the BKA sailors! Before the start we talked about ensuring that we focussed on the sailing as much as possible, something which has been pretty successful so far.  

Life on board is beginning to settle down into the routine of offshore sailing, with periods spent on watch sailing the boat, on standby looking after the boat/crew and off watch, attempting to get some sleep in a bunk! Each of these last 3 hours in the day, and two hours at night. Whilst in theory this means you get 8 hours sleep per day, the reality is quite different - by the time you get out of your wet weather gear and into your bunk you lose 10 minutes, and you get woken 15 minutes before the start of your watch to get dressed again. Plus, when conditions are like they have been so far, it is hard to even sleep at all with the boat moving around violently and the noise of winches turning to constantly trim sails.

Sunday 22nd August 22:30

Luke McCarthy - BKA Head Coach

After nearly a year in the planning, the BKA's RORC Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race challenge starts tomorrow afternoon.

Today was spent finishing a lot of little last minute jobs and loading the seemingly endless supplies needed for 14 people for around 10 days. This includes 16 sails, 12 large dry bags of freeze dried food, 3 large bags of spares, people's personal kit (which must fit inside a 25 litre dry bag), 100 litres of fuel, 120 litres of water...

There was some discussion as to how much toilet roll to take and, to save space and weight, everyone is now rationed as to how many sheets they can use!The big news of today is that the direction of the race has been changed so that we are now going anti-clockwise.

This is because of a large low pressure system developing in the Atlantic which would have likely led to 40-50 knot northerly winds for the trip up the west coast of Ireland.

This means that we have a quick start to the race, with windy downwind conditions down to Dover, followed by a fast reach up the east coast.A huge amount of work has gone into getting the boat to the startline, which is a massive achievement for this young crew.

Huge credit must go to Chris Noble and Phil Miller especially for getting us this far. The attention must now switch to actually sailing the boat and racing hard, especially with the forecast windy conditions early in the race.