After over 9 months of planning, there are just 11 days to go before the start of the Sevenstar Round Britain & Ireland Race…..
We have 2 very busy skippers at the moment making the last minute preparations to Visit Malta Puma, our Reflex 38 and Playing Around Logic, our Beneteau 40.7.
All the pre-race formalities are nearly over; just an inspection on Monday by the Race Officials to make sure the yachts are fit, capable and ready to race.
This event is the most gruelling in the RORC’s calendar and only comes around once every 4 years. To put it into perspective, it is 3 times the distance of the Rolex Fastnet race at 1,802 n.miles. It is one of the toughest offshore races in the world…….
On our teams we have some crew who have returned to race the route again with us: Jon Barnes on Playing Around Logic raced on our Reflex 38 Jaguar in the 2006 event – it obviously didn’t put him off as he is back for more! Brian Phillips, crewing on Visit Malta Puma, is also taking up the gauntlet again, although after the last running of the event he told everyone it was his last offshore race ever – since then he has with a couple of exceptions, crewed on every RORC race we have entered a yacht in….so much for putting him off!
The route of the race takes the fleet around the British Isles, starting from Cowes, Isle of Wight going Eastward out of the Solent and then leaving all outlying rocks to starboard, until reaching the Isle of Wight again, and finishing on the same line as the start, off the Royal Yacht Squadron. The 2006 running of the event saw both the entries from Sailing Logic fair very well in class 1 (2nd and 4th), but endured nearly 95% of the race in upwind conditions, the spinnakers only coming out of their bags for a 6 hour period at the top of Scotland. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the wind gods will be a little kinder this time around!
There is much to play for in this event as Visit Malta Puma is leading Class 1 overall in the RORC series and must keep the British Army’s yacht, British Soldier at bay to stand a chance of winning the IRC 1 championships overall. British Soldier are currently lying in 2nd place. These 2 yachts raced against each other in this Summer’s Round Ireland Race which saw them trading places all the way round, and in the end saw British Soldier winning the race to the line but Visit Malta Puma winning the class on handicap, which was just brilliant.
Playing Around Logic have already won a RORC Offshore race this year, the Morgan Cup and are itching to get their hands on more silverware. They are currently lying 8th in class overall but this will change when the discards come into play after the Round Britain Race finishes. Two yachts that Playing Around Logic must mark are Cheeki Rafiki and Encore, both also Beneteau 40.7’s and both just ahead of Playing Around in the class results to date. I know that Skipper Peter Robson will have them closely in his sights as he will Visit Malta Puma, and British Soldier.
It is all brewing up to be a fantastic race!!!
