After over 24 hours gone in the Sevenstar Round Britain & Ireland Race, there is no slowing down for the yachts and the race has became even more interesting tactically. The 2 Volvo 70 yachts are now past Aberdeen and are still averaging incredible speeds. The wind in now turning more northerly for the front runners which means that their speeds will now start to drop as they harden up on the wind. Further south, the fleet are still relatively bunched up and most must be sailing within sight of other race yachts, making the crews work that little bit harder to try and find a way past their closest rivals.
News from the fleet are the unfortunate retirements of our friends on Relentless of Incisor after breaking their boom and also of Fair Do’s, who have a steering problem. This only goes to reinforce the fact that this race is no sprint – it is about looking after your yacht, looking after the crew and finding that optimum performance whilst being conservative when necessary, balancing the need for speed against actually finishing the race. During prolonged periods of fast downwind sailing, the conditions take an enormous toll on equipment, and crews have to be ever vigilant to spot the early tell tale signs of rope chafe, potential sail damage or equipment failure. Those crews who are prudent, and act quickly will be those still left standing at the end of the race.
During the day, Visit Malta Puma and Playing Around Logic have continued to consolidate their positions at the top of their respective classes, and after a 24 hour run of 225 miles, Philippe skipper of Puma has every right to be very proud of the yacht and his team, and that is an amazing feat for a little 38 foot school boat. Congratulations also must go to Peter Robson, Skipper of Playing Around as he covered just over 220 miles over the same period – just awesome!! Visit Malta Puma are still just ahead of the Army team on British Soldier by 3.5 miles, and are holding 6th place in the race overall. Playing Around are leading Class 2, and are lying 7th overall, just behind Puma. To have 2 school yachts in the top 10 of this very gruelling race is a fantastic achievement, so keep it up everyone!!
On board our yachts, most thing come down to numbers. How many miles to go, how many miles ahead or behind other yachts, how fast are they sailing, what speed is the wind blowing, from what direction etc etc. Everything taken onboard for the race has been counted out meticulously to make sure there is enough but not too much. Weight is always a big issue and a heavy yacht is not a quick yacht so each of the teams have only been allowed to take the minimum of clothes, there are no showers, and even the loo roll has been counted out to precision. Puma for example have decided that they won’t use more than 8 sheets per person per day, so after working out how many rolls that was, is how many they have taken. Even baby wipes and toothpaste have been rationed.
Food tonight on board is Home-made Chicken tagine for Playing Around and Chicken Cacciatore for Puma. After today, Puma go onto boil-in-the bag rations whilst Playing Around have 2 more days of fresh food before they succumb to the same.
Weather conditions overnight are forecast to abate slightly with the wind turning more northerly and with less velocity. This means that Jib tops will be packed away and headsails brought out for what will most probably be a beat up to the North coast of Scotland.
Allie Smith
