Another great night for both our yachts in the Round Britain & Ireland Race.
Visit Malta Puma has taken another yacht on the water (Beluga) and although she is still in the penultimate position on the leader board the psychological advantage this have given them will be huge!! So that’s 3 scalps taken. And Cheeki Rafini is the next target. She is lying ahead of them in Class 1, so this is the one they really, really, want to overhaul. Cheeki is also a Sailing School yacht, run by our friends and neighbours Stormforce Coaching so this makes it all the more an interesting prospect…they certainly have the bit between their teeth now!
As I sit here typing, the weather has turned beautiful for a Bank Holiday Monday (what a surprise!) sun ny with a stiff breeze. But out on the water, the gale force winds of only just 24 hours ago have dissipated and now the remainder of the fleet are left with only a slight breeze with no significant wind forecast for at least the next 3 days. This means that tactics will be even more important from now on. From the tracker, you can see that some of the yachts have decided to gybe east, and try and get better win a little further inland. I believe that the wind is going to come a little more from the West so British Soldier is in the best position in Class as well as Visit Malta Puma at the moment. Encore and Playing Around gybed East last night and have made good progress but it will be interesting to see when they gybe back and also if the wind fills in as expected from the west…..it’s really like a big game of chess!!
Playing Around are trying everything they can to claw back some of the miles from Encore, and British Soldier. Peter’s blog this morning explains how they have gone from survival mode 24 hours ago back to full on –inshore’ racing mode, which means they are looking for every bit of breeze on the water and trimming for their lives. This tactic worked before rounding MF, when they took more than 10 miles off Encore, so they are hoping that 100% concentration coupled with good tactics will reap rewards sooner rather than later.
After reading Philippe’s blog from yesterday, you may have picked up that Puma responded to a distress call from Beluga and headed towards their last known position – this was amidst the horrible conditions at the top of the British Isles. The distress ended up being a false alarm after Beluga has electrical problems, but it is comforting to know that Puma as well as the 3 other closest yachts immediately went to render assistance. When the yachts were returning from Cork Week back in July, our yachts were involved in the rescue of a woman who had gone overboard, at night, in severe weather in the Irish Sea. Prue, who is also a very good friend of ours, was eventually located, picked up by the emergency Sea rescue helicopter and is none the worse for her ordeal. When she read Philippe’s blog from yesterday she sent us a message – “Just read Philippe and Pete's last RBI blog entry- they and Puma are hence forth known as the fifth emergency service!”.
Camaraderie amongst sailors is very strong and when any vessel is in distress, any thought about positions in races or making up mileage is instantly forgotten, and preservation of life is the only thing that matters. Our yachts all carry EPIRBS (Emergency Positions Indicator Radio Beacons) which work with a GPS chip inside and when manually set off, send a message via satellite to the MRCC (Coastguard) in Falmouth to alert them that there is a problem on a vessel. These Epirbs are only set off if there is danger of loss of life or a vessel is sinking. They are compulsory for any yacht racing in events such as the Round Britain Race, and our yachts carry them as standard for any event they compete in. It is only in big events such as this race that tracking facilities are available, it is not normal and they are not used for search and rescue.
