Skimming around Britain on a kitesurfer
From puffins to plastic, this 103-day voyage proved to be a real eye-opener
Kitesurfing duo Stew Edge and Islay Symonette have become the first people to kitesurf around Britain. The keen sailors chose to swap sails for foils in order to raise funds for the Armada Trust and the Marine Conservation Society. They started their circumnavigation at Haile Sand Fort on the Humber estuary in Hull, and finished 103 days later on 12 August.
Travelling an average of 20-30 miles per day in a clockwise direction, they covered 2,440 miles in total (1,657 miles over the ground) with the assistance of a 45ft support boat skippered by Joe McIvor.
Stew, who has also climbed Everest and kited and skied across Antarctica, found the circumnavigation the biggest logistical challenge to date.
“Anyone who knows the British coastline, with its huge tides and currents, rocky headlands and shore breaks, will understand how tough it is,” he said. “Added to that is the fact you can’t kite in less than 10 knots of wind.”
Logistics proved particularly challenging crossing the Pentland Firth in Scotland – which they had to tackle on neap tides, something that only occurs once in a fortnight.
“We chose a really flat day, but even then, looking at all the eddies and swirls I thought we must be the only people mad enough to have done it on a kitesurfer.”
Stew and partner Islay, a kitesurf and sailing instructor, were supported by the 1974 Nelson Mentor, which they bought and overhauled themselves.
“That was a big part of the trip for me,” said Stew. “Mentor was fast enough to keep up with us in any weather, but hadn’t done a serious journey in 15 years. We had a few gremlins – such as diesel bug and a worn-out fuel lift pump – but we fixed her en-route. Restoring a grand old lady to her former glory was all part of the fun. She just needed to be sailed.”
Towed behind Mentor was a small RIB, crewed by Oscar Uribe and then Jeremy Pleydell-Bouverie. The team used this for launching and recovering the kiteboards, and provisioning at sea. The pair were equipped with wetsuits, water packs, PLBs and helmets with Bluetooth headsets so they could communicate with each other. For back-up, they also carried VHF radios with speakers attached to the shoulder of their buoyancy aids.
Their kites were equipped with depowering straps, quick releases and safety harnesses, and the boards – known as foilboards – had a hydrofoil fin on the bottom, allowing them to fly above the water, even in low-wind conditions. Each day involved extensive passage planning, looking at the wind and tides, and locating safe landing spots. After contacting the Coastguard with their passage plan (being so far offshore they didn’t want people worrying they were in distress) they were on the water by 0830 each day, and would kitesurf until the wind died, the tide changed or the light faded. Often they’d reach their intended destination, though other times they’d fall short and have to be motored back to the same place the next day – even if several hours away.
The long way round
While choosing the shortest distance between landfall, they also had to bear in mind the wind direction. As with sailing boats, kitesurfers can’t head straight into the wind as there would be no pressure in the kite. However, they can’t travel directly downwind either, meaning ‘distance kited’ was always longer than distance travelled.
On days when there was no wind the team did beach cleans, picking up an estimated 16,000 pieces of litter!
“We logged it all,’ says Stew. ‘I’d say a quarter of it was old polypropylene fishing rope. There were plastic bottles and caps, fish crates and even a toilet seat!”
On another windless day they took the RIB to the Needles and touched them.
“It was so incredibly calm. There’s probably only one day a year you could get so close to those beautiful cliffs. It was amazing,” said Stew.
There were many other highpoints in the trip, including an anchorage off Skomer – where they were surrounded by thousands of puffins and razorbills – and the crystal clear waters of the Isles of Scilly.
Having raised almost £10,000 for charity, Stew and Islay are now recovering for a few weeks before heading back to their day jobs in construction and finance. However, Stew says it won’t be too long before they’re planning their next challenge.
■ Find details of their voyage visit kitebritain.com
‘Looking at the eddies and swirls I thought we must be mad’