Crews ready themselves for Round Britain & Ireland Race test
Professional and amateur crews are lining up for one of the toughest tests in modern sailing, the non-stop Sevenstar Round Britain & Ireland Race.
The Royal Ocean Racing Club’s famously gruelling 1,800-miler starts from Cowes on 7 August, with IMOCAs, MOD70s, grand prix yachts and a record 15 double-handed crews which include one father-daughter team.
Roughly three times longer than the Rolex Fastnet Race, the course sends the competing teams around myriad headlands with the accompanying tidal strategies making navigation and tactics non-stop. Coupled with the notorious British and Irish weather, the Sevenstar Round Britain & Ireland Race is arguably the toughest pro-am race in the world. At least half of each boat’s crew must have completed a minimum of 500 miles of off shore racing within 18 months of the race start, including the skipper, to qualify.
“This is not a race like any other in the RORC Programme,” said RORC Racing Manager Chris Stone. “It is a very tough race in remote locations with a lot of navigational work required. Ultimately the qualification process combined with the crew working together will result in success for the teams. This is not a race to put a crew together at short notice, it is a race for a well-seasoned and well-practiced team.”
The race is run every four years, with the overall winner decided by IRC time correction. Antoine Magre, who was on 2018’s winning boat, Pata Negra, and will be racing this year on Class40 Palanad 3, said: “It is a very fast and a very harsh race; that is the attraction. You know you are going to have storms to deal with and it can be very wild and hostile. It is a complete race in terms of seamanship skills.”
Will Naylor will skipper the British Army Sailing Association’s Sun Fast 3600 Fujitsu, his fourth time competing. He said: “There is no better sailing test of the military skills of leadership and teamwork. Getting round in one piece is down to the crew.”
Since the double-handed class for the race was introduced 12 years ago, 25 teams have started, but only nine have finished. This year Dee Caffari and Shirley Robertson are attracting the headlines as they join forces on a brand new Sun Fast 3300, RockIT.
As well as her six circumnavigations including the Vendée Globe, Dee set the RB&I Women’s Monohull Course Record as skipper of IMOCA Aviva in 2009 and then broke that record as part of Sam Davies’s crew on the VO65, Team SCA, in 2014, finishing in just under five days.
She said: “Assuming a traditional clockwise direction, the first part is really good sailing in open water; past the Fastnet and onto the west coast of Ireland, that’s the enjoyable part, but then you get the stress.
“You are getting more tired when you reach the top of the course, Muckle Flugga. It is further north than Cape Horn is south and the two rocky outcrops are amazingly very similar.
“After that you come down the North Sea, scattered with oil rigs, wind farms, sand banks and shipping lanes. The pressure is really on when you are really tired, and probably a bit frustrated. It is no wonder that everyone finishes really broken. This race is all about management at multiple levels: management of yourself, your teammate and the boat.”
Two-times Olympic medalist Shirley said: “This race has a di erent kind of intensity – racing for 2,000 miles is new to me. It is a long time, 24-7 with two people in a very small boat.
“We are going to have to pace ourselves, prioritise rest and really look after each other. We need to be well prepped, think about everything in advance and have real confidence in the boat.”
Perhaps the most remarkable entry is father and daughter crew Jim and Ellie Driver, racing the Sun Fast 3300 Chilli Pepper, having placed 16th in the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race.
Ellie is 20, studying Naval Engineering at Southampton University. She said: “Me and my dad get along really well and we have di erent skill sets and when we bring them together, we understand what each other needs.
“This has let us work out how to best sail the boat, it is a really special experience, but mum does have a few fits when we go off shore.”
Other double-handed competitors to watch include veteran Gavin Howe sailing with Lerwick RNLI lifeboat crew Maggie Adamson, Richard Palmer and Jeremy Waitt on the much-travelled JPK 10.10 Jangada (left), who were seventh in the recent RORC Transatlantic Race, as well as Rob Craigie and Deb Fish, who have raced together for seven years and have 20 Rolex Fastnet Races between them.
The race is separate to the Royal Western Yacht Club’s Round Britain and Ireland Yacht Race, which started on 29 May and which features stopovers.
See next issue for a full interview with Dee
Caffari and Shirley Robertson. roundbritainandireland.rorc.org