Daily log from Flair II in the Shetland Round Britain & Ireland race 2006

Date: 07/07/2006

Day 27 - Final Report

“Sorry we didn’t manage to send off our final report on Friday. To be honest – a couple of nights with little or no sleep, very little food – followed by a few pints in the bar of the Royal Weston Yacht Club after the finish – just wiped us out!

The last day was fairly uneventful and we eventually crossed the finish line in Plymouth on Friday at around 2:30pm. Our friends on Malkin had crossed the line less than an hour ahead of us. Honours are even however in that Flair took 2nd place overall on handicap just 15 minutes behind of Oojah and only 13 minutes ahead of Malkin.

So that’s it then! Back to a pile of paper and a bulging inbox – perhaps we should have kept on going for a second time around.

We have lots of personal thank-yous to make on our return. A big thank-you to Clydesdale Bank of their support in getting us to the start time. An even bigger thank-you to everyone who has made a donation to CLIC – we have raised over £7,000 – a great effort.

Will we be doing the Race again in four years time? I think if you asked Anna and Jill our wives just now – there would be a very firm and short answer – but four years is a long time………..

Goodbye from William, Malcolm and Flair!“

WILLIAM & MALCOLM

Date: 06/07/2006

Day 26

“Last night saw our first really thick fog. The visibility was less than 50 yards and we had a major scare when a Brittany Ferries ship came out of the fog at speed and disappeared just as quickly.

As expected, we have lost touch with ‘Malkin’. Every sail we see we expect it to be them. All we can do now is sail our own race as fast as possible.

At the moment, we are criss-crossing the direct line for Start Point/Plymouth because, with the wind from the south west, we cannot (as usual!) sail a direct course. It looks like this wind will form the pattern for the rest of the race. It is too early yet to say when we expect to arrive in Plymouth, but we are definitely hoping to step off Flair sometime tomorrow.

Final report Friday! “

WILLIAM & MALCOLM

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Date: 06/07/2006

Day 25

“The last 24 hours have been some of the most frustrating of the race. The route from the Thames Estuary around into the English Channel means cutting inside the Goodwin Sandbanks alongside Ramsgate. This we did in the early evening yesterday with about 3 knots of tide running against us. This was not the time for the wind to drop – but of course, it did completely. We were starting to go backwards! Our only option was to kedge – which means putting down an anchor and waiting of the tide to turn or the wind to come up. After several hours, we managed to get underway again and make our way around the corner to Dover. During that night and the early morning, the wind could best be described as variable – in other words it came form a different direction every few minutes or so. We lost count of the number of times we changed sail direction last night. It was not helped by the fact that we had to cross the entrance to Dover Harbour and even in the early hours there were plenty of high-speed ferries criss-crossing our path without a moment’s consideration for a small sailing boat that was going around in circles at the time.

The only relief was the sight of a quite amazing electrical storm which came across the Channel from France. We were just starting to get concerned about lightening strikes but fortunately, the storm moved away.

At first light this morning, we were keeping a look out for ‘Malkin’ but we didn’t sight her until about 7am – unfortunately one mile ahead of you.

We have been racing all day against her and we now seem to have pulled out about a two-mile lead over her. We have however begun to wonder if some of the slower boats such as ‘Tusitala’ may now have a chance of winning the leg if they do not experience the same difficult weather conditions. This is not something under our control however and all we can do is try to come in before ‘Malkin’.

In contrast to last night the rest of the sailing today has been great – sunny skies and a steady 10 knot breeze. We’ve also been trying to catch up on some sleep since the last two nights have seen precious little, and we doubt tonight will be any different.

Update tomorrow. “

WILLIAM & MALCOLM

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Date: 04/07/2006

Day 24

“We crossed the start line in Lowestoft on time in the early hours at 01:38am today. The winds were very light all night, which meant neither of us was able to get any sleep. When dawn came, we kept a look out for ‘Malkin’ who had left Lowestoft some one hour and eight minutes before us. We eventually sighted her late in the morning and at the time of sending this report we are very close to her, about 250 yards ahead. If the winds get any lighter, we have agreed with ‘Malkin’ to raft up and have a beer together.

The only times for concern in the leg so far has been the difficulty in finding a way around all the commercial shipping in the Thames Estuary, at times it has been like trying to cross the M25 on foot.

The weather has suddenly become very warm and for the first time in the entire race, we have been able to swap our thermal suits for shorts and t-shirt. This was also the occasion for a surprising discovery. William has had his big toenail painted in a very fetching tone of pink nail varnish. He tells me it was a good luck token from his wife, Anna – but I am not so sure…

With ‘Malkin’ so close, the race is getting very interesting despite the light winds. It will be fascinating to see were both boats are tomorrow morning when we should both have gone through the Dover straights and into the Channel.

More tomorrow! “

WILLIAM & MALCOLM

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Date: 03/07/2006

Day 23

“The rest of the leg down the North Sea passed without mishap and we made the tactical decision to stay outside of the sandbanks on our approach to Lowestoft. After four long days, we eventually crossed the finish line at 01:38am on Sunday morning. The trickiest part of the whole leg was avoiding the shallow water and finding the entrance to Lowestoft Harbour in the early hours. Having not seen another competitor since the previous Tuesday, whom should we find tying up in the marina ahead of us but ‘Malkin’ who had arrived only about one hour before us! We shared a beer with the crew and swapped stories. Certainly, it looked as though this had been Flair’s leg, and the course we had taken seemed to have allowed us to make up most of the time we had lost to ‘Malkin’ when they left Barra early after the storm.

At the time of sending this report, we think Flair is first in class on this leg and second overall in Class 3 – only twenty minutes behind ‘Malkin’, so everything to play for on the last hop down the Channel. It looks as though anyone of three boats is able to win the class – Oojah, Malkin or Flair. At midday today, Tusitala had still not crossed the finish line in Lowestoft - so it looks as though she will be out of the reckoning.

Oojah will leave first this evening and then Malkin and ourselves in the early hours. A lot will depend on the wind – or rather lack of it – at the time we start.

One thing that might slow us down is the extra weight we have taken on board in the shape of a large Sainsbury’s delivery of groceries. A big thank you to those at Michelmores for organising this – we shall certainly eat well on the last leg.

The trip to Plymouth is shaping up to be a slow, light winded affair and we will need to stay focused to get every fraction of boat speed from Flair. Even the light winds appear to have dangers – we have just heard that Dick Kloopmans on board Jager has fallen down the hatch of his boat and his race is now over, having put into Dover to receive medical attention – we wish him well.

We are really pleased to learn that we are now past the £5,000 mark on money raised for CLIC. Thanks to everyone who has helped to get us there. If you haven’t done so, log onto www.flair2com and immediately make a donation.

Next report tomorrow when hopefully we will have safely crossed the busy Thames Estuary and turned the corner towards Plymouth and home! “

WILLIAM & MALCOLM

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Date: 30/06/2006

Day 20

“Wednesday night saw us make slow progress south against the wind. We put in a tack towards Scotland in anticipation of a change in wind direction. We then made anther change of course early on Thursday morning to set us on a route diagonally across the North Sea towards Scandinavia to pick up the expected easterly winds. The easterly winds duly arrived on Friday morning and we are now sailing a direct course to Lowestoft – expected time of arrival is Saturday night.

It is difficult to appreciate just how many oil and gas rigs there are in the North Sea until you see them all lit up at night with their gas regulators burning off the excess gas high above the rig. Each of the rigs or cluster of rigs has its own protection vessel which is the size of a large ocean going trawler and very fast. It patrols around the rig 24 / 7 and makes sure that nobody gets within the 500m exclusion zone. There are always suspicious of yachtsmen of trying to race in straight lines without having to alter course for the rigs. We have had a couple of close encounters over the last two nights. The first involved the support vessel to the Kittiwake gas rig calling us up on the radio and pointing out to us that if we did not alter course within the next 300m we would become entangled in the mooring lines which are used for the ship loading gas from the rig. Needless to say, we altered course pretty quickly and thanked them for looking out for us. The second involved another support vessel who seemed to want us to stay much further away from the exclusion zone – we certainly did not want to alter course. We then had about 60 minutes of standoff when the vessel would edge up to us in the hope of getting us to alter course. We stood our ground and at one stage could just about reach across and touch the crew on the other boat. Eventually they let us past and we were on our way with hearts beating a little quicker and dry mouths.

Life on board Flair has now settled down into a rhythm, during the day we have no set watch system we are generally on deck helming or looking after sail trim. Even if we wanted to go below there is only about two square feet of floor to sit down. Quite often, we will just enjoy some personal quiet time to ourselves on deck. During the night we operate a two-hour watch system with the person not on watch sleeping fully clothed in what we call ‘the wet bunk’ just in case he is needed urgently.

We try to eat one hot meal together in the evening. Meals for the rest of the day are help yourself – mainly fruit, cheese, ham and bread. Treats tend to be something with chocolate on it! We have no alcohol on board (other than a bottle of Champagne kindly donated by Clydesdale in Lerwick). We try to stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water from plastic cycle bottles which are kept full and clipped onto the boat. In Shetland, we relented and bought ourselves some cans of Coke.

We are about to have a flapjack crisis since there are only a few bits left. I know they will disappear on William’s watch tonight and I bet he won’t own up!

We have no running water on board – the bottled water is for drinking and cooking. This means washing ourselves and the dishes is something of a challenge – for us we tend to wait until the next stopover, but washing the dishes is an art form, it involves sticking your head under the guard rail on the side of the boat nearest to the water. You balance like that and then time your washing-up to coincide with the waves going past the boat – we have both found ourselves head first in the water clinging onto the boat and the curry pan for dear life.

You can see there is not much to do at the moment from the length of this report. We will update you on Monday when we are in Lowestoft. In the meantime, have a great weekend. “

WILLIAM & MALCOLM

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Date: 28/06/2006

Day 18

“Lerwick was a great stopover. Friendly people who made us all feel very welcome. It is a place where we would both like to spend some more time.

Although we enjoyed our stay in Lerwick, once your time to start racing again gets close all you want to do is to get back into race mode. We therefore spent a couple of frustrating hours yesterday evening counting down to our start time.

We crossed the line off the Lerwick Boating Club right on our start time of 9:25pm. A brisk westerly wind quickly took us away from Lerwick down Bressay Sound. Soon all we could see of the Shetland Islands was the lighthouse on Sunburgh Head at the southern tip of the Island.

Because we have had a light but steady wind combined with calm seas, we have been able to use the auto-helm since we left Lerwick. This helps us steer an accurate course – allowing us to concentrate on trimming the sails to gain maximum boat speed.

As forecast, the wind today has unfortunately steadily swung around to the south – just the direction we want to go. Our weather data suggests we should sail to the east of the direct line to Lowestoft in the hope we will be able to pick up a favourable wind shift later in the week which will put us on a direct course from Lowestoft.

In the meantime, we are making the most of the easy conditions and catching up on sleep and even doing a bit of reading. The only excitement so far on this leg has been passing the first of many oil and gas rigs – more of those to negotiate tonight.

Next report will be Friday unless there is anything exciting. “

WILLIAM & MALCOLM

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Date: 26/06/2006

Day 16

After we had cleared the light airs around St Kilda the wind picked up from the North/North West. At last the wind allowed us to sail in the direction we wanted to go. We were able to set a course direct to Muckle Flugga – the top of the Shetland Islands, leaving the Island of Sula Sgeir and Rona to our right. With the wind speed at around 20 knots it made for fast, exciting sailing all the way to Shetland – although very wet.

Because the wind has been from the north it has been surprisingly cold, we have both been wearing two layers of thermals, midlayer salopettes and jackets and our outer layers – not to mention gloves boots and hats. To see us one would think we were on an exhibition to the North Pole rather than a sail in June. However, you have to remember that we are on the same latitude now as southern Greenland. Wearing so many clothes does also bring with it other problems. Not least the fact that you need about 30 minutes to undo all your zips when you want a pee – not an easy task in itself when the boat is rocking around at an angle of 45 degrees.

After rounding Muckle Flugga we were confident of a quick run down to Lerwick and hoped to arrive in time for the England match. The weather gods again had other ideas and we eventually drifted across the finish line at 9:25pm.

The welcome in Shetland has been fantastic and the Lerwick Boating Club is looking after our every need – they have even taken away our washing which must be beyond the call of duty!

The local manager of our sponsors, Clydesdale Bank – Alastair and his team has also made us feel very much at home.

We are planning to spend the rest of today drying out ourselves and Flair, then it is time for some rest and relaxation.

Tomorrow will be spent getting the boat ready for a 9:25pm start. Next report Wednesday when we will be heading south and home – yeah!

P.S. We were very sad to miss the unique event on Friday in Lerwick. The summer festival was in full swing on the harbour side with a Ceilidh band playing when 10 killer whales glided into Lerwick harbour and everyone stopped to see them!

WILLIAM & MALCOLM

Date: 23/06/2006

Day 13

Yet again the wind was against us all the way to St Kilda which meant that the journey there took us nearly 24 hours. The island itself is now only home to millions of seabirds and a few spooks who ease drop into our conversations on behalf of HMG. Until the twentieth century, there had been a farming and fishing community there, but from our view of the island in the mist this morning, it did not look at all hospitable. We are now making slow progress north on what will be a long trek up to the top of the Shetland Islands sometime on Monday.

Our only problem at the moment is a lack of fresh food. The shop at Barra had run out because the ferries could not get into port because of the storm. It has sort of put Tesco into perspective!

We are therefore living on freeze-dried food and energy drinks and a strict ration of Jo Cronk’s flapjack and Sue Mumfords fruit cake.

Next report Monday, when hopefully the Shetland Islands will be in our site.

WILLIAM & MALCOLM

Date: 22/06/2006

Day 12

We decided last night to continue the race to Lerwick even though time is against us.

We crossed the start line at Barra this morning at 7:56am heading for Lerwick. We have managed to get around Barra Head where there was a very difficult and confused sea running. We are now heading out towards the Island of St Kilda some 60 miles out into the Atlantic. From there we will be heading north towards the Shetland Islands. Wind and sea are forecast to decrease over the next 24 hours with very little wind in prospect for the leg.

WILLIAM & MALCOLM

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Date: 21/06/2006

Day 11

There is a major storm blowing through Barra at the moment. All we can safely do is sit on the boat and try to make sure Flair stays attached to her mooring. That is not as simple as it sounds. Due to the force of the wind and the waves, we have already chaffed through two mooring ropes and we need to keep a constant watch, if we do lose our mooring we will be on the rocks within in minutes.

The yacht “Blue Demon” has again been in trouble and was nearly washed ashore. “Ruffian” has now lost her rudder following the grounding yesterday.

The Barra lifeboat has again been launched to escort the Dutch boat “Vijaya” back to harbour. The boat has suffered a serious knockdown with one of the crew being injured and the boat itself suffering serious structural damage. This is not surprising since the waves out in the Atlantic are reported at over 15 metres.

There are still some twenty race boats sheltered in Barra. The weather is forecast to improve from tomorrow morning and many of the boats are likely to head out then. We will decide tomorrow whether to continue to Lerwick. We must have done something to annoy the weather gods because for the next 3 to 4 days the forecast is for light winds – making for a long sail to Lerwick. Our problem is that we are fast running out of the time we have available to complete the race. We will update tomorrow.

WILLIAM & MALCOLM

Date: 20/06/2006

Day 10

We picked up a mooring in Castlebay yesterday evening and went ashore for a well earned shower and meal. Many of the other crews were very relaxed – but we have been in Castlebay before. There was a southerly gale forecast – just about the worst conditions to be moored in Castlebay. We elected to stay on the boat last night and to make sure we had as much protection between Flair and the boat we were moored against. The wind increased steadily over night and as we are sending this report, we are sitting down below on the boat riding out a full force nine gale.

There is drama going on all around us at the moment. The Barra lifeboat has been launched to escort the boat “Knights Challenge” into the bay. The yacht “Ruffian” has just been blown onto the rocks and the inshore lifeboat has helped them to come off the rocks, it looks as though everyone is safe. Several other yachts are dragging their anchors and one boat “Blue Demon” nearly sliced off Flair’s rudder with her anchor chain.

The weather forecast for the next few days makes for grim reading, two further severe gales are due to come into our sea areas. We are looking at the forecasts carefully but at this stage, it looks quite likely that many of the boats including ourselves will be staying in Barra until the weather improves. We will update everyone further when we have a plan.

WILLIAM & MALCOLM

Date: 20/06/2006

Days 7, 8 & 9

Friday saw us having a gentle sail North West along the coast of Ireland until we reached the western most point and were then able to head north for Barra. Unfortunately, as we were about to turn north the wind died away completely off Bull Rock and we had five hours of calm. Things started to get interesting when we had to get out the oars and row the boat to stop us drifting onto the rocks in the tide.

Fortunately, the wind filled in and we were able to have a fast sail up to the top of Ireland. Once or twice, the boat was on its limit. We managed to rip two of our spinnakers and snapped the spinnaker halyard (the rope which keeps the sail up!). However, we have been able to make repairs as we went along.

Just as we headed north, we were joined by four racing pigeons who were totally exhausted and they settled down on our boat and refused to move for the next 12 hours. We gave them some fresh water and they were quite happy to eat off our hands.

Once again, we became becalmed in a cyclonic patch of weather at the top of Ireland. Eventually the wind filled in from the west and we had a long beat up to Barra with some exciting sailing in 20 – 30 knots of wind.

Having not seen any other boat for most of the four-day trip, we were not too happy to see our friends on “Malkin” cross the line only one hour ahead of us.

We’ve been living off energy drinks and freeze dried fruit and we are looking forward to a shower and a good meal in Barra. We are both tired but generally in good shape. Flair also needs a good tidy up after four days of racing. The sails that we were first using in the light winds were too large to fold away until we stopped, and take up most of the space down below. There has also been quite a lot of water coming in the boat – so anything not in dry bags is now soaked, also because the boat was heeled right over on it’s side for a lot of the time we have had a problem with the sink back filling and flooding the boat. We have been able to sort this out but not before we found the camera and binoculars floating beneath the chart table.

WILLIAM & MALCOLM

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Date: 16/06/2006

Day 6

“Kinsale was a very pleasant stopover; we both would like to have spent a longer stay there. Friendly people – great atmosphere and more restaurants/bars than shops. As the lady at the Yacht Club said – “it is a sleepy little drinking village with a fishing problem…”

We ghosted out of Kinsale with the yacht “Malkin” alongside at 11pm. Another night of light airs and hard work saw us beat into the wind all the way to the Fastnet Rock, which we have just reached, and we are pleased to see “Malkin” someway behind us. Again, more dolphins have greeted us.

From here we turn north up the west coast of Ireland. Although we hope to have time to take in the beautiful scenery, it will be a long run up to Barra with very little to report so the next bulletin will be on Monday when we will hopefully be closing in on Barra. “

WILLIAM & MALCOLM

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Date: 14/06/2006

Dav 4 - Kinsale

“The rest of Tuesday saw us beating across the Irish Sea; we decided to keep to the right of the direct course hoping to pick up a shift in the wind from the North. By 5pm on Tuesday evening, we were beginning to get worried – still no wind shift and our course was not looking the right choice. Fortunately, the shift arrived at about 7pm as we approached the Irish coast just south of Cork. At last, we were able to reach Kinsale on a direct course and begin to enjoy our sailing.

Just as we were settling in to the final run four dolphins jumped high into the air beside us and for about five minutes or so, they escorted us – two either side of the bow – towards Kinsale. A lovely moment!

After 48 hours of racing, we encountered the boat “Malkin” and had a close race into the finish line beating her by only about 60 seconds.

Sadly, our 11pm finish time meant that the bar was closed but the race office had laid on a supply of Guinness – so all was not lost.

Looks like we are second in class – so considering our performance on Sunday – not a bad effort!

The next 48 hours will be recovery and then on to Barra. Again, the forecast is indicating light airs. We will send our next update on Friday. “

WILLIAM & MALCOLM

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Date: 13/06/2006

Day 3

“We eventually left Bishop Rock behind us after a hard beat against the wind at about 5pm yesterday. Last night we worked hard to make up the time we lost on Sunday and with some success. We are now half way across the Irish Sea and have another two competitors in sight. Hopefully we will be able to get on terms with them in another couple of hours.

Unfortunately, the current wind direction means we cannot sail a direct route to Kinsale and our ETA has been put back until sometime tonight – but hopefully before last orders!

After 48 hours of non-stop racing both Flair and the two of us could do with a scrub and tidy up, I am not sure which is winning down below at the moment – the smell of Sunday’s curry or last night’s chilly!“

WILLIAM & MALCOLM

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Date: 12/06/2006

Days 1 & 2

“Thanks to everyone who watched our departure yesterday. The leg out to the Eddystone Lighthouse showed that Flair has boat speed in the right conditions and she more than held her own with some of the larger boats.

Unfortunately, after the Eddystone the race was down wind in a light breeze - just the conditions Flair does not like. Any lead we had soon evaporated. We worked the boat hard through the night but unfortunately found a patchy variable breeze just off the Lizard in the early hours.

Things have improved this morning and we find ourselves in sight of five other boats racing down to the Bishop Rock off Scilly. We will probably head north after Bishop Rock and hopefully pick up a breeze which will take us onto Ireland in time for a well earned pint of Guinness by Tuesday night!“

WILLIAM & MALCOLM

Current global position: Click here

Date: 11/06/2006

Race Day

Race day arrived and the glorious sunshine of the previous week had faded into dull clouds and sea mist – but, to the relief of the crew, there was some win! (Flair performs at her best in strong winds)

The families of William and Malcolm gathered on the pontoon at Queen Anne’s Battery to say farewell and Beverley Bell of CLIC Sargent came along for a surprise visit.

Flair was looking shipshape and our two intrepid sailors shoved off around 1015 hrs to make their way to the start at noon.

Bon voyage, Flair – Good luck Malcolm & William.

PS. If you haven't already dome so, now's the time to make a pledge so go to the denations page and support CLIC Sargent by supporting William & malcolm.

Oh yes! Tell a friend. In fact, tell lots of them!

Date: 25/05/2006

Press interest increases

William and malcolm's voyage in aid of CLIC Sargent is beginning to create a lot of interest.

Here is just one recent article feturing our sailors on Board Flair II with Daviid Bird of sponsors Clydesdale bank with the CLIC Sargent team led by fund-raiser Beverly Bell with some of the charity's dedicated nurses in support.

Date: 24/05/2006

Flairs home on the River Yealm

We will be showing Flair's position as she makes her way round Britain & Ireland and you can view her actual location by clicking on the latest daily log at the end of each bulletin.

Current global position: Click here

Date: 09/05/2006

Lord Mayor Meets Charity Yachtsmen

The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Plymouth, Cllr. Patrick & Mrs. Sally Nicholson visited Queen Anne’s Battery on Monday (May 8th) to visit the crew of Round Britain & Ireland race Challenger, Flair II.

The 33 ft yacht is being sailed by two Devon men, William Mumford and Malcolm Dickinson, in the gruelling race to race funds for the Lord Mayor’s chosen charity CLIC Sargent, the UK’s leading children’s cancer charity.

The Lord Mayor received a copy of the official race programme and was also introduced to CLIC Sargent Fund raisers and nurses who attemded to give support to the campaign.

A dedicated website (www.flair2.com) will plot the course, post daily reports and photographs and provide an easy method for supporters to make pledges and donations.

The initiative has already attracted sponsorship from Clydesdale Bank who are planning a number of events in support of Flair II and CLIC Sargent throughout the year.

Date: 27/04/2006

Bulletin No 1 − April 2006 − Around Again!

Some people may think we are gluttons for punishment after the storms and gales in the last edition of the RB & I four years ago. However we have decided to give it another go.

Last year, we did consider buying a new boat but Flair carried the day in the end. We obviously know the boat well – she has proved herself in the most difficult of conditions and with a revised handicap system for the race for this year may well be competitive on handicap (if not on speed!!)

Flair came out of the water in December and over the winter we have had the boat re-weighed and re-measured which has resulted in a more favourable handicap. We also took the opportunity of rubbing down the hull and applying two new coats of anti-fouling paint.

The boat is now back on her mooring on the River Yealm and we are starting to get both ourselves and Flair “match fit” for the start of the race on Sunday 11th June. We hope to take part in the Plymouth to Falmouth race on Saturday 29th April. In the meantime we are trying to fit in as much short-handed sailing as we can, in between busy family and work schedules.

We have renewed our association with the children’s cancer charity ClicSargent and hope to raise a decent sum of money for them during the race. We have also been very fortunate in securing Clydesdale Bank as our sponsor, who are also backing Clic-Sargent. Their sponsorship has enabled us to order new sails for Flair which are currently being made at Westaway’s sail loft in Ivybridge. Harken have also provided some valuable product support to us, for which we are grateful. This has enabled us to replace some of the boat fittings and in particular the main sheet system which caused so many problems in heavy weather on the last race.

The race this year is being sponsored by The Shetland Tourist Board and has attracted a very good fleet of over 40 boats – including Pete Goss and Paul Larsen – so not much competition then!

You can now access the race website directly by logging on to www.rwyc.org/shetlandrbi.

Further updates to follow. We are hoping to send out daily reports from the boat once the race gets under way.


William Mumford and Malcolm Dickinson

Current global position: Click here