Day in the Life Blog: Round the Island Race

It was a fantastic day on Saturday 1st July, sailing with the Army onboard Fujitsu British Soldier in the Round the Island race.

A very early start to be at Hamble for 06:00 and on the water for 06:30. We sailed over to the start area off of Cowes, joining about 1000 boats for the race around the Isle of Wight. The weather was a bit cloudy, and the winds were fresh at around 20 knots (23 mph). Our start was at 08:00 – we were sailing in Class 1, but started with the big maxi yachts in Class 0 too.

The first leg was up to the needles which was into the wind so we had to zig zag between the Isle of Wight and the mainland, trying to keep out of the main channel to avoid the adverse tides. The Needles was spectacular with some boats ahead, and the mass of boats behind us. A wide berth was needed to avoid some hidden hazards. Just as we arrived at the Needles there was a rain storm with a squall under it, which caused some carnage in the fleet and a number of retirements. The lifeboat was sent out as one boat capsized 180 degrees, and others lost spinnakers.

Around the Needles we turned more SE towards St. Catherine’s point, and when the wind dropped sufficiently from the squall we put our spinnaker up and the speeds regularly hit 16 knots (18.5mph). Just after St. Catherine’s point we decided to lower the spinnaker and put the jib back up. Simon went forward to raise the sail and was mid hoist when we hit a sustained speed increase, and recorded the all-time fastest speed seen onboard Fujitsu British Soldier – 22.2 knots (25.5 mph). Unfortunately for me, the speed caused us to catch the next wave and the front of the boat cut into it, completely soaking me, head to foot!

After St. Catherine's, it was on to Bembridge. Part of that leg was also under spinnaker, and we maintained some excellent speed. Unfortunately, one of the ropes slipped out of the winch (not something I have seen before) and the spinnaker pole slammed into the forestay (this keeps up the mast). We recovered the situation and reset the big spinnaker again, but clearly the impact on the metal forestay had weakened the carbon fibre pole as it snapped in two under the load. This was a very hairy moment as the spinnaker was out of control and the boat was heeling over massively. The army squad know what they are doing though, and we managed to recover the spinnaker without damage and continue. We passed a catamaran which had also turned completely over! Around the bouy at Bembridge and then back into the wind to pass the channel forts. This last leg from Bembridge back to Cowes was our best relative to the opposition, with us gaining about 6 places on our class rivals. We kept near the shore to keep out of the tide (we were against the tide for the whole trip) and overtook the Royal Navy yacht towards the end.

The race took us 8 hours and 40 minutes. It is run as a handicap with lots of classes and sub-races. For Class 1 we came 26th out of around 76 finishers, beating the Royal Navy boat, and overall we were 160th out of 855 finishers (the last finisher came in at 22:38)!. All things considered, this was an excellent result and a credit to all involved. All 4 of the Fujitsu people on the boat (Nick Bowler, Matt Centa, Tina Clapp and Simon Robinson) were very active with all aspects of the boat during the race, including steering the yacht for extended periods.

Massive thanks to the Army sailing team who were wonderful, and made the day so enjoyable. Sailing on the Fujitsu sponsored yacht is a fantastic experience which you should all experience if you can.