Boat speed: 38 knots

Chris Tibbs' pulse has finally recovered enough to recount his experience racing PlayStation round the island

Having only limited experience of multihulls, but as a meteorologist with a lifetime of sailing in the Solent, I had been asked to sail aboard Steve Fossett's PlayStationfor an attempt on the Cowes-St Malo record. Because of the conditions this was aborted, but the next day Steve decided that PlayStation would make an attempt on the round the island record.
Friday, 9 November turned out to be a special day in the Solent. It started with a cold northerly wind of 20-25 knots and increased a little and veered a very important 10 degrees to the east.

The previous day's experience of crashing into big seas off the Needles in 35+ knots of wind had not dampened my enthusiasm for the boat and I felt it was a great privilege to be invited to sail on this extraordinary craft.

The St Malo attempt had been an eye opener as to how unruly these giant cats can be. They leap off waves and the movement between the hulls is clearly visible, although it did not seem to concern the more experienced crew on board. So it was still with some trepidation that we cast of and headed out into the Solent.

For a sailor used to quite large monohulls everything about PlayStation seemed huge: 125 feet long by 60 feet wide - 2.7 times the size of a tennis court, manoeuvring the beast requires a skill that is completely different from a monohull.

Getting off the dock alone seemed a momentous task. Not only will these large multihulls not carry their momentum, but with long straight sides the option of springing away from the dock is limited. Relying on tugs is one way - and one that is often used - but that morning as the time ticked away Ben Wright, the boat captain, decided to show his skill.

Ben manoeuvred us away from the wall in Empress Dock and turned around under power - one advantage of having twin engines with props 60ft apart is that it possible to turn in your own boat length.



150 feet of mast and almost 60ft of boom (this must be one of the longest booms in the world) requires the whole crew to take part in hoisting the mainsail. No wonder this boat is set up to race across oceans as hoisting the main is a backbreaking and slow job. The control of the sail as the main goes up and down is by lazyjacks, which do their best to snag each batten end and reefing block. Thankfully, as I was on the grinder (one of 7 crew winching), a call for one reef was made.

Although PlayStation is certainly strong, its only weak point the crew told me was the mainsail. After PlayStation's Cuben fibre sails broke in The Race, they have reverted to their original main and this is coming to the end of its useful life, particularly as it was the sail used on their recent transatlantic record.

Getting the sail plan correct at the beginning proved particularly important, as not only are sail changes costly in time, but more importantly space to manoeuvre on a boat such as PlayStation is very limited in the Solent.