Needles to St Cats in 35 minutes

James Boyd recounts his experience sailing on board Maiden II in the Round the Island Race

Edwards' previous boat, Royal & SunAlliance had a central accommodation pod slung midships between the aft and main crossbeams with a single cockpit aft. Maiden II doesn't have this 'God Pod'. Instead there are twin cockpits, with most sail controls duplicated in each cockpit. This makes for a huge amount of rope. The lazy spinnaker sheet for example is a particularly lengthy piece of cordage as it goes from the weather cockpit, across to a block at the aft end of the leeward cockpit, forward down the leeward hull, round the forestay and all the way back down the weather hull to the clew of the sail, which makes it around 350ft long...

In each cockpit there is a wheel, four sizeable winches, three of which can be driven by two coffee grinders. Working aft the usual role of these are for the mainsheet, the jib sheet, the headsail halyard and finally there is a smaller winch for the traveller. At the front end of each cockpit is a cuddy with a large wrap-around perspex window. These were both lashed up as they had been blown out during her recent transatlantic trip. Further forward in each hull is a daggerboard. The starboard one is currently broken and crewman Paul Larsen explains, has been inverted and is lowered just enough to protect the rudder.

Down below in each hull the main living area is aft of the main crossbeam. In the starboard hull working aft there is a galley forward, a small head on the outboard side by the companionway, bunks and far aft the nav station, lair of Adrienne Cahalan. The port hull layout is much the same, except there is no galley and the nav station is replaced by a 'comms room'.

The weather hull - airborne