Needles to St Cats in 35 minutes

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

The most stressful moment of the whole day is the build-up to the start. The nearest boat to us size and performance-wise is the 60ft trimaran Rexona Men and a majority of the boats limbering up are much smaller cruiser-racer monohulls. Thankfully, the coolest man in the world seems to have a sixth sense in his ability to weave the mega-cat through such a flotilla.

We hit the start line midway along and a little late. Brian's brief to us is to survive and not necessarily win, the start. Alarmingly as we tack the boat on to port to go across to the mainland shore, she comes to a virtual stand still. Bouncing around centre trampoline expert cat sailor Paul Larsen calls the shots with the tacks. On our part there is distinct room for improvement. A few months in the gym would be a good start.

Meanwhile our heads turn to see our three-hulled competition Rexona Men powering down the Solent on one hull, the tip of the daggerboard in her central hull almost showing. They seem to be a lot better at going upwind than us, but their race is sadly curtailed when they run over Lepe Spit, damage the bottom of their daggerboard and have to about turn to Cowes.

It takes around 20 tacks to get us out of the Solent. On board a 110ft cat, the Solent, you realise, is a very small place. The process is very start-stop. We scream along, tack, stop, go through the wind, pick up speed as we trim on. Meanwhile Thompson does a jog/bounce across the trampoline to get to the wheel in the new weather cockpit. By 0920 we are level with Yarmouth, 10 minutes later we are negotiating Hurst Narrows, and at 0950 we round the Needles. By this time we have done a horizon job on the competition.

Apart from the grinding, the trip up to the Needles has been relatively painless despite being upwind. Rounding the Needles and cracking off the boat comes to life. As sheets are eased you have to hang on or be thrown backwards by the acceleration. Boat speed soars to 27 knots (in 18-19 knots of true wind). Were it not for the B&G instruments, the only way you would guess your speed is by the powerful rush of apparent wind. Although the boat occasionally lifts its weather hull as a gust strikes, the motion of the boat gives you no indication of speed. Oddly as the weather hull lifts, you can feel the boat take on a bow down trim. But it is grins all round for the crew.

Passing the Needles light