Sam Davies diary

Sam recounts her first sailing experience on board her new 110ft catamaran Maiden II

Although the press announced the Maiden II project just one month ago, I can safely say that this has been in the heads of eleven girls since the 18th March 1998, when Royal & SunAlliance was dismasted in the Southern Ocean during our attempt at breaking the non-stop record for sailing around the world and winning the coveted Jules Verne Trophy.

As you may have read a few weeks ago, in February this year Tracy Edwards bought the maxi-cat Club Med and started the ball rolling again to finish what we set out to do in 1998. This latest-generation racing catamaran has been re-named Maiden II and a core team has been established in La Ciotat in the South of France to start sailing. I am part of that crew. I was on board Royal & SunAlliance too.

Since winning The Race, Club Med underwent an extensive refit at Compositeworks in La Ciotat, to ready her for some more record-breaking sailing. When we arrived to take over the boat, she was up on the hard, looking bare, but looking in fine condition. The rig was also on the shore. We have spent the last two weeks going through every system on the boat and mast. We have tested the rigging, checked the electronics and removed logos everywhere - to prepare a big space for a lucky sponsor to benefit from!

The launch date was finally set for last Monday (delayed slightly due to a Mistral!) Luckily, Compositeworks is based in a fantastic shipyard that has some of the largest cranes in the world. Even at 110ft long Maiden II was dwarfed by the crane that lifted her gently up, to enable us to slide the rudders in, and then place her into the water. The daggerboards were then craned in and after that, with the assistance of a smaller crane at the base, the mast was lifted by the top, and lined up on the stainless bearing on the main beam. Once we had connected the shrouds and forestay, I had my first trip up the 40 metres of wingmast to unhook the crane and remove the protective foam from the main halyard sheaves.

The engines fired up on the first try, and we motored into our dock, where we managed to persuade the crane driver to crane the sails on. This is a big bonus when your mainsail weighs 450kg!!! The main was heaved onto the luff cars and, all in one day, we were ready to sail.

First thing on Tuesday morning, our international crew turned up at the dock with an enthusiastic appetite for speed! There was a 15 knot SW wind blowing - perfect for our shakedown sail. We spent the first 10 minutes with eight people on the four winch pedestals grinding the main halyard up. To utilise the maximum 'man-power', the main halyard is taken from the port primary, right across the trampoline to the starboard primary, thereby using both pedestals in both hulls. Even with eight people grinding, it is knackering work, and on the gear changes, fresh people jump in and relieve the tired grinders. The winch system has an overdrive box, so you have six gears to work through on the hoist!

We then dropped a reef in, and put up the staysail. The engines were shut down and the prop shafts were pinned (to prevent damage if the prop was allowed to spin when doing 30 knots!) We then bore away onto a reach and accelerated easily to 20 knots!! We did not load anything up too much as we were checking that all was safe and set up properly. Even though, we achieved 25 knots. The sea was flat, and we all stayed dry, even though we were speeding along.

I steered for a bit and she is a lovely boat to steer. Unlike Royal & SunAlliance, (which had hydraulic steering) she has feel to the helm, and the helm is light. It seems effortless to sail at speeds that you would normally associate with a high speed ferry! One thing that we have noticed is that the helmsman is fairly exposed at the back of the cockpit, so we are preparing ourselves for a good rinsing!

We plan to leave for Vilamoura (Portugal) on Tuesday. We will be based there for about ten days, whilst we train and prepare for the first record attempt - the Route of Discovery - from Cadiz to San Salvador (Bahamas). Presently we are sailing with a mixed crew, about 50 / 50. We are fully international, British, French, Australian, New Zealand, American, Finnish to name a few of the nationalities! We speak English on the boat (but I am taking this opportunity to practise my French.)

I can't wait to go offshore on Tuesday, and I am sure that I am not the only crew-member that is counting down the hour to our first long trip.