Round Britain preparations

Challenge Business fleet bustling into action in Ocean Village

Ocean Village in Southampton has been a hive of activity during Round Britain Challenge race start week with all of the Crew Volunteers now settling into the daily life of planning and preparation before Saturday's off.

With the lively pontoon atmosphere so to is there an increasing air of competitiveness among the crews. Alison Smith is aboard Spirit of Hong Kong while her husband, Richard, is preparing for the challenge on rival yacht, BG Group. When questioned about the mounting competition she replied with a smile, "we are still speaking!"

Crew Volunteers have been engaged in a wide variety of tasks, from pumping the bilges to foredeck lacing with the pontoons disappearing under a sea of vast sails. Winched up to ninety-five feet above the marina at the top of the mast, Crew Volunteers have been checking and fixing the windex attracting interest from the public.

Those deemed to be of "technical disposition" have been stripping and servicing winches whilst others have been packing the food, each day's provisions accounted for and separately packed. Lucky crew volunteers given tasks on deck have been enthusiastically informing those down below about the consistent sunshine as relationships between the teams become stronger with each day.

Scuba divers have been busy checking and cleaning below the water line to make sure the bottom of each yacht starts the race equally as clean as the next; another example of Challenge Business' insistence of a level playing field, which raises the level of competition by removing technical variations and places the outcome of the race in the hands of the crews.

The ongoing preparations for the Round Britain Challenge have been meticulous, with safety of paramount importance. Today all eight boats underwent a stringent independent safety inspection, carried out by the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC). Six members of RORC, assisted by a representative from the Challenge Business' technical team and each yacht's skipper and mate inspected the boats to ensure the vessels comply with the Offshore Racing Council Special Regulations as well as the organiser's own safety checklist. These independent checks go above and beyond the legal requirements as set out by MCA (Marine Coastguard Agency).

Challenge Business is proud of its strong safety culture. Andrew Roberts, Project Director, who welcomes the inspections commenting: "we are very keen to have feedback and very much appreciate RORC coming down to assist us with these inspections.

"RORC obviously take these checks very seriously, which is good as they keep us and the crews on our toes. The inspectors are extremely experienced and knowledgeable and look at our yachts in a different way than we do. I'm delighted to say that once again the yachts have passed with flying colours and we've been told that our safety standards, which we pride ourselves on, are extremely high."

Testament to Challenge Business' ongoing commitment to safety, two additional floating waterproof torches have been introduced, based on a previous recommendation from RORC. If submerged in water they are designed to float on the surface and shine the beam of light directly upwards. RORC are also a key contributor to the Round Britain Challenge Safety Prize, an accolade the skippers and mates take great pride in winning.

Tomorrow night (Thursday) the crews will have an opportunity to let their hair down with the Bye Bye Bash, which will be held in Challenge Business' brand new marquee, now set up and running for the company's busy corporate season.

On Good Friday Sir Chay Blyth, executive chairman of Challenge Business and Simon Walker, managing director, will take the crew briefing where teams will be given all the information they need for the race. They will then have those last few hours of preparation before race start day as well as some time to say their goodbyes to friends and families.