Around the ragged rocks

We look at the course and form for Sunday's Royal Western classic two handed race with stops around the British Isles

The Royal Western Yacht Club's four yearly doublehanded event, the Shetlands Round Britain and Ireland Race gets under way this Sunday from Plymouth with a 40 strong fleet of monohulls and multihulls ranging from 30-50ft LOA.

The event has a fantastic history, as colourful as the Club's original singlehanded race, the OSTAR. First held in 1966 it was won by Derek Kelsall's then radical foam sandwich trimaran Toria, the boat responsible for enticing Eric Tabarly into multihulls. In he early 1970s when Robin Knox-Johnston and Chay Blyth were the big names in oceanic racing, it was RKJ who won it first in 1970 aboard the maxi Ocean Spirit and then four years later on his first maxi-racing catamaran British Oxygen. The mantle then moved on to Blyth who won it four years later with his Kelsall trimaran Great Britain IV, with multihull guru and Whitbread crewman Rob James. James, shortly before he was lost overboard, in turn won the 1982 race racing with his wife Naomi.

One of the most competitive races took place in 1985 when the two new 60ft trimarans, the founders of what would become the ORMA 60 class, Tony Bullimore's Apricot and Mike Whipp's Paragon slogged it out, Bullimore eventually coming out on top. Four years later the race became something of a one horse wonder and a nightmare for the race organisation as Francois Boucher and Loic Lingois tore around the British Isles on their 75ft catamaran Saab Turbo without competition, setting the 15 day 7 hour record for the course that still stands. As one of his early forays into multihulls, Steve Fossett won the race in 1993 with Dave Scully sailing the 60ft trimaran Lakota.

Unfortunately since then the Royal Western YC in their wisdom have chosen, as they have also with the OSTAR, to focus on the Corinthian element of their races so no longer do we get Corinthian sailors lining up against the titans of our sport: A big shame in the opinion of this organ. The last two races have been won by the same Nic Bailey-designed 40ft trimaran - in the hands of Richard Tolkien and Robert Wingate at FPC Greenaway in 1998 and as Ross Hobson and Andrew Newman's Mollymawk four years ago.

So why is the Round Britain special? Aside from it being steeped in history - this year's race is its 40th anniversary - the course around the British Isles is fantastic. It is extremely complicated tactically from a point of view of tides and winds, but also hazardous tackling a coast line that is in turn rock-strewn, full of shallows, contains the busiest shipping lane in the world, etc. It is also two handed and thus the boats can be pushed harder than they might be in a singlehanded race. It also visits some pretty out of the way places - Lerwick in the Shetlands is a place rarely visited by major yacht races and CastleBay on the Hebridean Island of Barra is even more obscure. In each of the stopovers the boats stay for precisely 48 hours before continuing.

The course involves five legs:



- Plymouth-Kinsale (230 miles). This leg is the shortest and is generally the occasion when those who are going to make the course are separated from those who aren't. The leg involves leaving Wolf Rock and Bishop's Rock to starboard before hanging a right, crossing the Celtic Sea to Kinsale. Kinsale is a new addition to the race, although it makes next to no practical difference as previous races have stopped in Crosshaven.



- Kinsale-Barra (460 miles). This leg takes the boat up the west side of Ireland and north up to Barra and the remote Hebredean outpost of Barra, with its famous kelp-bottomed anchorage and anchor dragging potential.



Barra to Lerwick (420 miles): From Barra the boats have to round the even more remote bird sanctuary island of St Kilda, along with the Flannan Islands, Sula Sgeir, North Rona, before rounding the superbly named Muckle Flugga, the lighthouse at the top of the Shetlands and finally heading south to Lerwick. With all the talk of boats going through the Southern Ocean and Cape HOrn at 57degS, bear in mind the top of the Shetlands is almost 61degN!



Lerwick to Lowestoft (470 miles). Navigationally the leg south from Lerwick appears straightforward until you remember that the North Sea is peppered with oil rigs, shallows and much shipping.



Lowestoft to Plymouth (305 miles). The final leg takes the boat south across the mouth of the Thames Estruary and through Dover Strait, the world's busiest shipping channel. From there it is a case of playing the tides, headlands and other coastal features before returning to Plymouth.

Entries:

Boat	Crew	Crew	Nat	LOA	Cl	Type
PALLETLINE	Tony Van Hee	Angus Pridie	GBR	31'	Cat	Dazcat 9.2
IROQUOIS	Michael Ellison	Peter Ellison	GBR	30'	Cat	Iroquois Mk2
SAGITTA	Andy Leadbetter	Mike Garvey	GBR	50'	Mono	Farr 50 pilothouse
WOLFIES TOY	Bartel Van Holsbeek	Veronique Dierickx Visschers	BEL	50'	Mono	Open 50
SUNBEAT III	Steven Kuhl	Andrew Pickering	GBR	43'	Mono	Jeanneau 43
TZIGANE	Harry Vogel	Jerry Freeman	NED	42'	Mono	Cayenne 42
CHIKARA	Justin Rowley	Richard Lett	GBR	40'	Mono	Tripp 40
HAYAI	Nico Budel	John van Gelder	NED	40'	Mono	Open 40
Immo I.B,I.	Michel Kleinjans	Mick Liddy	BEL	40'	Mono	Open 40
JALFREZI	Gareth Thomas	Brian Millea	GBR	40'	Mono	J/120
LA PROMESSE	JanKees Lampe	Bart Boosman	NED	40'	Mono	Open 40
ROARING AGAIN	Hans Plas	Robin Verhoef	NED	40'	Mono	Open 40
VIJAYA	Huib Swets	Erik de Jong	NED	40'	Mono	One-off
OCTAVUS	Bram Van de Loosdrecht	Hanny Van de Loosdrecht	NED	39'	Mono	One-off
CHEETAH OF PLYMOUTH	Carole Newman	Bob Beggs	GBR	38'	Mono	Reflex 38
MALKIN	Tim Whittle	Peter Watson	GBR	38'	Mono	Whittle Typhoon
BLUE DEMON	Guy Warner	Nicki Crutchfield	GBR	36'	Mono	Maxi 1100
CHILLOUT	Henk Bulthuis	Danny Kronenburg	NED	36'	Mono	J/109
OOJAH	Peter Tanner	Philip Kirk	GBR	36'	Mono	J/110
RED ARROW	Marcus Wilson	Richard Steel	GBR	36'	Mono	J/109
RUFFIAN	Pete McIntyre	Emma Nutt	GBR	36'	Mono	Sigma 36
RUSH	Tony Bale	Timothy Bale	GBR	36'	Mono	Sigma 36
ZELDA	Michael Ewart-Smith	Ben Richards	GBR	36'	Mono	J/109
AUDACIOUS	Paul Peggs	Morse Blaker	GBR	35'	Mono	JOD 35
HOOLIGAN V	Ed Broadway	Ian White	GBR	35'	Mono	Max Fun 35
JAGER	Dick Koopmans	Leslie Irvine	NED	35'	Mono	Koopmans 35
PSIPSINA	John Loden	Oliver Bond	GBR	35'	Mono	HOD 35
SUROMA	Bill Graham	Laurie Wilson	GBR	35'	Mono	Starlight 35
FLAIR II	William Mumford	Malcolm Dickinson	GBR	33'	Mono	MG 335
KNIGHT'S CHALLENGE	Janet Sainsbury	Carol Sunter	GBR	33'	Mono	Sigma 33
CHIMP	Richard Hatton	Chris Turner	GBR	31'	Mono	Berret
TUSITALA	Jon Coleman	Simon Ellyatt	GBR	29'	Mono	Sadler 290
ALACITY	Rex Conn	Etiene Giroire	USA	50'	Tri	Newick Traveller
WAVERIDER	Nigel Passmore	Angus McPhie	GBR	43'	Tri	Bailey
HOUD VAN HOUT	Leon Bart	Richard Versteegh	NED	37'	Tri	Marples 37
TRIPLE FANTASY	Mike Millerchip	Mike Barnsley	GBR	35'	Tri	Kelsall 35
ENB CONSULTING	Brian Wilkinson	Graham Wilkinson	GBR	34'	Tri	Twiggy Mk2
PARADOX	Matt Baker	Rob Husbands	GBR	33'	Tri	Dazcat 10
KENMORE	Nick Bubb	Pete Cumming	GBR	30'	Tri	Shuttleworth 30
CORNWALL PLAYING FOR SUCCESS	Pete Goss	Paul Larsen	GBR	30'	Tri	Seacart 30

The fleet this year breaks down effective into four different groups.

Line honours glory will obvious be between the multihulls. The on the water winner of the last two races is back once again with yet another new pair of riders. Now called Waverider and 43ft long, the boat is being sailed by Nigel Passmore and Angus McPhie. Passmore is a local Plymouth sailor who has previously been highly competitive in the Royal Western YC's in shore and offshore races. If it gets breezy they will be up against Rex Conn's 50ft Newick trimaran Alacrity. Sailing with Conn is experienced multihull sailor and US-based Frenchman of spinnaker sleeve fame, Etienne Giroire. Giroire has previously raced OSTAR in his Walter Greene 50ft trimaran Up My Sleeve.

Following his experience sailing around the world in the Oryx Quest with Tony Bullimore, former Mini sailor Nick Bubb is now trying his hand at small multihull sailing with his sponsor Kenmore. They are racing Roger Barber's 30ft John Shuttleworth-designed trimaran Meridian. Bubb says he hopes it will be third time lucky with the boat. "Roger Barber was racing last time and was in the lead on the water until the rig came down on the way up to the Shetlands. Then he put a new rig on it and he was 300 miles in the lead of the AZAB and then he flipped it off the Scilly Isles, 50 miles from the finish..."



Nick Bubb (left) with Pete Cumming



This year the boat, now called Kenmore has had a new rotating wingmast fitted, replacing her previous fixed mast and has a new rudder. Her carbon fibre mast was a prototype built by Marstrom for the SeaCart and weigh just 45kg compared to 120kg ofr their previous conventionally rigged alloy spar. They have also fitted PBO car shrouds courtesy of Ocean Yacht Systems. Bubb is racing with Mike Golding shore crew regular Pete Cumming.

Their big competition who are also hands down winning the media war are Pete Goss and Paul Larsen aboard the Seacart 30 trimaran Cornwall Playing For Success. While Goss has been clandestinely sailing locally in Plymouth since the spectacular demise of his Team Philips maxi-catamaran in 2000, this is his first return to sailing in anything like a high profile way. Goss is sailing with the familiar figure of Paul Larsen who was one of Goss' crew on Team Philips. More on their campaign in due course - but it will be interesting to see how the zippy lightweight Seacart fairs on the Round Britain course.



Another battle will be between the cruiser racers. The Ellison brothers, including WSSRC and AYRS stalwart Michael who turns 70 this year, return in an 30ft Iroquois catamaran. This is similar to the boat they raced in the first Round Britain Race in 1966.
Among the monohulls there are four Open 40s racing. For some reason these are all Open 40s rather the new exploding breed of dummed down Class 40s. The form boat here is certainly Michael Kleinjans' Roaring Forty, recently rechristened IMMO B.I.B. Belgium sailor Kleinjans is hugely experienced and is well versed with this course - he is a past holder of the singlehanded non-stop round Britain record. The newest of the four Open 40s is Roaring Again, and fully tricked out carbon fibre Open 40 with an unusual hull shape - Bmax is way aft - and an interesting foil set-up where by the twin daggerboard either side of her mast double as spare foils for her cassette rudder system.

The fourth type of boat racing are the 30-40ft cruiser racer monohulls such as J/Boats, HOD35s, MaxFun 35s, etc. For the first time the Round Britain race is being sailed under handicap (Blondie Haslar would turn in his grave) rather than without handicap in length bands as was the original conception for the event. Among the notables here are former Mini sailors Paul Peggs and Morse Blaker, sailing the JOD 35 Audacious. Another familiar figure Bob Beggs is using the race as his honeymoon with new bride Carole Newman aboard their Reflex 38 Cheetah of Plymouth.