Bound for Hobart

An update from Tony Bullimore as Doha 2006 sets sail for the startline

We have been out here in the heat of the Gulf for the past ten months preparing for what will be the biggest challenge in my life – to sail solo, non-stop around the world in 70 days.

Finally, late on Sunday, we were able to hoist sail for the first time and my catamaran Doha 2006, resplendent in the colours of the 15th Asian Games, has now set off down the Gulf bound for Hobart, Tasmania in readiness for the start of my solo non stop record attempt around the world.

Early next week the crew will reach the Maldives where I will join them for the final 2-week voyage down into the Southern Ocean and around Australia to the start and finish point of this record.

The delays over the last 7 weeks caused by last minute additions to logos on the sails, have not been all bad news. They have given me the opportunity to return home for a few days to see my wife Lalel who has been tremendously supportive, and put the start of this record back until November – Spring time in the Southern hemisphere. Then the weather will be better than if I had set out during the Southern winter months.

My choice of Hobart as the start and finish point for this record, has raised some eyebrows, particularly within the French yachting community, who question why I am not going from the traditional northern hemisphere start point off Ushant.

The first point is that the course distance, which has been ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council, is exactly the same as if I start and finish off the French island. Second, the international rules that govern these records make no restriction on where these round the world records commence. And third, it is quicker for me to sail from Doha to Hobart, than it is to return for a Northern Hemisphere start.

The point of this record attempt is to fly the flag for the 2006 Asian Games. The current solo round the world record, set last year by Dame Ellen MacArthur in the trimaran B&Q, stands at 71 days 14hrs 18mins 33secs,. I am convinced that my larger catamaran can complete the 27,000 mile course in 70 days. By starting from Hobart, I will be little more than a day away from the westerly winds in the Roaring Forty latitudes that will slingshot me across the first 5,000 mile stage to Cape Horn. I then follow the South American coast northwards across the Equator from where I must pick my way through the calms of the Doldrums and those associated with the Azores high pressure system to round the island of Flores before returning southwards to the Cape of Good Hope.

I will be guided throughout by American weather router Lee Bruce, who will be advising me about impending weather systems on a daily, if not hourly basis. Once I am past Africa and back into the Southern Ocean, I will be relying on Bruce to help me avoid the worst of the Roaring Forty winds that will speed Doha 2006 towards Cape Leuwin marking the Western tip of Australia, and passed the point where I spent 5 dark days capsized during the 1997/8 Vendee Globe Race.

Once across the Australian Bight, I must navigate my way across Bass Strait and back to Hobart, which is perhaps the hardest part of the whole voyage because the area is strewn with oil rigs, and will leave me with little opportunity to sleep. Then, I will be running on adrenalin – especially if my 70 day target is in sight!

Team website: http://www.teambullimore.com