New monohull record

Artemis Ocean Racing is first home in RORC's Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race

Jonny Malbon and the crew on the Open 60 Artemis Ocean Racing reached Cowes last night to take line honours in the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race. The blue Open 60 skippered by Malbon in place of Brian Thompson and with a crew including Nick Black, Will Oxley, Jonathan McKee and Mark Thomas, crossed the finish line at 22:29:40 BST making her passage time 7 days, 4hours, 29mins and 40 seconds and in doing so they have scraped inside the monohull course record for sailing around Britain and Ireland. The present record belongs to Jean-Philippe Chomette's Nacira 60 Solune which in May 2004 set a time of 7 days 4 hours 46 minutes and 22 seconds. It should also be remembered that Artemis sailed a slightly longer course starting and finishing off Cowes and starting via the east of the Isle of Wight. Artemis's time is some way outside of PlayStation's 4 days 16 hours and 8 minute outright record for sailing non-stop round Britain.

Next boat due home this afternoon by coincidence is none other than Solune which at the 0700 position report this morning was off Eastbourne.

We have since heard that Artemis Ocean Racing being able to claim the fastest time for a monohull Round Britain and Ireland course may not be as straightforward as it first seemed. Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race didn't start from on of the official sanctioned World Sailing Speed Record Council points (eg Seaview, the Lizard) and the course didn't involve rounding the remote outcrop of St Kilda - this was taken out as an amendment to the course. Also, Sill et Veolia recorded a time of 6 days 16 hours 43 minutes and 21 seconds during last year's Calais Round Britain Race (see the article here) but while this may have rounded all the right rocks it still doesn't start from one of the WSSRC sanctioned start points. Therefore it looks like Artemis Ocean Racing may have broken the RORC race course record but cannot claim the official course record.

According to skipper Jonny Malbon they were only passed by Thomas Coville's red trimaran as they passed Beachy Head yesterday. "We heard as we were going up to Muckle Flugga that there was someone going for the record. We were expecting him to come scooting past us at any stage especially as we were going down the North Sea in pretty heavy breeze." Yesterday the red speck on the horizon grew larger and Coville came within 20m of them. "He was on deck in his dry suit taking it pretty easy," continued Malbon. "It was pretty nice conditions but he said he was going to take the record by 12 hours. His boat looks a bit beaten up, his bows were damaged. Having just gone down that stretch of water we were stuffing the bow in constantly because they were big waves but pretty short wave lengths – it was pretty horrible. By yourself at 20 knots must have been very scary."

After the horror show at the start of the Newport-Bermuda race when they had accidently pranged the keel on a rock and were unable to start, Malbon said he was relieved simply to have got around. "It was quite a nervy start but we had a great time and it was a huge relief having achieved what we set out to achieve."

Artemis Ocean Racing was holding off Jean-Philippe Chomette's Solune all the way across the Celtic Sea. "We thought they’d be a real problem because it was more suited to their conditions and although on paper we should have been faster in any reaching and downwind conditions, we were pretty worried that they would be hot on our heels." It wasn't until they were into the heinous conditions off Ireland that they finally pulled ahead. "We wanted to go as fast as possible and keep the boat safe. They could have done some damage to us and even Chietain is a bit of a weapon in the right conditions."

Off Ireland they were slamming like crazy as they sailed into 25+ knots on the nose, although it was port tack favoured. " all the way up the Irish coast, we were trying to tack on the right shifts and it was slam, slam slam which was not good for the boat nor our journalist on board," recounted Malbon. Fortunately they were then able to crack off a little as they passed the northwest corner of Ireland and at this point started to pile on the miles over Solune. Fortunately they were really able to crack off once they'd rounded the Shetlands and then eat up the miles going down the North Sea.

Among the Artemis Ocean Racing crew for this race was Luna Rossa trimmer and 49er Olympic medallist Jonathan McKee. Having sailed the Mini Transat and part of the EDS Atlantic Challenge on board Kingfisher McKee has some knowledge of Open style boats. "He was great to have on board – a really different perspective, a real weapon," recounted Malbon."He was wanging on everything. But it’s good to see that. He wanted to maximise the performance all the time which is cool – it is good to have someone on board like that."

Crew work came together over the course of the race. "We did our first gybe in 25 knots of breeze with the fractional kite and full main down the North Sea - that took a bit of planning. But it all went according to plan. The bit I was worried about was when we were constantly stuffing the boat into the back of waves at 20 knots, because they were big waves but short wave lengths. Every time you slammed you could feel the boat load up, and you’d decel 10 knots and pick it up and you’d be off again. That was almost waiting for stuff to break at that stage."

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