Around the ragged rocks

Dee Caffari and the Aviva crew tell us about setting the new outright round Britain and Ireland receord

With thedailysail resident at one end of the phone and at the other Dee Caffari, Sam Davies, Miranda Merron and Alex Sizer huddled around a conference phone in the Aviva Ocean Racing office on the south coast, I have this image of Charlie’s Angels reporting in to their never seen boss, Charlie. Which perhaps I should keep to myself. But in the case of Dee and her Aviva crew it has less been a case of high kicks and kung fu, and more kicking male butt. For not only over the course of the last week have they merely nailed Sam Davies’ previous women’s monohull record of 10 days 16 hours and 7 minutes for sailing non-stop around Britain and Ireland, they have stripped 17 hours 16 minutes from the outright men’s record, previously held by Jean-Philippe Chomette and the crew of the Nacira 60 Solune, set back in May 2004 (read about that here). Starting and finishing off Ventnor on the south side of the Isle of Wight, the new outright monohull record time, set by their Owen-Clarke designed Open 60 Aviva for this 1800 or so mile course, now stands at 6 days, 11 hours, 30 minutes and 53 seconds.

Spurred on by their capable media team, so the angels (woops!) have been part of a significant media whirl since they arrived back into Portsmouth’s GunWharf Quay, welcomed ashore by a large crowd and they didn’t sound too hungover when we caught up with them this morning.

“We have been pretty impressed by the way it got taken on board by the media,” Dee opens the batting. “It was a bit of a surprise the volume of people that were there but it was a glorious day and it was nice to have people interested.”



Originally they were supposed to be sailing five up, however the fifth of their number, leading French Mini turned Figaro sailor Isabelle Joschke, had previous commitments to her sponsor in France that conflicted. “We phoned her before we left and when we finished. We thought of her along the way, but it was really unlucky timing for her. She would have loved to have been on board we know,” says Dee.

“It would have probably been easier with five,” adds Sam. “It was hard work…” agrees Dee. “But I got to do lots of driving, which was good for me…” says Miranda. “Yes, we let her out of her secretarial role!” interjects Dee of her navigator, the banter from the boat continuing ashore.

Typically with round Britain records, the ideal weather is a nice large but slow moving weather system that rumbles across the UK allowing favourable wind shifts to effectively follow the boat around the race course. Due to the speed at which weather systems typically move, this is obviously easier in fast multihulls and so choosing the right weather to leave in for a monohull attempt, based on a 10 days forecast, is a much harder process. Undertaking such a record in June, is also not ideal – a better forecast would be more likely in the spring or autumn.

“We had no idea what was going to happen at the end of the week,” states Miranda Merron, who spearheaded the weather and navigation side. “We knew there was high pressure coming in and we didn’t know if we were going to be able to get past it in time. But it came down to it being the only opportunity and that was confirmed as we went around. And also there was a quiet patch which we were a bit worried about and we knew that after that we’d have good breeze for a few days and we certainly did have that.”

They set sail from Ventnor at 21:09:36 last Monday night heading anti-clockwise around the British isles. At the time there was relatively little pressure but a westerly took them to Dover. Then a shallow depression moved eastwards across their path and this left a hole in its wake which caused them to fall behind Solune’s pace on the second day as they negotiated the numerous oil rigs dotted around the North Sea.

However conditions started to get fruity, as Miranda explains: “The breeze started filling in in front of a cold front to go up the North Sea. It filled in from the south, which was forecast, and it got windier and windier and the top wind speed was 42 knots before the front. So that was pretty fast sailing. Then the front went through and we had 200 glorious miles of just really fast reaching up to Muckle Flugga in just superb conditions.”

And so they found themselves back in front of Solune’s pace.

Sam takes over: “Normally after a front it goes northwesterly, but there was another front coming through so that put the wind back to southwest, so when we went around Muckle Flugga we got lifted on port tack, which is why we made a really good track from there.”

En route southwest from the Shetlands bound for the remote rocky bird sanctuary that is St Kilda, off the outer Hebrides, they passed through an occluded front and this saw the final significant shift of the trip as the wind veered from south to northwest, where it would remain for the rest of their lap.

Throughout their voyage they were aware of the wind was set to go light towards the end as they came back up the Channel and the pressure was on through to get round Land’s End as quickly as possible to put them into the best position to keep the breeze on the final stretch back towards Ventnor.

“We knew that was going to happen right from the start,” says Sam. “The GRIB files looked quite pessimistic before the start for the last couple of days, but it was such a long way out and we all had the feeling that given that particular weather pattern there would be a little more wind than what we saw on the GRIBs, so that was one of the other reasons why we decided to go when we did. We had a feeling that there would be something more than that for those last few days. So the sooner we got there, the more wind there would be, so we worked really really hard to try and get ahead of ourselves all the way around with the incentive that the earlier we got to the Channel, there’d still be a little bit of wind left to get up the Channel.”

Says Dee: “It was the good weather pattern which we’d been waiting for, but we knew it wasn’t enough to guarantee us all the way around. So we left knowing that three quarters was good and the earlier we could get to that last section the more chance we had, but that was going to be the killer if it went wrong. Fortunately we had a lot more breeze in the Irish Sea than we thought we’d have when we first set off and we just managed to hang on it and work extra hard the last few miles.”

Joffe Brown and the Aviva shore crew did a grand job in preparing their Open 60 and there were no really issues to take care of on the way around.

“And we had Alex,” states Sam, of the fourth member of their posse, the highly capable and long term Open class shore crew Alex Sizer. “We were sorted! We even allowed her to sail occasionally!” quips Dee. “She got the tool box out a couple of times!” adds Sam, before Dee butts in again: “But that was just for company! She was missing it…”

Highlight of the lack of carnage was breaking the kettle, giving Alex the opportunity to fix something, thereby preventing potential devastation for their navigator and her sizable daily Earl Grey requirement.



This time they got to see a lot of coastline, which Sam says she didn’t in the fog-bound Calais Round Britain Race two years ago, when she previously set the women’s record aboard Roxy. “We practically brushed the moss off most of the rocks as we went around,” says Dee. “Miranda was taking it close to reduce mileage,” says Sam. “St Kilda is worth seeing close up, so we did that…” says Miranda.

Sam particularly liked the coast of Ireland, although they did inevitably manage to hook one fishing net off there, albeit briefly. “I caught one on the rudder while we were doing 20 knots under big spinnaker, which was quite interesting. Luckily it didn’t stay on the rudder for long and it didn’t do any damage.”

So there was nothing that slowed you down? There is a unison chorus of “NO!”

Around Scotland they also enjoyed two nights with no darkness, only having to revert to torches at night once they were back heading south.

Four up on board an Open 60 is nominally fully crewed, but is still effectively short-handed. Dee describes how it worked: “We had Miranda floating so she could do what she needed to do, especially at the beginning, because there were the shipping lanes, then the sand banks off the Thames estuary, then the oil rigs, so there was a lot going on. So the three of us did a rolling watch just to match sure that someone was always able to get some sleep and everyone was up for manoeuvres. Then once the hazards had disappeared a little bit and it was more straight line sailing, we settled into a watch system that allowed a little more sleep and that changed when we got around the bottom and we all had to work hard again. Sleep was definitely limited by sail changes and everyone worked really hard and we didn’t miss a single change. We are quite proud of that, but we are quite exhausted by it too.”

So what was the best conversation on board? There is a brief pause, before the bombs explode. “That has to stay on board!” says Sam. “If we told you, we’d have to shoot you!” states Miranda. Only joking.

A feature of this record is just how well the four of them got on and this comes from all of them having known each other for years - Miranda and Sam date back to Tracy Edwards’ Royal & SunAlliance Jules Verne campaign. “To sail with a crew where there is complete trust and respect for everyone’s ability and decision making, allowed me to push the boat harder than I’ve managed to do on my own, which was brilliant,” says Dee. “And the team gelled really well and I really enjoyed it and I am absolutely buzzing from sailing with them. And I think it is pretty truthful that if an opportunity arose and the right event come up or something happen, then we’d all jump at the chance to sail together again.”

So when/what might that be? “Short and sharp seems to be good, but there is nothing to say that we don’t have staying power either. I think it needs to be the right event which fits into everyone’s calendars and programs. There are four brains ticking away thinking of what could potentially be next and I’m sure we’ll come up with something. We have proved it is not just women’s records we need to look at.”



This is a point that Alex makes when she is given the opportunity to get a word in edge-ways. “Just like Sam and Dee did in the Vendee, this goes to show that girl sailors can compete on a level playing field with the guys. And it has been great fun. I have had a ball.”

For Sam Davies sailing Aviva provided the opportunity for her to try out a state of the art Open 60 after completing the Vendee Globe on her 2000 generation Roxy. She is currently attempting to find money to build a new Open 60, hopefully to a Guillaume Verdier design and this trip has helped her draw up her list of likes and dislikes.

“I really like - and it is something I’ve never really sailed with – the wingmast,” she says. “I was always wondering what it would be like to sail with and use. I like the fact that it is solid and you can just send it, especially with big sails up, because Roxy’s mast is fractional and the structural shrouds go up to the hounds, not up to the top, so when I am sailing with a Code 0 or a genniker I am always aware of my topmast waggling around and the compression on it and that isn’t really an issue with Aviva. So I quite often reduce sail just because of my top mast, whereas with Aviva you can just send it and not worry about that. It is really good to be able to minimise things to worry about.

“I didn’t like that you couldn’t let the main out. Another thing with the mast is that it is really sensitive to being touching by the main and spreaders, although that is probably something that could be improved. On my boat there was no problem with the main banging on the spreaders and the spreaders wangling around and when it got a bit breezy I could just ease the main out. When you are limited to the amount of main you can ease out then you are limited to how much you can play on the waves because if you come up too much to try and gain speed, you just stop because the main just acts more like a handbrake.

“I like how Aviva is so easy to sail and how easy it is to gybe in the breeze, because it just doesn’t kick up like Roxy does, which is good. But it is a lot harder to sail physically. Everything is loaded up. Dee has marks on her runners and she goes ‘just get the runners to the mark’ and I have two hands on the winch handle and it’s like ‘I can’t!’ And Dee comes along and does it one handed! So physically it is a lot harder, but generally it is a great boat.”

And so the four now go their separate ways. For Sam it is back to France to attend a Roxy-sponsored long boarding championship and music and arts festival in Biarritz, while Miranda, and particularly Alex, complete the overseeing of the build of Peter Harding’s latest Owen-Clarke designed Class 40, again taking place in South Africa.

Unfortunately for Dee the future remains uncertain, as despite their latest achievement. Aviva will be competing in the Rolex Fastnet Race in August, but her contract with her insurance giant sponsor, which has now backed her twice singlehanded around the world, concludes in September. At present it is back to banging on board room doors. With any luck, despite these desperate economic times, this latest impressive achievement will help.

More photos on the following pages....