Today I went out on iShares Xtreme 40 which Hugh Styles is skippering. Hugh and I worked together on Yeoman XXXII last year and when he was asked to bring the X40 to the Bay he called Racing Yacht Management to help out with some of the logistics.

The boat arrived in a 40 foot container at the end of February – the hulls mast etc all fits onto a trailer which goes in the container. There is about 2 inches on all sides. The crew built the boat last week  over at Svendsens only needing a crane to put the mast up and launch the boat.

The boat is sponsored by iShares and Hugh has been hired on as skipper see http://www.hughstyles.com/home

I really enjoyed my little sail around the bay. The boat is very fast and when you start flying the hull it is a cool feeling. You can tell that there is a fine line and it can all go tits up very quickly. It was a perfect sunny day on the bay blowing 20-25 knots and we were going the same speed as the wind. I was glad to have my Kokotat drysuit on as although it wasn’t that wet it was cold.

After lunch with the guys at the club of soup to warm the cockles of Hugh’s heart, I took them all to sports basement as they needed thermals. They hadn’t heeded my warning about the temperature at this time of year.

See video below of the boat sailing.

[youtube CHKOK_wNVoQ]