Less than one week until the start of the Two Handed Round Britain and Ireland Race. Last weekend we deliverd QII to Plymouth via Wolf Rock. This last term has been tiring, juggling revision, training and last minute preparation. Since October Mary and I have sailed 1000 miles together training for the race. We have had our mishaps mostly casued by me still thinking there are another seven people on the boat! Never the less the crew work has improved enormously and I think that I have almost completed my ‘degree’ in QII’s water ballast system. One our our return trips from Cherbourg at the end of April was very quick taking only 7 hours surfing back with the spinnaker up. At the beginning of May we followed a RORC fully crewed race to Quistreum. This was our first real test against boats being raced, up until then we had been racing cruising boats down the Solent! The race committee very kindly gave us a finish fun, we finished 5th elapsed time, ahead of the Sigma 38’s, IMX 38’s and the J35, not bad for two girls on a 35 footer. Last week the boat was re-antifouled and we are not longer dragging half the world’s seaweed species – this should help our speed to improve even more.

Next weekend is the boat inspection so it is down to Plymouth again, all the kit should now be organized. Pains Wessex have kindly agreed to ‘sponsor’ us with enough flares to rival the Cowes Week fireworks display. The rules allow us to row the boat when there is no wind. We have designed and had made a carbon fiber blade, which fits onto the new carbon spinnaker poles thus saving weight and solving the problem of stowing a 15 foot plus oar. A rowlock clamps to the side of teh boat and we can make speeds through the water in excess of 1 knot. This will allow us to get to that annoying patch of wind and doubles as an emergency rudder when rigged off the transom of the boat.

 Last week I went down to Meridian TV studios and spent a few hours learning how to use a video camera and what kits of shots they want. The camera was last used on Swedish Match so manybe it can teach us something! It comes with a clamp and case so for the start all the excitement will be recorded and most likely highly edited. A few other cameras will be carried on different boats throughout the fleet and two 30 minute programs will be shown later this summer on several TV stations.

The entry list is still growing with our class being the biggest. There are 12 monohulls including a Corby 35 retrofitted with a small amount of water ballast and 9 multihulls. Most competitors have now completed their qualifying cruise, we were very kindly given dispensation. There are no handicaps it is first across the line in class.

The start