Sevenstar Round Britain & Ireland Race – 10 August

by Event Media on 11 Aug 2006 After 24 hours of hard beating to windward up the west coast of Ireland that Solune’s navigator and renowned meteorologist described as 'a bit like driving too fast down a road of potholes,' the leading boats have eased sheets on port tack for a long leg to Muckle Flugga.

Jonny Malbon’s Artemis Ocean Racing maintained her lead over J-P Chomette’s Solune at just over 26 miles and the two are currently drag racing with Ger O’Rourke’s Chieftain-Kingspan, a hot favourite for corrected time honours in IRC Division A, leading the rest of the chasing fleet.

The good news from Phil Sharp’s Pogo 40, needasponsor.co.uk, is that they rejoined the race just after midday after effecting repairs to their forestay in Cork. However, for the ten girls on Global Yacht Racing EH01 it’s going to be a testing few hours as they head to Cork to repair a broken upper shroud. Skipper Emily Pearson telephoned race control at midday saying that she had been up the rig twice in 'horrendous 35 knot winds' but couldn’t do anything about the sheered wire. The crew are safe and in remarkably good spirits and will rejoin the race once a suitable repair has been made.

Further damage in the fleet have included Philippe Falle’s Puma Logic who lost their steering for about an hour after a cable disconnected and Ger O’Rourke’s Kingspan-Chieftain that suffered damage to her number three genoa whilst across the fleet there are numerous sea-sickness casualties as the lumpy three metre swell takes effect. No problems aboard ‘Gourmet Sailing Jeu d’Esprit of Clem Jones who are looking forward to their Thai Green Curry this evening although we understand the ‘onion-chopping watch’ was a gruelling session as the boat pitched in the heavy seaway!

Over the coming 24 hours the crews can expect more of the same with Mike Broughton from winningwinds.com saying: 'The lead boats are experiencing strong north westerly winds of between 23-33 knots coming from Iceland and the sea state is adding to the discomfort of beating into this head wind with waves of about 3 meters. Ocean weather buoys in the vicinity are showing 25 knots north westerly. These conditions are likely to remain the same for a while possibly until Saturday morning.

As the race progresses the RORC will continue to bring daily updates and position reports from the boats highlighting the highs and lows of this premier coastal yacht race.

All yachts competing in the Sevenstar Round Britain & Ireland Race have been fitted with a tracking device developed by the RORC in conjunction with OC Technology.

Yacht positions will be updated hourly and can be followed on the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s dedicated micro site that has already attracted over two million hits since the race began, accessed via www.rorc.org