Shetland Round Britain and Ireland-Just two miles separate the leaders

by Oliver Dewar on 11 Jun 2010 Shetland Round Britain and Ireland Race (SRBIR) fleet restarted racing on Leg two to Barra in the Outer Hebrides on the evening of Wednesday 9th June, following a mandatory stop-over in Kinsale, Ireland. Due to the close Leg one finish of the nine Class40s, the restart was compact with the boats in close formation heading south along the coast to Fastnet Rock as darkness fell.

Global Ocean Race 2011-12 entry, Marco Nannini and co-skipper Paul Peggs on SunGard Front Arena were the second Class40 across the SRBIR Leg two start line and the proximity of other competing yachts quickly became a cause for concern, particularly a close race with the British duo of Alex Bennett and Malcolm Dickinson on the green Class40 Fujifilm.

'We were so close at some stage I was fretting around the cockpit plenty worried,' admits Nannini. 'Had Alex wiped-out in a gust, it would have been impossible to avoid a collision.'

However, both boats remained safe. 'The battle carried on and like two balls linked with a piece of elastic, we gained and we lost and gained and lost until we rounded the Fastnet Rock with Alex marginally ahead of us by some 200 metres,' explains the UK-based, Italian skipper.'

By dawn on Thursday morning, the SRBIR fleet leaders were off Dingle Bay at Ireland’s south-western tip led by two multihulls; the Dazcat 10 Paradox of Will Caxton and Matt Gill and Freebird, the Corsaire 31 of Mike Wigmore and Grant Kelly with the Class40 pack hard on the chase led by the South African duo of Nick Leggatt and Philippa Hutton-Squire on Pheseya Racing with the Norwegian duo of Rune Aasberg and Arild Schei on Solo in second and Nannini moving up into third onSunGard Front Arena with fellow Global Ocean Race entry, Nico Budel, racing on Sec Hayai with Jules Banffer in seventh place.

As the leading yachts in 56 strong SRBIR fleet prepared for the long beat along the western coast of Ireland, the first Class40 casualty became apparent: Stuart Dodd and Ian Marshall’s Livewire.

Early on Thursday morning, Dodd and Marshall decided to fly their maxi-spinnaker in breeze building beyond 20 knots in the hope of catching the fleet leaders and although this sail choice delivered exhilarating speeds of 16-17 knots, just as a sail change became imminent, disaster struck.

'We wrapped the kite after a broach and that was it,' explains Dodd. 'It took the next three hours to get things under control. I scrambled down below to dump the water ballast now pinning us down flat and later a mast climb by Ian to get the worst of the shredded kite from the top of the mast.'

The duo then headed for shelter to reorganise and continue racing, turning back for the harbour at Baltimore on the southern tip of mainland Ireland. 'On approaching the entrance, we realised we had no propulsion and I rang the Harbour Master for advice and - as it turned out - a tow,' he continues.

'Examining the damage on the headsail and the shattered mainsail battens and finding out we had no propeller, it was clear, with considerable disappointment, we had to stop racing.'

With the long beat north, the Class40 pack leaders soon overhauled the multihulls with a separation developing within the front running monohulls. While Phesheya Racing, SunGard Front Arena and Andrew Magrath and David Pugh on Roaring Fortytook a slightly more offshore option, the Norwegians on Solo, Andrew Dawson and John McColl on Spliff and Richard Tolkein sailing with Neil Brewer on Orca took a route closer to the coast throughout Thursday.

In the midday position poll today (Friday 11th), Phesheya Racing and SunGard Front Arena have built a lead of approximately 20 miles over the rest of the Class40 fleet and are locked in close formation.

'We have really pressed on all night, reef, unreef, reef, keeping the maximum amount of canvas we could at any stage,' reported Marco Nannini fromSunGard Front Arena earlier today. 'Phesheya Racing is now to port, around two miles off, so we did manage to gain quite a lot of ground overnight,' he continues.

With less than 150 miles to the finish line, it is impossible to predict the finishing order for the leading two boats.

'This is now a drag race to the finish and normally they are marginally faster than us, so I would be surprised if we did manage to sneak ahead,' comments a cautious Nannini. 'More likely it will be another very close finish in Barra.'

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