Shetland Round Britain and Ireland - Shetland prepares warm welcome

by Andy Sinclair on 15 Jun 2010 Shetland Round Britain and Ireland Race, now in its 12th edition which started from Plymouth Sound on 6th June is well under way with only four official retirements.

It was bad luck for Plymouth skipper Stuart Dodd and his co-skipper Ian Marshall when, attempting to make up time on the first leg from Plymouth to Kinsale in Ireland, they sustained damage to their spinnaker too severe to carry on. UK competitors Gratifikation, Quid Non? and Dutch entered Spirit have also retired.

However, it’s much better news for south west mariners Simon Baker and Dan Fellows in Drama Queen, a Dazcat 1150 catamaran built by Simon’s company Multimarine Composites based in Millbrook, Cornwall.

Drama Queen was the first of eight multihulled boats to reach Castlebay on the isle of Barra this weekend, having come in second to Freebird on the first leg of the gruelling 2,000 mile race. Simon is married to Tracey Baker, Managing Partner at Plymouth legal firm Woollcombe Yonge.

Other provisional category winners of the second leg of the race from Kinsale to Barra were Sungard Front Arena in the Class 40’s, three hours ahead of Alex Bennett in Fujifilm; Jbellino in IRC Class 1; Elixir in Class 2; The Shed in Class 3 and Santana in Class 4.

The front runners, led by Class 40’s Pheshaya-Racing and SunGard Front Arena and multihull Paradox which left in the small hours of Monday morning (14 June), are already well underway on the third leg of the race, destination Lerwick.

Douglas Irvine, Business Development manager for Shetland Islands Council, said: 'Lerwick is the half-way mark in this most challenging of ocean races. We’re going to make sure that every sailor receives a very warm welcome when they arrive, and after such tough racing I’m sure they’ll appreciate a rest and will be able to enjoy all that we have to offer. Lerwick is our largest yachting port, and surrounded as it is by shops and restaurants it’s very popular with leisure sailors too.'

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