New Round Britain Attempt

Mike Lloyd · 10-07-2007, 07:35 PM

Three seventeen year olds, Jack, Archie and Harry have taken up the Round Britain Challenge on their own and right now are half way round the Atlantic side of Ireland in their bid to set a record for the fastest time for an under twenty-one team for the circumnavigation of the UK.

Running in a 29ft Ribcraft fitted with twin 250hp Evinrudes these boys have guts and are determined to complete this event on their own. They have a tracking system so you can see where they are right now, see http://blog.mailasail.com/roundbritain/5 - go to list all users and click on roundbritain.

They had a rough crossing from Falmouth to Cork with a force 6 on the nose but managed to average 29knots!

They will be racing with us next year.

ML.

DAVE · 10-07-2007, 07:52 PM

Thats great. When do you think they will be back in the Solent ?

Mike Lloyd · 10-07-2007, 07:56 PM

If the weather stays like this, Friday. They can do 500 miles without re-fuelling.
ML.

Johnny Rocket · 10-07-2007, 10:19 PM

That's not Round Britain, it's round the British Isles - a much tougher proposition. Best of luck to them, hope the weather improves!

Mike Lloyd · 11-07-2007, 03:46 PM

The boy's are heading for Stornoway and doing 64.5km/H through huge following Atlantic rollers. They are having fun. Dolphins following them for hours apparently. Both engines together averaging 100 litres per hour.

Mike Lloyd · 14-07-2007, 08:39 AM

The boys have split a tube off Whitby and gone ashore to repair, should get going again today.

the bandit · 14-07-2007, 09:19 AM

Thats worrying for us rib boys, was it on the bow

Mike Lloyd · 14-07-2007, 10:10 AM

No, starboard side in the middle I believe! Not bad enough to stop them but obviously needed attention fairly quickly.

Mike Lloyd · 14-07-2007, 10:34 PM

From the guys log of yesterday.
With a calm wind and flat seas, we were on course making fantastic progress towards Great Yarmouth yesterday (13th July). With a mere 50 miles to go, the boat hit what was thought to be driftwood, and suffered an 8 inch tear in the starboard side of the stern. As water gushed in the rear of the boat, with pouring rain and increasing wind speed, the boys struggled to make the 35 mile slog in-shore to Whitby. An emergency call was made to Bembridge boat-builder Will Squibb (who also re-fitted the boat) and he swiftly made his way up to Whitby. With only slightly dampened spirits we took advantage of a reasonably early finish to the day and after some warming food, headed straight to bed for some much needed kip! Unfortunately no pictures today.

Mike Lloyd · 14-07-2007, 10:39 PM

Today's run.

The Boys left Whitby today at 16.30 hours after many hours work on the RIB to repair the puncture. Our very grateful thanks to Stephen and his team at Coates Marine, Whitby, together with Will and Dave Squibb and Doug Newell who came all the way from the Isle of Wight to help us in our hour of need! Their continuing support and puncture mending skills have been fantastic!

Our destination today is Great Yarmouth in 15-20 knots of wind. If there are no more problems our estimated time of arrival at the Sea View Yacht Club Bembridge is 17.00 hours tomorrow the 15th July.

Unfortunately no pictures again as we cannot load them on to the computer but we will try later and will certainly load them on to the site at the end of the challenge, so keep logging on.

Thank you all for your continuing support and we look forward to seeing you tomorrow!

Mike Lloyd · 16-07-2007, 07:45 AM

I haven't heard from the boy's team manager Peter Hewitt today but from checking out their run yesterday (Sunday) they left Lowestoft at 7am for the 190 mile run home through some pretty unpleasant weather doing it in 8 hours arriving at their club in Bembridge @ 2.56pm.

It will be very interesting to see their total elapsed time. Personally I think these young 17 year old lads are just great. They put the idea together themselves, trained hard and did some long runs to Jersey, Guernsey and Cornwall just to see how the boat would run and to see how they would handle the conditions. I take my hat off to them. They have done the Round Britain, on their own.
ML.

the bandit · 16-07-2007, 10:19 AM

Quote:

It will be very interesting to see their total elapsed time. Personally I think these young 17 year old lads are just great. They put the idea together themselves, trained hard and did some long runs to Jersey, Guernsey and Cornwall just to see how the boat would run and to see how they would handle the conditions. I take my hat off to them. They have done the Round Britain, on their own.
ML.

[/QUOTE]

Well done lads. Might need some advice for next year.

TimB-C · 16-07-2007, 12:39 PM

Congratulations gentlemen, well done, amazing job

Damned fine show....................................