Comments from the Skipper - Race Update - Thursday 5th December

Today's blog comes from our very own Skipper, Gareth. Gareth has bravely taken on the challenge of leading a crew of novices across the Atlantic ocean - see how he thinks it's going so far by reading below!

"So today is my turn for the Race4Rene blog and what a trip so far. Before the start of the ARC the team  came to Cowes to complete 4 days of training, followed by two more afternoons before the start... I was immediately impressed with how the guys picked up the skills needed to help them race across the pond, going from never being on a yacht before to taking up this massive task for such a great cause.

Each member has been putting their own stamp on the jobs at hand. My biggest concern at the start was the amount of helming under kite each of them have had, which would be the larger part of what they would be doing. The first few nights with out the help of the moonlight were hard but now they all jump at the chance to helm in the choppy sea conditions. Sometimes being the skipper feels more like being a mum; reminding the crew to keep the yacht clean, keep their kit in their bags and to clean up after cooking.

Everyday we have a happy hour where I cover the last 24hrs of racing, where I go over the amount of miles done, weather position in the race and what plans we have over the next 24hours.

We are now down to what I hope is the last week of racing, and at this point of the race it’s even more important than ever to keep us moving in the right heading with boat speed without damaging the yacht

The last 24 hours we have been taking things a little easy, just poling out a head sail with the main sail which is giving us a great angle to the waypoint and making it much easier to helm compared to the full on conditions of a kite. This is giving us a surf of up to 16kts. Now wwith over 1100nm to go we are pushing on to get in with 6 days time.

Wish us luck! 

Gareth

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