B&Q Round the Island
Light winds dictated the early pace of the race for the 1649 boats sailing today (18/06/05) in the 69th edition of this classic 50 mile race around the Isle of Wight.
After a postponed start of one hour due to lack of wind, B&Q started at 0800 BST and completed the 50 miles course in 7 hours, 27 mins and 53 secs finishing at 1527 BST this afternoon.
Ellen MacArthur, skipper of the 75ft trimaran B&Q, said: “After a slow start this morning, conditions improved and we started to gain on the others in the fleet but with so many boats out on the water today, we were forced to gybe more often than we would have like to going out of the Solent towards The Needles. Whilst this will not go down in history as one of the fastest Round the Island Races, we certainly had some great weather and a great day on the water.”
This was B&Q’s first outing in the JP Morgan Round the Island Race, even though she was the largest multihull in the race, she was eventually beaten to the finish line by the two ORMA 60ft trimarans (see finish times below) - these are certainly the Formula 1 racings cars of the multihull race track compared to the rally-style, off-road capabilities of the record breaking trimaran, B&Q! “The ORMA 60’s were away at the start and there was little we could do to keep up. The conditions were pretty exceptional as it was so light - it took us two hours to get to The Needes and four hours to St Catherine’s round the back of the island. The tide was with us from the start to The Needles but from there to the finish it was against so even when the breeze picked up we were not fast. Our top speed was 12 knots between St Catherine’s and Bembridge and around 10 knots on the homestraight. But the Round the Island Race is a fantastic event and we loved every minute of it,” concluded Ellen.
Champagne G.H. Mumm welcomed B&Q back to Cowes after crossing the finish line by announcing today that Mumm is to be the Official Champagne of the Offshore Challenges Sailing Team for the next three years, cementing a relationship with Ellen MacArthur that first began over four years ago when she was presented with a jeroboam of Mumm Cordon Rouge Champagne at the finish of the solo round-the-world Vendée Globe race in 2001. Under the terms of the agreement, Ellen and her team mates Nick Moloney and Sam Davies join a growing band of ‘Friends of G.H. Mumm’ - outstanding sportsmen and women, explorers and adventurers across the world who like to toast their extraordinary achievements with Mumm Champagne.
Onboard with Ellen today were her regular shore/race team of Loik Gallon (Boat Captain), Charles Darbyshire (Navigator), Oli Allard, Seb Sebastian Chernier Proteau (CAN). Supported by Tom Avery (GBR), one of Champagne Mumm’s Adventure Team who walked into the record books by becoming the youngest Briton to complete the perilous journey to the South Pole in December 2002 aged 27, and Johnathan Deane (GBR), a B&Q employee who has worked for two and half years at the B&Q Croydon Warehouse, who won his place on the crew after entering an internal competition. Although Jonathan is no stranger to sailing as he has participated in the 1977/78 Whitbread Round the World Race.
Finish Times - Multihull Grand Prix Class at 1640 BST
Boat name / type / finish time / elapsed time / corrected time / position
NUKU HIVA II / ORMA 60 / 14:51:39 / 06:51:39 / 13:34:39 / 1st
B&Q / TRI 75 / 15:27:53 / 07:27:53 / 13:51:43 / 2nd
NUKU HIVA / 15:25:03 / 07:25:03 / 14:40:45
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