Sidney Gavignet and the crew of Musandam-Oman Sail, a MOD70 trimaran, crossed the finish line of the 2014 Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race off the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes, at 12.42.36 yesterday (Thursday) setting a new world record for the challenge.
They crossed the finish line with an elapsed time of 3 days, 3 hours, 32 minutes, 36 seconds and, subject to ratification by the World Speed Sailing Record Council, a new Outright World Record for the Round Britain and Ireland course and a new race record for the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race.
Congratulations to Musandam-Oman Sail crew of Skipper – Sidney Gavignet (FRA) and team mates Yassir Al Rahbi (OMA), Sami Al Shukaili (OMA), Fahad Al Hasni (OMA), Jan Dekker (SA), and co-skipper Damian Foxall (IRL) .
Prior to the start of the race visitors to AAM Cowes Week may have seen the promotion stand for Oman Sail on The Parade. This stand not only displayed the costumes of Oman and showed some of the culture the country has to offer but there was an introduction to Oman Sail, an Omani venture which promotes sailing especially for young people. Island sailor Leigh McMillan is part of Oman Sail when he sails the Extreme 40, The Wave, Muscat. This year he has another Olympic sailor, Sarah Ayton, who was in Cowes last week, as one of his crew. Musandam –Oman Sail is not only now a World Record Breaking boat but helps to promote Oman. Last year, after entering a competition at AAM Cowes Week Isle of Wight resident Susan Cracknell won a holiday to Oman.
After the postponement of the Sevenstar Race from Sunday to Monday because of the weather there was still plenty of wind to carry the boats, especially the big fast vessels along the Channel coast and into the North Sea.
Leaving Cowes around 9am on Monday morning the extremely fast multi-hull Musandam Oman Sail was soon flying its way to Dover before the long haul to Scotland. All 28 yachts headed east along the Solent in readiness for the 1800 mile race around Britain and Ireland and a large crowd of spectators outside the Royal Yacht Squadron saw the fleet sail away in bright sunshine and with a stiff southwesterly wind.
At 11:30, all of the 28 boats in the fleet were past Selsey Bill, experiencing over 30 knots of breeze as they reached at top speed. Musandam-Oman Sail averaged 30 knots of boat speed from the start and it was expected that if the MOD70 kept that up the team would finish the course in two and a half days, smashing the course record. As the day progressed Musandam-Oman Sail was soon over 40 miles ahead of the Volvo 65 fleet and the smaller boats were left in their wake.
The leading monohulls were a trio of Volvo 65s: Team Campos (ESP), skippered by Iker Martinez, Azzam (UAE), skippered by Britain’s Ian Walker and Dongfeng (CHI), skippered by Frenchman Charles Caudrelier.
As the race progressed the race leader overall ,under IRC , was Andrew Budgen and Fred Schwyn’s Volvo 70, Monster Project, having pulled out an 8 mile advantage on the water from Brian Thompson’s IMOCA 60, Artemis – Team Endeavour. At 12.30 Brian Thompson contacted the race team saying ” We are blasting past Beachy Head in sight of all the Volvos, Monster Project is just ahead. Musandam-Oman Sail was quite a sight blasting past us earlier but we were happy to be first boat through the Forts and out of the Solent. Lots of water on deck – so much that two of our life jackets self inflated!”
Soon there would be the first of the retirements- Sir Robin Knox-Johnson’s Open 60, Grey Power. At 19:25 Concise 8 a Class 40 with Cowes resident Jonny Malbon on board phoned the Race Committee to inform them that they would be retiring into Harwich. All of the crew was fine.
Five minutes later Conrad Humphreys and his crew on board Cat® Phone, another Class 40 boat, were experiencing issues with the lower section of the mainsail track coming away from the mast and therefore headed for shelter from the strong winds. Once again the crew was OK.
With the fast reaching conditions experienced the battle for the overall win for the 20 yachts racing under IRC was looking like it would favour the light displacement carbon fibre flyers. Andrew Budgen and Fred Schwyn’s Volvo 70, Monster Project remained in the lead of this group and later in the race opened up a 40 mile lead on the water from Brian Thompson’s IMOCA 60, Artemis-Team Endeavour.
Monster Project also had a tremendous battle with Volvo Ocean 65 Team SCA the all-female team. By Lowestoft, Monster Project had pulled out a 30 mile lead on Team SCA but Team SCA fought back taking on Monster Project in an all-night gybing duel and by Tuesday morning Team SCA was 3 miles ahead of Monster Project.
As the IRC boats sailed the North Sea there were some good battles. Jens Kellinghusen’s German Ker 51, Varuna, was leading IRC Zero by a comfortable margin. Behind them, the other two German yachts were having a fantastic duel with JV52 Haspa Hamburg, skippered by Katrin Hilbert, and JV53 Bank von Bremen, skippered by Carol Smolawa matching each other.
In IRC One Jankees Lampe’s Open 40 La Promesse, racing Two-Handed with Bart Boosman, was having a cracking race after recovering from a knock down, which punched two holes in their mainsail inside the Solent and in IRC Two Ross Applebey’s Scarlet Logic was leading the class after setting a new speed record of 22.5 knots while surfing past Dover. However, Ian Hoddle, racing Two-Handed with Conrad Manning on Figaro II, Rare, made a move inshore which saw them catch right up with Scarlet Logic.
The main trophy and a $20,000 shipping voucher from Sevenstar Yacht Transport are up for grabs in IRC.
At the head of the race Musandam-Oman Sail reached Out Stack, the rock north of Muckle Flugga and the most northerly part of the course, just before 1500 BST on 12th August.
In the Volvo Ocean 65 fleet, Azzam was out in front with a tremendous battle raging between Azzam, skippered by Ian Walker, and Team Campos, skippered by Iker Martinez. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s Azzam has completed 18000 miles of training including two Atlantic crossings, whilst Iker Martinez and his team have literally only just started their campaign.
This Sevenstar race was being used by the Volvo 65 fleet as a warm up for the Volvo Ocean Race which will see competitors sail some 39,000 miles over nine legs in this edition of the Round the World Race. Racing is expected to be very close for the race which starts in October as all the boats will be One Design 65s.
All the boats pushed on through day and night and by 0700 BST Thursday, Musandam-Oman Sail was just 100 miles from finishing the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race at Cowes. At this time the MOD 70 was experiencing about 15 knots of northwesterly winds in the English Channel and the battle was on to beat those records. Everyone knew that it would be a close call to see if they could make the line before 12:59:14 to set a New World Record.
Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s Volvo Ocean 65, Azzam, has extended their lead overnight and were now over 60 miles ahead of Team Campos and across the other side of the UK 14 yachts were making slow progress, beating into a cold north wind in the North Sea.
The Isle of Wight came into sight for the crew on Musandam-Oman Sail, they sailed past Ventnor and Shanklin around 11:50, past the Forts and Ryde and it was across the finishing line at the RYS and those records were beaten!
Racing continues for the other boats and crews and with good visibility there should be good views of them from Island shores over the next few days.
Photograph: Lloyd Images
Report with thanks to Alan and Suzanne Whitewood
