We are then given a ‘no fluff’ briefing from Grant Dalton in the ETNZ base – and we expect nothing less. He is coarse, blunt, and quite frankly doesn’t give a toss about people – let alone ‘bloody journos.’ Somehow this attitude is what we have come to expect from the master of ETNZ – and in a funny way I find it quite endearing. His success, of course, of ETNZ had largely been his ability to divert the attention away from his ‘stars’ leaving them to do what they do best! His attitude and persona – are all part of that strategy.
Within moments I am in trouble as my last minute dash to the loo almost impacts our departure time, but all is forgiven as he discovers I am the ‘extremely annoying chick that does the Extreme 40 coverage’ - I am flattered, and immediately upgraded from spectator boat to coach boat!
As racing starts, and 9 AC45’s streak in front of our ridiculously large rib, I am soon in need of a couple of moments to collect my thoughts. ‘Here I am, standing next to Grant Dalton, in ETNZ’s coach boat, watching the ACWS in Plymouth Sound…. Good Work!’
After that little moment, it was time to refocus on ultimately the bull’s-eye of this rather large dartboard - the boats and racing format. Extreme 40’s on heat is an understatement. These boats are as technically advanced as they come. As Matt Sheahan said in his own words after his 4th day as 6th man, ‘it’s taken me all week to get past the excitement of being on-board and actually focus on the technical intricacies of these boats,’ there is simply so much to take in. No wonder the guys are still learning how to sail them.
The race format for the day included one long race of about 40 minutes and 2, shorter races. This week we have seen plenty of other formats, and courses, from speed trials to match racing. And this is one of the areas I feel really works. Could you get bored – maybe, but think how many boring football matches there are.
My day out in the sunshine in Plymouth, was one of the best experiences at a sailing event I have ever had, as either a spectator, broadcaster or a competitor. I was so impressed on every level. Having not experienced it before, I was all too quick to judge the money being ploughed in, the new – ‘not so good’ format, the change to multihulls, and the bizarre choice of venues. Hand’s up – I was wrong. And I think Nespresso have been very smart using ETNZ to springboard their brand into New Zealand – especially after this week’s victory. I also take my hat off to Plymouth – why aren’t all your events that good – the reason, money.
Of course the current format and infrastructure is not sustainable – with numbers like €350 million being batted around it’s no surprise. But someone with a vision needs to springboard this sport, internationally, to create the following it deserves. Bernie Eccleston turned F1 around, and with every bit of luck Larry Ellison will do the same for sailing – he certainly has my seal of approval and as Grant Dalton said, ‘Nice one, Larry – keep spending!’

Pos 5042.26N 0001.43E

Crew:
Ben Rogerson
Charlotte Lawrence
Duncan Truswell
Ben Gladwell
Martin Kirketeep
Ben Watts
Hannah White
Nigel King
Josh Wilson
Chris Tibbs
John Shepherd

At 2pm on Monday only 2 hours after stepping foot on the boat for the first time, Fair Do’s the Ker 46 sailed across the start line. Aboard was owner John Shepherd and 10 crew - myself included.

The previous Wednesday I had received a phone call asking whether I would like to join Fair Do’s and her crew on their race around the British Isles - one of the crew due to take part had suffered a back injury. After going to see the boat and crew list I hesitated very little before saying ‘yes’. I never like stepping onboard a boat so late in the day, not only from a safety standpoint but also from a ‘chippping in’ angle. However I didnt have the luxury of time and having seen the work the team had put in to get Fair Do’s race ready I signed up for this exciting adventure.

A few hours before the start we all sat down in the cockpit and had a chat through different objectives and safety elements of the race with race skipper, Nigel King and crew boss Duncan Truswell and of course discussed the change of course with meteoroligist and Navigator Chris Tibbs. In view of the series of low pressure systems sweeping their way across the atlantic to the British Isles, and the reletive strength in which they were developing the race committee decided to send us anti clockwise around Britain and Ireland instead of clockwise. We all agreed with this decision and by 1pm on Monday the wind had built significantly to 25-30knots. We were all very releaved that we would be flying down the south coast towards Dover with the wind behind us instead of slamming into it.

By the time the gun went we were all soaking, but excited. I was especially deligthed to see that the boat was going to relish these fast reaching conditions and with Nigel at the helm we soon passed the forts and beyond! At times I felt like I was on more of a Volvo 70 rather than a Ker 46 with water cascasding over the deck like reaching the bottom of a water slide. Flying the full main and a jib top reacher there was no stopping us and we were matching the class 40’s mile for mile.

I soon settled into the boat and established where everything was. We did have a few boat handleing issues early on when we rounded the forts and put the A5 spinnaker up. By this time we were seeing steady 25-30 knots and for a time 30-35! A couple of times we lost sheets of sails during gybes and had to drop and rehoist a couple of times. But by the evening we were back to a white sail plan and with the light fading rapidly we though we would stick to fast reaching combination of a jib top and full main. We had had a full on day and quite a baptism of fire for the crew, lots of sail changes in wet windy conditions but morale was high having clocked our top boat speed at just under 22 knots.

Those of us who were driving had noticed a small problem with the steering which was investigated immediately. Before the race the crew had noticed the steering locking out on the starboard wheel and as a result had vigilantly ultrasounded the rudder, checked the bearings and changed the steering strops. When the boat was sailing in fairly soft conditions before the race, there seemed to be no problem, but now in these heavy conditions the problem had come to light. Thankfully boat captain Josh Wilson was on the case, first of all find the problem and if possible find a solution. In the meantime we were into our watches and were sailing well, lying in 4th overall and 2nd in class. Chris was doing a grand job of navigating us through the deep water anchorages and shipping lanes of the east coast where a few other boats had been caught out.

On Tuesday afternoon, at about 2pm I was on watch on deck and could see a squall coming towards us from the mainland. Chris popped his head up and commented on the wind that it might have underneath it. Within minutes the wind had picked up and we were frantically changing sails and reefing down to 2 reefs as the wind continued to build. Before long we were seeing 38-40knots.

This was a perfect scenario to show the steering problems and when the wind reached strengths of 30 knots plus the problem was excentuated At times like this that you need to be in control. Sadly having checked all the steering related gear above the hull we could only think it was an issue below the waterline. As we sailed along struggling to steer, the conversation soon turned to the long term plan. Realistically we had only completed 10% of the course and this was the ‘easy’ bit. We knew we had plenty more weather to come and we were sailing past the area of the UK with the most safe havens. What was is going to be like down the west coast with no bolt holes? Was the problem with the steering going to get worse?

After some honest and sensible discussions the decision was made to turn back. It was a hard decision but in the interest of the boat and crew’s saftey it was right decision. We turned the boat around hoisted the storm jib and started heading south.

We are all pretty disappointed to not be in a position to carry on and prove what the boat and crew are capable of, but as ever there is a time and place for race success and this wasn’t to be our race, However as I write this we are approximately 5 hours from Cowes, having got the boat back ship shape and in one piece, with everyone safe, and that in itself is success. I am delighted I decided to race on Fair Do’s and the crew and would jump at the chance of sailing with this great bunch of people again.

Hannah White
Regards,
Fair Do’s VII

Well life has been as frantic as it gets over the last few weeks and has really reminded me of getting ready for a big race. However I haven’t been getting ready for a big race, we just had Cowes Week!! This year at Cowes Week was always going to be a busy year, not only was I racing everyday as skipper on a 40.7 but I was also the RNLI Cowes Week ambassador along with Shirley Robertson.

Shirley and I were asked to be the official ambassadors for Cowes Week as the RNLI were the official charity for the event. By having Shirley and I as ambassadors we were able to fly the flag for the RNLI with the aim of getting the charity the maximum exposure possible!

I kick started the week with a nice piece for Cowes TV which you can see below this piece, talking about the importance of the RNLI, and how the benefit of increased awareness will help run this charity. Then it was onto Saturday with a piece for the BBC’s quarterly weather show, then on Monday morning, I co-hosted the BBC Radio Solent’s breakfast show with Julian Clegg, and what a fun show that was. 3 hours, on air live from Cowes.

The rest of the week continued with more madness with drinks party for the RNLI at the sight of their new proposed lifeboat station, Custom House, next to the Island Sailing Club. These drinks parties saw high level donors coming to see the new sight and find out more about the proposals. Wednesday was an ITV day, doing a live piece with a reporter on what people can expect at Cowes Week, before the finale of the week.

Friday evening saw me for the first time co-presenting a special edition of the BBC’s H2O show. This water-activity based radio show is normally only an hour long but in conjunction with Cowes Radio we put on a 3 hour long show with Sir Robin Knox-Johnston and Shelly Jury at the Royal Yacht Squadron and I was with Producer Neil at the Island Sailing Club. You can now download the podcast at http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/h2oshow

Saturday was the last day of racing at Cowes and as a gift to the RNLI, along with EMG I donated a days racing with me at Cowes week. On Saturday we had the 3 competition winners and a guest out for the day. It was a windy day and we had a lot to content with not to mention the 12 people onboard, but what a terrific day it was. I hope that the competition winners enjoyed themselves and it was beneficial for the RNLI.

I went home on Saturday evening and had a day off before heading down to Sail for Gold in Weymouth. Big thanks to Simon, Becky, Giles, Jose, Jeff and Tish who all at some point acted as my crew for the week, and a massive thanks to the RNLI for a great fun week.

Hannah xx

Hannah

This weekend I flew to a rather wet Dublin for a weekend of short-handed offshore training with Barry Hurley on his JOD 35, Dinah.

In just under 3 weeks Barry and I will set sail from Wicklow, Ireland on the 700 mile race round Ireland. Barry and I have known each other for many years but became good friends during last years OSTAR race in which Barry won his class. We have talked about doing some double handed racing together and being Irish we thought that this IRC race, on home waters would be the perfect.

Dinah, the JOD 35 has sailed many miles offshore and Barry has now owner here since early 2008. He has done extensive work to her over the years and I am pleased to say that she is in immaculate condition. For more info on the boat you can visit Barry’s website www.dinah.sail.ie

The purpose of the weekend was to sail for the first time on Dinah and get to know her and spend some time with Barry figuring out who would be doing what in the race. The weekend went extremely well, and I flew back feeling very confident that not only will we have a good chance in the up and coming race but also that we will have a lot of fun.

Despite the weather we did a lot of sailing and practiced our double-handed manoeuvres. With both of us so used to sailing on our own it was quite strange having someone else to help with the tacks or gybes! And what a difference it made! We also stole a small amount of time of Saturday evening to watch both of our respective nationalities do exceeding badly in this years Eurovision Song contest…. It did wonders for UK –Irish relations!

The weekend was great and I cant wait to get out to Ireland in a few weeks time to start the race. I would also like to say what a wonderful yacht club the royal irish is, and I hope to spend some more time there in the future.

Bring on the 20^th June!!!

Hannah

Click here to listen.

On Saturday night Hannah was invited to attend the annual Petit Bateau Prize Giving at the Island Sailing Club in Cowes. Some of the 400 members of Petit Bateau had braved the October weather for the final race in the Solent Series held across the summer.

At the end of the prize giving after at least 15 trophies had been awarded across the fleet, Hannah was presented with the OSTAR trophy for the fastest under 35 footer (eligible to 15 entrants) in the prestigious trans-Atlantic race. On the water Hannah finished over 24 hours ahead of the next competitor and finished just under 6 days ahead of Frenchman, Lionel Regnier who won the trophy 4 years previously.

This trophy represents Hannah’s extraordinary achievement in this notoriously challenging race in not only reaching Newport but in getting there is a remarkable time. This trophy just comes 2 weeks before the official prize giving at the Royal Western Yacht Club, which unfortunately Hannah will not be able to attend.
Hannah’s thanks go to Petit Bateau, and in particular Jerry Freeman, fellow OSTAR competitor and founding member of Petit Bateau who do so much for the sport of Single-handed racing.

He had this to say about Hannah’s achievement:

This year the trophy was won by Hannah White in a fantastic time of 20 days and no hours and 20 minutes,
Pure Solo , a Figaro 2 , was 4th boat on the water after the three 40 footers Hannah came within a whisker of beating Mary Falk’s long standing class record of 19 days 22.hrs 57min
which QII has held since 1996.

The figaro was on charter and this was Hannah’s first race in the boat so to make such a beautiful race was a great achievement.

It was my great pleasure to present the trophy to Hannah at the ISC on Saturday night after she had graciously presented the Solent Solo Series prizes at the PB supper.