If this month’s column sounds a little breathless it’s because I’m writing it having just returned from a record-breaking race aboard Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s Volvo Ocean 65 Azzam.

  

 As a sailing journalist I always jump at any opportunity to sail with a pro racing crew, but when the chance came up to fill in as ADOR’s on board reporter for the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race, I grabbed it with both hands. 

 

The course for the RBIR is simple: an 1800 mile lap of the British Isles starting from Cowes, taking in Muckle Flugga in the Shetlands (at 60 degrees it is further north than Cape Horn is south) and the Scilly Isles in the south. 

 

The arrival shortly before the scheduled start of the vestiges of Hurricane Bertha delayed the race by a day and forced the Royal Ocean Racing Club to send the fleet round anticlockwise rather than the planned west-about course. 

 

This was the first time five VOR teams had lined up against each other and that fact added to the atmosphere of keen anticipation on board Azzam on the morning of the start. Despite the postponement, the wind was still over 20 knots and we knew we were in for a fast blast out of the Solent and into the English Channel. 

 

Sure enough, the moment we unfurled our huge headsail in the final seconds to the start gun Azzam sprang to life and our speed leapt immediately into the high teens as we powered across the line.  

 

As we exited the
confines of the Solent a very short time later (happily ahead of all our VOR rivals) the breeze had jumped to over 30 knots and we were screeching along the English south coast in a huge cloud of spray at 25 knots and more. 

 

Unbelievable as it may seem, we maintained our breakneck pace past Dover and around the southeastern tip of the UK and it continued unabated for the entire length of the North Sea.  

 

In fact, we didn’t drop below 20 knots of boatspeed until were on final approach to Muckle Flugga at the top of Scotland on Tuesday evening – just 34 hours after leaving Cowes.  

 

Even then the respite was for just an hour or so before a 30-knot northwesterly kicked in to send us hurtling off down the west coast of Scotland towards Ireland. 

 

Our relentless pace continued undiminished until on the early afternoon of our third day at sea we passed within a few miles of Fastnet Rock on the southern tip of Ireland and gybed towards Bishop Rock on the Scilly Isles. 

 

ADOR skipper, British double Olympic silver medallist Ian Walker was as surprised as anyone by our progress.  

 

“It’s incredible,” he said with a huge grin. “We have got to the Fastnet Rock via the top of Scotland in just over three days. That’s quicker than some boats get straight there in the Fastnet Race.”

 

 With less than 300 miles to go we had built a 60-mile lead over the next monohull and our focus switched on to how much we could potentially break the race record set by the French VOR team Groupama of five days and 21 hours. 

 

Although light winds and strong tides slowed us down on the final afternoon, we eventually crossed the finish line off the Royal Yacht Squadron in an elapsed time of four days, 13 hours, 10 minutes, 28 seconds, smashing the race record by well over a day.  

 

It was an experience I don’t think I will never ever forget and I now know what life is really like aboard a VO65 in the heat of battle and have a new appreciation for just how tough and talented the sailors who race these yachts have to be.