We have a couple of long distance races in the UK for cats
1, Round IOW
2, Fast boat race around the solent
3, Nessie race every 2 years
4, The East Coast Piers Race that was last weekend - full report later, but a couple of the teams that did this race have then gone on for a bit of a jaunt around the coast of UK, and over to Cherborg; all this after a 50 mile race!
Now this is all self organised and they take tents and the like with them in a Rib, I've been following progress for a few days as I know then quite well; well today they had a bit of an epic!
After reparing the broken rudder, the Raiders were on their way to Alderney and flying along at great speed, until disaster struck them again. At 1650, the message came through that one of the cats had been dismasted whilst at sea, 8 Nm from Alderney. The rig came down due to a broken shroud and so the Raiders were put into action stations to recover the boat and all its bits.
Communication was made to home to ensure that the only boat chandler on the island was open. Unfortunatley, the Raiders had not made it to the shore in time, but with a phone call made to the chandler, they are prepared with a selection of possible replacements for the shroud.
All crew were fine and they made their way to the harbour by some "elite" towing of the RIB (Dan), at some points reaching in excess of 15kts!!! At 1930, a call came through to say that the Raiders had made it to the harbour and all are moored up for the night. Discussions are now on the table for the repair to the shroud in the morning and the journey back to Weymouth, which is looking likely to be tomorrow.
You can read what they have been up to on their Blog,
here Wishing them luck for a less
exciting day tomorrow.
And it's all for charity!
