The J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race 2015 took place this weekend. You may not have known it was taking place as it doesn’t get much media coverage, despite being one of the largest yacht races in the world and the fourth largest participation sporting event in the UK (after the London Marathon and the Great North and South Runs). 1,389 boats took place in the 50 nautical mile course around the Isle of Wight starting and finishing in Cowes. With an average of five crew (my estimation) per yacht – that’s a lot of people taking part! The Round the Island race is fantastically inclusive too with top Olympic sailors like Sir Ben Ainslee to first-time racers like me competing!
When I say competing, with the round the Island race you very much try to beat your own time like when running a marathon. So don’t ask me where we came! We managed to complete the round the Island race course in 09:44:44 which was Sea Dash’s best time! None of the credit goes to me however as I was only the official ‘look out and shout at other boats person’! It was our Skipper Mel Peel’s 7th race and his experience really showed, especially an hour from finishing when two boats nearly collided with us in quick succession because they weren’t paying attention. We all shouted ‘starboard, starboard, starboard, get out of the &@!#% way!’ Before Mel put in a quick tack and we managed to swerve at the last second – both times. When you’re racing for such a long time, it’s easy to get tired towards the end and that’s when accidents are more likely.
Other crew members included Kristian Peel (my fiancé), Andy Ogden, Andy wilcock and myself and here’s a little video that I put together with our highlights:
Round the Island Race video
(for some reason the videoing was knocked out of sync by YouTube and the file is too large to upload directly – apologies!)
It was an amazing experience and a fantastic team building opportunity. Working in such a confined space with chaos all around you will really force a team to work together, communicate effectively with each other and learn from others to get results. We also observed what other yachts were doing and learned from their mistakes too – such as putting the spinnaker up in choppy waters caused the cruising chute to wrap around itself and we saw one yacht almost capsize. It was great to see teams such as the John Lewis Partnership out there, and we kept passing each other the whole way around the Island.
A special thanks to all the Round the Island race volunteers, organisers and emergency services for making this event possible. Especially the lifeboat crew member who got injured himself while rescuing an unconscious lady – hope you both get well soon!
Natalia xo
