Two very different crews delivered two of the biggest stories on Day 14 of the RORC Round Britain and Ireland Race.

Mark Brown’s JPK 1010 Jetpack has finished the 1,805-nautical-mile course and is the provisional winner of IRC Three, while the Army Sailing Association’s Sun Fast 3600 Fujitsu British Soldier has also completed the race, a remarkable fifth campaign in the race for the Army Sailing Association and their skipper Will Naylor.

The RORC Cowes Clubhouse has continued to welcome, day and night, a stream of tired but jubilant sailors. Loewe von Bremen, Tigris, Espresso Martini Too, Zanzibar, Ronin and Astrid have all completed their lap of Britain and Ireland. Mojo, Quailo III and Xantho are expected to add to the triumphant finishers during Saturday, but three teams remain hundreds of miles from the finish and the race is far from over for them.

From annual dinner idea to IRC Three victory

For Mark Brown and the crew of Jetpack, the adventure began over a few drinks at the RORC Annual Dinner. Brown had already completed six Rolex Fastnet Races and Jetpack had enjoyed considerable success in the RORC Season’s Points Championship, but the Round Britain and Ireland Race represented an entirely different scale of challenge.

“It was at the dinner and dance last year,” Brown explained after finishing in Cowes. “After a couple of drinks, I just put it across the table and everybody wanted to do it. Unfortunately, we could only have four crew, but everybody in the squad just jumped at the chance.”

Brown had described the race to himself as the equivalent of three Fastnets, but the reality proved far more powerful than any advance picture of the course. “It is a long way and 61 degrees north is cold,” he said. “Unfortunately, we did not see all the lovely headlands because it was night-time or we were well offshore, but the experience was surreal. It was just amazing. It was the boat and the camaraderie on board. We were always having a bit of a laugh and we got the food right, so everyone was happy. I feel total pride in the crew.”

That pride was especially evident when Brown spoke about the sailors around him. The young navigator, Sam Jones, took responsibility for the role when the team came together on Jetpack four years ago and Sam has developed into one of the driving forces behind the campaign. Chris, Brown’s trusted foredeck hand for a decade Chris Philby-Roberts, was fulfilling a long-held ambition, while Mark Stevens returned to the challenge after completing two editions around 20 years ago.

“Sam said, ‘I want to do the navigating’, and he has just got better and better,” Brown said. “He is a total enthusiast and wants the boat to win. The whole crew was buzzing. We have the right crew and Jetpack – she is a beauty.”

The result remains provisional, but after leading IRC Three through much of the race, Brown’s reaction captured what completing and winning this marathon means.

“To win our class in the Round Britain and Ireland Race is absolutely amazing. There were a couple of boats that gave us a scare, but we have no regrets. It took a huge amount of planning, but between us we cracked it. For anybody who has not done this race: just do it.”

British Soldier: Mission accomplished

The finish of Fujitsu British Soldier completed another chapter in the long relationship between the Armed Forces and the Royal Ocean Racing Club, which dates back over 100 years. Every member of the seven-strong crew is serving in the British Army, but they had never previously raced together as one team. For five of them, this was their first Round Britain and Ireland Race; for skipper Will Naylor, it was his fifth and the second for Tom Court.

“I keep coming back because it is such an adventure,” said Naylor. “It is not a race you can sprint for two weeks at sea. You have to know when to put the hammer down and when to look after the equipment as well as the people. I absolutely love this race. To me, it is the sailors’ ultra-marathon.”

Naylor believes offshore racing tests many of the same qualities demanded of soldiers. The shared purpose, confined living conditions and need to protect both people and equipment turn a boat into an unusually intense environment for developing trust and leadership.

“Offshore life is about living in a confined space and working together as a team with one mission: getting the boat around the course as quickly as possible,” he explained. “You have to know when to push the team, when to crack off and when to go for the mission, while looking after the people on the way around.”

The crew’s care for one another was unexpectedly extended to Little Regina, the exhausted barn owl that fought her way aboard approximately 70 miles offshore. The Army sailors kept racing while establishing an owl watch and coordinating her transfer ashore for specialist care.

“We realised the bird was in trouble,” said Naylor. “We had to keep the boat racing, but we also had a secondary task. Whenever we tacked, gybed or the boat heeled over, somebody was on owl watch. It shows the caring side of soldiers as well.”

The result was not what Fujitsu British Soldier had originally hoped for, but completing 1,805 miles with a newly formed team, few breakages and an unforgettable rescue was an achievement in itself.

“There is no better test of a team than operating offshore when it is all going wrong, whether you are in a gale or struggling to move in light airs,” Naylor concluded. “The team has done absolutely brilliantly. There are friends for life now. Maybe there is unfinished business – I might be back for a sixth.”

Cowes welcomes the long way home

The finish line has remained busy as the smaller and more Corinthian teams complete their long way home. After a drink dockside, the RORC Cowes Clubhouse offers a warm shower, hot food and team drinks, which are like heaven to the sailors. The young German team Loewe von Bremen was joined by Gavin Howe and Shetlander Maggie Adamson racing double-handed on Tigris. Their arrival completed a deeply personal circumnavigation for Adamson, whose passage through home waters included friends sailing out to wave and an offer of a Sunday roast from her mother – outside assistance meant the crew had to settle for pot noodles. The RORC Cowes Clubhouse has been buzzing 24-7.

Cameron Davis’ Farr 40 Espresso Martini Too also completed the race after an experience the charter crew described as more important than the result. With no autopilot, sailors of mixed experience developed the demanding skill of helming downwind at night and came ashore with new confidence and a strong sense of camaraderie.

The double-handed JPK 1030s Zanzibar, sailed by Inka Luhrs and Richard Bretherton, and Ronin, sailed by Benjamin Grosman and Klaus Rasmussen, added two more finishes from a division that has produced some of the closest and most determined racing of the event. Paddy Moriarty’s Swan 44 Astrid has also completed the course, adding another classic offshore yacht to the roll call of finishers.

Three more bearing down on Cowes

At 08:30 BST on Saturday 22 August, Richard and Emma Breese’s double-handed J/105 Mojo had 24 nautical miles remaining and was projected to finish shortly after midday. The Nicholson 55 Quailo III had 41 miles to sail, with the Dutch Xp 44 Xantho just two miles farther from Cowes. Both were projected to arrive during the afternoon.

Their finishes will bring together three very different campaigns: the father and daughter team on Mojo, the heritage and family story aboard the 1974 Quailo III, and the Dutch crew of Xantho. Each will receive the same welcome on Trinity Landing after nearly two weeks at sea.

Still racing, still counting

Once the Saturday finishers are home, three boats will remain on the racecourse. At 08:30 BST, Kuba Szymanski’s Polished Manx 2 had 227 nautical miles remaining and was projected to finish on Monday 24 August. Dirk Lahmann’s 1978 Two Tonner Snifix Dry had 255 miles to sail, with a projected finish the same day.

Farther north, AJ Wanderlust still had 518 nautical miles to complete. Her projected arrival was Thursday 27 August, although finish predictions at that distance remain highly dependent on the weather and the boat’s progress.

A northerly gradient airflow may yet bring all three crews a faster passage home, providing downwind sailing south through the North Sea before reaching angles west in the English Channel. If it establishes as forecast, the shift could shorten the current finish projections, although tide, local effects and the final approach to Cowes will still influence arrival times.

For those three crews, the Round Britain and Ireland Race remains very much alive. Every watch, sail change and mile gained still matters, and their eventual arrival in Cowes will deserve every bit as much recognition as those already celebrating at the RORC Clubhouse.

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by Louay Habib / RORC