Fastnet 2011 Training Weekend is looming

It's two weeks until our first training session - two days studying for our ISAF certificates. This will be partly in the classroom, learning first aid, along with some practical bits like letting off flares and chopping up bits of shroud - or trying to, anyway. We'll also have a session in the pool, righting liferafts and trying to get in them. And, of course, it will be our first chance to get to know each other.

Meanwhile, Blue Juice, our First 40.7, chartered from those nice people at MECSail, is out of the water, having her bottom cleaned and some maintenance to the underwater bits. Then, the week after our shore training, we'll be out on the water for the first time, learning more about the boat and how to sail her.

Trev

RORC Rolex Fastnet 2011

The entry list for the Fastnet opened at midnight on 9th January. Our entry was in the following morning and by the 15th we had submitted crew details and all the other paperwork. We are provisionally accepted - provisional, that is, on our completing training and qualifying races. So, game on, as I believe they say these days. First stop, ISAF Offshore Safety Course.

From the RORC web site:

"Entry for one of the world's most popular yacht races opened at midnight on Sunday 9 January and by midday Monday, nearly 100 entries had signed up, with an unprecedented number doing so in the early hours of the morning. The trend continued over the next couple of days when the halfway mark of 150 boats was reached for the race which has a maximum entry of 300 boats. Within a week, 250 boats had entered!

"We expected an initial rush of interest because people were registering the details about their boat on our REMUS on-line entry system over Christmas," commented the RORC Racing Manager Ian Loffhagen. "However nothing had prepared us for this unprecedented amount of interest in the race. We are obviously delighted at how popular the race has become with entries from all over the world."

Of the high profile race boats entered, the two canting keel 100 footers, ICAP Leopard and Rambler 100 will be the ones battling to take line honours in the Race. Mike Slade's ICAP Leopard and George David's previous Rambler had a huge fight in the 2007 Rolex Fastnet Race, with Leopard taking the silverware. However, this year, George David has chartered the Juan K designed Speedboat, re-named Rambler 100, which will put Mike Slade under a lot of pressure.

There are 15 Class 40's entered so far and the next biggest classes are the Sigma 38 and First 40.7s, with 14 boats each and so far, 14 different countries will be represented in the 2011 Rolex Fastnet Race. "

The entry list has now apparently reached the limit of 300 boats!