A crew of nine Turn to Starboard beneficiaries and a 40-foot yacht entered and completed the charity’s first-ever entry to the Round the Island Race…
1204 boats and around 15,000 sailors entered the annual race, making the one-day event the largest and most spectacular yacht race of its kind in the world. The course runs approximately 50 nautical miles around the Isle of Wight and is organised by the Island Sailing Club.
Turn to Starboard use Royal Yachting Association (RYA) sailing courses to support Armed Forces personnel who have been affected by military operations. Their crew finished in 367th place out of 656 boats completing the race, and took them around 11 hours.
Turn to Starboard Senior Sailing Instructor, Dan Fielding, said: “It was a slow start due to light airs and as we got round the ‘Needles’ we popped the spinnaker and sailed the south of the island very slowly and at times were stuck in wind holes. Yet with the hard work and patience of the crew we made it round the corner only to once again to drift with the tide.
“An hour into drifting and a lot of the fleet bunched up together and there was an almighty cheer from the many vessels who were watching the football – letting us all know England had won! Whoever was watching over England turned their attention to us and gifted us a great breeze that allowed us to take off at a rapid rate of knots.
“With adrenaline pumping we made our way back round the top of the island and hunting for the finishing line. After over 11 hours of frustrating and technical racing, we crossed the finish line in 367th place out of over 1200 yachts with big smiles on our faces.
“I felt massively proud of the guys adaptability, we had a lot to do and some changes we had to make on the hoof, yet to see the guys taking it in their stride was a pleasure to watch and be part of.”
