British Soldier

• Un très gros morceau

• British Soldier participe en IRC2 au Round Britain and Ireland Race 2014

  
  
  

le: 24 Aout 2014

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Inscrit    2013 sous le nom " TOE IN THE WATER "

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Premiers Résultats

• Quelques explications en Anglais

• As of 28th April, the new J111 arrived gleaming. I and five other ASA sailors (including the yacht’s new REYC Bosun - LCpl Simpson) visited Port Hamble to conduct acceptance and sea trials on the new yacht. We spent a morning pouring over every aspect of the yacht’s build quality, specification and inventory. In the main, we found her to be in excellent order and I am pleased to report that the build and finish quality is extremely high. The yacht’s specifications match our requirement exactly, especially in those areas where we had stipulated additional reinforcing to fortify her for the tough life ahead. The few minor snags that we picked up - for example, double as opposed to single3-pin sockets and relocation of the chart plotter - have since been fixed. We spent an afternoon test sailing the boat with the Broker and North Sails’ representative. She sails beautifully on all points of sail and we were able to unfurl the racing mainsail, the delivery mainsail, headsails and all 3 spinnakers. In 10 knots of breeze she made 8.1 knots upwind and offwind with her big masthead kite, we had her ‘planing at 12 knots. She is a dream to sail: light on the helm and extremely responsive, but she will require careful concentration in order to counter those breezy, twitchy moments. Following formal acceptance, I signed for the boat and we then delivered her straight to Fort Blockhouse, her temporary home until we move her toHornet Services’ Sailing Club, where Nick Trundle (OIC JSASTC) has very kindly agreed to let her be dry sailed. Her lay apart store and sail locker is housed within the AOSC. All registration formalities (i.e. Ships Radio Licence, EPIRB, Small Ship’s Register, Insurance, IRC Rating) are almost now complete. The ASA Office will apply for us to fly the defaced Blue Ensign. As expected, we have had to purchase new safety equipment; such as an 8 man canister liferaft, new flare pack and assorted minor items. These should see us through for a minimum of 5 years. Our old EPIRB has been serviced and the battery replaced. The Naming Ceremony is scheduled for Friday 17th May, when British Soldier will be officially named at the Army Offshore Sailing Centre (Fort Blockhouse, Gosport); immediately following the conclusion of the Army Offshore Regatta (AOR) prize-giving. Our sponsor Fujitsu has the honour of naming the yacht and we intend to invite a few guests, but don’t let that put you off; if you’d like to attend then just let me Tim Hill know. However…I do need some ASA sailors on hand to help host and take some of our guests out sailing after the buffet lunch. Please let me know if you can assist, atracing@sailarmy.co.uk. There may be a free British Soldier T-shirt up for grabs. I will naturally defer to those who wish to race her as my first port of call for ‘volunteers’. Finally I would like to thank Cpl Jamie Smith RTR for all his excellent support over the last 5 years in looking after British Soldier (and Longbow before that). Whilst looking after the RACYC yacht White Knight VI, Jamie has single-handedly looked after British Soldier and been passionate in maintaining her to the highest professional racing standard. For the most part this has been hard graft and definitely unsung: although I think his own personal skippering highlight must have been his highly successful trans-Atlantic crossing from Cape Verde to Antigua in 2011. Well done on all fronts Jamie,- thanks very much for all you have done for Army sailing and we wish you the best of luck on your new course in life. · The REYC has kindly agreed to take on BOSUN responsibilities for the new J111 for which the ASA is extremely grateful and I look forward to working closely with the new team. The weekend of 4-6th May, British Soldier is due to enter the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s (RORC) Cervantes Trophy Race (Cowes to Le Havre), the RORC’s first offshore race of the 2013 season. After delivery to Harwich, she is then due to enter the RORC North Sea Race 10-12th May, returning to Gosport over the AOR and in time for her naming ceremony. British Soldier has a full and varied race programme: the RORC series of races (including the Fastnet); Junior Offshore Group (JOG) and other inshore regattas, notably Cowes Week; the J Cup and Dartmouth Regattas. Toe in the Water has her for Cowes Week. Additionally, we have a number of mini-regattas for our sponsor Fujitsu . Finally, despite the best efforts of Boatmatch.com we were unable to sell our Archambault 40RC and she has been part exchanged with Key Yachting, supplier of the new yacht. The A40RC is now off our hands and destined, I understand, for a buyer in Scotland. Tim Hill Army Offshore Regatta and Services Offshore Regatta seeOffshore Sailing

• Le: 10 Mai 2013