I first entered the RB&I Race in 1985. On that occasion a friend and I chartered a 35’ trimaran called ‘Cheers Dears’. We qualified and were totally prepared for the race but were unable to raise sufficient sponsorship to pay the charter fee and had to withdraw from the race; a huge disappointment.

You can imagine my excitement when in September 2001, sitting in the club, Tony Cotton (also a member of TMSC) asked me if I would be interested in joining him on his 10M Dazcat called ‘Bedazzled’ for the 2002 event.

We spent last winter making serious preparation for the race. The boat was fitted with extra winches, running backstays, modified rigging, a new spinnaker, removable internal bulkheads to increase our chances in the event of a capsize and numerous safety modifications. We removed most, but not all, unnecessary items. We also prepared ourselves with first aid and sea survival courses, a lot of sailing and a keep fit regime in keeping with our ages!

Having qualified and prepared well, we spent very little time together prior to the race. Tony was busy earning brownie points in London and I was busy funding a month off work.

Five days before the start we joined up for scrutineering in QAB and were given a few minor jobs, the main one being to provide guard rails at the back of the cockpit – a modification I was happy to have and one which interestingly has stayed.

After a farewell meal with our wives and a few friends we found ourselves returning to the boat alone for a good nights sleep before the start the next day, June 9^th. It was hard not to be overwhelmed by the mixed emotions of anticipation, apprehension, excitement and of course, saying farewell to our families.

Tony is a retired airline pilot who owned a monohull in the Solent and has done a fair bit of fair weather sailing but no long distance racing and had owned Bedazzled for less than 12 months. I have done the Atlantic, charter work and raced and sailed cats for 25 years but had done no serious offshore sailing for some years. With 104 years between us, short handed racing represented a challenge for both of us and we decided on three objectives before we left: enjoy it, get round and pull a result – in that order!

Race day dawned with grey skies and a very stiff breeze. There was much talk of small jibs and reefs both on the dock and in the café over breakfast.

Darren Newton, who built Bedazzled, also had a new 40 footer in the race sailed by Mike Butterfield and Guy Gibbons. His workshop manager, Simon Baker was entered in a J 109 and Simon’s brothers, Matt, a Clipper skipper, was also in the race as was our friend Bob Beggs, winner of the Clipper Round the World race and another local boat-builder, Pip Patterson. Darren hired one of the local pleasure boats and we all enjoyed a royal send off from over a hundred well-wishers on the ferry. Briefly we felt like celebrities.

We had a good start at the front of the 14 multihulls but were soon overhauled by the two favourites, the large trimarans ‘Spirit’ with Robin Knox-Johnston on board and ‘Gleam’, crewed by Graham Goff, who was a crew on Team Philips. We were first catamaran out of the sound and one of the few multihulls to lay the western end of the breakwater without tacking. And now the fun begins.

It was lively but OK out to the Eddystone and some miles past the light we tacked and laid a course to clear the Lizard. All afternoon the wind increased until we had 30 and 35 knots of true wind. Later in the race we sailed with much more wind but the sea state in the western approaches was horrendous and at 2100, south of St Anthony’s Head we decided to shelter in Falmouth. We were quite low as we entered the marina but not alone. Another 3 boats were already there and more joined us during the night.

One boat left at first light but was back in no time saying the conditions were worse. The forecasts were awful. Suddenly the sail round Britain was looking very long indeed. During the afternoon the weather seemed to moderate and we decided to go for it. On the way out of Falmouth we saw Simon Baker and Gareth Thomas motoring in with no mast: ’Jack O Lantern’ had dropped it over the side at Bishops rock. A further five boats were dismasted that night and out of the five multihulls that carried on to Cork, two made it, one made it with damage and the other two, the favourites mentioned earlier, had to retire as a result of the damage they sustained.

To add to our frustration we had 10/12 knots of wind all the way to Bishop, which we rounded the next morning, and even less that day covering 10 miles in 10 hours – and we’re supposed to be racing?!

After this first leg we were obviously playing catch up and we did a pretty good job of that ending up 1^st multihull in our class and 10^th overall out of 20 finishers from 38 starters.

The weather was said to be the worst ever experienced on this classic double-handed race. We had a gale on each of the five legs, including an easterly Force 10. (in June?!!) Thankfully we were in port for most of it! Even worse, we were also becalmed on every leg.

I remember sailing across the finish line in Barra in 40 knots of breeze at 14 knots with a handkerchief on the forestay and then trying to find a mooring in tiny Castlebay in the dead of night and driving rain. I remember reaching out to St Kilda in a force seven in a sea left over from the force ten and then bearing away north towards Sulga Sgeir and North Rona. We were going like a steam train!! I remember being becalmed on 21^st June and staying up all night with a little refreshment enjoying the post-sunset glow that remained through the night. Also blast reaching all the way down through the North Sea and a place called ‘Devil’s Hole.’ The stopovers were good fun, the comradeship fantastic and the welcome in Lerwick legendary.

My one regret was suggesting to Tony that the last leg from Lowestoft was just like a weekend sail down the channel. We drifted over the start on the tide, struggled to fly the kite all night until a wind shift wrapped it round the forestay, enjoyed a fantastic three sail reach across the Thames estuary and through the Goodwin sands, turned the corner at Dover and Bang!! Straight on the nose for 48 hours – Force six to eight and again a horrible sea. This time we could smell Plymouth and just kept going but it was not pleasant – a real sting in the tail.

It wasn’t until we were approaching the light on the breakwater that it finally sunk in that having left Plymouth going west three weeks ago and now approaching from the east – that’s right – we really must have sailed all the way Round Britain! One of life’s great experiences and one I would strongly recommend. My thanks to Tony for giving me the opportunity.

Dick Ogilvie