This year’s Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race turned into a true epic, eventually decided by just over 7 minutes after two weeks of racing. Despite the light airs forecast, the 1,800-mile race took even longer to complete than predicted for many, with some boats having run very low on food and non-emergency water by the time they finally crossed the RORC finish line in Cowes.
Among those to take a full fortnight to complete the circumnavigation was the JPK1010 Jangada. Sailed double-handed by Richard Palmer with Yachting World regular contributor and boat tester Rupert Holmes, the pair finished with an elapsed time of 14d 22h, taking 1st in IRC overall, as well as 1st in IRC Class 3 boat and 1st Two-handed boat.
Holmes explained: “This edition will be remembered for the very slow first week mostly in extremely light airs. However, the 300-mile one-sided beat from St Kilda to Muckle Flugga, at almost 61° north, proved moderately brutal in a bitterly cold Arctic wind gusting in the upper 20s and disproportionately heavy seas.
“We enjoyed superbly close racing throughout, with boats in sight for most of the race, and at times only a few hundred metres apart. This carried on right through to the finish, where seven boats crossed the line little more than an hour apart. It was incredible in this respect for 15 days at sea and kept us all driving hard throughout the race.
“Outside of the Vendée Globe this is surely the toughest course of any offshore race in the world. Yet there was an unprecedented number of two-handed entries – 16 boats representing two-thirds of the IRC-rated fleet.”
The overall win was decided by the thinnest of margins, with Jangada’s corrected time just 7 minutes and 9 seconds ahead of Rob Craigie’s Sun Fast 3600 Bellino, racing two-hand
