Before this summer only nine double-handed teams had ever finished RORC’s gruelling, nonstop 1,800 mile Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race. Yet from the outset this year promised to be different, with the star-studded entry list including 16 very well prepared, experienced and practiced two-handed teams. More than half a dozen of these had obvious potential to win overall on IRC.
As with any race, preparation is vital and in this respect Jangada had a head start. Since Richard bought the boat in 2015 she has been meticulously improved with two goals in mind. Improving boat speed is obvious, but in this case it never comes at the expense of reliability, recognising that any breakage or malfunction can cost a considerable amount of time.
Equally, manoeuvres are planned so that there’s minimal chance of anything going wrong. As a result each one may take marginally longer than some boats in the fleet,