Well done Moonbeam and well done her crew!  Together we made a very happy, united and competitive team.  We crossed the finishing line competing to the last and actually pipped another boat in our class on the line!  Exciting stuff!  Most importantly we returned free of mishaps, injury-free, and without any boat or rig damage or split sails.

Our performance in the race wasn’t bad given the weight that we were carrying what with a nine man crew and the fact that Moonbeam is primarily for cruising with a well stocked wine cellar, provisions sufficient for an ocean crossing and full fuel and water tanks!  The racing members of the crew found it hard to fathom why the skipper was topping up with fresh water before the start of the race.  The fact, also, that Moonbeam has a fine set of Le Creuset kitchenware onboard left them slack jawed!

The Result:  All things considered Moonbeam fared pretty well in the race.  The bald facts are that we covered the course in 10 hours 11 minutes (almost 2 hours quicker than our last attempt!).  We were 30^th out of 47 in our Class and 564^th overall out of a total of 1753 boats ie in the top third.  Given the above I think that is a good result. 

More importantly we had our Spinnaker up for 3.5 hours of the race from The Needles to St Catherine’s Point and almost as far as Bembridge.  We even gybed it in over 20 knots of wind. Once the wind had risen to over 23 knots we decided it prudent to take the spinnaker down which was a prudent move given the trials and tribulations that a number of the other boats nearby were experiencing.  For our success with the Spinnaker my thanks go to Tom Beezer and Sophie Eels, our foredeck crew, who worked tirelessly for as long as she was up.  Thanks also to David Walder our tactician for his excellent leadership and briefing of the rest of the crew in spinnaker handling.  The Round the Island Race is not a bad time to have your first serious sail with Spinnaker up!

Other members of the crew were: Bridget our helmswoman supreme, Mike her deputy, Adrienne in the snake pit whilst spinnaker was up manning the guy rope and generally advising and last but by no means least Ben and Zed who were grinders in cramped conditions manning the Genoa sheets.

FINALLY AND MOST IMPORTANTLY THANK YOU SO  MUCH TO OUR MANY GENEROUS SPONSORS.  WE HAVE TO DATE RAISED ABOUT £3,000 (THE SITE IS STILL OPEN) FOR PESTALOZZI INTERNATIONAL VILLAGE TRUST.  THIS IS A GREAT RESULT ALL ROUND!!

For those of you that have promised a contribution but were waiting until the race was run can you kindly post your contributions to this site.

Will we take part next year? I think not – certainly if Bridget has anything to do with it!  However if I suggest it whilst sitting in front of a log fire in December dreaming of the summer sailing  to come……Who knows?!  By then we might have forgotten the effort of getting Moonbeam from Eastbourne to Hamble in the first place and the two days that we were storm bound in Hamble following the race and indeed the 'shake down' day the day before the race and the race start time of 0620........! Any volunteers??

Our fondest regards to you all,

Richard and Bridget Maidment