...but as the crew of Gee tells us, they've finally managed to get some rest
Poor weather prevented the second leg of the Round Britain Race from taking place today, with forecasts predicting wave heights of up to 9m in the Bristol Channel.
The 39 remaining teams have been forced to truck their boats from Plymouth to Milford Haven ready for the run to Bangor, Northern Ireland tomorrow.
One boat MBM is following closely is Gee in the Historic Class. This Jim Wynn-designed boat is the oldest in the race, and was leading the very first Round Britain in 1969 before retiring with mechanical problems.
Below is the second blog from the team, following yesterday’s from Mark Clayton.
This time, it’s the team’s driver, John Guille, the current round Britain record holder, giving us his impressions.
“It’s actually been nice to get a bit of rest [due to the leg’s cancellation]. It’s been a bit hectic in the weeks up to the race, a bit of a rush to get Gee in the water. Yesterday was epic and this comes as a welcome break. We were all aware of the forecast, and they called a drivers’ meeting at 7.30am this morning, and reconvened 2 hours later, so finally at 9.30am they explained we wouldn’t be going. We had phoned ahead and had a trailer on standby, and at 9.30am we put that into action. Of the 49 boats that started, only 39 were due to leave Plmouth, so 10 are out already. All the teams were phoning round for trailers. People are still there waiting for lorries to turn up. We’re now en route to Milford Haven.
There was talk of some of the RIBs going round by sea first thing tomorrow morning, but now every single boat has gone up by trailer. Some teams have even leant their trailers to other teams to go back to Plymouth and pick up boats. The whole leg has been scrubbed from the total timing. We sourced some new trim rams today, and need to fit these tomorrow morning. Since Gee’s on a trailer, it’s a damn sight easier to put them on. We were ringing all around the country trying to find these rams, and eventually found them 500 yards from the boat. We’ve been debating all day whether tomorrow’s leg will happen, or whether we should carry on taking the boat by road, but the weather is looking like it will die by midnight, so should only be 3s and 4s tomorrow. They’ve put the start back two hours to allow people to get up to Milford. Got a drivers’ briefing at 8.45am tomorrow.”
Photo: Steve Rosam
