Vertue enters Round Britain and Ireland Race!

[Sumara of Weymouth]

Vertue Mea skippered by Matteo Richiardi has crossed the start line in the RB&I Race. It will be an amazing achievement to complete the course in such a small yacht. He has a superb blog "Sailing Mea" on WordPress. There is very little about the race on the organisers website (Royal Western) but you can follow it on a tracker by downloading YB Races. Good luck to Matteo and his crew.

 

[pyrojames]

Yes best wishes to Matteo. He crewed for me a few years ago and is a very accomplished sailor.

 

[srm]

It will be an amazing achievement to complete the course in such a small yacht.

Why?

Lots of challenging voyages have been made by under 30FT boats. The Vertue is a supremely seaworthy design, all be it somewhat slow compared with the larger volume modern boats with dinghy form hulls and rigs.

One of the first Vertues crossed the Atlantic with a crew of two. There were two Vetues in the first Single Handed Transatlantic Race in 1960; David Lewis in Cardinal Vertue taking 55 days and Val Howells in EIRA taking 62 days.

Eric and Susan Hiscock's first circumnavigation (1952-55) was made in Wanderer III, which was all of 30 ft long and is by no means the smallest to circumnavigate.

 

[Sumara of Weymouth]

Why?

Lots of challenging voyages have been made by under 30FT boats. The Vertue is a supremely seaworthy design, all be it somewhat slow compared with the larger volume modern boats with dinghy form hulls and rigs.

One of the first Vertues crossed the Atlantic with a crew of two. There were two Vetues in the first Single Handed Transatlantic Race in 1960; David Lewis in Cardinal Vertue taking 55 days and Val Howells in EIRA taking 62 days.

Eric and Susan Hiscock's first circumnavigation (1952-55) was made in Wanderer III, which was all of 30 ft long and is by no means the smallest to circumnavigate.

Why? You are absolutely correct in pointing out that the Vertue is a very seaworthy design and PyroJames has confirmed Matteo's sailing skills. I suppose the reason I think it will be a great achievement is the will power needed to hang in there to complete the race course when the rest of the fleet will be so far ahead. Mea is currently heading towards Ireland while the front runners are already at the first stop over. It must be very tempting to retire when you may be bashing into headwinds yet you know safe cosy harbours with pubs are all nearby. So my reason I feel it will be a great achievement is to do with the sheer will power of the skipper and crew rather than the ability of the Vertue.

 

[KINGFISHER 9]

Proper boat.