Friday 18th June, 2010
Southampton Airport seems an appropriate place to write this blog. As most of the country finish work and prepare to go to the pub and watch the football, I am sitting here, about to jump on a plane bound for Dublin. The last few weeks have been manic, but finally Friday the 18th has arrived and I am about to start one of the major races going on around the world at the moment. Sadly there are 4 races happening at the moment, all of which I would like to do, but they all clash and I cant do them all! The leaders of Round Britain and Ireland have just left Lerwick in a F9 gale – so I am quite glad I am not doing that! It also would have meant missing my bf’s wedding – not even an option! The second race is the Newport Bermuda, which I would be doing on Gracie the 70 ft Mcurdy and Rhodes Amercian boat that I did the Fastnet on last year. And the last is of course Round the Island Race, most people actually think that this is the race that I am doing, and then I have to repeat the race name of Round Ireland with a poor Irish accent!
On Sunday at midday Barry Hurley and I will start the 708 mile Round Ireland race aboard his 35ft JOD 35, Dinah. This is the boat that Barry did the OSTAR in last year against me. He did extremely well winning his class and I am delighted to be doing this race with him it what could be the beginning of a very successful partnership. It could also be the one and only race we do together!
Barry and I have spent a little bit of time training for this race, and along with boat captain Bob, Barry has done a superb job of getting Dinah ready for this race. The forecast so far isn’t looking terribly kind with very little wind forecast for the first few days, and then north easterly cold headwinds! Nice!
Anyway, whatever the weather I am really looking forward to getting back out to sea and this time with someone else! Woohoo!! I shall try and update my blogs regularly throughout the race and as always my twitter and facebook will be update. You can follow our progress at www.roundirelandrace.ie

Hannah

This weekend I flew to a rather wet Dublin for a weekend of short-handed offshore training with Barry Hurley on his JOD 35, Dinah.

In just under 3 weeks Barry and I will set sail from Wicklow, Ireland on the 700 mile race round Ireland. Barry and I have known each other for many years but became good friends during last years OSTAR race in which Barry won his class. We have talked about doing some double handed racing together and being Irish we thought that this IRC race, on home waters would be the perfect.

Dinah, the JOD 35 has sailed many miles offshore and Barry has now owner here since early 2008. He has done extensive work to her over the years and I am pleased to say that she is in immaculate condition. For more info on the boat you can visit Barry’s website www.dinah.sail.ie

The purpose of the weekend was to sail for the first time on Dinah and get to know her and spend some time with Barry figuring out who would be doing what in the race. The weekend went extremely well, and I flew back feeling very confident that not only will we have a good chance in the up and coming race but also that we will have a lot of fun.

Despite the weather we did a lot of sailing and practiced our double-handed manoeuvres. With both of us so used to sailing on our own it was quite strange having someone else to help with the tacks or gybes! And what a difference it made! We also stole a small amount of time of Saturday evening to watch both of our respective nationalities do exceeding badly in this years Eurovision Song contest…. It did wonders for UK –Irish relations!

The weekend was great and I cant wait to get out to Ireland in a few weeks time to start the race. I would also like to say what a wonderful yacht club the royal irish is, and I hope to spend some more time there in the future.

Bring on the 20^th June!!!

Hannah

As part of a new initiative, Hannah is entering the world of podcasting. 365 days ago Hannah was 500 miles into a solo transatlantic race and in this first podcast she talks about her experiences in this legendary race, the OSTAR 2009.

Click here to listen.

After 8 hours of flying you expect to get off a plane and arrive in some sort of sunshine, otherwise you might as well have stayed at home! On this occasion this is not the case, I have flown all the way to Washington and yes – it is raining. Annapolis, is this week the home of the USA East Coast IRC Championships.
I am over here sailing a Mark Mills designed King 40. The USA based boat is owned by British businessman Mike Williamson. With a mostly pro crew we are out here as the second regatta in a series taking us through to the Caribbean season next year. Today and for the next 2 days we have been training and getting used to the new setup with symmetric spinnakers we are running on this regatta and the real racing starts on Friday – bring it on!
More tomorrow!

On Saturday night Hannah was invited to attend the annual Petit Bateau Prize Giving at the Island Sailing Club in Cowes. Some of the 400 members of Petit Bateau had braved the October weather for the final race in the Solent Series held across the summer.

At the end of the prize giving after at least 15 trophies had been awarded across the fleet, Hannah was presented with the OSTAR trophy for the fastest under 35 footer (eligible to 15 entrants) in the prestigious trans-Atlantic race. On the water Hannah finished over 24 hours ahead of the next competitor and finished just under 6 days ahead of Frenchman, Lionel Regnier who won the trophy 4 years previously.

This trophy represents Hannah’s extraordinary achievement in this notoriously challenging race in not only reaching Newport but in getting there is a remarkable time. This trophy just comes 2 weeks before the official prize giving at the Royal Western Yacht Club, which unfortunately Hannah will not be able to attend.
Hannah’s thanks go to Petit Bateau, and in particular Jerry Freeman, fellow OSTAR competitor and founding member of Petit Bateau who do so much for the sport of Single-handed racing.

He had this to say about Hannah’s achievement:

This year the trophy was won by Hannah White in a fantastic time of 20 days and no hours and 20 minutes,
Pure Solo , a Figaro 2 , was 4th boat on the water after the three 40 footers Hannah came within a whisker of beating Mary Falk’s long standing class record of 19 days 22.hrs 57min
which QII has held since 1996.

The figaro was on charter and this was Hannah’s first race in the boat so to make such a beautiful race was a great achievement.

It was my great pleasure to present the trophy to Hannah at the ISC on Saturday night after she had graciously presented the Solent Solo Series prizes at the PB supper.