ROYAL WESTERN YACHT CLUB ROUND BRITAIN & IRELAND 2022
SIX MULTIHULL CENTRE BOATS: 4 DAZCATS, 2 TRIMARANS (AND A MONOHULL)
An iconic and challenging test of boat & crew’s endurance, skill and luck over 2000 miles that has nearly always been won by multihulls.
Three mandatory 48 hr stopovers in Galway, Lerwick and Blyth
Race Facts
Start and the Race General Rules
Departs Plymouth at 1130 hrs Sunday 29th May.
The remit is to sail outside everything that makes up the British Isles. Approximately 2000 miles.
Other stops are allowed for repairs and shelter from weather but come off their race time.
Background
This is the 15th Edition of the two-handed Round Britain and Ireland Race that first began in 1966 and runs every four years, starting and finishing in Plymouth.
This race has seen many of Britain’s best-known sailors take part. It also provided the platform for multihulls to make their mark for the first time on the ocean racing scene by winning the first six places in the first ever edition of the race! A full history of entries and winners can be found on the RWYC website. It makes for interesting reading and has some great detail about the earlier multihulls and their pioneering designers and crews: https://rwyc.org/club-history/rbi-history/
2022 Changes
The world has changed since 1966 and the RB&I has been updated to keep up with the times.
A fully crewed option
The 2022 edition will see two races sailing alongside each other: two-handed and fully crewed. This is to make the race more accessible to all. Not everyone, or their boat, is able or interested in the hard core challenges of short-handed sailing. Taking the three weeks off work to commit to the race has also presented challenges and this version allows for more crew swap-outs. So, adding a fully crewed edition has opened things up considerably. One of our Multihull Centre boats has opted for this version.
A New Course
There is also to be a new course. Traditionally there have been four stops: Kinsale, Barra, Lerwick and Lowestoft with mandatory 48 hour stopovers at each. These are for crews to repair boats, rest and enjoy the social life in different locations. This time there will be just three, including two new hosts: Galway, Lerwick and Blyth. Again the thinking is about accessibility. By reducing the stopovers time is saved as for many it’s not always easy to get a month off work.
No Rowing Allowed (!)
One of great entertainments in the past has been watching the crews rowing when the wind fails. It has also helped many a boat get over the line first. Dazcat 1495 Hissy Fit rowed for many miles in the 2018 edition, causing some great amusement and surprise at seeing a 48ft boat gliding along under oar. How is Hissy Fit going to entertain us when they hit the doldrums this time? Personally hoping for a multihull race version of Masterchef…Or Great British Bake Off perhaps?
We (the spectators) will miss the rowing. It pays off and adds to the Corinthian spirt of the event. But of course we think that, with evidence of the 2018 efforts on the RWYC website: Hissy Fit as 1st on both class and corrected rank.
Dazcats and the RBI
Dazcats have a long history in the two-handed RB&I. Some of these are covered in the write ups below but of special note is that Rupert Kidd, owner of Sueños (D1195), will be doing his 7th race. We understand that on the successful completion of this race, he will become the most prolific RB&I sailor. Quite an accomplishment.
The trimaran ‘Paradox’ was the first Dazcat designed and built for a paraplegic sailor. It was launched in 1997 and is the three-time winner of the Round Britain and Ireland Race. We’ve since gone on to build a number of highly innovative accessible boats.
Many of the crews taking part in this year’s race have long histories with the RBI. Many of them have also sailed together in previous races, on different boats so quite a few will be racing against their one-time co-skippers or boats.
How to get involved
A race of this length and in these waters is guaranteed to bring many highs and lows to all the boats and crews. The unfolding dramas during the 2018 edition had us gripped to our screens right to the end. As the narrator at this end, for much of the time I was doing the watch system with the boats, the alarm set every few hours through the night as I didn’t want to miss any of the action. Things can change fast at sea…
You will be able to follow the racers’ progress live on the race tracker. Details of this will be shared as soon as it is available.
All the Multihull Centre boats will be making live updates as they go around. You can follow their progress on the Dazcat Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/Multihullcentre/
And on the Multihull Centre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Themultihullcentre/
You can also find us on You Tube and Multimarine Manufacturing Ltd. Is on LinkedIn & Instagram @multimarine
The Dazcats and Nemo will also be filming on GoPros and sending back the footage from each stop so we can get a good glimpse of life on board each boat.
If you have family or friends racing and have news you’d like to share with Dazcat, or if you have any questions about the teams, feel free to contact me: oriel@multimarine.co.uk
If you want to make posts yourself you can use the tags:
#rbi2022; #dazcatrbi2022; #mocrarbi2022dazcat; #multihullcentrerbi2022 @RWYCRoundBritainandIreland
@rwycracing #roundbritain
DAZCATS
D1495 Hissy Fit Built 2014
Simon Baker
Dan Fellows
Once again Simon and Dan team up for another sailing adventure. They did this race together in 2010 on board Dazcat 1150 Drama Queen (now Bare Necessities). At 39ft Drama Queen was slightly smaller . This meant that back then when the rules allowed, it was easier to row. We’ll definitely miss the sight of Hissy Fit rowing this time around. Worse than missing the entertainment, it definitely helps to get the boat over the line when there’s no wind, a much needed boost for the bigger boats.
Simon is a director at Multimarine and oversees the build of Dazcats. Both Hissy Fit and Simon have an excellent race background with many podiums over the years. It’ll be Hissy Fit’s 2nd RB&I and Simon’s 4th. Hissy Fit came 1st in class and 1st in corrected rank in 2018.
Simon and Dan have raced extensively together over decades, starting with 18’ skiffs back in the 90s before moving over to multihulls. They also enjoy sharing family cruising holidays afloat and obviously don’t plan to abandon all cruising niceties as they race around Britain – Simon tells me he’s looking forward to enjoying afternoon tea and cake whilst racing and a pint or two with the competition during stopovers! Of course Hissy Fit is fully equipped with all the cruising luxuries including heating, a great sound system and very well kitted and stocked galley so they won’t be undergoing any hardships on board.
Dan spent his childhood and early twenties crossing to France and Spain racing and cruising, then raced dinghies around Europe and the U.K. He then invested time getting young family on the water playing and racing through youth programs as well as cruising with family and friends.
As well as the 2010 RBI, racing with Simon has included the French ArMen race and a lot of closer to home coastal MOCRA racing. Both have highly competitive spirits and Hissy Fit has many wins to her name, so once they get going Hissy Fit will definitely be one to watch.
D1195 Sueños Built 2010
Rupert Kidd
Alan Mitchell
For Rupert and Suenos this will be their 4th RB&I together and Rupert’s seventh. It’ll also be his 3rd RBI with Alan as co-skipper.
We think that he is currently a joint record holder with a man called Jerry Freeman for number of races completed. Sueños and Jerry’s monohul sat out the storm 4 years ago in Loch Boisdale. However, Jerry isn’t racing this time so on successful completion of the course Rupert will become a record breaking serial competitor!
The first RBI on board Sueños was just three weeks after her launch, when Rupert raced with designer Darren Newton as co-skipper.
Rupert and Alan have been friends for decades. They’ve done many 1000s of miles and multiple ocean crossings together, both racing and cruising. With both into their seventies there are too many boats and races to mention here, triumphs and tribulations. Between them they constitute the oldest and most experienced Multihull Centre/ Dazcat team by some margin and are quite possibly the oldest of all the entries.
Rupert has always expressed a preference for shorthanded racing, often going solo in his younger years and more recently his choice has been two-up for the longer offshore races. He prefers the simplicity of not having a crew to organise and worry about when racing. This doesn’t extend to cruising though – when the family were younger and the children pre-school age they spent the years living aboard their Outremer and sailing the Med and Carribean. Rupert, the family and Sueños still enjoy cruising together and following the 2018 RBI spent six months in the Canaries. I had the great pleasure of sailing the boat back with both Rupert and Alan. To see Sueños in cruising mode and get to know Rupert and Alan you can see the video of our trip on You Tube.
Alan had firmly renounced the race course some many years ago, claiming that he’d had enough of all that and it was cruising all the way for him from now on. He too spent many years as a liveaboard, though for him it was monohulls…But something has managed to lure him back to racing. Perhaps it’s the sheer pleasure you get from sailing with such a long-standing and good friend. Or maybe he was missing the exhilaration and challenges of racing. Maybe the allure of the comfort, warmth and hot meals that Sueños has to offer (her deep freeze will definitely be very well stocked) was just too much to resist. It’s definitely a very different prospect from their racing days on board the trimaran Fiery Cross. Hot showers whenever they want and cabin heating are also sure to have helped the decision and if they’re out there for so long they run out of clean clothes (highly unlikely on a Dazcat) they’ll even be able to put a quick wash through the on-board machine (again highly unlikely, unless they get very very bored!).
Sueños is set up as a true cruiser-racer and I’m quite sure Rupert and Alan intend to enjoy the comforts on offer as well as putting up some very experienced competition that the other multihulls will need to watch out for. Both are among the best navigators and readers of weather that I’ve had the pleasure to know. Invaluable skills in this race.
D10 Belladonna Built 1998
Dominic Gooding
Brendan Seward
This will be the 2nd RB&I for owner Dominic and also for his Belladonna, the oldest Dazcat taking part. Both were relatively new to racing first time around and did so well it had the other Dazcats seriously worried, until they had to take storm shelter and lost their lead. Since then they’ve been honing their skills together, including on the 2019 Fastnet race.
Dominic also owns and races a Firebird. Initially he bought into a half share of Fiery, Firebird #1, owned for many years by Rupert Kidd of Sueños. Rupert later sold his remaining share to Dominic claiming his knees could no longer take it. If you’re familiar with Firebirds you’ll understand. If not, this video of when I joined them for a day on Fiery gives a good insight into how seriously fast these boats can go and how much these two Dazcat owners love it! It’s also a good indication of the skills these two will be using when racing against each other and the rest of the fleet over the next few weeks. Fearsome!
Dominic’s co-skipper Brendan is Project Manager at the Multihull Centre Yard. He’s been sailing and racing multihulls for almost as long as he can remember and owns two. He’s raced extensively both inshore and offshore on many different Dazcats as well as other multihulls and freely admits that after completing his university placement with us it’s one of the main reasons he returned to work at the yard. Great news for us as he’s been on the winning boat many times. This will be his first RBI and this year the first time racing on Belladonna. It’s great to see him and Dominic join forces. Together they probably have the most relaxed personalities of the Dazcat teams but this hides a very highly competitive edge. Both are very definitely there to win and Belladonna, despite being 24 years old and having spent her first 20 years as a cruiser, is more than capable. Dominic and Brendan will be hoping for lighter winds and calmer seas though. Belladonna’s size is a limiting factor to maintaining speed in very heavy weather and though the boat handles it well (not a crack to be seen after all these years) it does slow her down. There’s some spectacular footage of Belladonna in the 2018 RBI on our You Tube playlist.
D995R Easy Tiger Built 2007
Neil tells me that doing the RBI is something that’s been on his mind for many years but his work offshore usually meant he couldn’t make the dates. Happily that’s changed for him now and the time has come. Neil is a keen racer and seems to spend almost all his free time on the water – racing phantoms out of Mountbatten in Plymouth, and a Beneteau 35 around the cans in Plymouth Sound. It all began for Neil when he was eight years old, crewing for his father on an oversized pond in the Midlands. Obviously it was enough to give him the bug as within a couple of years he was sailing offshore on a Nicholson 48 and in later years racing a variety of monohulls. His first boat, a Strider catamaran was also his introduction to multihulls. Since then he’s progressed via a 30ft trimaran to Easy Tiger.
Julian is also a keen racer though previously all on monohulls. He still has one foot in the monohulls camp with his Dehler 34 but has wholeheartedly welcomed multihulls into his life and lives aboard another with his wife at the Multihull Centre. He started sailing as a child, in the front of a Lark dinghy on a reservoir in the Midlands, and continued regular club racing through his teens. After a few years of only sporadic sailing, in 1999 Julian moved to the Devon coast with his young family. Here he began keelboat racing round-the-cans and the family bought a small cruiser-racer. As time went on Julian became a sailing instructor, and then discovered multihulls. He tells me “Over the years I have sailed three sides of Britain in stages, so this year’s RBI will complete the circumnavigation. For me, it’s all about learning while racing.”.
Julian and Neil have been enjoying racing Easy Tiger together as one of the benefits of a boat share partnership. They’ve also been investing in beefing things up a bit for the biggest race of all their lives.
It all starts with the rig so they’ve added a running backstay and renewed the standing rigging at the front to ensure the bowsprit is well supported. Like Belladonna, Easy Tiger sits low and light so the heavy weather can really be felt on board. To give themselves more options and make the boat more weatherproof in different conditions they’ve also got themselves a new staysail. For extra insurance they also have a beautiful new main from our superb North Sails approved local loft Highwater Sails, the highly talented owner of which is racing on the Shuttleworth Morpheus..
Weight distribution on a Dazcat is key to performance. Easy Tiger previously used traditional outboards so all the weight was at the stern of the boat. They’ve just changed to an electric outboard. The benefit (aside from the obvious) is that the 87kg battery has been fitted midships, so now the weight is centralised as it should be.
Easy Tiger is still 400-500 kgs lighter than Belladonna so although they’re the closest in size it’ll be really interesting to see their performance in different conditions.
TRIMARANS
Newick 38 Nemo
Matt Theobald
Enora Pichon
Trimaran Nemo has been making its debut on the racing scene sine Matt and Enora bought her as a near derelict in 2019 and brought her back from the South of France. They’ve entered as many races as they can, focussing on the most important jobs to complete on board between races. Each time making her stronger or faster in preparation for the next. Cosmetics are the least of their concerns, for Matt and Enora it’s all about the boat. They’ve certainly worked hard getting her ready for this one. Nemo’s full story and current updates is on their Facebook page: @NemoSailingTrimaran
Matt has been around the Multihull Centre yard since he was five years old when his mother started to work there. Now he’s the Yard Manager and Crane Driver. He is 100% a self-confessed multihull geek who lives to sail and knows almost all there is to know about multihulls.
Very early sailing experiences were with Grandma Shirley on her open day boat Emily, a mono hull. Matt says he doesn’t remember much about those times, but everything changed when the 10-year-old Matt was taken on a cub scouts day trip on the Woods designed catamaran Strider. It was a rubbish day that no one enjoyed, except the young cub Matt…Despite this, it wasn’t until he had left school that he really started to spend more time on the water. It all seemed to happen at around the same time. In 2005 Pip introduced him to Tony Purser on Backlash (a Schionning Waterline 1160) and they regularly started racing locally together. This turned into an enduring friendship and race partnership and really set Matt off on his sailing and racing career. Matt’s first ever night sail was when they did the qualifier for the 2010 2-handed Round Britain and Ireland! Needless to say, the race itself was his first extended experience of offshore racing, not least because the 72-year-old Tony broke 2 ribs early on in the race and couldn’t do any of the physical work. They were happy to make it round intact and the experience just spurred Matt on to wanting more and faster.
Matt and his brother bought their first boat together when Matt was just 17. A Diamond Cat, which they did up and sold. This was followed by an Iroquois, same procedure. Next came Matt’s own boat, a Shuttleworth Lynx. He did quite a lot of adaptation on this one extending it, adding reverse bows and painting it green – unlucky for some but not for Matt it seems. He started racing on Lynx quite a lot, honing his skills.
It was after he sold Lynx and had done the 2013 Fastnet on Backlash that he first started sailing Dazcats. He has done two Fastnet races, 2015 & 2017, on board Bare Necessities (D1150) with owners Bruce Sutherland and Alison Busfield. He also did the 2016 Round Ireland on board Bare Necessities as well as the 2016 French Ar-men race on board Hissy Fit (D1495) with Simon Baker. As well as these, he’s done the Round the Island 2 or 3 times 2-handed on Backlash and twice on Belladonna (D10), Trebuerden a few times on various boats and lots of local racing.
In the 2018 RBI he and Dominc teamed up on Belladonna to make formidable opponents. It was very soon after this that he and Enora met and quickly fell in love, and then in love again – this time with Nemo. At that time Enora had little sailing experience but she was keen and quick to learn and has raced every event with Matt since they got Nemo, all working towards this race. She’s already clocked up 1000s of miles including the 2019 Fastnet on Dazcat 10 Belladonna. They are the Multihull Centre’s youngest team, the only couple and Enora is the only woman racing. She’s possibly also the newest to racing. For all these reasons we’ll be following Nemo carefully and cheering for them loudly – a young couple who have poured all their resources and time into achieving their dreams
Shuttleworth Trimaran 39 Morpheus
Andrew Fennell
Paddy Hutchings
Andy Sinclair
Sam Curtis to Lerwick
Richard Enoch from Lerwick
Morpheus’ owner Andy has done one previous two-handed RBI on his 43′ Tri ‘Strontium Dog’, co-skippered with Simon Redding.
Morpheus is a mighty, all carbon machine: 39ft long and 32 ft wide! Stunning to look at and truly impressive when she’s flying. The boat was conceived in 2015, followed by 18 months of design work with John and Orion Shuttleworth.
The build, directed by Simon Redding from Liskeard, took place from 2016-2017 in the Philippines. The boat was then shipped to Essex in two containers where the next phase began. From 2017-2018 the build to launch stage was directed by Andy Fox and Morpheus finally reached the water in April 2018.
Since then Morpheus has been put through the paces and they’ve already had many successes. Some of their races so far include 4 x RWYC Triangles (obviously a favourite, as it is with us all!); 3 x Round The Islands, last year coming in a fantastic 11th over the line out of 1100 boats! 2 x RORC Fastnet races and the first boat home in the multihulls under 50′ class last year.
There have also been many other RORC races, including completing a RORC Round The Island in 5 hours and coming in 2nd boat in after MOD70 Power Play. Also 2 x Cowes to St Malo and the Myth of Malham.
Morpheus is determined to give her best effort for this race and spent time at the Multihull Centre Yard this winter getting herself fully race ready. Ian Munslow, our carbon expert (and also racing on the monohull Orbit) has left nothing to chance for the hammering Morpheus is sure to take as she flies around the 2000 mile course. “Over-spec and bang on time” said Andy last month “Couldn’t be happier!”
Morpheus is the only fully crewed boat from the Multihull Centre. A wise decision as at those speeds it’s not just the boat that gets a hammering, the crew will be working hard and sleep maybe hard to find at times.
The crew consists of Sam Curtis – sailmaker and moth sailor who has been a regular crew member on Morpheus throughout. He’ll swap out with Richard Enock in Lerwick as he has another important event to get to – the Moth Nationals.
Andy Sinclair – owner of our excellent local sail loft, Highwater Sails, approved by North Sails. Andy has a long history of racing both monohulls and multis and often sails with our Multihull Centre enthusiasts. He and Brendan have recently bought a shared boat together and will be out on the water this summer challenging the local multihulls.
Paddy Hutchings – a young Plymouth hotshot. At just 21 Paddy already has more accomplishments on the world stage than many could hope for in a lifetime. He’s raced in the UK, France, USA, Brazil and more on everything from minis to Imoca 60s. He’s currently enjoying successes with Figaros and also working as an ambassador for Clean Sailors, supporting sustainable practices for cleaner oceans. His accomplishments are too many to list here but there’s a comprehensive history on his Facebook page, just search for Paddy Hutchings Racing.
Andrew Fennell, owner and skipper who brought Morpheus to life obviously has a passion for enjoying life and very fast things (he’s also a keen biker). At 16 he ran away to sea on a banana boat, then tells me he “Got qualified, then fell off a motorbike and woke in hospital and decided to be a dentist instead at 22”! He’s now a successful surgeon and living his dreams with Morpheus.
They are sure to be pushing hard and Morpheus is definitely another to keep a close eye on.
And…A couple of monohull mentions!
Orbit Sunfast 3300 (monohull)
Dominic Bowns
Ian Munslow
This mono-hull has made it onto the list as Ian Munslow, co-skipper, is a long-time member of our yard build team specialising in carbon work. His CV reads like a Who’s Who of racing including boats he’s worked on , been shore support for and raced on from IMOCA 60’s – America’s Cup including for Ben Ainslie. He’s also built boats and sailed them on every continent pretty much. Personal accomplishments as a single hander include 3rd place in the 2006 Route du Rhum race as a sponsored solo sailor. Also the 2001 & 2003 Mini Transat Races, a round the world and 1000s of delivery miles.
Dominic Bowns was his sponsor in the Mini-Transat days and they’ve fairly recently hooked up again when Orbit came to Plymouth. They took part in last year’s Plymouth Fastnet 500 race, successfully completing when so many of the fleet withdrew. They have the grit and stamina and their boat has the capability. We just feel a little sorry for them being in a monohull (for obvious reasons). But that’s where they’re happy and it’s in monohulls that Ian has done most of his sailing so we wish them all the same luck we wish for our multihulls and will be cheering them on too as well as following on the tracker.
ALSO…
Open 60 Pegasus
Ross Hobson
Adrian Banks (To Lerwick)
Chris Briggs (from Lerwick)
By rights this monohull shouldn’t really be here at all but both Ross Hobson and Chris Briggs are well known and prolific multihull racers. Chris was also a long time Multihull Centre Yard customer with his Nigel Iren’s Design ‘The Edge’ and also recently raced the MOCRA Nationals on board D1195 Sueños. Ross has set world records and is a previous winner on this race.
The above credentials still don’t quite explain how they’ve snuck onto this page. It’s those in combination that they’ll be sailing to raising awareness of the debilitating illness Parkinson’s. Owner Adrian Banks was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2017. His aim is “To share how sport, especially sailing and racing can be hugely positive to sufferers. So, we are helping to share their message as we too firmly believe that being on the water is beneficial in so very many ways. You can read more about Pegasus and crew on their website: https://pegasus-racing.co.uk
Multihull Centre Boats and Dazcats in the 2018 Race
Get in the mood before the race start.
All the multihull videos form the 2018 race are on our You Tube Channel. Some of it makes for quite gripping viewing: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWV92NthSQOtB_sZd0lffYQfMehb1eLZN
The full race write up is here: https://www.multihullcentre.com/2021/01/18/round-britain-ireland-2018-four-dazcats-racing/
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