British yachtswoman Dee Caffari and her all female crew onboard Aviva have had a successful first night in their attempt to break the record for sailing around Britain and Ireland.
British yachtswoman Dee Caffari and her all female crew onboard Aviva have had a successful first night in their attempt to break the record for sailing around Britain and Ireland. Having departed from Gosport at 6pm yesterday, the crew crossed the official start line off Ventnor on the Isle of Wight at 21:09:36 and are sailing in an anti-clockwise direction.
Dee Caffari commented: "It's been wicked. We are really on the pace and have worked hard overnight dodging shipping in the English Channel with lots of manoeuvres and sail changes already. We are about to enter an area of variable weather which will keep us pretty busy for the rest of today."
The all female crew are hoping to making good progress today, despite a dying low pressure system, before picking up a new breeze that will set them on their way again and continue to increase as a cold front comes in.
At 9am this morning, Caffari and crew were passing Southend-on-Sea and were approximately 10 hours ahead of the pace required to beat the outright record.
Round Britain and Ireland record overview
- Dee Caffari, the British yachtswoman who made history by becoming the first woman to sail solo, non stop both ways around the world, set off at 21:09:36 on Monday 15 June to attempt to break the record for sailing around Britain and Ireland
- Caffari is joined onboard her racing yacht Aviva by an all female crew, including fellow British yachtswoman and Vendée Globe race rival Samantha Davies, sailor Miranda Merron and boat captain Alex Sizer
- The current outright record stands at 7 days 4 hours and was set in May 2004 onboard Solune
- Another record in their sights is for an all female crew, which stands at 10 days and 16 hours recorded by Samantha Davies and her crew onboard Roxy in June 2007
- The route is almost 2,500 nautical miles around the British coastline and the crew
To follow Dee and the crew’s progress onboard Aviva throughout the record attempt, visit the Aviva Ocean Racing race tracker at: www.avivaoceanracing.com/index.asp?pageid=120
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For further information and interview requests contact:
Kelly Russell
Mobile: +44 (0)7786 516570
E-mail: Kelly.russell@synergy-sponsorship.com
Website: www.avivaoceanracing.com
Images: www.avivaoceanracing.com/images
Notes to editors:
About Aviva
Aviva is the leading provider of life and pensions to Europe with substantial positions in other markets around the world, making it the world’s fifth largest insurance group based on gross worldwide premiums at 31 December 2007
Aviva’s principal business activities are long-term savings, fund management and general insurance, with worldwide total sales of £49.2 billion and funds under management of £359 billion at 30 June 2008
The Aviva media centre at www.aviva.com/media includes images, company and product information and a news release archive
For broadcast-standard video, please visit our video section
Crew information:
Sam Davies
Aged 34, Samantha Davies made a dramatic entrance into the closed circle of solo sailors by achieving a remarkable feat during the Vendée Globe 2008/2009. Finishing 4th overall, first woman and first British skipper of the race, the Cambridge engineering graduate brought her boat Roxy (double Vendée Globe winner with Michel Desjoyeaux and then Vincent Riou at the helm) home first out of the older generation boats in the prestigious solo round the world race.
Even though the public might have discovered Sam during her round the world voyage, the offshore sailing community had already been keeping a close eye on the progress and talent of the most French of the British sailors (she lives in Kerlin in Brittany). A talented Figaro sailor, Sam has raced four times in the Solitaire du Figaro (2003 to 2006) and sailed on board Roxy in the last edition. She finished the 2007 Transat Jacques Vabre in 10th position (the first of the old generation boats to finish) with her friend and accomplice Jeanne Grégoire. She went to take the fifth place in the Transat Ecover B2B the same year, again onboard Roxy.
Before leaving Les Sables d’Olonne for her first solo round the world race, Sam Davies had already achieved a remarkable 5th place (and first British sailor) in the 2008 Artemis Transat with a sprint finish despite having collided with a whale.
Miranda Merron
Miranda started sailing when she was five years old on the River Seine, south of Paris. Educated in England, she graduated from Cambridge University before going to work in advertising. Having opted for a change of career, Miranda has been sailing professionally for the past 12 years and has competed in solo, double-handed and fully-crewed races, including the Route du Rhum, Transat Jacques Vabre, Volvo Ocean Race and four laps around Britain & Ireland. She has spent the past two seasons racing the Class40 “40 Degrees”, winning the 2008 Championship.
Alex Sizer
Alex has been involved as preparateur and crew of professional offshore race campaigns for many years. Having raced in the BT Global Challenge as crew for Mike Golding, she has also spent several years working for Mike in the lead up to the Vendée Globe races in 2000 and 2008. She has spent the last two years working as Boat Captain of a Class 40 project, helping the project win first place in the 2008 Championship. At present she is overseeing the project of a New Class 40 to be launched in August of this year.