ROUND BRITAIN RIB CHALLENGE 1999

RIBCRAFT 9.0 Wheelhouse

It was early in the year when I first learnt of the Round Britain by reading a feature in Rib International, that sounds interesting I thought to myself. We were planning to build a 9.0 metre demonstrator boat for the summer so adding up the possibilities it seemed like it was worth a go, I contacted Alan Priddy at Offshore Expeditions and entered.

As time ticked on towards the Ribex show, we finally got round to building our new demonstration boat. The lengthy discussion started to what type of Rib we wanted to exhibit at Ribex, Seawork and Southampton, I opted for a standard open Rib with a centre console and jockey seating, Mark had another idea and wanted to build the All-weather wheelhouse version. The only thing we agreed on as the engine had to be diesel, after much discussion we agreed that I was wrong and mark was right, or was that the other way round, Anyway the 9.0-metre All-weather self-righting wheelhouse was the order of the day. It was going to be easy I foolishly thought to myself, Going round Britain in a Rib with windscreen wipers, wall to wall carpet and a heater.

PHOTO COURTESY OF NEIL ELAM

Friday 28^th May (The day before)

The anticipation of circumnavigating Britain is gaining momentum, What have I let myself in for! I travelled to Christchurch where the boat had been looked after for the week between Ribex and the challenge. She looked like a mobile billboard covered in advertising; Nigel and Richard had gone to town and got sponsorship for the fuel. We waved goodbye to Christchurch and proceeded to Portsmouth.

Saturday 29^th May

Saturday dawned; a beautiful sunny morning greeted us. The start was nearly upon us and of course we were well prepared waiting on the start line in plenty of time for the off, well no we were actually Sitting on the fuel pontoon waiting for the Harbour launch to finish fuelling what seemed like super tanker fuel tanks. In formula one style we quickly threw in as much fuel as we could and dashed to the start line.

We arrived just on the gun and quickly chased to join the ever-disappearing fleet. Heading past Hurst castle looking for the camera boat, we took our waypoint to Portland bill making good speed, This was the life, the sun was shining and sea calm.

We were about half way across Lyme bay when the sun disappeared and the sky started to turn a very menacing black, a Thunderstorm was ahead without a doubt. Richard wanted to run out to sea as he thought the storm was travelling inland, I on the other hand liked the look of the nice big hills which I am sure the lightning would have preferred our little boat. Richard won and we diverted course heading out to sea. We subsequently drove right through the middle of the Thunderstorm. With lightning striking all around us it was turning into an interesting day, Luckily we found a yacht which had also been trapped in the storm, we sat next to him looking at his mast thinking what a good lightning conductor he had. We finally plucked up courage and continued on our heading, which eventually took us out of the storm. After our eventful day we arrived at Falmouth, What we thought would be one of the easiest legs turned out quite the contra.

Sunday 30^th May

Another lovely sunny calm day, yesterday started like this so I wasn’t holding my breath just encase. Leaving Falmouth the sea was like a sheet of glass with barely a ripple. Heading towards Lands End we encountered our first treat, on the bow a fin pierced the surface in a jaws like fashion! We slowed down and sure enough we were running next to a shark (don’t ask me what type). We pondered for a few photographs and continued, Rounding Lands end the northerly wind made the sea short and steep. Running head to sea, we made our way to our next waypoint that was the smalls light. We encountered a great number of dolphins to the south of the smalls; we slowed the boat and managed to get some good shots of the dolphins running with the boat. The run from the Smalls to Pwiheli seemed to take forever, as there was no land visible. We arrived in Pwiheli for a well earned pint and a meal, The accommodation was also interesting as we were in a holiday camp that modelled it self on Hi-De-Hi.

Picture: (Top, Lands End. Lower, Dolphins)

Monday 31^st May

We decided that we were going to make an early start, We left the holiday camp and made our way to the sailing club who kindly agreed to cook an early breakfast. We arrived on the boat hoping to fuel up and hastily make our way. The only problem that we had overlooked was that the fuel pontoon didn’t open for another hour and a half. Never mind we spent the time sorting out the route and cleaning up the every growing pile of sweet wrappers. We finally fuelled up and made our way to Bangor in Northern Ireland. The sea was flat calm and we made good time arriving for lunch and a Guinness. After a very good lunch we finally dragged ourselves away from Bangor and headed towards Oban.

The run to Oban was absolutely spectacular; the scenery was awe-inspiring. To add to the view we encounter a whale on-route and managed to get a long distance photography before it disappeared.

We arrived in Oban and checked in to the Alexandra hotel, after a quick bite to eat it was decided that we would undertake a whisky tasting expedition. After many different varieties we stumbled back to the hotel, I was already thinking of the hangover in the morning.

Picture: (Top-Waiting For Fuel In Pwiheli / Middle-The Whale / Lower-Lunch in Bangor)

Tuesday 1^st June

Picture: The Sea Around Cape Wrath

When the crew regained consciousness we made to our trusty craft, It was a pretty late start due to the activities of the previous night. Making our way through the islands we headed for the North Atlantic and the infamous Cape Wrath. We were charging our way through an increasing following sea, the shear of the bow and size of the tubes made our life pretty easy in these conditions and we were enjoying the change. Before Cape Wrath "Two Deep" radioed that there was live firing off the Cape, and sure enough a harrier flew overhead and deposited a bomb a couple of miles off our beam. Making the turn, (which was four miles off the cape to avoid the bombs) the sea was increasing and becoming confused. After a thoroughly enjoyable day we arrived in the early evening into Scrabster

Wednesday 2^nd June

We had reached Scrabster, We were more than half the way round and it was downhill from here, (Well it was on the map anyway). We decided that we would not worry too much about how much fuel we squeezed in as we were going to stop in Aberdeen for Lunch and a quick top up, this decision turned out to be the worst of the trip. We made an early start missing breakfast to get the best of the weather and headed for Aberdeen. We ran into a thick fog bank about halfway to Aberdeen, and thankfully the Radar proved it’s worth steering us round a very large blip that appeared. Arriving in Aberdeen we proceeded to potter round the harbour looking for the trusty fuel pontoon, we couldn’t find one so we disembarked and asked one of the locals. To our disbelief there was no harbour-side diesel in Aberdeen, instead he directed us to a small harbour called Stonehaven which was further on down the coast. We found Stonehaven but still no luck, In the end we ended up in Dundee alongside the commercial harbour waiting for a local tanker, which half an hour turned out to be two hours.

Picture: Stuck In Dundee

Anyway we were back underway, By this time the weather was rapidly deteriorating. We tried to make our way to Amble marina only to miss the tide due to the ever-worsening conditions and the previous hold-ups. As we sat outside Amble at about half past ten, We were tiered and wondering what to do and where to put in for the night. The only harbour we liked the look of was the Tyne estuary; it looked like an easy entry and due to the conditions we opted for this. The 70-mile trip seemed like an eternity, The conditions were the worst I have encounter at night. The wind was at the very least a good force 7 and the visibility was next to nothing, to add to this the sea state was very rough and confused. There were a few times we thought the inherent self-righting properties were going to be tested.

As we approached Tynemouth I was getting increasingly worried for our situation, The lighthouse was supposed to have a 28-mile visible range in good conditions, we were under a mile on the navigator before we spotted anything. We took a few attempts to make sure we were heading for the harbour mouth, the sea was behind us know and slightly more uniform. We picked our moment and surfed into the harbour on one of the huge rollers, to the relief of everyone onboard we had arrived safely all be it at 3:00 in the morning. Well it was a good lesson learnt the hard way, from that night I always plan my fuel stops with painstaking detail, too painful at times for others with me!

Thursday 3^rd June

After our ordeal we got up late and had a leisurely morning. We had spent what was left of last night in the Grand Hotel, Tynemouth. We managed to persuade the night manager into giving us a room for a few hours.

We left one of the smartest marina's I have seen at around midday. The Royal Quays Marina, Tynemouth, had certainly been very helpful.

We didn’t have far to go to reach the Humber, Which was a good job as we were still recovering. Don’t know what the scenery was like, I was asleep, I had done most of the driving the previous night and was taking the time to catch up.

Picture: Royal Quays Marina

Friday 4^th June

Exiting the Humber we headed towards Ramsgate into a horribly uncomfortable head sea, Which cheered us all up as we new the weather was worsening throughout the day. We didn’t get far when we heard a garbled message on channel 16 from "Ribeletter" which turned out to be Sir Charles Blois Boat. The Coastguard’s couldn’t hear him properly and were about to launch the local Lifeboat, We could only just make him out, but the bit we did hear was that his crewmate was having heart problems. We relayed this to the coastguard and requested that he is airlifted instead of the lifeboat, they agreed and launched the local Coastguard helicopter. It was going to be about 15 to 20 minutes away, but this was far quicker than the lifeboat would have been. The coastguard’s requested that we go and stand by "Ribeletter" to give an accurate position to the helicopter, which was all very well but we couldn’t get an accurate position on him ourselves. We finally found him in the opposite direction to where we were looking after making our way through a very nasty race, just as we approached him the helicopter caught up with us and headed to the vessel lifting off the casualty.

We approached "Ribeletter" learning that the reason we couldn’t hear him was because his Aluminium ‘A’ frame had failed; He was also having engine difficulties and could only make 7 Knots. We decided to escort him into his local harbour, which was a little place called Southwold. By the time we arrived the weather was really turning and we had lost too much time in all excitement, we decided to stay the night in Southwold, we didn’t want a repeat of Wednesday night. As we sat in the harbourside pub watching a magnificent Thunderstorm roll in, We were quite disheartened knowing we were about 100 miles from Ramsgate and even further from the official finish, The weather forecast for tomorrow wasn’t looking that good either.

Saturday 5^th June

The weather and distance were against us but due to Richard insisting he wanted to go drinking on Saturday night we were going for it, We left Southwold at about 4:30 in the morning. We absolutely flew down to Ramsgate making extraordinary good time; we couldn’t even believe it ourselves. We arrived in Ramsgate before most of the boats had even left. A quick squirt of fuel and a bacon sandwich and we were off again heading towards Portsmouth and the finish. It felt reassuring to be back on the south coast knowing that we were going home. We ran with "Spirit of Portsmouth" along the south coast and met up with the remaining fleet just outside Portsmouth, we crossed the finish line together ending a thoroughly memorable week.

Jason Purvey

Pictures: (Top-Ramsgate / Lower-Neil Elam, Flying the flag at the finish)