Exclusive Photos courtesy of Tom Gruitt - Check out his website
More? Well ok then…Skipper Olly Young just 21 and his 20 year old Co-Skipper Sam Goodchild are the youngest crew in this year’s around Great Britain boat race (we’re still awaiting final verification that the guys are indeed the youngest crew ever to have competed!) The lads chartered the Figaro II a month ago and have spent almost every waking moment since then prepping for the big off on Sunday 6 June.
The race course, which both starts and finishes at Plymouth, runs clockwise, hugging the coastline, around all of Britain & Ireland including Bishop Rock (off the Isles of Scilly), St Kilda (West of the Scottish mainland), and Muckle Flugga ?! (at the North end of the Shetland Islands).Race Director Peter Taylor said of the competition: ‘This is a tough race and the competitors have to be prepared for some very testing conditions…’
I asked a buoyant Olly yesterday, fresh from the RB&I three hour long Skipper’s briefing, if he and Sam had any major concerns about the conditions they would soon be facing:‘No not really, we are very well prepared - amazingly so in fact. Everything has come together perfectly over the last couple of weeks and we’ve found ourselves totally ready in good time. The weather around Shetland could be difficult but we are aware of this and as equipped as we can be for every eventuality.’
I managed to resist the urge to question Olly intensely regarding his week as a… ummm… guest (hostage!!!) of the Iranian Navy and forced myself to focus on the task in hand.So, after such an intensive preparation period, were the chaps getting nervous as the start of the race loomed fast?
‘Nah…We are just itching to get underway now, we really want to get a good start!’ said the super cool Olly (snorting with laughter at the suggestion of nerves even possibly being an issue).I guess once you’ve been held hostage in the Middle East then the mere start of a boat race, in which you’ll be up against 55 other boatloads of seasoned sailors, isn’t too much to get het up about is it?
Ho hum…The Royal Western Yacht Club website has a pretty cool tracking system which we’ll be using avidly (every five minutes in some cases!) to check on the boy’s progress throughout the race. The boat you’re looking for is ‘Izara’.
Godspeed lads!Muckle Flugga eh?
Awesome.
Exclusive Photos courtesy of Tom Gruitt - Check out his website
