Earlier this year The Royal Wessex Yeomanry were extremely fortunate to be offered the chance to send three individuals to represent the Royal Armoured Corps (RAC) aboard AJAX, the Royal Armoured Corps Yacht Club’s J109 racing yacht, in the 704nm Royal Ocean Racing Club’s Volvo Round Ireland Yacht Race. At 36 feet in length AJAX is by no means the largest or most luxurious yacht afloat but for the last week of June 2016 it was home to her crew of 5 recruited from across the RAC.
Having congregated in Wicklow, Republic of Ireland, late on Friday 17 June, the crew spent their first night aboard AJAX in the calm if not quiet surroundings of Wicklow harbour. The night before a race is often a convivial affair with crews coming from all over the world, in this case 64 crews from as far afield as the United States, Oman, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, France and the UK to name but a few and there are always some last minute onboard adjustments and repairs to be carried out as well as the obligatory pre-race party continuing well into the night.
The next day dawned warm and practically windless, a bleak reminder of AJAX’s Myth of Malham qualifying race in the UK from Cowes down to the Eddystone Lighthouse off Plymouth and back a few weeks earlier where the anchor had seen some good use to stop the yacht from going backwards off Portland at 3am. After a great start in the capable hands of the skipper LtCol Paul Macro RTR, we settled down into our routine: 3hrs on 3hrs off for the next 7 days. The weather remained calm down the east coast of Ireland and AJAX and all aboard seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Dawn of the second day saw us off the southern coast of Ireland and the wind had picked up to 30knots throwing up some large 5m waves. Despite the truly stunning scenery the first casualty was Tpr Ed Wiggins RWxY who despite being sick as a dog for the next 2 days remained in relatively good spirits and never failed to stand his watch. As we found out later this was in stark contrast to many other crews that had crew members confined to bunks for 48hrs or more and a testament to the grit and determination of this crew.
At this point the wind had veered around from the south to the west meaning that the boat had to continue sailing up wind, which was distinctly uncomfortable in the sizeable Atlantic swell. Sleeping at angle of 45degrees and more is a challenge though finally we made it to the southwest tip of Ireland and could finally put the pedal down by raising the spinnaker. This doubled our sail area and increased our speed from 6 to 10knots that allowed a pod of dolphins to join us for the afternoon. Morale was only slightly dented in finding out that the fastest boats in the race had already finished the race in just under 39hrs.
However nothing was ever going to go to plan out in the Atlantic and in the middle of the night half way up the west coast of Ireland the spinnaker became wrapped around the front of the boat. In the pitch black and rough seas Capt Henry Kemp-Gee RWxY was duly dispatched to rectify the situation and after requiring reinforcements in the shape of the yacht’s bosun, Cpl Matt Cattell RL, several hours later and after some exhaustive effort the sail was freed and returned to its locker - a huge relief considering the approaching rocky lee shore.
The north coast of Ireland is as equally visually stunning as the south and at the point where Northern Ireland is at its closest point to Scotland is Rathlin Lighthouse; it was here that the wind died to the point that, had we been carrying 600m of anchor rope, we would have dropped it to stop ourselves going backwards. With the 10knot tide against us we briefly retraced our steps back towards the Atlantic but the wind soon reappeared and we continued on down past Belfast towards Wicklow, sighting a rare humpback whale along the way.
The wind remained fickle throughout the following day having gone back to the south so we were once again heading upwind towards the finishing line at Wicklow. Staying close to the shore with Capt Matt Plumridge RWxY at the helm we gained a few places during the night and finally sighted Wicklow at 4am on Friday 24 June. Finishing an hour later we moored back in Wicklow harbour and made our way to the sailing club for a very welcome cooked breakfast and medicinal pint of Guinness before the cleaning of the boat began. I should not perhaps state here that our loo had been leaking throughout.
The Round Ireland Yacht Race was a mental and physical challenge for all involved. It was however a rewarding and fulfilling experience and has spurred on the 3 reservists who took part to form a reservist crew for next year’s 608nm Rolex Fastnet Race. AJAX finished a respectable 26/52 boats with 12 boats having abandoned the race during the arduous southern leg.
Organising an expedition is never an easy task and is often fraught with difficulties, not least of which is the sourcing of funding to ensure that soldiers can afford to participate. In this case the 3 competing reservists on the crew were extremely fortunate to be subsidised by a generous grant from the Ulysses Trust, without which none of this would have been possible.
