Organisation

People

This event has involved a surprisingly large number of people. In particular we would like to say a huge thank-you to the following individuals who have helped us:

RTI24 Frontline Team
Matt Jones - Restless Too crew
Paul Lincoln - West safety boat coxswain
Tom Lincoln - West safety boat crew
Brian Roberts - East safety boat coxwain
Allan Shaw - Restless Too crew
Guy Tod - Event controller and skipper of Beagle
Leslie Tod - Event navigator
Ken Wallace - East safety boat crew
Dom Walton - Website design and management
Graham Westgate - Restless Too skipper

RTI24 Sponsors and Helpers
Chris Bull - safety helmets
Andrew Chamberlain - chandlery
Clare Golden - sponsor form management
Michelle Golden, Jack Golden & Judith Howting - for your patience!
Maxine Higgins - sponsor form management
Ed Hooper - navigational advice and sponsor form management
Phil Hough - sponsor form management
Paul Lingwood - loan of a RIB
David Lloyd - insurance
Grant Piggot - sail checks and tramp bag
Reg White - boat parts

Selection of the Event Date

Recognising the vagaries of the English weather we originally chose three possible dates for the event, subsequently reduced to two dates due to other commitments. The dates were chosen to be weekends near midsummer and the shortest night, as well as being as close to full moon as possible.

In hindsight the full moon criteria was probably unnecessary, firstly because there is no moon for the first part of the night between sunset and moonrise (and we did OK without it), and secondly because the moon did not enable us to see very much more when it did eventually rise. In any case the navigational marks around the Island are of course excellent and well lit.

Night first or night last?

Initially we thought we would get the night time sailing over first whilst we were fresh, but since neither of us work night shifts this would actually have meant us staying awake for 36 hours rather than 24 (since there is little chance of getting much sleep the day before). Starting at 8.30 am worked for us.

Safety and Rescue Planning

An event like this is not without risk and right from the beginning we were determined that it would be organised responsibly, and that we would not just assume that the RNLI or Coastguard would come and get us if it all went pear-shaped.

This involved - amongst other things - risk assessing the event, and writing a Safety and Rescue Plan (11 pages of it). Both were sent for comment to the RNLI and Solent Coastguard.

The RNLI were particularly helpful and supportive (and that was before we told them that we were raising money for them!).

Safety Cover

Possibly the biggest difference between this and a 'normal' sailing event is that the Safety Boats were not loitering around at sea ready to zoom over at a moments notice, but were on standby, tied up to a Yacht some distance away. We estimated that the worst-case rescue time was probably about an hour.

Having a RIB tail us around the Island would have cost a fortune, would be environmentally bad news, and there are few RIBS that would be able to keep up with a Spitfire for any length of time (it would have been a 24hour RIB endurance event). In any case RIB shadowing would be unnecessary - either of us could survive quite happily in the water for several hours, able to summon assistance by torch, mobile telephone or flares. Our risk assessment highlighted just one credible scenario that would require an immediate rescue: someone falling overboard unconscious at night, and we addressed this by wearing safety helmets, see ‘Boat and Equipment’ section.

Rescue Resources

We had two Safety Boats on standby, both equipped for night operation, each covering approximately half our Route.

Each Safety Boat operated from a Yacht, (one in Yarmouth, the other in Fishbourne). This ensured that the RIB crews (2 per boat) were as comfortable as possible so that, if we did need them, they would be more awake than us!

Event Management and Responsibilities

We nominated an experienced member of the support team as the ‘Event Controller’. The idea was to have someone off the cat (who was a bit more awake than us) in overall charge of the event and its rescue resources, able to monitor weather, shipping movements etc and act as a focal point for us or anyone outside the team if necessary (i.e. Rescue Services).

Reporting and Communications

The Safety and Rescue Plan depended on effective communications, and as noted in the ‘Boat and Equipment’ section this worked well.

The routine reporting arrangement (hourly during the day, half-hourly at night) allowed the Event Navigator to plot our progress and get a very good idea of where we were at any point in time. Had we missed a report, we had an agreed sequence of actions culminating in a call for outside assistance, and the search area would have been comparatively small.