B&Q arrives at penultimate stopover on Asian Record Tour

The international crew onboard B&Q including French sailing star, Thomas Coville, finished the penultimate stage of the eight-week Asian Record Circuit yesterday (07/05/06) arriving at the coastal resort of Terengganu in Malaysia. After leaving Hong Kong a week ago, the 75ft trimaran B&Q completed this four-leg stage via four countries on its route southwards via China, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia. In doing so, the team have established a further four new record times as well as an overall elapsed for the 1350-mile route from Hong Kong to Terengganu in a time of 7 days, 5 minutes and 50 seconds [the Jade Record] – taking the total tally to 12 new records for Ellen MacArthur and her team.

“These legs have provided us with some great sailing – flat seas, hardly any water over the deck, and when the breeze was with us some fast sailing, and its been HOT, really hot! It’s been mainly upwind sailing and we’ve had everything from 2 to 15 knots from varying directions - at times getting the odd burst of speed as the wind direction freed us up to reach south at speed. We are very fast in this flat sea - it's so rare to sail in such flat water certainly for such a long way. As soon as the wind gets to 7 knots we are flying! Mind you, Tomma [Thomas Coville] has said he can't remember going so slowly on a multihull for so long! But that's a pretty good resumé of our trip as when you look back the wind speeds have been so low, rarely staggering above 10kts of wind, and even so we have managed to keep a very respectable average speed all things considered - 8 knots up to now in such light airs. Looking back on Maxsea we have covered more miles in fact, as the upwind leg to Sanya added quite a few. We can also see our entire path sailed so far on Maxsea and we are currently 2100nm from Dalian as the crow flies – its incredible how much we have packed into this tour!” Crew member Charles Darbyshire, at the finish.

This penultimate stage of the Asian Record Circuit was in stark contrast to the very first stage of the tour from Yokohama, Japan to Dalian on the northeast coast of mainland China via South Korea. It was cold, wet, rough and near gale conditions at times – it was a baptism of fire for Ellen and her crew who had no experience of sailing in these waters with the added hazard of alien waters congested with fishing boat fleets.

“Overall, sailing in these conditions has been really fantastic, and such a contrast to our earlier experience such as the leg from Yokohama to Jeju Island (South Korea), which was so windy and rough. After having spent 6 days onboard with barely a wave over the boat, it is hard to remember the motion from the earlier sections of the circuit. We have not encountered anything like the fishing fleets we saw up north although it was quite busy round the finish gate off Nha Trang, Vietnam, but it was sunset and I think everyone was heading home. What also made this leg interesting is the volcanic landscape of this region - both above and below the water. In some places the sea bed rose to the surface, forming little islands barely 100m wide or long - and without any kind of navigation lights on them, we had to plot our course pretty carefully,” concluded Darbyshire.

French multihull sailor and ‘record-chaser’ Thomas Coville had this to say: “It has been a fantastic experience to race onboard B&Q, she is an amazing boat, and you can see that every aspect was thought about carefully with Ellen in mind before she was built. She feels great to sail, bringing this boat and this project to Asia is a fantastic opportunity for everyone to learn more about sailing and these kind of racing machines. The whole team have been great and I have enjoyed my time onboard with everyone over the last few legs. I really hope that others will consider coming back again in the future to take on these records and to raise the awareness of our sport in this region.”

As B&Q approached the dock in Terengganu they were joined by a flotilla of boats as the music and local dancing began onshore. Ellen and the crew of Thomas Coville, Loik Gallon, Erwan Lemeilleur, Charles Darbyshire and Elain Chua were given a traditional Malaysian welcoming ceremony of dancing, music and drums provided by the Tepac Sirreh and Nasa Kuning cultural troops, and a mix of Malaysian, Chinese and Indonesian dancers and musicians. The crew were led to the welcome stage by a group of local school children throwing pandam leaves along their route. Ellen was presented with a ‘Pemakaian Selendang’, a large piece of material that is woven with gold leaf, and a ‘Keris’, a traditional small warrior’s dagger. “It has been a fantastic welcome,” commented Ellen. ”We knew this would be a very special and warm welcome - the colours, music and traditional ceremonies have been amazing to witness, the whole team is really looking forward to our time here in Terengganu.”

Ellen and the crew will remain in Malaysia until the 10th when they will depart for the final leg of the circuit to Singapore. Ellen is due to join the Malaysian Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for lunch in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow before taking local children sailing onboard B&Q.

Remaining Schedule:

8- 11 May
Stopover: Terengganu
11-12 May
Leg 10: Terengganu to Singapore
13-17 May
Stopover: Singapore

New records established so far:

1. Yokohama-Cheju Island 5d 11h 10m 51s (906nm)
2. Jeju Island-Dalian 1d 15h 57m 28s (418nm)
3. The Manchu Record (Yokohama - Dalian) 7d 3h 8m 19s (1324nm)
4. The Marco Polo Record (Dalian – Qingdao) 1d 0h 2m 53s (265nm)
5. The Cotton Record (Qingdao – Shanghai) 1d 5h 25m 33s (308nm)
6. The Old Tea Record (Shanghai – Taipei) 3d 0h 1m 55s (580nm)
7. The Colonial Record (Taipei – Hong Kong) 2d 16h 46m 37s (465nm)
8. Hong Kong – Sanya (Hainan Island)* - 1d 22h 53m 25s (354nm)
9. Sanya – Nha Trang (Vietnam) - 2d 1h 37m 44s (360nm)
10. Nha Trang – Tumpai (Thailand) - 2d 17h 55m 13s (570nm)
11. Tumpai – Terengganu (Malaysia) – 0d 5h 39m 26s (75nm)
12. The Jade record (Hong Kong – Malaysia) 7d 0 5m 50s (1350nm)

* Official time recorded by B&Q for the Hong Kong-Sanya 354nm route on the Asian Record Circuit. A time of 29h 55m has been recorded by sailing yacht Ffree Fire during the annual Hong Kong to Sanya race.

Click on www.asianrecordcircuit.com for more information.