E-Lites Round Britain Charity Challenge with BananaShark

[Cookee]

Thought I would start a new thread with a better title than a cancellation of an event!

Here's a thought behind the event:


When the Round Britain race for 2012 (RB12) was announced in 2009 the BananaShark team had already started planning an endurance boat, by the beginning of 2011 they had the Stirling 34 on the water and racing. In only two years the BananaShark team had designed and built from scratch a 38’ boat that is turning heads wherever it goes, and that’s before the engines are started! Powered by a pair of tiny diesels by many offshore boats standards the Yanmar BY260’s are only 3 litres each and incredibly economical. The idea was to make the impact on the environment as small as possible from the start and make the race team carbon neutral for the Cowes Torquay Cowes race in 2011 and the race around Britain.

Following an announcement by the organising team for RB12 in April and with less than three months to the start of the race that the event was to be postponed until 2014 the team was understandably incredibly disappointed but as they are never ones to let something like this get in their way the team formulated a plan, and that plan is, with the help of a great number of people going to happen. The BananaShark team will take the boat around Britain starting in their home port of Salcombe in South Devon and visit 10 ports where they will donate, with the help of the Rotary club of Great Britain the entry fees of £3,500 to Children’s Hospices, it is the aim of the trip to at least double this on the way round.

Starting in Salcombe we will visit Swansea, Liverpool, Glasgow, transit through the Caledonian Canal to Inverness, down to Edinburgh, then Hull London/Chatham and lastly Portsmouth before returning to Salcombe.


Onwards and upwards! Many people on here have been offering their help either by PM or on the RB12 thread and I am eternally grateful to everyone.

The (evolving) map is HERE but if Liverpool isn't possible we may end up going to the Isle of Man, likewise the Glasgow area isn't confirmed yet but it's looking like Largs might be the best choice although it's a bit out of town - anyone got a better idea?

[Chris Caton]

Cookee, good luck with it all, we'll do our best to help

[National safety]

If you need any help in Liverpool give me a shout.

[the_fifer]

What about Troon instead of Largs?

[Cookee]

Originally Posted by National safety

If you need any help in Liverpool give me a shout.

Thanks for the offer, but unless you can come up with a deep water overnight stop I think we're stuffed for Liverpool and Douglas might be getting a visit from the team!

The Fifer - If you look at The Map you will see that we now have that as one of the options for the Glasgow area, it is a shorter journey out of our way and has all tide access which makes it quite desirable - just have to drum up some local PR and support - know anyone?

[Cookee]

Latest bit of press:

E-Lites Round Britain Charity Challenge

When the Round Britain race for 2012 (RB12) was announced in 2009 the BananaShark team had already started planning an endurance boat, by the beginning of 2011 they had the Stirling 34 on the water and racing. In only two years the BananaShark team had designed and built from scratch a 38’ boat that is turning heads wherever it goes, and that’s before the engines are started! Powered by a pair of tiny diesels by many offshore boats standards the Yanmar BY260’s are only 3 litres each and incredibly economical. The idea was to make the impact on the environment as small as possible from the start and make the race team carbon neutral for the Cowes Torquay Cowes race in 2011 and the race around Britain. The boat will have onboard cameras for making a short film about the trip and for a daily video blog – internet access permitting! A daily blog will be found on both our Facebook and Twitter pages, we are also taking a Spot Satellite Messenger which will track our progress every step of the way.

Following an announcement by the organising team for RB12 in April and with less than three months to the start of the race that the event was to be postponed until 2014 the team was understandably incredibly disappointed but as they are never ones to let something like this get in their way the team formulated a plan, and that plan is, with the help of a great number of people going to happen. The BananaShark team will take the boat around Britain starting in their home port of Salcombe in South Devon and visit 10 ports where they will donate, with the help of the Rotary club of Great Britain the entry fees of £3,500 to Children’s Hospices, it is the aim of the trip to at least double this on the way round. It goes without saying that we are grateful to the RB12 organisers for returning the entry fee in full so that we can distribute this money to such a worthwhile cause.

Starting in Salcombe we will visit Swansea, Douglas IOM, Troon, then transit through the Caledonian Canal to Inverness, down to Edinburgh, then Hull, carry on down the East coast to London/Chatham and lastly Portsmouth before returning to Salcombe, the journey will see the team experience 2000 miles of Britain’s coastline. At each of the venues in addition to the Rotary Club we will be meeting up members of the local media and of course the children to give them a tour of the race boat. As the team have different distances to cover every day and the speed of the boat will be weather dependant it will be impossible to predict arrival times, so the intention is to do all of the meetings before departure every morning. Here is the route

A bit about BananaShark: Kevin and John have been building boats since 1999 and formed BananaShark Ltd in 2003, what has followed is nothing short of incredible with a total of 9 British Championships and two speed records to the factories name, performance has never been an issue. The current model, the Stirling 34, is built entirely at the company’s factory in Devon and with the help of Electronics sponsor Raymarine and engines by Yanmar is not only one of the most technically advanced in terms of technology but the hull design is cutting edge as well.


Statistics:
Length: 37’ overall (11.27m)
Beam: 7’6”
Powered by: two Yanmar BY 260 3 litres each using 110 litres per hour at 70mph Approximately 1.5 litres per mile
Drives: Arneson 1721 Surface drives
Top Speed: 70mph
Cruising Speed: 50 – 60mph depending on conditions
Electronics: two networked Raymarine E140 W multifunctional displays linked to a pair of ST70 displays. Two VHF radios. Full AIS system AIS650.
Seating: Four bucket seats all with 6 point harnesses and 3 litre pony bottles, intercom system and harness cutters.
Safety: Flare pack. Six man liferaft. Glow in the dark cockpit signage. Led inversion operated lighting. Buoyancy bags. Two manual and one automatic fire extinguishers.
Photos can be found at our Photobucket page Here


www.bananasharkracing.com
Cookee@bananasharkracing.com
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[Alan Priddy]

Go for the IOM, I have some great Rotary contacts there who will help out if you need it rather than send your service team over Douglas or St Mary Port. Then when you leave you can come out through the Calf of Man and head up to Bangor NI for lunch. The Calf of Man is where the only interesting pieces of video on the 1st Round Britain where shot. The "Old Boys" still talk about driving up 40 ft mountains of water. It is a fun place!! Alan P

[Cookee]

Originally Posted by Alan Priddy

Go for the IOM, I have some great Rotary contacts there who will help out if you need it rather than send your service team over Douglas or St Mary Port. Then when you leave you can come out through the Calf of Man and head up to Bangor NI for lunch. The Calf of Man is where the only interesting pieces of video on the 1st Round Britain where shot. The "Old Boys" still talk about driving up 40 ft mountains of water. It is a fun place!! Alan P

I was thinking Douglas - one of my crew has a sister working there (In finance) and as it's the capital I would naturally go there unless you think St Mary Port would be better? Can you let me have your contact details and I'll include you on emails? Bangor for lunch sounds like a plan as well! Just have to keep the crew off the Guinness! I did Bangor all the way through to Inverness on Gordon Compton's RIB in RB08 and it was a fantastic journey - should be a bit drier this time around!

[Alan Priddy]

I use Port St Mary most of the time. Its rough and ready but has a good yacht club on the harbour doesnt Douglas have a sill or gate? Fuel shouldnt be a problem but if you have the range I wouldnt fuel until Bangor (40ish miles). I have never left there sober!!
alan@offshore-expeditions.com 07802237125

[Cookee]

Where would you tie up to in St Mary? In Douglas they have a pontoon out in the main harbour in the summer alongside No14 dock if my information is correct which solves all of my issues!

The other thought I have is that we want to make the best of the day we leave Douglas to enter the canal, so stopping in Bangor would be a big slice of the day taken out of getting to Inverness.

I think this is the pontoon: In this Google piccie

[Cypman]

Cookee,
The pontoon is alongside at berth 14. If there is a strong north easterly or easterly it can be a bit bouncy there but ther is a new floating pontoon for visiting cruise ship lifeboats that I could try to get if such weather, although unlikely, is forecast.
Port St Mary is very nice but would not give you the same PR opportunities as Douglas, you need to get your Rotary contacts to start chasing up favours/sponsorship accommodation etc, etc. I can put up 4 at my place. I would try to avoid bringing the whole shore party over unless you get the Steam Packet to provide you with a special deal. Of course, it is up to you, just ask the questions!

[Cookee]

Originally Posted by Cypman

Cookee,
The pontoon is alongside at berth 14. If there is a strong north easterly or easterly it can be a bit bouncy there but ther is a new floating pontoon for visiting cruise ship lifeboats that I could try to get if such weather, although unlikely, is forecast.
Port St Mary is very nice but would not give you the same PR opportunities as Douglas, you need to get your Rotary contacts to start chasing up favours/sponsorship accommodation etc, etc. I can put up 4 at my place. I would try to avoid bringing the whole shore party over unless you get the Steam Packet to provide you with a special deal. Of course, it is up to you, just ask the questions!

The plan is for the shore party to head up north and miss this one out. Very kind offer of a bed for the night, Graham's sister lives there so I hope we can rely on her for a sofa as well so it looks like the accommodation is sorted! Just need to sort out the rest of it .............

[treerat]

Good luck with it - if you need a bail out on the North Cornish leg we have room in the summer house for overnight emergency stays!!

[Alan Priddy]

You would tie up along side one of the fishing boats, head to the bar and stay there. I aggree the PR oportunities may be better in Douglas but in my experiance if you have a good story they will come to you anyway, its not as if it is a big Island.
From Port St Mary its about 45 NM to Bangor then 130 NM to Fort William.
Thing you have to remember is that you have an extended period of Day light time up there in late June and If I remember the canal has long opening hours.

Leave PSM @ 10.00 arrive Bangor 11.30. Refuel, media and lunch (beer)
Leave Bangor 14.30 arrive 18.00 enter Canal and get through Neptunes Steps, Sleep (Beer) and transit the Canal the following day. Personaly I would go "Over the top" its so much easier. Heavy fuel in Puffin Divers, up and over to Scarbster, (active Rotary Club) Re-fuel and down to Finderhorn.Alan P

[Cookee]

Originally Posted by Alan Priddy

You would tie up along side one of the fishing boats, head to the bar and stay there. I aggree the PR oportunities may be better in Douglas but in my experiance if you have a good story they will come to you anyway, its not as if it is a big Island.
From Port St Mary its about 45 NM to Bangor then 130 NM to Fort William.
Thing you have to remember is that you have an extended period of Day light time up there in late June and If I remember the canal has long opening hours.

Leave PSM @ 10.00 arrive Bangor 11.30. Refuel, media and lunch (beer)
Leave Bangor 14.30 arrive 18.00 enter Canal and get through Neptunes Steps, Sleep (Beer) and transit the Canal the following day. Personaly I would go "Over the top" its so much easier. Heavy fuel in Puffin Divers, up and over to Scarbster, (active Rotary Club) Re-fuel and down to Finderhorn.Alan P

All good points and if it was just a Jolly Port St Mary sounds like a great place to spend the night. I worked on a film based there a few years back and I drove a jet boat up the beach round the corner at Port Erin 9 times in a row whilst lying on the floor - my claim to fame on that film was being a stunt double for a bloke who played a Hobbit (in another movie). Sponsors and charities will be better served in Douglas than in a pub out of town I'm afraid so the decision is really out of my hands.

With regards to Bangor I'll leave that in as an option and see if our sponsors would like us to go there.

Treerat - that's a generous offer - where's the summer house?

[treerat]

Originally Posted by Cookee

Treerat - that's a generous offer - where's the summer house?

In the garden

We live a few miles in land from Bude Haven, to give it it's full name. There are a few havens along the N Cornish coast as it does get pretty wild and there are very few real bail out options.

Newquay, Padstow / Rock, Port Issac, Boscastle, Bude are the only places to get in and hide, and then only if the tide is high enough and you can get through the surf lines.

Wouldn't be my first choice of accommodation as there are plenty of hotels in the area, and if you arrange it you could bring the boat into the inner harbour via the Bude Sea Lock (one of the last working ones in the UK) but if it goes wrong always handy to have in the back pocket.

[Chris Caton]

Cookee,
now your going from Swansea to Douglas, are you still going through Menai Straits, or around Holyhead?

[Cookee]

Originally Posted by Chris Caton

Cookee,
now your going from Swansea to Douglas, are you still going through Menai Straits, or around Holyhead?

Good question - I think we'll take that decision a bit nearer the time - it is out of the way but it won't add too much to the trip and may be worth the detour. How long is the speed limit zone there?

[Chris Caton]

Originally Posted by Cookee

Good question - I think we'll take that decision a bit nearer the time - it is out of the way but it won't add too much to the trip and may be worth the detour. How long is the speed limit zone there?

there may be a few on here who would like to get involved, guide you through the Swellies etc the speed limit is approx 1/2 mile in front of Port Dinorwic, takes around 5mins or so

[Cookee]

Originally Posted by Chris Caton

there may be a few on here who would like to get involved, guide you through the Swellies etc the speed limit is approx 1/2 mile in front of Port Dinorwic, takes around 5mins or so

OK - The biggest issue is predicting the arrival time from Swansea - We'll probably have a better idea on the night before when we've seen the forecast.