Dee Caffari said (having retired from the race when sailing Aviva) ‘”Last night was wild. It was really, really black with no visibility. With so much rain and waves, you couldn’t tell which was fresh water and which was salt. It was a bit miserable. We had average wind of 30-35 knots and gusts of up to 38 knots, but it was a boat-breaking scenario. There were these big holes that you just couldn’t see. Big waves would hit the boat and knock it off course and it was hard work. I’ve been in worse, but I was in 46 tonnes of steel built for the job and this was my first experience of these kind of holes in this kind of boat. The noise was incredible. Every now and again I heard a few crunches that I was a bit worried about……I’ve learned loads. And in a way I feel I’ve made a big step. I’m joining those who are big enough to make that decision. Before I might have felt I couldn’t bottle out, and I had to show I could do it. I feel bigger than that now.”
Mike Broughton – Dee Caffari’s co-skipper said ‘There seem to be two parts to me. There is a very windy bit when we get to Start Point and Land’s End, where we get an extremely active double front coming through on Tuesday morning with a full gale from the south-west. But the big front will be on Wednesday at about 1000. A north-westerly is going to build across the Irish Sea on mid-morning on Wednesday, and that is the bit that I find more alarming, frankly. I see about 45-50 knots plus on it. This will create a cross sea and a cruel sea. The wave train from the south-west will then shift into the north-west, which is what happened in the 1979 race: it went from south-west to north-west and got very windy.
In 1979 I was a third of the way across the Irish Sea, which is probably about where we will be again this time. I very rarely ever have fears about yacht racing but beating into that after the sea changes with two or three different wave trains… yes, I do. The sea state is the big issue. Those north-westerlies will be typical polar maritime: very gusty and coming from near Iceland. There will be a long fetch and the sea will build up. It will be bloody horrible. And modern racing boats are pretty lively creatures. We are going to get a real bashing and I think that it is going to be hideous.’
