I booked a pre-race engine check-in the week commencing June 2nd when the boat is back in Lymington for Scorpion to address a list of jobs driven by the race regulations - liferaft mounts, EPIRB, transponder, fuel cut off, electrical labelling etc.
Outside Dave Crawford's Lymington premises were two other boats doing the Round Britain Race - although thankfully not in our class.
The first was Chris Strickland's record breaking Scorpion cruiser which was having new stern drives fitted.
Alongside was John Caulcutt's new Revenger 32 which still had a lot of work to be done. Interestingly, he has flown in from New York two of the same engines we are using. He has a seating arrangement with three bolster seats, with electrical adjustment of the seat part.
John is one of the two competitors who did this race last time - 24 years ago - in a small Flatacraft. He did very well. This time his boat is allegedly capable of 80 mph - no doubt helped by its stepped hull. Seeing this boat with no electronics and no engines fitted - and less than a month to go - cheered me up when I compared the pages and pages of my To Do list for Black Gold.
We launched the boat after lunch and while Paul drove round to Hamble Point (he did the BP regatta this weekend), I took Black Gold round.
Even though the gearbox is still being run in, the boat beat the car in the best traditions of Top Gear. It was also a chance to try out the new Henri Lloyd salopettes that we are using for the race, and the very bulky Grabner racing life-jacket.
Both were fine, but I wanted to check that the back protection in the life-jacket didn't push me to far forward on the seat. The suspension is at the back of the seat so you need to be right back to get the benefit. On another rib in Lymington, a passenger was injured using the same seat as he lent forward to read a chart.
We had auctioned a day on our sail boat, Black Tie, in a charity event. Friday night meant a trip over to Cowes in Black Gold to collect Black Tie for a day with six friends who had paid for the pleasure of the sail - a strange concept for our three daughters to grasp ...
Needless to say, the weather turned rough. We went out in F5 and ended up finishing the day with F7. Not ideal for people who rarely go on a boat, but we did manage to fit a short rib trip in for them as well while we were in Cowes.
Browsing in the Hamble Point chandlers on Sunday morning meant that I found a radar reflector that wouldn't damage anything else, and another foghorn. The sea anchor required by the rules is a bigger challenge as not many small boats use them. We have been told of a possible source and that's a project for next weekend.
Monday (today) was planned as a rib testing day with a run to Poole and back. However a gale and driving rain meant we stayed at home.
So not a bad weekend's work and Black Gold feels like she is running well. A brief dash in the short sharp sea off Cowes in F7 left me impressed with her ability to cope with this kind of chop both upwind and down.
Gavin, Monday May 26th
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