Ireland's sailing, boating & maritime magazine

Everybody has a dream, and every record attempt starts with that dream. My dream began when I heard of the Round Ireland speed record back in the eighties. Since then I have waited for my turn. Navigating home one night last winter after a few pints in Willy Darcy’s bar, using my favourite navigation device (a carton of chips), Shan (Mike Shanahan) and I came up with the notion of taking on the Round Ireland speed record. We have often come up with mad notions, but this one was different. Or maybe the only thing different about it was that I still could remember the idea in the morning. What’s worse, Shan did too and that’s where it all started. First thing we had to do was find out what the record was. This was no easy task – after hours of fruitless searching on the internet, I met with Joe from Excalibur Ribs who told me that it belonged to Garth Henry from Portrush and the time was 21 hours and 53 minutes. Now that we had a boat and a target time, the real planning could start. So much for thinking it was going to be easy – what a nightmare! We didn’t realise the work that goes into one of these attempts, like sorting out a route. Should we go clockwise or anticlockwise; where do we refuel; what are the rules; how much fuel will we need; what time do we leave; where do we leave from? Sanding the hull seemed easy now! The route we decided on was to leave Smerwick harbour and head north for Inishark, on to Achill island, across Donegal Bay, along the top, around to Malin Head and into Slievebane bay to our first refuel, then on to Rathlin, round the north and down the east coast, past the Arklow Bank and on for Tuskar Rock, turn right for Kilmore Quay for our second refuel, then out the gap across St Patrick’s Bridge and on for the Old Head of Kinsale, pass the Stags, then head north just after Clear Island, round Dursey Island, on for Valentia, then on the home straight, turn right after the Blaskets, east for one or two miles, past the line and the record is ours. Easy, or so we thought. When we left the first time, after a fantastic send-off from the pier at Smerwick by friends and family, our tank burst after 20 minutes and we lost 280 litres of fuel, forcing us to abandon the attempt. All a bit embarrassing, but it only made us more determined. Our second attempt happened out of the blue – we had watched various weather websites for weather windows and Wednesday, August 29th 2007 looked good. We were aiming for a start on that day, but then discovered that Tuesday’s weather would be better, so we decided to set off on Tuesday morning at 01.33.45am. Heading north from Smerwick Harbour, conditions were fair F3/4 NW but we were only able to make between 25 to 35kts until we came close to Inishark where we began to take on swell on the port side. Adding to our problems were a broken backrest on the navigation seat from the constant pounding, making the trip very uncomfortable for the navigator, which was going to be me in about an hour. Around Achill we swapped Shan over to the helm and I began navigating. After ten minutes I wished I was back at the helm with a working back rest but I just had to grin and bear it so across Donegal bay as dawn broke and on to Bloody Foreland where conditions worsened with the sky turning dark behind us. We just hoped we could stay ahead of it but coming up on Malin Head the sea finally showed us who was boss. We had to slow to 15 to 20kts until the first refuel in Slievebane bay and a chance to fix the back rest. Some 28 minutes later, we were off for Kilmore Quay on a different sea – calm, about F1/2 and no swell. We had a lot of time to make up but were making 42 /44kts with a full fuel load of over half a ton. We hit a small run of water around Rathlin Island, slowing us again, before moving around the next headland and heading south past Belfast, increasing to 43/45kts and down the east cost to our next waypoint just off the Arklow bank. Joe reckoned that less than 20 hours was the time to do it in so we had our target. Next we needed a boat with a speed of 50kts and that could take on some bad weather and still do 30kts. Happily, I knew of an old Tornado 7.4 with twin 115 Yamahas so with a few small modifications – like stripping her down to her bare hull, filling, sanding, respraying, retubing, fitting a new engine, rewiring, fitting a new console, trim tabs, a custom bulk fuel tank, Samson post, anchor locker and a bit of fine tuning – we had our boat and I had an overdraft. We were now 107nm away – the longest leg of the trip – off Lambay island when we hit 2/3 feet chop with no direction which slowed us up to 35/38kts for about half an hour. Then it was back up to 43/45kts all the way until our second refuel in Kilmore Quay. Seven minutes and 500 litres of fuel later, we left, and passed the Old Head just one hour and 40 minutes later. Next it was the Stages, and then Fastnet Rock, on to the Bull where we met up with our old friend – the NW F4 wind with that swell that had grown to three to four feet. Past the Skelligs with the Blaskets ahead of us, the wind picked up to F4/5 and the swell to 4/5 feet, forcing us to slow to 20/25kts until we were mid-way past the Blaskets when the wind dropped again to F2/3. Rounding Sybil Point, we were able to speed up again, I could see the Three Sisters and knew we had it! The foghorn blew and at 20.46.32 we passed the start line again, some 19 hours 13 minutes and 16 seconds after we had left her. What a trip! I would like to thank everybody who helped – Kevin and Iain for driving all the way to Malin Head from Castlegregory; Jerry and his son for all they did in the North and waiting on the pier from 06.30 for us to show up over two hours late; Jammer, David and Thomas Power for the refuel in Kilmore Quay and to the staff of the marina for letting us use their facilities; Kingdom Printers for the sponsorship cards; Willy Darcy’s for the t-shirts; Sean Breandain in Teach TP pub in Smerwick Harbour; and, most importantly, to Kerry Petroleum plc for sponsoring the fuel. Without their help, the event would have been a non-starter. To save my hide, I would also like to thank Helena for putting up with the endless hours of planning around her kitchen table and all the coffee. A few months later, it still feels like a daydream. Who Holds the Record? Publication of our report of the inaugural Round Ireland powerboat record in February/March Afloat brought a flurry of requests for details on how a record attempt can be made. A number of other record times from crews who had completed the 700-mile course also came forward. The issue for powerboaters considering a record attempt is the absence of an official Irish source to verify their efforts. For example, ten years ago Gareth Henry, a lifeboat man from Portrush, completed the course in a Tornado RIB with a 240hp Yamaha diesel and took 21 hours 54 mins and more recently in our story opposite we publish another record run this time a sub twenty hour time frame. As far as we are aware, no motorboat club has come forward to set the official course route (inside or outside Ireland’s islands) a course time, nor is there is an up-to-date set of rules or keeper of record.