SunGard Front Arena Qualifies for RBI

Last night at around 9:30pm we arrived in Portsmouth after sailing just over 300 miles in the space of 34 hours, we went to Le Havre and back and to Fecamp and back, crossing the English Channel a total of 4 times in less than a day and a half.

The sailing was very exciting with winds up to 30 knots on Sunday and between 15 and 25 on monday; we comfortably clocked the miles averaging nearly 10 knots over the whole period, which is very fast for a qualifier where we took things easy and didn't push the boat too hard, especially as this was the first ever time Paul and I had sailed the boat, or a similar boat for that matter.

The new boat is named SunGard Front Arena after our sponsor for the Round Britain and Ireland Race organised by the Royal Western Yacht Club with departure from Plymouth on Sunday June 6th.

It was magnificent to see the ease with which the boat accelerated to double digit speeds as soon as we sheeted in the sails, wide, flat and powerful the boat lay almost flat accelerating in the gusts rather than leaning over like traditional yachts with rounder shapes do.

We have a system of water ballast on board, which allows us to "load" the high side of the boat with up to 750 liters of water and help her stay flat and go even faster, this is equivalent of asking 10 average build men to sit on the rail and get wet and cold! The bulb of the keel is made of 2 tons of lead shaped like a missile attached to the bottom of a 3 meter steel fin; when the boat takes off on a wave and lands with a crash you can feel the whole structure shaking reminding you of the enormous forces at play.

The sense of security that this boat gives you is incredible, there we were in 30 knots of wind in a choppy wind against tide typical chilly Easter weekend channel crossing and we were chatting away with a cup of tea, shielded by elements under the cuddies, two small seats hidden under a "roof" in the cockpit, designed to ensure the cold and wet conditions do not take the toll on the crew, after all the machine can go only as fast as the men can drive it.

Paul and I are really looking forward to start training in earnest, we had a computer on board that showed us at all times how fast we were sailing compared to the target speed for the wind strength and speed, we were not pushing hard and the computer confirmed, we were only going at 75-80% of our potential. It's now time to go out and learn the trim and sail combination for each situation to ensure we'll be in top form by June.

Today I'm back in the office, I woke up at 5am and took the first train to London.

Skipper - Marco Nannini
Co-Skipper - Paul Peggs
SunGard Front Arena
Akilaria Class 40
www.marconannini.com