Spirt of Isis, pictured above is sister boat and one of three other boats I raced back from the Azores to Portsmouth back in early 2010. She was involved in an accident over the weekend whist racing in Antigua. She’s in a bit of a state. Look at the bend in the wheel!

Following Revenue and Customs Brief 10/12, HMRC have changed their practice relating to the Seafarer’s Earnings Deduction (SED)

Until 5 April 2011 SED was only available to seafarers who were ordinarily resident in the UK. From 6 April 2011 SED was extended to non-UK resident seafarers who were resident in a European Union or European Economic Area state and performed duties partly in UK waters on which they paid income tax in the UK. See EIM33010 – Seafarers’ Earnings Deduction: claims to the deduction from non-UK resident seafarers.

HMRC now recognises that EU law requires claims for SED for tax years before 2011/12, by those who were not UK resident or ordinary resident in the relevant tax year, should be allowed where the claims are made within the same time limits that apply for making such claims by those who were UK resident or ordinary resident in the relevant tax year.

I’m going sailing at the weekend so have been looking at the weather forecast. Not overly breezy so I suspect the risk of beer spillage is relatively low but look at the sunshine forecast. Must take a hat and some sun cream!

Weather forecast for the coming weekend

On 10th November a number of single handed Open 60 racing yachts will cross the start line for the 2012 Vendee Globe Ocean Race. Those that make it will travel around 27,000 miles non stop, those that don’t will have a different story to tell…

HISTORY
The race was founded in 1989 by French yachtsman Philippe Jeantot. Jeantot had previously won the BOC Challenge twice, first in 1982-83 and then again in 1986-87 that race later became known as The VELUX 5 Oceans Race, but Jeantot had a dream of the ultimate race. On 26th November 1989 13 competitors, Jeantot amongst them departed Les Sables d’Olonne on the first ever Vendee Globe. Six of the thirteen who crossed the start line never got placed, with four retiring and two being eliminated. Jeantot finished in 4th but the race was won by Frenchman Titouan Lamazou in 109 days, 8 hours and 48’50″

Running every four years the races departed in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and most recently 2008. The 1992 race was once again won by a Frenchman, this time Alain Gautier in just over 110 days. Fourteen men set out on the race, seven were placed, 5 retired, 1 eliminated following forced stopovers and sadly one man never came home to his family and another, American Mike Plant

Mike Plant

The third race had 15 official entries and one Rapahaël Dinelli who earned the nickname ‘The Little Pirate’ who had failed to qualify on time.

Rapahaël Dinelli

Gerry Roufs

The fourth race saw a surge in entries with 24 boats lining up to start the race, amongst them Britain’s pocket rocket Ellen Mac Arthur

Ellen Mac Arthur

The 2004 race saw 20 entries amongst them 2 women, Anne Liardet and Karen Leibovici, both French and both finishing the race in 11th and 13th respectively. There were 13 finishers in all with Frenchman Vincent Riou taking line honours in just 87 days and 10 hours. Seven boats retired.

Vincent Riou

Michel Desjoyeaux

Yann Eliès

Jean Le Cam's Capsized Boat

THE 2012 RACE
At the time of writing there are eighteen confirmed entries for the 2012 race with another 12 hopefuls trying to get backing to get to the start line.

The Route

This is astounding. My jaw just hit the floor listening to this radio exchange!

Well done to @bbcNewsHour for voicing up the incredible exchange between coastguard and #Concordia captain. Speechless. bit.ly/z58SKQ

— Kate AG (@RadioKate) January 17, 2012

UPDATE: This story was also run by BBC Newshours twitter account.

Listen: Shocking audio from Costa Concordia; censoring the internet; Darwin’s lost slides bbc.in/AiJl8a

— BBC Newshour (@BBCNewshour) January 17, 2012

UPDATE2: I’ve just been told it’s on the BBC News main website found here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16597277#TWEET63695

I’ve signed up for the HOEOCA November Rally.  I’m still a little fuzzy how it happened but after a number (undisclosed) of beers on Friday night in the Brickmakers Arms I was parted from a deposit, persuaded to join HOEOCA and agreed to go on a four day sailing rally in November which by all accounts ends with a fancy dress event at the Royal Solent Yacht Club in Yarmouth the theme of which is Angel & Demons.  God alone knows what that actually means but I’m sure the Illuminati will be lurking suspiciously with a flotilla of cameras to take unflattering pictures in a conspiracy to tarnish my reputation.  All that said, I’ve apparently been put on Arc Angel a Swedish Arcona 400 with the Vice Commodore for the duration of the Rally and that, I’m looking forward to.  Should we find ourselves racing, I will of course pull my weight in making the boat race like the wind and nothing less than a 1st place will satisfy.  Bring on November.

I’ve not blogged anything for a while. I’ve been busy with work committments, weekend social committments and generally getting on with life. Last weekend we had friends around for the day on Saturday and I needed to spend family time with the family on Sunday. This week has been full on so far and I’ve a busy weekend planned.

On Saturday I’m going down to the boat with @racesail. The plan is to rig the sails which are currently off and which means one of us needs to go up the mast to put the lazyjacks back in place and then to fill up at the fuel berth before a shakedown cruise. I’m sure there will be a need to check that the fridge is keeping the beers appropriately cooled and pretty confident that We’ll end up in a pub somewhere on Saturday evening.

That said, I’m trying to work on my weight (still) so I’ll be moderating my intake. This week I’ve been eating really well and, apart from the odd finger of Whisky have avoided drinking much at all.

On Sunday, the plan is to be in the Western Solent ahead of the starting gun for the Rolex Fastnet Race. If anyone else is going to be there do take a camera and if you can get a photo of Evelyn in full sail I’ll show my appreciation in an entirely appropriate way.

On Sunday 9th August the fleet of circa 300 entries to the 2009 Rolex Fastnet race cross the start line in a race which marks the 30th anniversary of the infamous 1979 race which ended is disaster.

The race takes place every two years over a course of about 608nm starting off the Royal Yacht Squaron start line at Cowes travelling westbound past The Lizard and on to round the Fastnet lighthouse on the southern tip of Ireland then back to east to Plymouth.

The idea for the race was dreamed up by British Yachtsman Weston Martyr and the first race had just 7 competitors.  The winner was the gaff-rigged pilot cutter Jolie Brise owned and skippered by Evelyn George Martin.

In 1973 the International Offshore Rule, basically a boat handicapping system was introduced to the race allowing different classes of boat to compete for an overall fleet position (adjusted by the IOR) and this lead to the rise in commercial sponsorship of both boats and crews for the event.

TRADGEDY

In 1979, the 28th Fastnet race, the fleet set out in weather conditions of F6 (21-26 knts) gusting F7 (27-33) with forcasters predicting this to rise to F8 (34-40 knts).  With winds like these records were set to tumble; but that wasn’t to be.  By the following day 25 of the 306 starting boats had either sunk or been rendered un-sailable by “Mountainous seas”.  Royal and Irish Navy ships, helicopters, lifeboats and a Dutch warship picked up 125 yachtmen between land’s End and Fastnet during the rescue operation over the 13th and 14th August.  The fleet had been caught in Force 11 conditions (56-63 knt’s).  The Beaufort scale only goes to Force 12 which is the official definition of a hurricane.  The rescuers which included tugs, trawlers and tankers had to wait until early morning 14th August until the winds receeded back to severe gale force 9 before it was safe enough to start the rescue.  15 yachtmen lost their life over those two days.  The time corrected winner was later declared as the aptly named Tenacious, owned and skippered by Ted Turner the man who founded CNN.  69 yachts failed to finish the race.

MORE HISTORY

The 1985 race drew further attention when Simon Le Bon, the lead singer of the pop band Duran Duran suffered a capsize of his co-owned maxi yacht Drum.  He and five other crew members were trapped under the upturned hull for 20 minutes until they were rescued by the Royal Navy.

GOAL

Keep it a secret, but despite, and perhaps even because of the history of the event it is one of my ambitions to compete in it.  I don’t have to compete as an owner, and, although I’d bust a gut to place as high as possible I don’t harbour a need to win.  I just want to take part in the event so I can say I’ve done it.

This coming weekend I’m competing in the Round the Island Race which takes place every year in June.  The race is just over 50 nautical miles around the Isle of Wight in an anticlockwise direction, although most boats will cover more like 60 nm because of the need to tack and gybe.  I’ve competed in this event a few times before but this year will be particularly special for me and not because I missed last year because of work committments but because for the first time I’ll be competing without my sailing mentor.

Tony, my friend and mentor had a horrible motorcycle accident in mid April involving high speed connection with ladders in the carriageway of the M1 and resulting in multiple injuries.  The motorway was closed for 5 hours after the accident and Tony’s condition was poor for many weeks.  Infact, he was in a coma for a month and is as I write still in hospital but with no memory of the accident and still not strong enough to walk, although I understand he’s now giving the nursing staff a run for their money and working towards getting a discharge so he can continue his recouperation at home.

I first got involved in sailing when I was working with a friend who having done a little sailing in canada, was now living and working in England and taking a day skipper course at his local college.  Tony was the tutor and as a yachtmaster instructor with his own boat on the south coast was always inviting his students to come and experience the real deal on board.  Tony and his brother Rick own a fully coded boat called Emily V and run her as a charter boat providing weekend training, experience and fun and they were short of crew for a particular weekend.  My friend asked if I’d be interested in coming along to make up the numbers and I said yes.  I’d never been on a sailing boat before and was pretty excited at the prospect.

Once we got the main sail up and switched off the engine I could feel the boat moving through the water under natures own power;  the sound of the water along the side of the hull was magical and I was in a place I liked being.  It became obvious within the next few hours that I loved sailing and I knew I needed to own my own boat.  Not a shared boat, my own.

Over the rest of the summer, some of the winter and the next summer I spent many weekends on Emily V with Tony and all manner of different crew mates but the yearning to become an owner never went away.  In the following February I sent tony an email asking him to let me have the name of the boat surveyor who had reported on Emily V when he brought her and Tony replied together with some sage cautionary advice about the cost of keeping and maintaining a boat.  I asked him if he’d consider coming and looking at a few boats with me because, although I’d now clocked up a few hours sailing experience I really didn’t have much of a clue about what to look for in a boat.  Tony’s reaction -

“you try and stop me, I love crawling over other peoples boats.”

And so it was that in February Tony and I went around most of the boat yards on the south coast, oggling boats well of of my budget, stepping on boats within my budget and generally poking around and seeing what kind of boats I could afford.  At one boat yard in Lymingon I found a fairly old but very well maintained boat and after talking it through with Tony I offered £7,000 under the asking price.  The broker put the offer to the owners but the NO, was immediate.  I upped my offer by £2000; again the NO was immediate.  I decided to walk away.  On the same weekend I found another boat at Hamble.  It was a later version of the first boat I’d offered on and there had only been 19 made before the makers went into administration in the early 1990′s.  The price was similar to boat one but the electronic equipment was of a lower standard.  I knew if I could agree the right price i’d have a few grand left over to make the upgrades I wanted to bring the kit uptodate.  My second offer was accepted.  There I was; owner of my own boat.

Tony helped me with the delivery trip, afterall I still wasn’t competent enough to single hand a boat even though she was only 29ft.  He’s also provided me with help and advice on maintenance, showing me how to service the engine, clean and antifoul the hull, replace sacrificial annodes and together we fitted a new Garmin chart plotter, a new DSC radio with command mic and replaced all of the clutches that the ropes thread through.  There are still loads of upgrades I want to do but time is always going to be an issue.

Anyway, I started this post about the RTI.  Rick, Tony’s brother contacted me and asked if I’d consider still doing the RTI with him and some crew; afterall, Emily V is entered and Tony would be disappointed if we didn’t compete on the grounds that he’s in hospital.  So early on Saturday morning we’re leaving our berth in Southampton and making for the start line.  Our class (ISC Rating Sys Division 6C TCF 0.970 to 0.977) starts at 08:50.  There are 52 entries at the time of writting in the class all of whom will be displaying a purple flag to identify which class we’re competing in.  As of this morning there are 1778 boats entered for the entire event.  Whilst we won’t take winning too seriously I’m not there to come last so expect a little competitive spirit to surface once we’ve had the bacon butties!

For Tony’s benefit I’m going to be tweeting our progress around the course.  If you want to follow then you can either subscribe to my twitter feed @markhendy or visit HERE.  I’m also going to be taking photos of the crew and event and will publish a gallery on the Sunday.