After the meteorological and logistical mayhem of the first three days, Day 4’s run from Bangor, Northern Island to Oban in Scotland was a pleasant walk in the park for the entire fleet, not least the leading contenders in the Historic Class.

    Andy Fielding, the co-driver on Team 747, wore a beneficent smile when he scrambled up the dock wall in Oban to sign off, with Jonathan Napier and Cormac Lundy, having just brought the little Fairey Spearfish home in first place, beating Gee by a mere 10 seconds in the battle for class honours.

    “After Saturday, I would quite happily have walked away from boating  but yesterday began to get easier and today has been really very enjoyable; not at all like sticking pins in my eyeballs. What wind there was today was South Easterly so as expected, we encountered some biggish quartering seas in the early miles until we got in the lee of the Mull of Kintyre and then we ran quite hard up the Scottish coast.

    “There was quite a snotty little patch at the point of Kintyre and we slowed down a bit so Gee caught us up and then we just ran up through the islands in company until the finish, which we took by about 100 metres. Our real problem now is that after our disaster on Day 1, when we dropped 2 hours on Gee, all those boys have to do is just track us round so unless something stops them, we can’t really catch up, but it won’t stop us trying and there’s many a slip twixt tea-drinking receptacle and mouth edges.”

    Tomorrow sees the more gentle passage through the Caledonian Canal and its lochs to Inverness, with a lay day to follow and recuperate so Team 747 and Gee will be locked together when racing restarts down the east coast on Thursday.

    Elsewhere amongst the Historic Class, John Skuse re-launched his Fairey Huntsman, Xanthus, in Troon, Mike Barlow’s crew aboard Ocean Pirate were on passage to Scotland from Dublin and Jonathan Townsend, whose Fairey Swordsman retired on Day 1 was en route to Oban from Falmouth so the Historic Class will be almost back to full strength when the race leaves Inverness.