10th July Tom, Chris Beeson, Graham Iles, Mark Angell, and newly recruited crew member Dave Derby(two times overall winner of the Little Britain Challenge - in Tom and Natalie's Sigma 33) are now working Orca up for the 1850 mile non-stop Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race in late August.

26th June Neal Brewer and Richard Tolkien finish fifth in the RWYC race. A tough race, with two competitors retiring. Sadly Spliff's tussle with Orca ended when her Lerwick restart was delayed by wait for replacement spinnaker.

17th June Orca heading south again. Richard and Neal have rounded the top of the British Isles - this time Neal said "For once, the sun was shining and I could see Muckle Flugga". Having now completed the third leg and resting in Lerwick, they've dropped back to sixth among the eight Class 40 crews still racing after finishing an hour and a half behind Spliff.

7th June Neal Brewer, veteran of Mostly Harmless and Mithril crews, and co-owner Richard Tolkien secured a respectable fourth place for Orca among the nine Class 40s in the first stage of the Royal Western YC double-handed "stopping" race around Britain and Ireland. They enjoyed a close race against Spliff, never more than a mile apart and finishing two minutes ahead at Kinsale.

31st May Back from the Skagen Race. Natalie and Tom cleaned up, dried out and cleared out gear before Neal and Richard take over boat for the Royal Western YC doubled handed race in short hops around Britain and Ireland. Parked alongside Danish survey vessel last night (the only spot in the harbour that could accomodate our draft - notwithstanding claims that Ramsgate inner harbour dredged to 3m) - bless him, the skipper offered Orca crew hot showers when we came alongside!

26th May Sun shining by the Monday afternoon for the race - Red beat us off the start line but we were soon past them on the beat north to a mark off Esbjerg that kept us clear of the windfarms on the Danish coast. Cracking off a bit, we were doing 10+ knots when the lashing on the tack of the staysail failed, so a bit of bobbing around on the ocean followed while this was put right. Wind steadily built as we headed north, as we freed off a bit further off Nissum. But D ring on innner forestay failed, resulting in staysail and tack and baby stay flicking back and tearing mainsail. Reset the staysail on the forestay and monitored tear, which seemed to be holding. Wind continued to strengthen to 40 knots and seas build in shallower (c. 15 - 20 metres) waters off the coast. With another 90 miles to Skagen, took decision to retire at Hantsholm, last deep water port for a long time. Discover subsquently that we had pulled out lead of over 8 miles on Red in only 24 hours. Spent the following day making repairs and drying out before heading south - 550 miles and largely upwind - to Ramsgate.

24th May Largely uneventful, mostly sunny and largely offwind, delivery from Scheveningen to Helgoland - the most interesting challenge being how to get from ferry to Scheveningen when train ticket machine refused to accept any of our cards and no taxis were to be had for at least an hour and a half. Arrived in Helgoland to find island covered in thick fog, but received a warm welcome from Volker Andreae, Gero Bruckman, Mathias von Blumencron and other German RORC members.

21st May Tom, Natalie, Bob, Chris, and Tom Playford take the overnight ferry to Scheveningen tonight. Looks like we will be motoring up the coast to Texel but should then have a great sail along the northern Dutch coast before turning left at the end of the shipping lanes for Helgoland. We then face the prospect of a fairly heavy duty one sided beat for the first twenty four hours or so of the Skagen Race.

22nd May Page for Orca launched on Facebook. Also placed a story about Orca on RORC Facebook site.

16th May Logistics for the North Sea Race weekend seem to work out ok - even allowing for time servicing winches while passers by gawp at Orca - including trams and trains from Scheveningen to the ferry at Hook of Holland, and more trains and taxi to recover car at Woolverstone. A generally satisfying race, even if upwind speed against IRC boats in lighter winds always an issue.

12th May A very respectable few minutes of footage of Orca and interviews with Tom and Natalie on the BBC4 documentary "Sea Fever", introduced portentously by Malcolm McKeag declaring "there'll never be another Drumbeat" ie you can't love a plastic boat ("just a piece of racing equipment"). Screengrabs from the programme

10th May Yachting Monthly's Dick Durham suggests that the skipper is "taking it personally" - following delivery to windward (against the prevailing wind) the previous weekend. Link to article on Dick's blog