tel: +44 (0)2380 456205


27th November 2014« All News Items

Transatlantic Adventures on "Island Girl"

 

Sailing legend Ossie Stewart has just launched himself off on his newest adventure on board the Dufour 45e Island Girl which he owns with his wife Karen. Island Girl carries a full inventory by Ultimate Sails. Ossie and his crew are competing in the World Cruising Club’s 2014 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, a major transatlantic race which started from Gran Canaria on Sunday and which finishes in St Lucia’s Rodney Bay.

 

Island Girl will be racing across the Atlantic in the ARC’s Division II Racing Class and Ossie will be looking for a strong result, building on an impressive first inshore racing season with the boat. In June of this year, Ossie and Karen finished eighteenth in IRC Group Zero of the Round the Island Race which was their first race with Island Girl, and, as Ossie was keen to point out when we spoke to him, they beat his old ship-mate, Ben Ainslie! 

 

At the end of the summer Ossie and Karen took Island Girl across the Bay of Biscay (a first for Karen) and on down to St Tropez to compete at the Voile de St Tropez Regatta before moving her on to Gran Canaria for the start of the ARC.

 

Ossie explained that the plan for Island Girl was always to do the transatlantic crossing and then to compete with family and friends in the Caribbean regattas which take place in the spring. He decided on the Dufour 45e because ‘it is the best built, best looking, has a number of different rig options  and, with advice and guidance from the team at Ultimate Sails on the sail plan, she has the best potential rating for the racing I want to do’.

 

Island Girl has Dufour’s three spreader rig and a racing keel. The inventory which was designed and built by Ultimate Sails specifically for the transat and the Caribbean regatta series includes a racing mainsail, a Code 2 jib and a Code 3.5 jib for the furler, an A1 asymmetric kite, an S2 symmetric spinnaker, a Tri Sail and an IRC Code Zero.

 

At the start of this article we described Ossie Stewart as a ‘sailing legend’ and indeed he is. He is an Olympic medallist, a sailing world champion and has raced with many of the greats from our sport. We will be following Ossie’s adventures with Island Girl here over the next few months and we will also feature a full profile on the man himself in due course.

 

As we go to press this morning Island Girl lies third overall in the racing division. You can follow her progress and that of the rest of the fleet here.

 

Island Girl is available to charter with Ossie as skipper or advisor for a number of the Caribbean regattas in 2015. We will have more details later, but if you are interested in finding out more, please email the team at Ultimate Sails at sales@ultimatesails.co.uk in the first instance. 

Unit 20 Hamble Yacht Services
Port Hamble
Southampton, SO31 4NN
+44 (0)2380 456205