As American sailor Jonathan McKee sailed into Portsmouth to win the first leg of the Mini Pavois (La Rochelle – Portsmouth – Douarnenez), young British sailor Ian Munslow recalls his thoughts on the last 24hrs that saw his fifth place slip away.

Ian Munslow’s boat Ishtar was less than 24hrs from the finish when disaster struck. Ian writes; “All was going well from La Rochelle up to Brittany, the weather wasn’t nice, quite hard upwind with winds up to 45kts, but the boat was loving it and I was passing boats all the time. But, at about 0645 yesterday I was inside the boat when there was a big bang. I was hit on the starboard side by a trawler and dragged sideways by my rig until something broke and I was free of the boat.”

Luckily Ian managed to get a tow to Ile de Sein and is now surveying the damage and thinking of his future goal of the Mini Transat. Ian continues; “I am in Audierne in Brittany, with a rather poorly boat. The Transat now looks like an even bigger goal. Financially, this is tough: the lifeboat and tow is nearly a grand, I have to get the boat back to the UK and then fix it. I have no money in the world and the favours I owe to my parents are innumerable. Don’t you just love a challenge? So, if anybody out there knows anyone who has some spare cash kicking around I have a lot of space on my sails for advertising and a boat which is not as slow as everyone thinks.”

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