Tony Bullimore who turned 68 this this week has been on standby for well over a month in Hobart, Tasmania awaiting a weather window to commence his solo circumnavigation record attempt aboard his 102ft catamaran Doha 2006 is still not quite ready for the off.

Although the weather situation has been far from ideal for the start of the record attempt, with a consistent stream of high pressure systems piling in since the finish of the Sydney Hobart Race, this has not been the only reason for the delay.

According to Barry Pickthall who’s distributing the publicity, Bullimore has problems with his gennaker furling gear. Apparently he ordered a new £5,000 rotating section of a Facnor furling system from France but it didn’t fit. Pickthall said: “? when it arrived from France they found it had the wrong fitting on the top. So they are now flying this huge roll of stainless steel to Sydney next week. There was also a damaged runner which had to be flown to New Zealand to have a new terminal put on it.”

Despite the recent pitfalls Pickthall says that once the furling gear has been replaced and the runner returned and fitted Bullimore will be ready for the off. “All the food is onboard but realistically I can’t see him leaving before the second week in February.”

Once underway Bullimore will head east to Cape Horn, up the Atlantic to a waypoint north of Flores in the Azores, before turning south to the Cape of Good Hope and back to Hobart. His aim is to break Ellen MacArthur’s 71 days 14hrs 18mins 33secs solo record.?