Two spirited but ultimately unsuccessful episodes in the life of this extraordinary example of early composite boatbuilding. Royal & SunAlliance (above) marked the return to the high seas of Maiden skipper Tracy Edwards again with an all-woman crew; this Jules Verne attempt ended with a dismasting in the Southern Ocean. And then she was off again as Legato (left) in the adventurous and fearless hands of the late and irrepressible Tony Bullimore
Unlike her previous owners Tracy Lyonnaise gradually clawed her way
back into contention and at one point was only 20 miles south of Enza coming up the Atlantic, leading Kersauson to quip ‘Now I am going to eat apples!’ But it was not to be, as Enza caught the better weather system and flew across the finish line – dragging all her warps and chain to keep her steady in a following Force 9 gale – two days ahead of Lyonnaise and more than four days ahead of Commodore’s previous record, with a final time of 74d 22h 17m. Enza’s 1994 circumnavigation earned
her a special place in British and New Zealand sailors’ hearts, not only as a rare Anglo-Saxon victory on a stage increas- ingly dominated by French sailors, but as a boat of great character and resilience. No wonder then that, when Tracy Edwards was looking for a boat to mount an all- women challenge for the Jules Verne trophy, she jumped at the opportunity to buy the by now 12-year-old Formule TAG. Tracy’s reaction on sailing the boat for
46 SEAHORSE
the first time captures its unique aura: ‘None of the photographs or videos could do justice to that catamaran. She was like a huge cat, coiled and ready to pounce,’ she later wrote. ‘The first few moments will stay with me for ever. In 16kt of breeze we accelerated to 17kt in a matter of seconds. ‘I couldn’t believe it! […] Enza made
17kt seem effortless. There was a magic, an indefinable something about her that grabbed my heart and I felt the same excite- ment and exhilaration as I had 10 years earlier when I first went offshore sailing.’ It took Tracy nearly a year to find a
sponsor, during which time the boat – tem- porarily named Lady Endeavour – was shipped from San Diego to Florida, sailed across the Atlantic and given a major refit at Hamble Point Marina, with the help of her designer Nigel Irens. Eventually a sponsor was found in the form of two big insurance companies that had recently merged, thus giving the boat her fifth name: Royal & SunAlliance.
didn’t make any major structural changes to the boat – apart from helping her lose about two tons of middle-aged flab – but she did change the crew list, recruiting a complement of 11, whereas the original Formule TAG had just six while Enza sailed with eight. Among Tracy’s crew were three young guns who would go on to make their names in singlehanded sail- ing: Sam Davies, Emma Richards (later Sanderson) and Miranda Merron. Royal & SunAlliance made good speed
across the Southern Ocean – breaking five intermediate records along the ways – but met her nemesis halfway between New Zealand and Cape Horn when she slammed into the back of an enormous wave in the middle of the night. Moments later the mast crumpled and crashed over the side. Tracy and her crew were left to pick up the pieces and sail most of the 2,300 miles to Chile under jury rig, receiv- ing a tow from a tug for the last 400 miles. The dreams of a second Jules Verne trophy for the ‘big cat’ were well and truly over. The yacht’s next owner was no less
famous than the ones before: the indefati- gable ‘British bulldog’ Tony Bullimore. In 1999 he paid a reported £400,000 for the broken and damaged hull before embark- ing on a major rebuild in Bristol, with designer Nigel Irens yet again in atten- dance. The hulls were lengthened yet again from 92ft to 102ft, a 120ft tall carbon fibre wing mast was fitted and the sail area
HENRI THIBAULT/DPPI
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