Today, it is exactly 6 weeks to the start of the legendary Route du Rhum. Ariel2 is on her way to Gosport, U.K. She set sails on Friday night and you can follow her on the map by clicking this link.

Summer went so quickly. After an active period of PR sailings in August me and my super team concentrated on preparing the boat. A big number of things was done i.e. installing solar panels and hydrogenerators. 

I chose Solbian flexible solar panels due to as they in their web page, the panels are “born to work well even in particularly difficult circumstances and under heavy mechanical stresses typical of extreme ocean racing… for the high efficiency … and for the outstanding resistance to weather and degrading agents such as thermal shock, fog and salt water, solar radiation and shocks (can be walked).”

Photo: Jari Salo

In Gosport the final preparations before the race will be managed by Joff Brown and his team. The boats and skippers have to arrive in Saint-Malo race village Oct. 24th latest, so there’s only less than a month for everything to be ready. 

Photo: Jari Salo

The crew onboard delivery sailing is: Jari Selin, Turo Nummi, Jukka Jaskari.

Main photo: Jari Salo, Sailing Images