Sailors make their own boats

Unfortunately our sailors could not be on the water during the second lockdown for their Wednesday Afternoon Activity, so they’ve brought the water to them by racing their homemade model boats.

The group have been tracking the boats racing in the Vendee Globe around-the-world-race, and were inspired to build their own sailing model boats.

In pairs they came up with their designs, one couple said: “We made our boat to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible, then fix all the problems instead of making it work first. Our strategy was to build the boat first then balance it later. This was not successful because we ran out of time and this led to our boat capsizing. This is linked to Alex Thompson, a competitor in the Vendee Globe, because he also ran out of time to test his boat which led to his ultimate retirement.”

The overall winners, based on both speed and aesthetic design, were Kate and Evie for their vessel ‘Kingfisher’.

Kate and Evie said: “The Kingfisher came from three weeks came from of careful planning and building to create a boat that will maximise our speed while also being aesthetically pleasing. We chose the structure because it combines the basic shape of a Vendee Globe sailing boat and the more efficient Viking sail.”