Met Office sails to victory
Admiral FitzRoy, founder of the Met Office, would have been proud of the recent success of the Met Office sailing team in the Civil Service Offshore Regatta 2007. The Met Office team were overall winners of the Golden Jubilee Cup after a challenging week of sailing dominated by difficult light wind conditions.
Met Office Team Skipper, Bill Collins said: "The success was achieved by excellent crew work – despite having never sailed as a complete crew before – and all our weather expertise was put to good use in our tactical planning."
The week of races, held at Cowes, Isle of Wight, during May, consisted of a series of short races and three longer offshore races. No boats finished the Round the Island race as the fleet failed to get past Hurst in the light airs before the tide turned.
Met Office connections with the sea go back a long way. Admiral Beaufort developed the famous scale of winds – later adopted by the Royal Navy and Admiral FitzRoy, who went on to become the founder of the Met Office.
Today, professional mariners, the offshore industry and the leisure sailor can all benefit from the wide range of Met Office marine services.
More about Met Office marine services
Notes to editors:
- The regatta was hosted by Island Sailing Club, Cowes.
- Met Office sailing team members: Bill Collins (Skipper), Matt Adams, Debbie Hemming, Richard Cain, Steve Lloyd, Carlo Buontempo, John Siddorn and James Manners.
- All teams lived and sailed onboard identical Sunfast 37 yachts chartered from Sunsail.
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