Down with a bang!

John Willis explains the consequences of cresting a bigger- than-expected wave while helming his 25ft motorboat

- 

Getting to a start line in good order sufficient to achieve the mission can be harder than the mission itself, I've always believed. But I didn't expect to find out how true that was when I sallied forth with crewman George from St Peter Port, veterans of 70 years apiece, though he wears his years more gracefully than I.

Our mission was to cross from Guernsey to Plymouth and join the Jester skippers for the 2025 Jester Baltimore Challenge in Island Star, my 18 year old 25ft Beneteau 760 diesel motorboat, to act as unofficial Jester support craft, and taxi for PBO writer and photographer Jake Kavanagh, a task I'd performed the previous two years, crossing the Channel in my 43 year old Channel Island 22.

Seaworthy craft

Despite the 760's high topsides and extensive glazing, Island Star has proven to be a doughty craft during many trips in a variety of conditions around the Channel Islands over the past 12 months, sometimes in waves over 2m. Indeed, she is a proud holder of the RCD Category B badge, designed to withstand wind speeds of up to Force 8 on the Beaufort scale and significant wave heights of up to 4m for voyages as much as 200 miles from shelter.

While both sailing yachts and motorboats can be classified as RCD Category B, the term generally refers to their design capabilities for offshore use, so they are theoretically capable of offshore cruising where occasional adverse weather conditions may be encountered.

Category B is unusual in so small a motorboat and suggests that the boat's scantlings and other key design criteria are sufficient to cope with rough stuff, not that I wish to explore this too deeply in Island Star. Nevertheless, this is all very reassuring.

At this point, I shall issue a spoiler alert –some readers will criticise my decision in what follows, though my crew and I are quite comfortable with it.

Be prepared