We head for Cowes, the RIB smashing its way over the waves as we race along at around 30 knots, darting between vessels of all shapes and sizes; the Solent is very busy today. In a graphic demonstration of my lack of ease at sea I’ve tightly wedged myself into my seat grabbing nearby steel supports with either hand and pushing my legs tight against the side to stop myself being flung overboard. Or straight into orbit.

Ado Stead, the second tactician, meanwhile is at the back of the boat perched nonchalantly on the engine cover, absorbed in a manual of charts. I can only assume he must have huge magnets in the seat of his pants. His biggest worry this morning seems to be exactly what people must have thought of him as he walked down the ‘high street’ in Cowes clad in his ‘Alfa Romeo Yacht Racing Team’ leg-warmers to collect the race instructions. It must really be pointed out that these are seriously ‘cool’ leg warmers. We wouldn’t be surprised if they were made of a composite material. 

We follow Alfa Romeo out to the startline where the myriad of yachts taking part in the “Round the Island Race” are starting to gather up. As the crew goes about its preparations there is confusion about the start, Murray reveals. The official instruction book says nothing about the direction of the race – which will circumnavigate the Isle of Wight. All the teams had assumed it was to be run in clockwise direction; however a radio call from the organizers announces that it will be anti-clockwise. This means back to the drawing board for the navigators and tacticians. The whole route has been ‘pinned’ using the boat’s advanced GPS system, with a line already chosen, taking into account time, weather, wind and tides – now they have to start all over again.

The choppy water of the Solent is rapidly filling up with yachts and out there is the dark grey form of ICAP Leopard – which will be Alfa Romeo‘s big challenge for line honours. ICAP Leopard is a brand-new supermaxi yacht – the latest step forward in the technology battle and it has been the talk of Cowes all week. However, as ICAP Leopard is a charter ship with a fully kitted interior she is heavier, an impediment reinforced by a number of extra invited guests from sponsors and additional cameraman onboard. Dead weight is the last thing which is required in racing, and here Alfa Romeo had a clear advantage.

This is the first time the two boats are going head-to-head and the anticipation of a good old scrap is in the air. The Alfa Romeo crew is keen to put this ambitious new pretender firmly in its place. Dave, the RIB driver, says: “The Alfa Romeo guys are really itching to get out there and put one over Leopard.”

The two big boats stalk each other as the minutes tick by towards ten o’clock. Alfa Romeo and ICAP Leopard dwarfing the minnows around them, darting up and down, unfurling sails as the yachts get ready to start. The atmosphere is palpably growing more tense. The starting “grid” is an amazing scene, there are literally boats everywhere: inflatable speedboats dart around packed with camera crews, while yachts lined with onlookers wave as the excitement builds to a crescendo. It’s a surreal scene: it’s as if the average motor racing fan could drive right onto the F1 grid at Monte Carlo in his Fiat Punto and then when the lights go green, he could race off alongside the Ferraris, Mclarens and BMWs until their superior power saw them vanishing off into the distance. Here the “starting grid” is 2 miles wide so it’s possible – from the RIB this is far better than the best F1 grandstand view money can buy – here you’re right in the midst of the action.

Alfa Romeo and ICAP Leopard are like two prize fighters, warily eyeing each other up, countering each other’s movements. The Alfa Romeo script on the mainsail is impressive branding to say the least in this most exclusive of yacht race arenas: a unique marketing potency which any righteous car manufacturer could only yearn to have.

There are hundreds of craft here – but only Alfa Romeo and ICAP Leopard count, their vast hulls and towering masts dominate the proceedings, these rampant testosterone-packed yachts are oblivious to the sound and movement going on around them as they prepare for the start. Murray has told us the boats have to be very careful not to cross the line before the start – otherwise heavy penalties will be applied.
 

Cowes does things its own way, after all it is the world’s oldest ‘Regatta’ and it is a stickler for tradition, and so unlike other races the startline is fixed which means the boats today won’t be heading into the wind at the start, it is on the ‘beam’ this morning we are told – though the finer technicalities of this information is lost on us.

At ten o’clock sharp Ellen MacArthur – a yachtswoman who needs no introduction - fires the starting gun. Then it all kicks off. The action goes crazy all around and above us. Alfa Romeo and ICAP Leopard race across the line (marked by two buoys) in a flash, as they begin the chase down the Solent towards their first ‘mark’. Side-by-side the two super yachts tear through the unfriendly dark waters, unfurling their ‘Code Zero’ sails as they look to grab the wind and grasp the advantage.

And we’re right in between these two towering monsters – in our tiny inflatable RIB - as they aggressively slice through the dark, moody waters. It’s hard to describe quite how this feels – but it’s something like riding a scooter right in between Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton as the lights go green and they chase each other side-by-side down to the first bend of the grand prix in a no-holds-barred battle for advantage. It’s awesome – the adrenaline pumps furiously – one simply cannot get closer to the action. We have a ringside seat – in the ring. And all the time we have to hang on tight as we’re flung about as the fragile RIB crashes over waves that the two big craft simply glide over. For Dave it’s really just another normal ‘day in the office’,  so we are in very safe hands. He’s another nice guy we’ve met this week and who has the sea in his veins. With his stocky build, curly beard and down-to-earth manner he’s every inch the seaman. A Londoner who started coming to the Isle of Wight to visit his parents when they retired and moved to the island, his visits kept getting longer and one day he just stayed. Now he’s shadowing the world’s fastest yachts on a Wednesday morning – and he’s gets paid to do this.

It’s sensational as the race ‘goes off’ down the Solent - boats of all sizes and shapes are darting everywhere and the rotors of the TV helicopter beat loudly as it hovers right overhead – but the explosion of action is just a sideshow as the two big beasts of the sea, Alfa Romeo and ICAP Leopard, muscle against each other for advantage, hurtling along neck-and-neck. The senses are left reeling – and all the time we’re still hanging on.

After a few minutes Alfa Romeo starts to draw away from ICAP Leopard, building up a clear length’s lead, then two, and soon three. Alfa Romeo suddenly glides across in front of ICAP Leopard to impose herself on the lead of the race - the two boats are now sailing in line astern of each other. Leopard was on the racing line that Alfa Romeo wanted to be on, but I also think there is a touch of putting the new pretender firmly in her place in front of the watching world. This is a sport that’s about big tough, characters, winners, aggression and muscular power – imperiously, Alfa Romeo has dismissed her rival’s ambitions, she’s slowed the chatter. And – says Murray later – it’s also about the air; Alfa Romeo is now racing into “clean air”, behind her ICAP Leopard is feeding straight into her rival’s “dirty air” which interrupts her progress. Shades of F1 here?

Alfa Romeo made the best possible start to the racing action of Cowes Week – at shortly before 3PM the yacht rounded the headland and hove into the sight of the ranks of spectators lining the banks and the yachts bobbing in the mild breeze. In fact Alfa Romeo glided over the line after 4 hours 54 minutes and 57 seconds. And in the tense psychological battle in the build-up to the Fastnet it was Alfa Romeo 1 ICAP Leopard 0 as the new pretender finished the race a massive 40 minutes later. Murray is cautious though – he says that 40 minutes is not a true reflection, and that ICAP Leopard may have hit a bad patch on the course. On the whole the Alfa Romeo team are pretty happy with the result, the crew and the new members worked well, there were a few issues that need to be addressed before the Fastnet – he says – but nothing that in unexpected.

Postscript: Victory for Alfa Romeo ‘2’ in the Fastnet will have to wait for another year, as raging seas and vicious winds, which delayed the race’s start by more than 25 hours, tore at the yacht’s hi-tech sails, causing damage that required a port visit.

by Edd Ellison