From smooth moves to smooth sailing
Two students from FWC Kung Fu recently took a few days off training to meet a different sort of challenge – competing in the UK's toughest sailing race. Felix Ngo and Pen Rance completed the Rolex Fastnet in August on two separate boats, but still managed to finish the 650-mile course within a few hours of each other.
While the eventual winners blasted home in a record time of one day and 18 hours, the kung fu stylists took things at a more sedate pace, finishing in around four and half days. Felix crewed on a Challenge 72, one of a fleet of 72ft, steel-hulled yachts which sailed around the world as part of the Global Challenge Race. Built to withstand the battering of the world's oceans, the boat went well in the rough weather that marked the start of the race from Cowes in the Isle of Wight, but slowed frustratingly during the light conditions of day four.
"The low point of the race was being woken up at 4am to change a sail because the wind had come up, then changing it back half an hour later because it had died down again," says Felix. "There were good times too though – especially the party going around the Fastnet rock, with poppadoms and party food!"
By contrast, Pen's yacht Exocet, a 38ft X-Yacht weighing just five tons, spent much of the race in the back half of the fleet, before taking advantage of the lighter airs to pull past many of the competitors in the final run to the finish.
"It's one of the most exciting, and bizarre, race finishes I've seen," she says. "There were hundreds of boats ghosting along in the dark, all their lights spread out behind us like an alien invasion. It was a brilliant feeling though, to come past so many of them right at the end."
Now, though, it's back to kung fu for the sailors. "I love being out on the water," says Pen, "but now that the colder weather is coming in, I'll be happy to be back in the training hall!"