Team Castalia

Castalia is a Jeannau Sunfast 37 (not one of the old Sunsail fleet for those of you who might think that's the case) with an IRC rating of 0.990 so not the quickest boat by any means but is solid and handles weather well.

Castalia is owned and skippered by Andy Butler, someone I know through the Deloitte Sailing Club. Andy first started sailing when he signed up to do a couple of legs of the Clipper Round the World Race 10 years ago and has never looked back. Since then he has raced on various boats before buying Castalia. He chartered a boat, Flying Fish of Cowes, to take part in the Fastnet 4 years ago and is now excited about entering his own boat.

Lyndon West met Andy when taking part in the Clipper race, as he also completed one leg of the same race. He has sailed with Andy ever since, taking part in Andy's previous Fastnet campaign. He has also done numerous other sailing races. Lyndon takes on the responsibility for victualling and makes sure we have enough food, especially in the form of pork pies and executive custard creams. Unfortunately Lyndon injured his knee on our last practice race and is going to be unable to take part in the Fastnet itself - he is still very much part of the team though, as he will be there to help get the boat ready and to welcome us into Plymouth!

Paul Humphrey started sailing with Andy several years ago and took part in his previous Fastnet campaign as well as various other races on Castalia since Andy purchased her.  His jolly humour is very welcome on board and he gets stuck in whenever needed!

Tony Schofield is a partner at Deloitte who answered Andy's call for crew for the Fastnet. Tony has many years sailing experience and regularly charters boats with his family, although until the start of this year had minimal race experience - not any more 700 miles and counting!

Rich Hurley, another Deloitte partner who also responded to Andy's call for crew, is an active member of the Deloitte Sailing Club, having skippered in the annual regatta a number of times (with his trusty number two aka me!) having got into sailing in the last few years. Like Tony he had minimal race experience prior to the start of this year but is now up to 700 miles and still counting!

Steffan Ciccotti knows Andy through their work for the RNLI on the Thames (Tower and Chiswick respectively) and the rest of the crew are yet to meet him - his first race with us will be the Channel Race on 1 August and we look forward to meeting him and welcoming him on to Team Castalia (note, the picture is currently of Andy up the mast - to be replaced as soon as possible!).

And last of all - me (Emma Bostock)!! Despite loving sailing as a child, on a combination of my grandparents yacht, on our own family Topper, for a few weeks a year and on a number of Sunsail sailing holidays in Greece,  I don't really think I got into sailing properly until I went on my first Deloitte regatta back in April 2008. Somehow it all came flooding back to me really quickly and even the F7 winds and hail storms weren't enough to put me off and begged to be allowed to stay for the following day.

Since then, I have really got the sailing bug and am now seen out on the water most weekends having been introduced to the owner skipper of a great J/109 called High Tension, who trained me up as a racing sailor. Unfortunately High Tension is no longer around, so I sail on a variety of boats - mainly inshore - and get withdrawal symptoms if I don't go sailing for a couple of weeks!






There are also a number of people who have helped out with various races and the training weekend when some of the core crew have been available and I'll like to say a big thank you to them here and shame that you none of you can join us for the race itself - Alexis, James, Hugh, Clayton and Simon!