LUDO’S CHALLENGE BEGINS FROM COWES

Posted on 01/05/2012

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LUDO’S CHALLENGE BEGINS FROM COWES

In gusting winds and continuous rain Ludo Bennett-Jones, along with fellow crew member Will Homer, set sail from Cowes to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight on Saturday afternoon (28th April) in their 16 foot Wayfarer dinghy for the first leg of a 2500 mile circumnavigation of the British Isles.

Sponsored by BT, Ludo’s challenge is to be the fastest and youngest to sail around the UK coastline in such a small dinghy. He is joined by Will for the first leg to North Cornwall and will be accompanied by several other young sailors during the trip. In addition to breaking two records if he succeeds in his endeavour, Ludo aims to raise more than £100,000 for two significant charities – the Ellen Macarthur Cancer Trust and Sport Relief.

Ludo has had first-hand experience in understanding the importance of the work that both charities undertake. During the limited downtime on the voyage, Ludo will be visiting some of the projects supported by Sport Relief and meeting some of the young cancer patients helped by the Ellen Macarthur Trust. The circumnavigation is estimated to take around 10 weeks to complete.

There was a terrific send off for Ludo and Will at the Ellen Macarthur Cancer Trust offices in East Cowes with friends and family gathered to wave bon voyage to the intrepid adventurers who were not at all put off by the less than idyllic conditions for the start of their journey. They were immensely pleased that by the time they set sail over £12,000 had already been pledged for the two charities.

Ludo’s progress can be charted on loveludo.com
and there is a page for making donations.

With the very poor weather conditions preventing sailing on Sunday, Ludo and Will sailed from Yarmouth to Lymington on Monday and were able to set off today (1 May) for the second stage of their journey from Lymington to Weymouth in Dorset, the venue for the 2012 sailing Olympics.