Monaco Raid Military Adventure Race
GB Teams Tackle Military AR
Chris Stuart / 20.10.2008
Teams had to consist of at least one female and the race drew the best military teams from Europe and a guest team from Morocco. With Race HQ in Monaco fabulous weather we thought would be guaranteed!
The competition was over three days with the first day spent familiarising teams with their Valiant Rigid Inflatable Boats followed by a 70 mile endurance test with points scored for maintaining average speeds over different legs, visiting unmarked checkpoints (a GPS tracker system was used by the organisers to check accuracy at checkpoints) and fuel consumption.
By the end of Day One the British Army were joint leaders with the Royal Navy close on their heels. Day two saw a force 6 -7 wind from the SW whip up a 2 metre swell making the days RIB competition hard work for the crews. The test was an orienteering challenge to visit as many checkpoints within a 2 hour period as possible.
Four checkpoints were not given and had to be calculated by bisecting and triangulating from some of the known points. That’s not easy to do when feeling sick and bobbing up and down.
At lunch time teams were then whisked off to Larvotto Beach for the 1000m Sea Swim which again due to the swell was an interesting experience and relied on the swimmers to navigate using the tower blocks on the coast due to the buoys disappearing with each wave. Both the Army and Navy excelled at this event and took the top three places and raced up the leader board.
After a short recovery period on the beach teams were then briefed on the next challenge, a 10km 2 person kayak out into the sea beyond the protection of the harbour wall. The swell had subsided slightly but this still took the fastest teams 1hr 30 mins and was an unpleasant physical test for all concerned. The Navy especially suffered as they sadly slipped back down the leader board due to several capsizes. Still they went over laughing and in the best of British traditions looked on the brighter side of life and kept a stiff upper lip. Unlike some they did complete the course but it took 2hours!
The final day saw two further challenges, the first a 15km leg RIB trial which required crews to navigate an unmarked channel using given lat and long data which progressively got narrower and closed in to 40ft. The second was a half marathon taking in part of the Monaco Grand Prix route, a section along a beach and a 1300ft climb back up to the Palace and the finish.
Despite a strong start by the Army they were hauled in, firstly by the Moroccans and then the Navy, who with a final burst of energy caught the Morrocan team. The Navy due to their outstanding run leapt back up to take 4th whilst the Army held on to take 2nd place and were beaten to the top spot by the French Military Academy Tea.
SleepMonsters
