All too calm at Little Britain, before Mitie storms home

Facilities management group Mitie sailed to victory at the 21st Little Britain Challenge Cup last week, despite the lack of wind that led to two races being cancelled.

Mitie narrowly beat Sir Robert McAlpine to become the overall winner of the annual regatta on the Isle of Wight. Architect Building Design Partnership came third and engineer Price & Myers was fourth.

Almost 250 boats took part in the three-day competition in 12 racing classes, and more than 3,000 industry members attended the event, which raised about £180,000 for charity. Other participants included Bovis Lend Lease, Octagon, Gleeds and Sheppard Robson.

The winners included Harmonix Construction, which topped the J/109 category, and Amey, last year’s overall champion, which won the Beneteau 40.7 class in its boat Loveshack.

The all-female team of Women in Property (WIP), led by Carol Bell, senior project manager at Robinson Low Francis, also had a successful run, taking third place in race one, second place in race two and third place in race three.

Frankham Consultancy and Cuffe had rather less to shout about, coming bottom of the league in 246th and 247th place respectively.

The sailors faced mixed conditions. Crews were helped by strong winds on day one but stiller conditions on Thursday and Friday led to two races being cancelled.

The evening entertainment included Elvis impersonators and a “space odyssey” themed party, which featured super-sailer Ellen MacArthur as a surprise guest. Elsewhere, a raffle at contractor ISG’s event raised more than £9,000 for charity.

Peter Wood, a member of the organising committee and business development director at Warings, said: “From my experience, it was the best Little Britain ever. Although there was a lack of wind on the Saturday, it was more than made up for by everything that was on offer.”