14 days, 22 hours and 34 minutes, the time it took skipper Stephen Hyde and his crew to take A Lady, an Oyster 56 yacht, from Gran Canaries to St Lucia brought them in 19th out of 210 yachts. The I.T. on board of the ship was supplied in the springtime and the crew was trained both on land and at sea by Fix-I.T. During the time of the race, Fix-I.T. was supplying daily weather reports as well as statistics and information related to the other participants.

It has been an interesting year since Stephen Hyde the owner of A Lady, an Oyster 56 based in Crosshaven (Ireland), commissioned our team to manage the I.T. aboard the ship.

For the past 6 months we have worked with Stephen and the crew to set up a real I.T. department onboard the boat with computers, communications, processes, 24/7 support and training too. Since the ship left Gran Canaria, fifteen days ago, our team has been all hands on (virtual) deck twenty-four hours a day. Living side by side with the crew (Dermot, John, Jen, Mark and Stephen).

Today at 11:00 Irish time, Stephen's insight and charisma together with A Lady's crew's efforts have paid off. Not only did A Lady come first place in her class but she also came in almost a day before the second boat in her class. She also made it to the finish line 19th out of 210 boats in the race. This demonstrates that technology and routing can make a real difference in modern sea races.

Cork, Dec 7, 2009, 1700 Hrs