ON THE WATER
J.P. Morgan Asset Management
Round the
ISLAND
Around 1,700 yachts of all shapes
and sizes will set out from Cowes
early on the morning of June 1
for the annual spectacle that is the
Round the Island Race.
Entries have been coming in
from all around the world for
the 50 nautical-mile event which
starts and ends from outside the
Royal Yacht Squadron. The 2013
Race entry list already includes
boats from Switzerland, Belgium,
Netherlands, Austria and France
and there are boats competing with
crew members who are flying in
from Australia, South Africa and
the USA.
The massive fleet heads
anti-clockwise around the Island,
many taking much of the day to
complete the course, depending on
wind and sea conditions.
However, there will be teams
challenging the existing course
records, which stand at three
hours, 53mins and five secs for a
monohull, set by Mike Slade on
ICAP Leopard in 2008; and three
hours, eight mins and 29secs for a
multihull set by Francis Joyon in
2001, aboard Dexia Eure et Loire.
Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, one
of the world's most eminent and
respected yachtsmen and the first
man to perform a single-handed
non-stop circumnavigation of
the globe, is skippering one of 10
Clipper entries, CV 21, in this
year's Race.
Sir Robin has also agreed to
present this year's prizes at the
Island Sailing Club at midday
on Sunday June 2, and he could
end up armed with silverware and
shaking his own hand as a Class
winner!
Entries opened on January 4
and the first entry to be approved
and processed was Redshank, a
Devon-based Evolution 26, owned
and raced by Stuart Palmer from
Teignmouth, Devon.
"When I got the call to say we
were the first entry I was really
excited. We race at our home club
and at the Torbay Regatta but
the Round the Island Race is the
biggest event for us to compete in.
Even the delivery trip from Devon
is a big adventure," said Stuart.
Conceived as a quick and easy
way to increase communication
throughout the Round the Island
Race community, people can help
raise funds for the official Race
charity, the Ellen MacArthur
Cancer Trust, by tweeting using the
hash tag #raceforall.
For every tweet using the
approved hashtag, J.P. Morgan will
donate 10p to the charity, until
the 'Tweetometer' target of £3,000
is reached. You can vi