Bill's Log: Round the Island Race 2014

Today, midsummer’s day, hundreds of sailing yachts are participating in a race around the Isle of Wight. This annual ‘Round the Island Race’ is hosted by the Island Sailing Club at Cowes and it is sponsored by J. P. Morgan who specialize in asset management for things like ISAs, Pensions, personal Investments, plus the promotion of professional wealth management.

There are multiple class entries for the yachts, starting as early as 06.30 a.m. with IRC Division 0 kicking off first, and the last of the ISCRS racers at 08.10. (ISCRS stands for Island Sailing Club Rating System, which is a handicap system applied to yachts.)

The Round the Island Race website is an excellent window for viewing the Race, because it includes useful features such live tracking, live blogging and photos of participating yachts.

By 17.00, 296 entrants out of 1,584 had retired, and 9 yachts had finished, leaving 1,279 following behind. How the organizers manage the event is a mystery to me. At least, today, the weather has been in their favour, and I’m sure the emergency services are relieved.

There’s something for everyone who wants to give it a go, including those who race Folkboats, Gaffers, Nicholson 32s, Extreme 40s and Multihulls. The Race can attract big names such as Ben Ainslie, Francis Joyon and Rodney Pattison. In 2013 Ben Ainslie, skippering the J. P. Morgan AC 45 catamaran, finished the 50 nautical mile circuit in a record time of 2 hrs 52 min 15 sec!

This year Ben expected to helm the 30 metre yacht ‘Leopard’. Last year she broke the record for a monohull, but due to a fault with her rigging, she has been withdrawn from this year's race; instead, Ben is expected to race ‘Rebel’, a Farr 45.

Links

Round the Island Race

http://www.roundtheisland.org.uk/web/code/php/main_c.php?section=home

Round the Island Race – Live Tracking

http://www.roundtheisland.org.uk/web/code/php/main_c.php?map=rir14&ui=rir4&style=std&override=&section=follow&page=gpstracking

Island Sailing Club

http://www.islandsc.org.uk/

J. P. Morgan Asset Management

http://am.jpmorgan.co.uk/

IRC Sailing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRC_(Sailing)

Follow the Race with Live Blog http://www.roundtheisland.org.uk/web/code/php/main_c.php?map=rir14&ui=rir4&style=std&override=&section=follow&page=liveblog