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JPMorgan Asset Management Round The Island Race

First out of the blocks
The Open 60s are the first to go at 6am on Saturday, with three skippers ready to line up for the Vendee Globe, round-the-world solo, non-stop race later this year. As well as Alex Thomson on Hugo Boss teaming up with Ben Ainslie and F1 star Lewis Hamilton, record-breaker Dee Caffari will race aboard Aviva and Mike Golding on Ecover.

Ten minutes later, the Extreme 40s cross the line. Their skippers include Olympian Shirley Robertson (JPMorgan Asset Management), Dame Ellen MacArthur (BT), Rob Greenhalgh (Team Origin), Chris Draper (Oman Sails) and Johnnie Hutchcroft (Volvo Ocean Race). In 2007, Ellen took line honours for the race, at the helm of an X40, finishing in 4 hours 6 minutes 3 seconds.

Competing in their final event before leaving for Beijing, members of the RYA Team GBR will be racing in a number of classes. Finn star and triple Olympic medallist Ben Ainslie joins Alex Thomson and F1 star Lewis Hamilton on the Open 60 Hugo Boss whilst European and British Laser Champion Paul Goodison helms the TP52 Team Volvo for life. 470 partners Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield will be going head-to-head for a change, in the Sports Boat Rule class, vying with 21 identical J/80s for the Nautica Watches Trophy.

Heading the handicap ratings in IRC0 is ICAP Leopard, skippered by Mike Slade, the current holder of the monohull race record. This 100 foot super-maxi has just broken the transatlantic passage time from New York to The Lizard and earlier this week smashed the round Ireland record. Built in Lymington to a Rob Humphreys design, Team Russia’s Volvo 70 was launched just a few weeks ago. The boat is named Kastaka, Russian for killer whale, following the partnership of Team Russia with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. The 30 metre New Zealand maxi Zana was also built for pace, having competed in three Sydney-Hobart races. Former Global Challenge skipper Mark Denton will be calling the shots on board.

In the ISC Rating System division, the 80 foot Dynamique Coconut is one of the race’s long-distance visitors. Next rated Capricorno is a 1991 Briand design which raced in the 1994 Admiral’s Cup. Her crew also includes personalities from the world of motor sport: British Touring Car Championship drivers Gordon Shedden, Tom Shilton and Matt Neal.

The Grand Prix and Racing Multihull section is headed by Ross Hobson’s Charleston (formerly Ideal Stelrad). She is a modified Formula 28 catamaran, 28 foot long, 37 foot wide on massive carbon racks and with 1,000 sq foot of sail on a 500kg boat. Charleston gives time to the Extreme 40s as well as to the next ranked multi Musandam (Loik Gallon) which Ellen MacArthur raced as B&Q/Castorama. Nigel Harley’s Firebird Fly Half and Phil Cotton’s Seacart 30 Buzz are also ones to watch.

Classic Racing Yachts and Old Gaffers
Sceptre, Britain’s first post-war America’s Cup Challenger, will be marking the 50th anniversary of her launching. She weighs in at 36 tons and will be skippered on this occasion by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston.

The oldest yacht in the race is Rosenn, a Solent One Design built as a racing boat in 1896 and the only one still afloat. She was found on the East Coast by journalist Bob Fisher and double Olympian Barry Dunning. She is still a regular racer at Lymington Town Sailing Club, though with not a helpful winch to be seen.

Past winners go out to race again
The 2007 winner of the Gold Roman Bowl is Edward Donald and his crew on the Folkboat Madelaine. Ed is back again this year but with another motivation for winning. Having undergone successful treatment for Hodgkinson’s Lymphoma himself, Madelaine will be supporting Leukaemia Research. So far he has raised over 16,000. Mark Taylor won the Silver Gilt Roman Bowl in his South Coast One Design Marbella. He and his boat are the same age but Marbella was written off earlier in her career having been fire damaged. Subsequently restored, Mark bought new sails in 2007 and achieved his spectacular win. The Rogers family from Lymington - designer Jeremy and his sons - are the only ones to have won the Gold Roman Bowl on three occasions in the same boat. Their Contessa 26 Rosina of Beaulieu is now enjoying life in the West Country. The Rogers team will be back to race, but this time in a Contessa 32 Gigi, immortalised in the book Cape Horn to Starboard, by John Kretschmer. Jeremy and hi! s wife Fiona discovered Gigi was in a state of neglect in Galveston, Texas, and arranged to have her shipped back and restored. — Flavia Bateson

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This entry was posted on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 6:26 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.