South coast challenges There’s an exciting weekend of competition in store for those who’d like to venture further afield this summer
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he world-famous Round the Island Race (RTIR) celebrates its 90th anniversary this year and, with so many high-profile events having been cancelled, it’s tipped as one of the biggest events to be staged since the UK’s first lockdown in 2020. Organised by the Island Sailing Club, RTIR has always been one of the UK’s largest participation sporting events – it regularly attracts over 1,500 boats and thousands of sailors – and this year takes place on Saturday July 3. One of the unique attractions of the event is its even-handedness and the opportunity for amateurs, families and club sailors of all ages to compete on the same course as Olympic and World champions. While the majority of crews simply enjoy the challenge of getting all the way round there will, however, be many aiming to beat the existing course records. The current monohull record continues to be held by Mike Slade on ICAP Leopard, who in the near-perfect conditions of 2013 posted an elapsed time of three hours, 43 minutes and 50 seconds. The multihull class, introduced in 1961, generally achieves even faster times, as shown in 2017 when Ned Collier Wakefield’s Concise10 flew round in just two hours, 22 minutes and 23 seconds.
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TheCoastalGuide 2021
Rob Peace, Rear Commodore for Sailing, ISC says: “The Island Sailing Club are delighted to launch the 2021 Race. Sailors are desperate to get back out on their boats, and our race is perfectly timed and definitely provides a unique and thrilling experience for all of the crews. Over the past 90 years approximately 500,000 sailors and 70,000 boats have been challenged by this race – those are some impressive statistics.” The ethos of a ‘Race for All’ continues at pace this year with the first Windeler Cup competition to set sail after the main fleet departs from Cowes, allowing small keelboats – which are too small to safely participate in the main event – to experience an exciting Solent Race. Instead of sailing the full 50-nautical mile course of RTIR, boats from the Daring, Dragon, Etchells, Flying Fifteen, Mermaid, Redwing, Sunbeam, Swallow, Sonar, Squib, RS Elite, Victory and XOD classes will compete in a ‘Round the Solent’ race. The race will start from the Royal Yacht Squadron line off Cowes after the main Round the Island fleet is under way. It will follow a course towards Hurst Narrows, around Western Solent marks, before taking advantage of favourable tides to return along Cowes beach and finish back on the RYS line in Cowes. The new race is named after the founder
