Sir Robin Knox-Johnston has announced that he will be participating in this year’s edition of the JP Morgan Asset Management Round The Island Race, which takes place on Saturday 23 June.

A total of 1,700 boats and a grand total of 13,000 sailors from all round the world participate in the race with yachts of every size and class – they race around the Isle of Wight providing a spectacular sight for onlookers around the coastline. Sir Robin’s boat will be entered under its registered name of “Grey Power” and will compete against four other Open 60 yachts whose race start is at 0500 on the Saturday.

Knox-Johnston comenting said: “I enjoy this race a lot and whilst I’ve still got my Open 60 I may as well have some fun with her. There’s a lot of interest in the Open 60s at the moment with the next Vendée coming up, so if I do decide to sell her hopefully it won’t be too hard. I don’t want to rule out future races with this boat though so we’ll see?in the mean time we’re going to race hard! It’ll be fun racing with a crew this time. Since the recent Velux 5 Oceans race, life has been very busy but rather relaxing in comparison with the race!”

Sir Robin will announce his crew next week.