The Royal Ocean Racing Club has announced that Belgium is the first nation to officially confirm its entry in the Rolex Commodore’s Cup which is taking place at Cowes from 11-18 August.

The Belgium team last competed at biennial event in 1998 but, with a line-up of boats comprising Moana (First 47.7), Cohiba (First 40.7) and Oxygene (IMX 40) owned/skippered by François Goubau, Yves Delacolette and Axel De Cock respectively, expect to see some interesting racing on the Solent this year.

Other teams likely to join the Belgians include representatives from most of the major sailing nations such as USA, Australia, Spain, France, Italy, Holland, Sweden, Ireland and, of course, the home nations of the United Kingdom.