Owing to the tide on Race Day (19 June), this year sees an early start of 05:00 for the JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race. And the firer of the five o’clock cannon will be none other than Round the Island Race veteran Dame Ellen MacArthur. Ellen will then be joining one of the four Ellen MacArthur Trust boats entered in the Race with the crews made up of young people recovering from cancer and leukemia.

Ellen follows in the foot steps of previous starters Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, double Olympic sailing medallists’ Shirley Robertson OBE & Sarah Webb OBE and TV presenter Alan Titchmarsh – during his time as the High Sheriff of the Isle of Wight.

Raymarine Weather Briefing
Understanding the weather patterns and the tidal activity at key points during the JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race is vital for competitors to achieve their best possible result on the day. Raymarine will once again be providing weather, tide and tactics tips which are freely available to all competitors via SMS, email and a face-to-face Weather Briefing which takes place at the Island Sailing Club at 18:00 on Friday 18 June.

Meteorologist Libby Greenhalgh will be providing the weather and tidal data which is available online from Wednesday 16 June, giving competitors day by day updates to plan their race strategy.  A Met Office trained and experienced forecaster, Libby works for Skandia Team GBR, the RYA’s Olympic sailing squad, providing education, planning and forecasting for the team.

Libby commented: “We’ll be filming from a variety of strategically important points on the Isle of Wight in the days pre the Race, which will be available for competitors to view online from the Raymarine website. This will show the effect of weather and tide in a variety of conditions, enabling skippers, navigators and crew to make informed decisions about their best strategy, depending on the weather conditions on the day and the tide at that time. Even experienced racers get it wrong sometimes, such as hitting the boiler, so we’ll be talking through race strategy at all levels, with time breaks so smaller and slower boats get as much help as the faster record-breakers.”

The pre-Race weather briefing, which takes place in the bar at the Island Sailing Club, will be repeated on big screens in the downstairs bar to accommodate the number of attendees. The key points and summaries will also be available on Raymarine’s website and competitors can sign up for SMS notifications by logging on HERE.

The Race Village, situated in Cowes Yacht Haven (CYH), will be hosting a big screen on the Isle of Wight so that everyone can come and watch the England v Algeria World Cup game on Friday 18 June at 19:30. Entry is free but numbers will be limited.

For more, visit www.roundtheisland.org.uk