Two of the biggest sailing races in the world will be starting off from Cowes in August 2017 and 2018 as the Rolex Fastnet Race comes to town. The events are expected to bring huge crowds to the region and this is expected to boost business. The supporters of the various crews will need to places to stay and this will be good news for the nearby hotels while local sellers of various goods are also likely to receive a boost. A number of the visitors may also want to explore the island.
There will be around 400 boats lining up for the start of the event which will kick off on August 6th, 2017. This will be the largest number of entrants ever recorded in the 92 years that the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s biennial classic 600 miler has been around. One of the contestants at the event will be Martin Westcott’s Swan 57 Equinoccio.
Westcott was the first Chilean to sail around the world through Cape Horn. The participation will mark 10 years since there was an entry from Chile at the event.
There will also be several youth camps competing at the event. Code Zero Racing is among these camps and it’s run by James Oxenham and co-captained by Harry Bradley and Owen Kinsella. This is a Cowes-based campaign that focuses on racing offshore and inshore. The crew are aged 17 to 22 and this will make them the youngest crew at the race this year. Code Zero Racing will be using the Reflex 38, Lightning Reflex owned by Geoff West. People will be expecting some great images from the crew since one of the people on board will be James Tomlinson, son of Rick Tomlinson.
In his Farr 60, Venomous, Derek Saunders from the Isle of Wight will be celebrating a major milestone while competing in this year’s race. This will be his 13th race and it will be coming 30 years after his first race as captain back in 1987. The race will start from the Solent on 6th August and head for Plymouth through the Fastnet Rock. The Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race will be kicking off a year later in August 2018.
The Royal Ocean Racing Club also announced that Sevenstar Yacht Transport will be remaining as the title sponsor for the most tactically challenging offshore race which comes every four years.