No Race records likely on the longest day
by Peta Stuart-Hunt, ISC Race Press Officer 20 Jun 2014 21:30 BST
21 June 2014
David 'Freddy' Carr (left) introduced Island Sailing Club Commodore John Dudley (centre) and Jasper Berens from title sponsor J.P. Morgan Asset Management at today's pre-Race Press Conference © Patrick Eden
A better than expected forecast was warmly welcomed by crews taking part in the 83rd J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race who attended a lively event press conference in Cowes today.
Skippers fearing a one knot 'driftathon' were happy to hear the light airs for the first start at 6.30am could be followed by stronger sea breezes of up to 8 knots which will build further towards the end of the race to around 13 knots as the leading boats return to the Solent for the finish.
"It will be similar to the last few days with a high pressure area over southern England which will make for a fairly light start but if it's like today, there will be more breeze than forecast and hopefully we will get the same tomorrow," said Chris Tibbs, Raymarine Race Meteorologist. There's a link to the latest weather report here: rtir.me/weather
Among those relieved to hear the news was Sir Ben Ainslie who just hours before the Race start was forced to switch rides to the Farr 45 Rebel, after the 30m Leopard was withdrawn due to rigging failure.
Ainslie will race with members of his America's Cup team, including David 'Freddy' Carr who doubled up as host of the Race press conference where he seized the opportunity to rib his teammates and interviewed other high profile competitors about their expectations.
These included veteran BBC TV commentator David Dimbleby who on Saturday will fire the starting gun but today was persuaded by Carr to strip to his bare torso to display a scorpion he famously had tattooed while filming his BBC TV series 'Britain and the Sea'.
Favourites to cross the finish line and take line honours tomorrow are the crew on Team Richard Mille, a fast GC32 catamaran skippered by Paul Campbell-James and sponsored by watch makers Richard Mille.
"We have been out training this week and reached a top speed of 33 knots but we only need 8 knots to get going," said Campbell-James, one of four crew who will be sporting special watches worth £105,000 a pop.
The 2014 JP Morgan Round the Island Race has attracted 1584 entries with a total of 16,000 sailors (10% of them new to sailing) racing in 32 classes, all aiming to complete the 50 nm course before the cut off time of 10pm on Saturday.
The Island Sailing Club is grateful for the continued support of the Race Title Sponsor, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, and the Race Partners for 2014: Dream Yacht Charter, Haven Knox-Johnston, Henri Lloyd, Nautica Watches, Old Pulteney, Raymarine, Red Funnel, Volvo Car UK.
www.roundtheisland.org.uk