First Class Round Britain Trip raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support

Kingfisher at sea © First Class Sailing

RYA Training Centre, First Class Sailing will be sailing two vessels named Moonshadow and Kingfisher around Britain to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support with plenty of opportunities for fundraising events along the way. The trip, broken down into 7 separate legs, will leave Essex on 2nd May. The two boats undertaking the round Britain trip will both have Icom IC-M423 fixed VHF/DSC radios as well as hand-portables. The radios will be used by the crew to file passage plans with the UK Coastguard and to communicate with each other and to call marinas to arrange berthing.

There will be 7 different stages of the trip between easily accessible ports. Each leg will take between 5-7 days. Novice or experienced sailors can book to do the entire trip around Britain or just a leg or two. Each leg will include at least one Yachtmaster qualifying passage (including sailing at night) where one member of the crew will have the opportunity to skipper the boat, knowing that a First Class Sailing instructor is on hand to provide any support, guidance and coaching if required.

Colin Stracey from First Class Sailing East Coast said, "Most of us will come into contact with cancer at some time in our lives. It is our personal experience of the superb care and support provided by Macmillan that has lead us to run this trip. Our yacht will visit all of the marinas operated by the Yacht Haven Group and at least one marina operated by Quay Marinas. These marinas have agreed to hold a Macmillan fundraising event on the day that we are there - in most cases this will be a BBQ."

Ian Lockyer, Marketing Manager of Icom UK Ltd said, "First Class sailing East Coast are a long time Icom user and use our DSC radios for training and assessing candidates for their SRC Certificates. We wish Colin and his crews every success with both their voyages and fundraising. If you want to join them or just keep up to date with the progress of both vessels, visit: www.firstclasssailing.com/Sail-Round-Britain.html or their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/firstclasssailingeastcoast."