SORC Round the Isle of Wight Race - Preview

Charles Emmett's Sigma 36 British Beagle competes in SORC races © Hamo Thorneycroft

A week to go and 31 yachts are entered for SORC’s solo Round the Island Of Wight race - RIOW. Under IRC once again Ian Hoddle’s eye catching pink modified Figaro 2 Rare tops the fleet and will be keen to do well following line honors in the Nab Tower solo and solid result in Royal Southampton’s double handed Weymouth races recently.

Class one also has three J122’s, Chris Rustom’s Stewart 37 Ding Dong, Noj White’s X37 SX Girl, Peter Olden’s A35 Solan Goose and island local Peter Newlands 40.7 Anticipation – who would no doubt like to have his name back on the Anticipation Cup Trophy he kindly donated for this race.

Class 2’s JOD’s HOD’s and J105’s and Sunfast 3200’s also have Big Doris - Anthony Llewelyn-Davies’ Dehler 39 to watch for. Class 3 is made up of all different yachts and an IRC spread from Tony Rowe’s Dehler 36 Fantasea with reduced rating of 0.994 following new One Sails non-overlapping headsail down through the regulars including Elan 340 & 333, Sigma 36, Maxi 1050, Capo 30, Beneteau First 32, Contessa 28 to Richard Breeze’s Sonata Impro rating 0.808.

A very tough call to know where to place your bets with a Trophy for line honours too - no one has ever won either Trophy twice...yet.