Half way for the RORC Season's Points Championship

Apollo 7 Nigel Passmore's J133, Apollo 7, in the 2013 Rolex Fastnet Race © Tim Wright / photoaction.com

The Royal Ocean Racing Club's Season's Points Championship reaches the half way stage with a double-header of RORC racing starting this weekend. The Morgan Cup Race starts on Friday 27th June from Cowes bound for Dartmouth, a new destination for the 2014 season. Meanwhile the 704-mile Round Ireland Race, starting and finishing in Wicklow, commences on Saturday 28th June.

The Round Ireland Race carries a 1.4 points weighting for the Championship. RORC Main Committee member Kirsteen Donaldson will be racing her X 332, Pyxis, in the IRC Two-Handed Class. Pyxis currently ranks 7th in the RORC Season's Points Championship and with a good result in the Round Ireland Race, Kirsteen and her crew, Judith Eastwood, will be challenging the class leaders. The overall winner of the 2012 Round Ireland Race, Bernard and Laurent Gouy's Ker 39, Inis Mor, returns to RORC racing. The French team's victory in 2012 was a significant contribution to their overall win for the 2012 season. Andy Budgen and Fred Schwyn's Volvo 70, Monster Project, will be vying for line honours this year and is likely to take the lead in the RORC Season's Points Championship in the IRC Canting Keel Class.

The Morgan Cup Race to Dartmouth is a new race for the calendar but a well known route for sailors who have taken part in the Rolex Fastnet Race. Piet Vroon has skippered 25 Fastnet campaigns, including on the Lutra 56, Formidable, which won the Fastnet Trophy in 2001.Formidable will be competing in the Morgan Cup Race this weekend and Vroon will be hoping to retain the trophy, won last year with Tonnerre de Breskens 3.

"We will be returning the trophy to the RORC office before the race but we hope it is only a temporary measure," smiled Piet Vroon. "This is a route that I know well and hopefully we will get conditions to suit the boat. The crew have been together for a long time and I am confident that they will perform well. Racing to Dartmouth causes a few logistical problems for us but it will be interesting to visit a new venue for the race."

Devonian Nigel Passmore will be racing his Plymouth based J/133, Apollo 7, as part of the team's preparation for the forthcoming RORC Transatlantic Race.

"The Morgan Cup Race is part of our qualification for the Transatlantic in November," explained Nigel. "We will be racing in exactly the same mode as that race with seven crew on board and all of the necessary safety equipment. We always enter a race to win it but preparing properly for an ocean race is very much in our minds. It is nice to be racing to Dartmouth, as most of the crew are from Devon and we know what a great place Dartmouth is. I am sure that all of the competitors are going to have a great time after the race. For Apollo, the Morgan Cup is the start of a great adventure. I have longed to race across the Atlantic and by having the boat in the Caribbean we can sail all year round, rather than putting the boat away for six months in the winter."

Seven yachts will be competing in the Two-Handed Class including the class leader Louis-Marie Dussere's JPK10.10, Raging Bee. Chris Schram's JPK 10.10, So What, which was second in class for the North Sea Race, will be racing to Dartmouth. "I am American, my crew is English and it's a French designed yacht that is based in Holland, you can't get more international than that," laughed Chris Schram. "Two-Handed racing in Holland is really on the up and by taking part in RORC races I can put my standard up a notch or two. It is also great to be racing in IRC Three against fully crewed yachts. By tickling up the systems on board we can pull off the same manoeuvres as a fully crewed yacht, yes we have to make compromises sometimes but it is very satisfying to be able to race a yacht with just two people. I have never been to Dartmouth but I am sure it will be very interesting for me. My family originally hails from Escanaba, Michigan, which is one of the few towns in North America where everybody eats pasties, due to the Cornish and Welsh miners that immigrated there. So I am looking forward to trying a pasty in Dartmouth."

For more information see www.rorcrating.com