Icom Support Charity 'Race to Scotland' Sailing Record Attempt
by Ian Lockyer, ICOM UK 31 Mar 2017 13:29 BST
31 March 2017
Icom UK support Ken Fowler's Charity ‘Race to Scotland' sailing record attempt © Race to Scotland
Icom UK are supporting Ken Fowler who aims to sail from Land's End to John O'Groats in a dinghy to raise £50,000 for two amazing charities, Cancer Research and Oakhaven Hospice. Icom has supplied an IC-M25EURO radio with HM-213 speaker microphone to help keep him safe and in contact with his support team on his epic trip to Scotland.
If successful, Ken will become only the second person to complete this amazing journey in a single handed dinghy and aims to break the record for the smallest and fastest dinghy. He will be sailing alone for over 900 miles, spending 10 hours a day on the boat.
Ken's journey will begin on West Coast of Britain starting in Cornwall and then sailing across the Bristol Channel to Wales. From there the route will take him up to Anglesey and then across the Irish Sea to the Isle of Man – a big crossing for such a small dinghy. From the Isle of Man he will be setting sail for Scotland and then making his way past Mull, Skye and the other scenic islands of the West Coast.
Along the route Ken will be facing strong tidal races, big waves, whirlpools and at the end of the day the challenge of finding a surf battered beach to land on. This is not for the faint hearted!
Ken's boat is an RS Aero – a high performance modern dinghy which is about 4 metres long and weighs 30kg – about the same as a Labrador! There are no home comforts on board and most of the time half his body will be hanging out of the boat to keep it upright!
Being out there in this challenging environment means safety is a priority so he will always be wearing a buoyancy aid and an emergency locator beacon. He will also be carrying an Icom IC-M25EURO marine VHF with speaker microphone so that he can operate the radio hands free. Ken said, 'we needed a small, (because the boat is!!), waterproof VHF that floats, is easy to use and has a good battery life...the IC-M25EURO fitted the bill.'
Land support will be in the form of Ken's 20 year old campervan "Snowy" being driven by two of his friends. They will be following him along the coast monitoring his progress, identifying the best landing location and helping him sort ut at the end of the day with accommodation and food.
Launch date is the 7th May 2017 and Ken hopes to arrive in John O Groats some 20-30 days later – weather permitting!
Everyone at Icom wishes Ken every success for this sailing attempt.
For further information about this record attempt click on www.racetoscotland.co.uk.
You can also follow the projects social media pages www.facebook.com/RacetoScotland and twitter.com/racetoscotland.