upffront.com supports Silverrudder 2018
by Diego Sosa, Upffront 5 Sep 2018 08:00 BST
21 September 2018
Silverrudder circumnavigation of the Danish island of Funen © Anders Lund
Upffront.com is pleased to announce that it is now a proud sponsor of SILVERRUDER 2018. Silverrudder is the largest single-handed competitive race in the world and starts in Denmark on Friday 21st September 2018.
In just five years Silverrudder has grown from a handful of local boats to a major international celebration of single-handed, endurance sailing.
The course which sets off from Svendborg, involves a 134 nautical mile circumnavigation of the Danish island of Funen, which takes competitors anything from 24-48 hours to complete.
This year's 450 strong entry list is split into five monohull and two multihull classes. Of the boat manufacturers represented on the starting line, Seascape has an impressive 48 boats (x25 18's, x12 24's and x11 27's), Dragonfly trimarans have x12 boats, there are x5 custom Mini-Transats and the largest boats in the fleet are 38-40ft long.
The reason why Silverrudder has proved so popular is probably because it is such a formidable, yet accessible, challenge for many amateur sailing enthusiasts. They get to push themselves to their physical limits, but in a relatively controlled and safe environment. Their very own Vendee Globe, in a weekend!
Particularly for single-handed sailors, they have to have complete faith in their sailing systems. They want to optimise performance / minimise weight, to maximise their speed over the course but gear failure is not an option!
Therefore simplicity, lightweight, reliability and strength are primary considerations when choosing their equipment which fits perfectly with upffront.com's philosophy of "lighter, faster, safer sailing" which equals more fun!
Upffront.com will be at the race village to offer advice and assistance with any last minute spares/repairs.
You can follow the race live at www.tractrac.com/web/event-page/event_20180921_Silverrudd/1409