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Altana Chieftain ready for BMW Round Ireland Yacht Race

by Altana Chieftain 23 Jun 2006 08:28 BST

The BMW Round Ireland Yacht Race is one of the world’s premier offshore yacht races and the second longest in the Royal Ocean Racing Club calendar. The first race took place in 1980 with 13 boats. Since then, held biannually, the fleet has grown steadily, peaking at 60 entrants.

The bigger boats compete for top honours and for the race record, which is held by the Volvo Ocean Race Yacht Jeep Cherokee in a time of 76 hours 23 minutes and 57 seconds.

This year's race looks like surpassing all previous levels with entries already coming from two Volvo Ocean 60s teams — Jean Phillipe Chomette’s record breaking 60-footer, Solune, from La Rochelle, and round the world yachtsman Mike Golding on his famous Vendee Globe Open 60 Yacht Ecover and the 30 metre maxi Konica Minolta.

ALTANA Chieftain is a high tech Cookson 50 designed by world famous designer Bruce Farr and built by Cookson Boatyard in New Zealand. The boat is built out of carbon fibre and is incredibly light for its size. The boat is fitted with groundbreaking Canting keel technology, which gives the boat a quantum leap in performance.

We will be bringing you interviews from on board as they hurtle around Ireland and technology permitting video as well.

Ger O'Rourke's ALTANA Chieftain hopes to add to successes in 2005-2006 by winning the BMW Round Ireland yacht race, so far ALTANA Chieftain has won class in the Rolex Sydney Hobart and Fortis IRC Championships.

The carbon fibre canting keel weapon will be zipping round Ireland, weather permitting and there just might be a few zany surprises on the way! Find out more at www.altanapharma.ie/chieftain/chieftain.htm

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