Endurance racing in Great Britain
 

I should really include Ireland in that as well - the next endurance race is Round Ireland 2010, and will be taking place in June. Three US boats were due to compete, and although they cannot make the Irish race, they are still intending to come over for the Cowes Classic at the end of August which is holding the UIM World Endurance Championships, part of this will be the Cowes Torquay Cowes race. There is now the possibility that a triple Yanmar powered 50' Nortech will be attending the Irish race

The Round Britain race has now been run three times, usually over a ten day period with racing taking place between towns cities on the route, and with the last event being run in 2008, it has revived interest in the class. With P1 attracting boats from the US it should be of no surprise that racing in Europe is a new and fresh challenge for US racers, and a great adventure at the same time.

Round Britain 2012 (www.rb12.com) is inviting racers from the US to come over and take part in what is fast becoming the race to end all races. The last race had the start and finish in Portsmouth with stops all around the UK including Bangor in Northern Ireland, and what has become the traditional short cut through the Caledonian canal between Oban and Inverness, but for the first time the RB12 race will be going around the North of Scotland to make it a true "Round Britain" race. The organisers are still sorting out the start and finish venue as well as the various stopping points around the course, and they will be announced later this year.

I have attached a PDF and here is a link to a PowerPoint presentation that the organisers did for the London Boat show.

http://files.me.com/cookee/6rpl85

Whilst I am not employed by the race organisers I do some writing for them, so I hope that it is OK to put this stuff on here?

Sorry about the dead link - here is one that works for a PowerPoint pptx file http://files.me.com/cookee/6wzi7j and if you have an older version of PowerPoint try this link: http://files.me.com/cookee/h9nbk5


If you want to know anything about the UK racing just ask, I also write about racing for a magazine here in England.

Thanks Cookee. We are finding that the cost of transporting race boats from the USA to Europe and back is very, very high.

Perhaps the organizers could work with some shipping companies to try to reduce this expense somehow.

For example, the final prices we were able to obtain to ship the 50 foot Nor Tech roundtrip, for the Irish race was between $25,000 and $28,000. And that did not include all of the port charges etc. We will not be coming for that race.

As far as Cowes, only one of the three intended boats will probably be coming.

As we all know, offshore racing is very expensive, anything that the Europeans could do to help us reduce our expenses would be very much appreciated.

Let me also add, we applaud your efforts to keep open ocean racing alive. Hopefully it will catch on over here too.

We have the Don Aronow Memorial Around Long Island Marathon scheduled for this September, 2010.

I hear what you are saying, and the Irish organisers are helping with the ferry costs to get the English racers to come over to Ireland as well, unfortunately the race organisers have very little sponsorship, so we would need a big shipping company to sponsor the race or you guys to make a difference really. Very sorry to hear the Nor Tech won't be coming over, I was looking forward to seeing that beast!

I will try and update the situation here on a regular basis as things progress and good luck.

The discount offer ends 31 April 2010.

Just to remind everyone that has registered that the discount scheme ends at the end of the month. If you intend to take advantage of the discounts offered, then time is running out fast!