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UK circumnavigation tests sailors

LONDON, England -- One of the toughest races for shorthanded sailors, the Two-handed Round Britain and Ireland race, is under way.

Forty monohulls and multihulls are entered this year, the 175th anniversary of the Royal Western Yacht Club and the 50th anniversary of the Duke of Edinburgh's patronage of the club.

The Duke fired the gun in Plymouth Sound for the start race on 9 June.

Established in 1966 by Blondie Hasler, a legendary solo sailor who designed his own self-steering gear, the 2,000 mile race is one of the classics of short-handed sailing.

The race begins in Plymouth with a clockwise circumnavigation of the British Isles taking in four compulsory 48-hour pitstops in Crosshaven Ireland, Barra in the Outer Hebrides, Lerwick in the Shetland Islands and Lowestoft on the east coast of England.

The difficulties of the course include the vagaries of the weather around the British Isles and the difficult navigation close to the shore with strong tides.

The course record of 7 days, 12 hours and 4 minutes was set by Americans Steve Fossett and Dave Scully in 1993 sailing the 18m (60ft) trimaran Lokata.

After 1993 the race committee limited the size of the multihulls to 12m (40ft) to keep the fleet closer together and to make the race more manageable.

Bidding for line honours will be Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, chairman of the leading ocean racing and events company Clipper Ventures, who has teamed up with American Bill Foster, the owner of Spirit, formerly Spirit of England, a 12m (40ft) trimaran. This will be the fifth time Knox-Johnston has entered the race.

Spirit will be challenged by the 12m (40ft) trimaran Mollymawk sailed by Ross Hobson and Bill Minto. Mollymawk was the winner of the last Round Britain in 1998 when sailed by Richard Tolkein as FPC Greenway.

The race alternates every four years with the Single-handed Transatlantic race, also run by the Royal Western.