Event
Challenging and fascinating (and scenic)
The Round Britain and Ireland race lives on long in the memory of anybody lucky enough to have competed in a previous edition.... But winning the toughest of European offshore events is unforgettable
If you ever wondered if you’re tough enough, the 2022 Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race is for you. Three-times longer than the Fastnet, some round-the-world veterans even go so far as to suggest it could be as hard as a global circumnavigation. You don’t have to venture into the farthest flung corners of the world’s oceans to encounter the harshest sailing conditions. If you live in the UK, they’re all in your backyard. ‘The Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland is one of the toughest races I have ever done,’ says two-time Clipper Round the World Skipper, Gareth Glover. ‘At times racing in the Clipper is simple, pointing in one direction for weeks on end. This race has tidal gates, wind holes, 40 knots of breeze, big sea state; it is just relentless.’ First organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club in 1976, the 1,805nm Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race is one of the highest peaks that any offshore racer could hope to scale. Held every four years, the next edition will start on 7 August 2022. Starting from Cowes and exiting the Solent to the east, the course takes a westerly clockwise direction around a myriad of headlands, through treacherous tidal gates. The Sevenstar Round Britain and
70 SEAHORSE
Ireland is a World Sailing Offshore Special Regulations Category 1 race with RORC prescriptions. At least half of the crew must have completed at least 500 miles offshore racing within 18 months of the race start, including the skipper. Every crew member must also have experience of sailing a boat offshore and be prepared to encounter heavy weather.
‘This is a race like no other in the RORC programme,’ says RORC racing manager, Chris Stone. ‘It is a very tough race in remote locations with a lot of navigational work required. This is not a race to put a crew together at short notice, it is a race for a well- seasoned and well-practised team who have passed the qualification process. It is not a race for novices. ‘You could encounter everything that you would expect to see from the Southern Ocean all the way up to the Arctic Circle. And then on the way south, you have the navigational challenges of the North Sea to contend with. In terms of miles, this race is three Fastnets back-to-back but in real terms it is exponentially larger than that. Completing it is an achievement beyond most others.’ The overall winner of the
Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race is decided by IRC time
Above: the overall winner on corrected time of the last Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race, Giles Redpath’s Lombard 46 Pata Negra. This is a
race for well prepared, practiced and experienced crews to find out how tough and resilient they really are
correction. The winner of the last edition in 2018 was Giles Redpath’s Lombard 46 Pata Negra. Antoine Magre was one of the crew and will be racing again in 2022 on Class40 Palanad 3. A number of Class40 teams are expected. Palanad 3 is both the 2021 Fastnet Class40 champion and overall winner of the 2021 RORC Transatlantic Race. ‘In 2018 I said to myself that I need to do this race on a Class40. There is some upwind, but a lot of reaching angles where you can open up – it will be a whole new world in a Class40,’ says Magre. ‘It is a very fast and very harsh race; that is the attraction. You know you are going to have storms to deal with and it can be wild and hostile. It is a complete race in terms of seamanship skills and I would love to put a second notch on my belt!’
British servicemen and women have raced with the RORC since the Club’s conception. The British Army Sailing Association (ASA) was founded in 1947 and has competed in RORC races for decades. Will Naylor will skipper the ASA’s Sun Fast 3600 Fujitsu British Soldier for the 2022 Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race. On three different iterations of British Soldier, Naylor
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