The Royal Ocean Racing Club’s Cowes Dinard St Malo Race has attracted 204 boats with over one thousand crew on board from sixteen different nations.
This is the largest fleet for any offshore yacht race since the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race. 191 boats will be competing under the IRC Rating Rule for the overall win and the magnificent King Edward VII Cup, dating back to 1906.
From about 14:00 on Friday 7 July, the impressive fleet will gather in the Central Solent outside Cowes with multiple starts from the Royal Yacht Squadron Line.
Spectators can watch the start from Cowes Parade and along the shore of the Western Solent.
Returning to defend their overall win last year is Henry Vergnoux’s Classic Illingworth designed 33ft sloop Arabel, which lifted the King Edward VII Cup in 2022.
The Cowes Dinard St Malo Race will start at 15:00 BST, the first to go of the four starts will be the 75ft (23m) Irens /Cabaret designed trimaran Use It Again. Skippered by Romain Pilliard, the record-breaking trimaran has been renovated with recycled fixtures and fittings.
Favourites for Monohull Line Honours and the Sandison Memorial Salver are Christian Zugel’s Volvo 70 Tschüss 2 and Peter Morton’s Maxi 72 Notorious racing in IRC Super Zero.
The Royal Ocean Racing Club’s Cowes Dinard St Malo Race is the 12th race of the RORC Season’s Points Championship, the largest racing series in the world of offshore racing.
The Multihull Race Record was set in 2015 by Tony Lawson’s MOD70 Concise 10, skippered by Ned Collier Wakefield, Concise 10 set an incredible pace, finishing the 151nm race in 9 hrs 12 mins 35 secs.
The Monohull Race Record was also set in 2015; Mike Slade’s Farr 100 Leopard scorched across the finish line in an elapsed time of 11 hrs 57 mins 53 secs.
