#rorcsrbi – Dublin offshore sailing team Liam Coyne and Brian Flahive are just four days away from their 'biggest ever challenge' in the Royal Ocean Racing Club's (RORC) Round Britain and Ireland race this Sunday.
Veterans of two Round Ireland races and two Fastnets, the sole Irish entry say the non stop 1800–miler is the next 'logical step' in Coyne's First 36.7, Lula Belle. The race starts from Cowes at noon and is expected to take a fortnight to complete.
The fleet will set off down the Solent to the east and turn west around the south side of the Isle of Wight. After that the course is simple: leave Ireland and Great Britain to starboard all the way to the northern tip of the Shetland Isles, a point known as Outer Stack just north of Muckle Flugga, then return down the eastern side of the UK back to where the race started in Cowes, a non-stop 1800 mile race. The fastest yachts may complete the course in under a week. For the slower yachts, nearly two weeks is likely.
This year yachts flying the flags of 11 nations will be taking part: China, France, Germany, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Ireland, Oman, Spain, Sweden, United Arab Emirates and the United States of America.
Following the success of a tracking system for the entire fleet in 2010, all yachts will be fitted with a similar device. Tracker here
Although, clearly the Dublin pair will have other matters on their mind, Coyne hopes to post to his blog and tweet from @lulabelle367