#fullrirish – David Kenefick and Olaf Sorensen are completing their final preparations in Cowes to participate in the 2013 Rolex Fastnet Race. The pair are sailing David's Figaro 11 "Ilidan" IRL 45, normally recognised as "The Full Irish" when David sails the boat in the singlehanded Figaro series.
There will be eight other Figaro boats competing against them in a special division within the 300 boat fleet.
The Rolex Fastnet Race is being tracked with Yellowbrick Trackers . Each boat is supplied with a beacon from Yellowbrick, a self contained unit that transmits the position of the boat at regular intervals using GPS and Iridium (a global satellite phone network).
Synchronised position reports are availabe to the public by using the Race Player Application.
To follow David and Olaf during the race in real time just look up "Ilidan" on the race player. Aslo watch out for updates on Afloat.ie.
David has been sailing full time since October 2012 and recently completed a hectic schedule of singlehanded racing in the Figaro series when he finished as one of the top 3 rookies.
This will be Olaf's first major competitive outing in two years since he won the Dragon French Open in St Tropez in a fleet of 90 boats from 13 nations.
They start at 11.30am on Sunday and current indications suggest that they can expect a robust westerly breeze which, during the following days, will gradually become more Southerly.
It looks like they will have a long wet windward slog most of the way to the Fastnet but will then enjoy a fast downhill sleigh ride to the Finish in Plymouth.