#rdirl – 35 yachts from France, England, Wales, the Isle of Man and of course the host country are set to compete in the 18th Round Ireland Yacht Race on Saturday, June 28th. Approximately half the boats are from Ireland and the remainder from further afield. This reflects the trend in recent races. The Round Ireland is scheduled to start in just over a week at 2.00 pm .
There are 4 class Z yachts lined up: Monster Project entered by David Ryan, local Wicklow Sailing Club member, Libertalia from Team Jolokia in Lorient, Newstalk for Adrenalin from National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire and Voodoo Kilcullen, also from Dun Laoghaire, Royal Irish and National YC.
In class 1, Laurent Gouy is back once again in Inis Mór a Ker 39, this time to defend his overall win last time out in 2012.
Several other boats are returning for another go at this challenging race, including 2-hander Ocean Tango with another Wicklow club member on board, Christiana Norton.
The long long range forecast is for light winds but as we know with this 700_mile challenge anything can happen.