Northern Ireland sailor Mikey Ferguson from Bangor in County Down has joined Pip Hare's IMOCA campaign and they will start the Lonely Rock Race tomorrow (Sunday 16th August), from near Ryde in the Eastern Solent in Medallia. As well as being a professional yachtswoman, Pip is a journalist and sailing coach. Also on board will be Paul Larsen, world sailing speed record holder.
The name 'Lonely Rock' is a loose translation of the Gaelic 'An Charraig Aonair' for the Fastnet Rock. The original course dates from 1925 when two members of the Royal Western YC in Plymouth bet on who could win a race round the landmark, starting from Ryde and finishing in Plymouth. In association with the Royal Victoria YC on the Isle of Wight, this race will leave the Scillies to port, round the Fastnet to port, pass the Isle of Scilly Isle once again to port and finish in Plymouth Sound.
As previously reported in Afloat.ie Mikey (37) has been a competitive dinghy and keelboat sailor from a young age and has worked in the sailing industry for 20 years. He has been in various British IMOCA campaigns including Mike Golding's Ecover and Gamesa projects and he has also skippered the IMOCA Artemis 2. He was the skipper of Team Artemis Ocean Racing which broke the record in the Length of Britain Race in 2017.
The 46-year-old ocean sailor Hare plans to compete in the 2020-21 Vendee Globe race in early November in Medallia, the new title sponsor of her challenge, the San Francisco-based software company. Her previous long-distance races include last year's Transat Jacques Vabre in 2019 (24th) and the Rolex Fastnet Race (13th). In the lead up to November's departure, Pip will skipper Medallia in warm-up races, including the Lonely Rock Race and the Round the Island race.
Ferguson says " I'm looking forward to joining Pip and Paul on the Lonely Rock Race. We've made a lot of changes and modifications to Medallia and this race gives us a great opportunity to test all the new mechanical, rigging and communications systems. All this is great prep for Pip and the boat for this year's Vendee Globe. With a variety of wind conditions too, this should make the course very interesting and challenging. Looking forward to actually getting back on the water racing though!".