The 50 nautical mile Hoya Round the Island Race, to be held on Saturday 26th June, has 1,508 entries this year with over 10,000 participants, beating last year’s 1,382 boats. This is the largest and most popular yacht race of its type in the world, with the record number of entries set in 1989, the Centenary year of the Island Sailing Club, when 1,813 yachts registered to take part.

It is hoped that this year will be a record breaking year as Linford Christie OBE, Europe’s greatest ever 100m Sprinter, is set to take part in the race aboard Hoya 60. International sailor, Eddie Warden Owen who set the fastest monohull record of 5 hours, 12 minutes and 3 seconds in 1996 aboard ‘Hoya Longobarda’, hopes he will be able to break his own record with Linford on board. The BBC television series Linford’s Record Breakers will feature their attempt at breaking the monohull record for the Hoya Round the Island Race, and will be broadcast this coming Autumn.

A later start has been scheduled this year at 08.30 for the first group of boats off the Royal Yacht Squadron starting line at Cowes with ten minute intervals between each group until the final class sets off at 10.30. A new feature for the race has been the decision to relocate the Declaration Barge to the West of the Cowes harbour entrance in order to reduce congestion.

This year also sees the introduction of a new trophy, the Yachting Monthly Family Trophy, which will be awarded to the winning boat with a minimum of four immediate family members on board in the ISC Handicap Groups. The main trophy, highly coveted among British yachtsmen and women, is the Gold Roman Bowl which is contested by yachts sailing under the IRC rating system. With at least 40 other classes within the overall race, there are 59 major trophies to be won.

Commenting on the Race, Annesley Wright, Managing Director of Hoya Lens UK Ltd. said, “I am delighted that Hoya Vision Care is associated with such a prestigious yacht race. Weather conditions dictate whether records will be broken or not, but the forecast for this year’s race is looking encouraging. Last year, due to the extreme fluctuations in the wind and weather conditions, we did not see any records broken so we are looking forward to excellent record breaking conditions for the last race of the century.”