Intrepid duo to attempt London to Brighton

Simon Conder and Matt Illston to set sail this weekend in their Hobie Tiger raising funds for Diabetes UK

A sailing London to Brighton challenge is to be undertaken this weekend by two intrepid Sunsail bosses who are raising funds for Diabetes UK. The trip involves sailing from the Thames Barrier to Brighton Pier, a distance of approximately 140 Nautical Miles on the rhumb line. With a southwesterly breeze, the tacking will add another 30NM to the route - this distance is equivalent to sailing from London to Liverpool in one day, or making the crossing from Dover to Calais eight times!

Simon Conder, Marketing Manager and Matt Illston, Head of E-Commerce from Portsmouth, both work in the Sunsail Clubs department and have so far raised £8,100 of their target of £10,000 for the charity. They are also organising various charity events, to raise more money for the cause. Sunsail, is the main sponsor of the challenge and other sponsors include Purple Marine and the Hobie Cat Centre.

The team has chosen to use the Hobie Tiger Formula 18 (F18) catamaran -built for racing, it should be an ideal platform for making an attempt like this, in terms of speed. In ideal conditions, it should be theoretically possible to complete the course in under 14 hours and the determined team will be prepared to sail during the night if needed!

Simon and Matt have been out training nearly every weekend have been running speed trials, practicing with a support team and are now in the final stages of preparation, planning the finer details to make sure that they are as well prepared as possible. The plan is to depart from Greenwich Yacht Club at 04:00 on Saturday morning and hope to arrive in Brighton by 18:00.

The charity is very close to all of their hearts as Simon’s wife, Matt’s father and the safety boat driver are all diabetic. Diabetes UK is the largest organisation in the UK working for people with diabetes, funding research, campaigning and helping people live with the condition

The duo are still in need of more donations if they are to achieve their target or £10,000, so there is still time to visit the website and find out more, or pledge some money to this worthy cause at http://www.london2brighton.com