Bart's Bash and the Guinness Book of Records

Criteria announced as to how clubs and sailors can comply

The Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation has finalised Guinness World Record criteria which sailing clubs have to comply with to count towards the world record attempt, and for participants to be ratified as world record holders.

A key update is that for a race to count towards the record it must have 25 boats taking part, rather than 25 sailors as previously communicated.

The newly finalised criteria include:

- There must be at least 25 participants, i.e. 25 boats taking part at each location. If a club has less than 25 participating boats, it will not be able to participate in the Guinness attempt, however we still welcome the club’s participation in the Bart’s Bash race and the club will still be able to submit the results for entry into the worldwide leaderboard.

- The race start time and finish time must take place between 00.00 on the 21st September GMT and 23.59 on the 21st September GMT.

- The distance of the course will need to be measured accurately using GPS. The course must be at least 1km long. This can be multiple laps of a shorter course.

- The race must be at least 15 minutes long.

- The race will need to have a single start and finish point (start line one side of the committee boat and finish line the other side is acceptable).
- All clubs wishing to enter the Guinness world record attempt must have 2 independent witnesses.

- Clubs need 1 steward per 50 entrants; these can be safety boat drivers and crew.

Registration for clubs closes on 14 September 2014. Individual online entries will close on 19 September. Anyone wishing to sign up after this date will be able to do so at the clubs directly.

The full list of requirements is included in the updated Event Maker document here.

With just under two months to go, this monster-size attempt has over 1,500 sailors from more than 550 clubs and 50 countries around the world signed up and fundraising to support the Foundation’s charitable activities.

Sailors are able to sign up on the day at clubs that have capacity but we encourage all interested sailors to sign up here as soon as possible to allow clubs to make plans for the day, ensure safety measures are met, and so that people don’t miss out!