Skandia enter Rolex Fastnet race

Offshore Challenges and Team 888 join forces

Skandia have announced another step to their Skandia Set Sail programme as sponsors of the Open 60 ex- Kingfisher currently on charter to the Team888 project. The Open 60 will officially be called Skandia Set Sail to compete in the 40th edition of the 608 mile Rolex Fastnet Race starting from Cowes at 1000 hours on Sunday, 10 August.
Skandia are long-term sponsors of the Cowes Week regatta, title sponsor to Sam Davies' Figaro campaign and sponsors to the Olympic Star campaign of Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell, and have decided to add the Fastnet race to their Set Sail campaign. "The Fastnet race is a classic race open to both amateurs and professional sailors," explained André Oszmann, Skandia's Marketing Director. "This is an exciting opportunity for Skandia to extend their support of sailing beyond Skandia Cowes Week and to sponsor a famous boat that will be raced by talented professional and amateur crew from four different countries including the UK, Germany and Australia, all of which are key Skandia markets."

Skandia Set Sail will race in the Open 60 class, a new class in this edition of the race. Up to six Open 60s will be taking part including Ecover (Mike Golding), Sill (Roland Jourdain) and PRB (Vincent Riou)

The Open 60 will be polled up to four times a day during the race - the only class being polled during the course of the race.

If the weather provides good reaching/downwind conditions these Open 60s could contend for line honours...in 1999 Catherine Chabaud racing the Open 60 Whirlpool won the IRC class in 2 days 5 hours 22 mins and 59 secs. But the Fastnet race traditionally brings upwind conditions in the first stages of the race which could hamper the Open 60s true speed performance. To break the record for water-ballasted monohulls (currently 2d 5h 8m 51s set by RF Yachting in 1999) would require an average speed of more than 11.48 knots over the 608 mile course from Cowes via the Fastnet rock and back into Plymouth.

The crew of Skandia Set Sail will include Mark Denton and Jonny Malbon of Team 888, Nick Moloney, German Whitbread/Volvo specialist Tim Kroger and BBC Sports reporter Robin Marks.