Artemis Challenge preview

Six boats to compete in Tuesday's charity IMOCA race around the Isle of Wight

The annual Artemis Challenge takes place on Wednesday around the Isle of Wight for the IMOCA 60s.

Six boats are competing this year. This line-up is: 

1. Artemis Ocean Racing: Simon Hiscocks
2. Akena Verandas: Arnaud Boissieres
3. Toe in the Water: Steve White
4. GAES Centros Auditivos: Dee Caffari
5. Veolia Environnement: Roland Jourdain
6. VE1: Ryan Breymaier

As usual a roster of stars will be sailing on board. This year they include sporting stars Zara Phillips, Amy Williams and Martin Bayfield, plus the ‘Weasley Twins’ from the Harry Potter films, James and Oliver Phelps, and GMTV's Emma Crosby.

The race, which starts from the the Royal Yacht Squadron Line, at 09:50 sees teams competing for a generous £10,000 charity prize fund, donated by Artemis Investment Management.

Among the line-up isDee Caffari, the first woman to have sailed solo non-stop round the world in both directions, who will be joined by former rugby player turned presenter Martin Bayfield who, since retiring from the game, has played the role of Robbie Coltrane’s body double ‘Hagrid’ in the Harry Potter films in addition to carving out a presenting career.

Dee will be competing aboard her Open 60, GAES Centros Auditivos, (ex-Aviva) in the annual IMOCA 60 sprint round the Isle of Wight.

Dee is hoping that £10,000 prize fund up for grabs may boost the coffers of her charity of choice, Toe in the Water. Lloyd Hamilton, Director of the charity will also be a guest of the Dee Caffari Racing team, adding some additional muscle to the existing race crew of Joff Brown, Harry Spedding, Tim Carrie and Scott Gray.

"I joined the Toe In The Water team in Dartmouth last year and sampled the powerful effect competitive sailing has on the injured servicemen recommended to the programme as part of their rehabilitation," said Caffari. "Listening to what the charity does is impressive but when you have been able to see firsthand the impact competitive sailing can have on each individual in the programme it is truly amazing."