New 1000 miler for the Class40s

Record SNSM celebrates its tenth anniversary

To celebrate its 10th anniversary, the annual 'Record SNSM' event, held for the benefit of the French version of the RNLI, the Société Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer, will include a special event for the Class40s.

The Record SNSM was last year held on a variety of courses - The G-Class maxi-multihulls for example sailed a 360 mile course between St Nazaire to Saint Marc, while the IMOCA 60s sailed a 230 mile course, and Multi50s and Class40 sailed 180 miles. However this year the Class40s will be sent off on a more arduous 1,000 mile course between Saint Nazaire, Spain and Ireland before returning to France. This will be raced singlehanded, hopefully as useful preparation for the autumn's all-important Route du Rhum.

This year, the 'Ultimate' class, to be used in the Route du Rhum, IMOCA 60s and Multi 50s will sail the longer 360 mile course, while the larger IRC classes, Class40 (those not doing the 1000 miler), Figaros, Mini 6.50 and Multi2000 will sail the 230 mile course.

The start will be on Sunday, 22 June.