Jerseyman Phil Sharp, who last year finished in fourth place in the single-handed Mini-Transat, and was third in the double-handed Mini-Fastnet race last month, has joined forces with another top Jersey sailor, Will Carnegie, who trained and skippered the crew of Veritas in the 2000 BT Round the World Race to take a Jersey crew the 1,760-miles nonstop around Britain and Ireland in the prestigious Royal Ocean Racing Club event in August.
‘It’ll give people who normally don’t have the chance an opportunity to do something extraordinary,’ he said.
‘I’ve raced across the Atlantic single-handed and Will has trained and skippered a team around the world, against winds and currents, so between us I think we have a great formula for the race and for training a team to a competitive standard.
‘We needed a crew of six, so far we have four, and we are asking them for £3,000 each for the race.
We are also looking for local sponsorship, we’ve had lots of interest from potential sponsors already and are just trying to get that side of things sorted out.
‘It’ll be a real challenge to train a crew to competition standard.
The first training weekend in mid-July will be the principal selection process, where we will get an idea of each individual’s commitment and willingness to the campaign, which is the most important and we’ll have a second weekend before the race starts in Cowes, on 7 August.’ The Jersey crew will be sailing a 40ft monohull, which is more-or-less straight out of the boatyard after sea-trials, and is one of the fastest boats of its size, so the sailing is likely to be pretty exhilarating.
Sharp is using the Round Britain partially as a vehicle to increasing public awareness and opening up a more diverse range of opportunities to potential sponsors for the Route du Rhum race, in late October, which takes sailors single-handed from St Malo to Guadaloupe.
n Phil Sharp and Will Carnegie are hosting a presentation on the Round Britain and the Route du Rhum challenges, to outline what this sailing package has to offer potential sponsors.
It’s at 5.30 pm on Wednesday 5 July.
Venue to be confirmed.
Details will be posted at www.philsharp.net
