RORC Round Britain and Ireland
The Pip Hare Ocean Racing team has just completed a fantastic few days at Cowes Week where we hosted our sponsors; Medallia, racing with them in RS 21’s.
There is no rest for Pip as she is now preparing for the Royal Ocean Racing Club Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race which starts on Sunday 7th of August at midday. You can watch the live race start here from 1130am and for those of you who enjoy following the race live you can find the race tracker here.
RORC Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race Facts
1,805 nautical miles non-stop
32 entries from around the world
Crew ages range from 17-71
The monohull course record is 4 days 13 hours 10 minutes & 28 seconds
The Team
The RORC Round Britain and Ireland is a crewed race and Pip says, “I am really excited to be sailing with my team in around Britain and Ireland not only because we are racing but because we are going to make an attempt at breaking the course record. All these individuals have extraordinary experience in ocean racing, so for me this is a massive coaching and development session so I can learn a huge amount from them. They are going to look critically at how I sail the boat and together we should be able to move my campaign on and it is a genuine privilege to be able to sail with people like this under race conditions. We will be running 2 watch systems of 2 people and have a full-time navigator who won’t be part of the watch system.”
Let us introduce the team to you
From Left to Right
Watch 1 Captain: Paul Larsen
Paul holds the world speed sailing record in a boat he designed and built himself in 2012 called ‘sailrocket’. He is a great friend of Pip’s and they sailed together in 2019 in the Fastnet double handed and Paul has remained a huge part of Pip’s campaign. Pip says, “Paul has become somewhat of a mentor to me and I am looking forward to sailing with him. He is technically a really great sailor and understands a lot about how the foils work, but he is also relentlessly positive and is always looking for improvements that can be made.”
Watch 1: Kevin George
Kevin is Pip Hare Ocean Racings sail designer at North Sails, he started sailing from a very young age; crossing the channel for family holidays, competing in dinghy sailing and then into keelboats. Kevin has worked with us on the campaign to design the initial sail package for Medallia and we will be continuing to work with him when we transition to the new foils. Pip says, “Kevin is a world class sail trimmer, so I will be looking to learn a lot from him about his opinion on what shape the sail should be, sail choice and what is most efficient.”
Watch 2 Captain: Pip Hare
Watch 2: Nick Bubb
Nick is a great friend of Pips and has a huge amount of ocean racing experience having competed in the Volvo Ocean Race and Mini-Transats. Pip says, “Nick is a fellow mini sailor, he has done the mini-transats as well as raced non-stop around the world in a catamaran with Tony Bullimore. He has a huge amount of ocean racing experience and he is currently sailing around the world with his family but chosen to take a break and come and race with us which is brilliant.”
Navigator: Ben Schwartz
Ben is an internationally renowned sailor and navigator, he has sailed as part of team Dongfeng, Miripuri Sailing and also on the Spindrift team making Jules Verne attempts – non-stop around the world record attempts in a multihull. Pip says, “Ben came out and coached me when I was in Cascais earlier in the year and he is a world class navigator. Ben has a huge amount of experience and he understands electronics and processors really well. He is bringing to the team a superior level of understanding of our electronic systems and navigation as well as being an incredible sailor.”
How to follow
We will be sharing the race as usual on our social media channels, and regular blogs on our website,
The team look forward to sharing this incredible race with you. We hope you are all having a great summer,
Best Wishes
Lou Adams, Operations Director, Pip Hare Ocean Racing