The Round the Island Race is an annual yachtrace around the Isle of Wight. It starts and finishes in Cowes, and is organised by the Island Sailing Club.[1] The course is about 50 nautical miles (93 km) long.[2] It was first held in 1931,[3][4] it was sponsored by JP Morgan Asset Management from 2005 but in 2017 Cloudy Bay took over as the Presenting Sponsor,[5] the 2019 race was sponsored by Helly Hansen, Raymarine, MS Amlin and Chelsea Magazines.[6] The race is generally chosen to be the Saturday in June with the most favourable tides; a date in late May or early July may be chosen if there is no suitable date in June.
History
The race was the idea of Major Cyril Windeler, who commissioned a gold Roman-style bowl as prize for the winner.[3] The first race, in 1931, had 25 entries.[4] The silver bowl second prize was introduced a few years later when Chris Ratsey impressed Windeler with his good sportsmanship.[3] The last race before World War II, in 1939, attracted 80 entries.[3] In 2008 a total of 1750 boats took part.[7] In 2022, more than 1100 boats took part.[8]
Course
The course runs all the way around the Isle of Wight, with a total distance of 50.1 nmi (92.8 km).[9]
The course has varied slightly with buoys tried at the Needles and a requirement to leave No Man's Land Fort to port.