RORC North Sea Race. Friday 14^th May 2010

Organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club in association with the Royal Harwich Yacht Club, the East Anglian Offshore Racing Association and the Yacht Club Scheveningen.

The North Sea Race is scheduled to start on Friday 14^th May with the first warning signal at 1020. The 180 mile race across the North Sea has already attracted over 50 competitors in a highly diverse fleet of yachts from six different countries. The race is part of the Delta Lloyd North Sea Regatta and many of the competitors will compete in the Vuurschepen race to Harwich before the RORC race.

The scratch boat is Mary Osborn's Hemels Van Der Hart, a 38ft canting keel boat designed by Juan Kouyoumdjian and project managed by the highly experienced Round the World sailor, Roy Heiner. They could well have an interesting line honours battle with Harm Prins' Volvo 60, Pleomax.

Piet Vroon's Ker 46, Tonnerre de Breskens will be racing with his international crew for their second outing of the season and they are in a very competitive class including Peter De Ridder's Swan 45, Checkmate, and Sander Vos' MAT12, Foxy.

In IRC One Frans De Vries Lentsch's X 43, Stortemelk, is racing, defending their class win from 2009. Likely contenders to the title are the Army Sailing Association's A 40, British Soldier, and Marc de Saint Denis and Géry Trentesaux's First 40, Coup de Coeur.

IRC Two is by far the most diverse class with heavy displacement Swans mixing it with smaller, lighter displacement boats. This class is wide open and the conditions could play a big part in deciding how the competitors fare at different times during the race. Harry Heijst's S&S 41, Winsome, is a proven winner. However, Adrian Lower was second last year in his J 109 and will be looking to go one better in Swan 44, Selene. Paul Van Der Pol's J 109, Yeti was third last year and will be racing come May 14^th.

Last year IRC Three produced the overall winner Russell Walker's Baltic 37, Cosmic Dancer, which will be racing again this year. "We had a tremendous race last year," commented Russell Walker. "Cosmic Dancer goes really well in the light and we are hoping for the same conditions this year. We have had a great start to the season winning The Pattinson Cup last month and we are looking forward to a very competitive race across the North Sea".

Early entry closes 6^th May. For more information www.rorc.org