16 May Round Iceland Challenge
2023 saw the start of the first edition of the RWYC Round Iceland Race, however a number of last minute difficulties led to most of the fleet having to pull out of the race. Due to this, the Round Iceland Race for 2023 turned into the Round Iceland Challenge. We are very pleased to be able to offer this challenge to ‘AJ Wanderlust’, one of the best equipped, best campaigned oceanic yachts within the sport of Corinthian oceanic and offshore racing. Owner Charlene Howard and her crew Bobby Drummond are 2 of the most experienced sailors of their category and have decided to take on the challenge; that being to become the first boat ever to complete the course and to set a record for others to beat in the coming years.
It is without doubt one of the most difficult oceanic challenges in the world, with not only the 2800 miles to contend with but with part of the race being sailed inside the Arctic Circle.
Please show your support for their record attempt and follow their progress both on the YB Tracking link via the Round Iceland Race page on the website and on our Facebook pages. We will also try and send some questions out to them whenever we can so as to get live feedback from AJ Wanderlust, so please send your questions to rcoceanic@rwyc.org
We will also be having a competition to see who can guess the elapsed time AJ Wanderlust will take to complete the course. Please send this in via the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/RWYCrir To place your time and have a chance of winning a great prize, you have the time it takes for AJ Wanderlust to reach the latitude of the southern-most point of Iceland.
The Inception of the Round Iceland Race:
Two years ago, during COVID, the club was forced to postpone the OSTAR and TWOSTAR race for the second time. At that point our thoughts turned to an ‘alternative’ race which would be ‘COVID Proof’ whilst featuring the same depth of difficulty but would start and finish in Plymouth Sound. Discussions with Marco Nannini also around that same time led to a partnership with the RWYC and the Global Solo Challenge (GSC) and the formation of a mile builder for the GSC entries which could be used as a training ground for that challenge. From this, the ‘Round Iceland Race’ was created.