The 2026 RORC Round Britain and Ireland Race will see a three-way contest for line honours and IRC corrected-time victory among the fastest monohulls in the fleet, with the 50th anniversary edition starting from Cowes on 9 August.
Johnny Vincent's Volvo 70 Pace heads IRC Zero on rating, followed by Jens Kellinghusen's Ker 56 Varuna VI and Antoine Magre's radical Mach 50 Palanad 4. The trio represent contrasting approaches to outright speed and corrected-time performance on the 1,805-nautical-mile course.
Four-time round-the-world winner Stu Bannatyne will make his debut in the race as watch captain aboard Pace, joining fellow watch leader Neal McDonald and navigator Jules Salter. "This is my first Round Britain and Ireland Race and it is fantastic to have the opportunity to do it on a boat like Pace," Bannatyne said. "It is a proper offshore race: 1,805 miles and the kind of course that can throw everything at you."
The monohull race record of 4 days, 13 hours, 10 minutes and 28 seconds has stood since Ian Walker's VO65 Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing - Azzam set the benchmark in storm-lashed conditions in 2014. Breaking the ratified World Sailing Speed Record Council mark will require both boat speed and favourable weather across almost the entire course.
Magre's Palanad 4 brings one of the most radical designs in the fleet, with a scow bow, canting keel and daggerboards. The Sam Manuard design has already won the RORC Transatlantic Race overall and IRC Zero in the RORC Caribbean 600. "This is probably one of the hardest races out there," Magre said. "There are sections where we could face very heavy weather upwind and some extremely big seas, particularly along the west of Ireland and on the way towards Muckle Flugga."
Navigator Mike Broughton, a former Royal Navy helicopter pilot and respected weather router, has not previously completed the Round Britain and Ireland course. He brings his experience to Varuna VI. "Once you leave north-west Ireland you are heading into proper blue-water territory, past St Kilda, the Hebrides and up to Muckle Flugga at 61 degrees north," Broughton said. "The final quarter through the North Sea may be especially demanding."
The compact IRC Zero class also includes Valdo Dhoyer and Charles Houal's Volvo 60 Challenge Ocean and Graeme Lewis's maxi Venomous, co-skippered by Clipper Race-winning skipper Chris Brooks.
In Class40, elapsed time decides the winner, with three scow-bow designs favoured against a proven Dutch conventional design. The Class40 record of 8 days, 4 hours, 14 minutes and 49 seconds was set by Phil Sharp's Imerys Clean Energy in 2018.
British skipper Jon Tyrrel's Pogo S4 Gambit, American Greg Leonard's Mach 40.6 Swift and French Olympian Pierre Le Boucher's Lift V2 Penfret lead the scow-bow contingent. The Dutch entry Tjoba, a 2007 Valer design raced by Global Solo Challenge aspirant Minus Tjeenk Willink and Erik van Vuuren, offers proven resilience over outright pace.
All 33 boats will receive their warning signal at 13:20 BST on Sunday 9 August.
