We can expect an all star cast, in today’s Round the Island Race 2008, as a record 1,875 have entered the fleet.  The race, will be divided into 11 starts at 10-minute intervals, with Sir Robin Knox-Johnston (pictured) firing the gun to signify the start of the first race at 6 am. 

The Open 60s will be the first out of the blocks, with record-breaker Dee Caffari aboard Aviva and Mike Golding on Ecover, while Alex Thomson teams up with Ben Ainslie and F1 star Lewis Hamilton on Hugo Boss.

Racing in the Extreme 40s will include Dame Ellen MacArthur (BT) who took line honours for the race last year at the helm of an X40. Olympian Shirley Robertson (JPMorgan Asset Management),  Rob Greenhalgh (Team Origin), Chris Draper (Oman Sails) and Johnnie Hutchcroft (Volvo Ocean Race).

Classic Racing Yachts and Old Gaffers, include Sceptre, skippered by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, who is also celebrating the 40th anniversary of his solo, non-stop circumnavigation.

There are Olympians and Paralympians intending to compete and this will be their final event before leaving for Beijing and European including British Laser Champion Paul Goodison will helm the TP52 Team Volvo for life.

In the Sports Boat Rule class, 470 partners Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield will be going head-to-head for a change, vying with 21 identical J/80s for the Nautica Watches Trophy.

Others in this class include 49er pairing Mark Asquith and Paul Campbell-James who narrowly missed selection for the Olympic Games. Hannah Stodel is in our UK Paralympic team. She will be honing her skills in one Sonar, whilst her team support Dan Parsons does his best to outwit her in another.  They too will be neck-and-neck round the course.

Heading the handicap ratings in IRC0 is ICAP Leopard, skippered by Mike Slade, the current holder of the monohull race record.   This 100 foot super-maxi has just broken the transatlantic passage time from New York to The Lizard and earlier this week smashed the round Ireland record. 

Built in Lymington to a Rob Humphreys design, Team Russia’s Volvo 70 was launched just a few weeks ago. The boat is named Kastaka, Russian for killer whale, following the partnership of Team Russia with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

The 30 metre New Zealand maxi Zana was also built for pace, having competed in three Sydney-Hobart races.  Former Global Challenge skipper Mark Denton will be calling the shots on board.

In the ISC Rating System division, the 80 foot Dynamique Coconut is one of the race’s long-distance visitors.  Her owner David Teece and his family are in the country on vacation - and of course to take part in the event.

Next rated Capricorno is a 1991 Briand design which raced in the 1994 Admiral’s Cup.  Her crew also includes personalities from the world of motor sport: British Touring Car Championship drivers Gordon Shedden, Tom Shilton and Matt Neal.

The Grand Prix and Racing Multihull section is headed by Ross Hobson’s Charleston (formerly Ideal Stelrad). She is a modified Formula 28 catamaran, 28 foot long, 37 foot wide on massive carbon racks and with 1,000 sq foot of sail on a 500kg boat.

Charleston gives time to the Extreme 40s as well as to the next ranked multi Musandam (Loik Gallon) which Ellen MacArthur raced as B&Q/Castorama. Nigel Harley’s Firebird Fly Half and Phil Cotton’s Seacart 30 Buzz are also ones to watch.

Past winners go out to race again: include the 2007 winner of the Gold Roman Bowl, Edward Donald and his crew on the Folkboat Madelaine with another motivation for winning.

Having undergone successful treatment for Hodgkinson’s Lymphoma himself, Madelaine will be supporting Leukaemia Research. So far he has raised over £16,000.

Mark Taylor won the Silver Gilt Roman Bowl in his South Coast One Design Marbella.  He and his boat are the same age but Marbella was written off earlier in her career having been fire damaged.  Subsequently restored, Mark bought new sails in 2007 and achieved his spectacular win.

Boats in the Original Old Gaffer section have histories that go back many years. Kelpie is a gaff cutter built in 1903 and has won her class for nine years. On board will be her owner, local Cowes businessman Richard Bendy and Etchells World Champion Paul Blowers.

Sceptre, Britain’s first post-war America’s Cup Challenger, will be marking the 50th anniversary of her launching. She weighs in at 36 tons and will be skippered on this occasion by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston.

Gipsy Moth IV was built in 1966 for another round-the-world sailor, Sir Francis Chichester.  Following major restoration, she is now owned by UKSA.   Mary Lunn, an Uffa Fox design, started life in 1940s Bombay. After the war she was shipped back to the UK and sold in Yarmouth.

There is a certain amount of déjà vu concerned with the Mevagissey Tosher Dolphin. The first Round the Island Race in 1931 was won by a Cornish fishing boat, Merry Conceit. Dolphin is also an open fishing boat, from Cornwall and  built in 1930. Merry Conceit was bought for £45 back in the 1930s. The princely sum of £30 was paid for Dolphin by her current owners Pete Williams and Charlie Ford, who found her rotting away in a creek.

The oldest yacht in the race is Rosenn, a Solent One Design built as a racing boat in 1896 and the only one still afloat.  She was found on the East Coast by journalist Bob Fisher and double Olympian Barry Dunning.

Young sailors get their chance too: . This will be Rory Spriggs aged 16 second Round the Island Race and first as skipper. His last Christmas holidays were spent crossing the Atlantic to gain his RYA Day Skipper qualification.

His sailing experience ranges from Optimists to RS Fevas and matchracing.  Rory’s crew on the Beneteau First 210 Gusto are all friends from Abingdon School, with the exception of one adult.

The Dufour 33 Talybont II will also have a young helm. Skipper Karl Brunjes says his 14 year old son Hugh has been driving the boat  for a couple of years now and is a far better sailor than the adults on board, including his father!  He’s been given special dispensation from his headmaster at Lancing College to join the race.

Members of the RYA Youth Programme have been given the opportunity to swap their dinghies and surfboards for a 72 foot yacht, all thanks to the Tall Ships Youth Trust. Challenger 4 will not only be up against the fastest boats in the fleet, in IRC0, but also three identical boats from the TSYT.

The sailing team from Milton Abbey School will be racing the Baltic 42 Going Concern whilst the young crew on Paddiywack, owned by the charity Island Youth Water Activities Centre, will all enjoying their first taste of racing.

All this years entrants in the Round the Island race were encouraged to “Make their Round the Island Race Count” and race for charity.  One of the four charities ‘The Ellen MacArthur Trust’ will have 100 cyclists going round the Island at the same time as the race.  

In 2007 active fundraising by four official charities raised £70k, 2008 now sees the launch of the Charity Squad;

1) Prostate UK www.prostateuk.org

2) The Ellen MacArthur Trust www.ellenmacarthurtrust.org

3) Breast cancer Care www.breastcancercare.org.uk

4) Macmillan www.macmillan.org.uk

Donations can also be pledged on the bespoke charity fund website www.justgiving.com/roundtheisland

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Isle of Wight Sailing News @Island Pulse.