A two-part
Channel 4 documentary on the Round the Island Race, its sailors, boats and history, airs this month. Called ‘a must-watch for all sports and
sailing fans’, Part 1 will air Saturday 13th November 2010, at 7.30am on Channel 4 and Part 2 goes out on Saturday 20th November 2010, at 7.30am on Channel 4.

You can watch a preview below:

Every year in June over 16,000 sailors, from Olympic gold
medallists and world champions to family crews and those trying their
hand at racing for the first time, compete in this unique yacht race
around the Isle of Wight that is organised by the Island Sailing Club in
Cowes.

The two-part programme, produced by Sunset+Vine|APP in
association with Channel 4, tells the story of four very different
personalities, each with special reasons to compete in the 2010 race.
The first part of the documentary takes the viewer into the day-to-day
world of each of the four sailors, as they prepare for the fourth
largest participation sporting event in the UK. The second part is
filmed during the race itself with onboard cameras showing the highs and
the lows as they compete against a fleet of some 1,700 boats.

The first to feature is a professional multihull sailor, Loick
Peyron. He is skippering the boat that crossed the finish line first in
2009. The team from OMAN SAIL are back to try and make it two in a
row, racing one of the world’s fastest sailboats. Can Loick repeat the
team’s success? The pressure is on!

The next character is Welsh surgeon Paul Rhys-Davies. Experience-wise he
is a polar opposite to Loick. Paul is a newcomer to the world of
sailing and hasn’t even entered a race before! He is determined to
finish his 50-nautical mile lap of the Isle of Wight with his rookie
crew but their pre-race training doesn’t go to plan and Paul is so
nervous that he is unable to sleep the night before the race.

Having competed in the race numerous times, a man who understands the
handicap system well is Cowes-based designer Jo Richards. For the 2010
edition he decided to design and build a small boat to race. He knew it
would take much longer than most boats to finish the race, yet owing to
its handicap rating, his boat named Moonshadow could still win
the coveted Gold Roman Bowl. The story of Jo Richards begins with a race
against time to complete the build of his boat, obtain a rating and
make it to the start line.

The final competitor is competing not to win but to celebrate beating
cancer. Dennise Shepherd is in recovery from breast cancer and has set
herself the goal to complete the J.P Morgan Asset Management Round the
Island Race to raise funds for Breast Cancer Care, the charity that
supported her through her treatment.  Dennise, from Chester, is used to
sailing her tiny Mirror dinghy on a small lake, so competing in a fleet
of over 1,700 yachts on open sea will be a massive and emotional
learning curve.

For a two minute preview log onto:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0R3hmj68Lc



Channel 4

Saturday, 13th November 2010 at 7.30am

&

Saturday, 20th November 2010 at 7.30am.