French sailor Francis Joyon, who recently shattered the solo, round-the-world record sailing his trimaran “IDEC”, will be on the start line for this year’s Round the Island Race on 26th June 2004.

In last year’s race “Eure et Loire Idec” was the first boat home, completing the 55 mile course in 4 hours 5 minutes 21 seconds. Francis took three trophies: as overall winner of the multihull group, first grand prix multihull and first multihull to finish. He also holds the current multihull record for the race, set at 3 hours 8 minutes 29 seconds in 2001.

On-line entries for the Round the Island Race can be made from 16th February 2004 through http://www.roundtheisland.org.uk. There’s a special early discount for entries received before 3rd April 2004.

The Yachting Monthly family trophy for the first boat home sailed by at least two members of the same family will also be attracting entries.