Scarborough Yacht Club’s annual North Sea Race set to start on Friday evening

Yachts from along the Yorkshire and North East coastline are gathering for the club’s premier offshore event, sponsored again by Boyes Stores.

Joining boats from the home club on the startline in South Bay will be entries from Amble, Blyth, Hartlepool, Whitby and Bridlington.

There are also two boats sailing over from Holland to take part, including 2022 IRC winner, Dick Koopman’s yacht ‘Jäger’, returning to defend their title.

Another one to watch is Impala ‘Firebird’ owned by Jimmy Cliff, with crew including SYC Commodore Sam Kennedy, which has proved to be competitive round-the-cans and will be a new entry for this year in IRC.

As well as competing in IRC, yachts will also be racing using the RYA YTC rating system.

Spectator boats and the RNLI will be alongside the 16-strong fleet to celebrate the start at 7pm on Friday, with competitors then racing to Ijmuiden in The Netherlands.

North Sea Race secretary Win Russell said: “The boats have to negotiate gas rigs, wind farms and cross shipping lanes on their way to the finish.

"Depending on the wind, boats can usually take anywhere between 30 hours and 50 hours to arrive.

“The boats can be followed all the way across on yellow brick tracking and apart from the safety aspect it is interesting to follow their progress.”

Winning flags will be presented in Holland and the trophies will follow at SYC’s annual dinner in November.

There is also an informal race back to Scarborough from Holland - participants recording their individual times - allowing for the option to stay over in The Netherlands for a holiday.