Plymouth to the Antarctic - and back

GLOBAL SAILING RACE WILL BE MASSIVE EVENT FOR CITY

- WILLIAM TELFORD

PLYMOUTH is to host a major global yachting event which will showcase the city to the world.

The Worldstar race is expected to bring a huge economic boost when it is staged in 2026. It will see up to 40 boats set off from Plymouth in a “challenging” one-year solo or double-handed circumnavigation of the globe – via the Antarctic.

The race will start and finish in Plymouth, the scene of the conclusion to Francis Chichester’s famous solo round-the-world triumph in 1967.

The event is being organised by Plymouth’s Royal Western Yacht Club (RWYC). Chris Arscott, Commodore at the Queen Anne’s Battery club and race director, said: “It’s a major event for Plymouth. There is no yacht club in the world that has dared to do this. We have an opportunity to put ourselves and Plymouth on the world map. It’s a big deal.”

He added that because the city’s Mayflower 400 events were curtailed by the Covid pandemic, the Worldstar event has the potential to make up for that and “pull people into the city”. He said it would attract boats, sailors and their support teams, tourists and the media to the city.