Race1 is pleased to announce the appointment of Vision Yachts of Cowes, Isle of Wight, to be the builder of the Race1 Ker 11.3 IRM One-Design. The signing ceremony took place at the Race1 offices in Hamble Point Marina on Friday 1st December, between Jonny Falkner and Philip Crebbin of Race1 and Jonathan Howe and Chris Symons of Vision Yachts.

Construction of the tooling soon advanced rapidly. The frames for the plugs were waterjet cut at Cristofoli International in Southampton. These arrived with Vision Yachts on Monday 4th December 2000 and by the end of that week the assemblies for both the hull plug and the deck plug were almost complete.

Race1 is delighted to have secured the services of Vision Yachts to build the boats. Philip Crebbin commented:

"Vision Yachts have a strong reputation for building top performing one-off race boats, including last year’s IRC Class 1 winner in Cowes Week, Gloves Off. The Race1 Ker 11.3’s must be built to a specification similar to a one-off race boat, to make them the best possible performers under the IRM rule. So having the Vision Yachts experience and quality of construction is important. I am impressed with the work that Vision Yachts have already done and the planning put in before that by Jonathan and Chris."

The designer of the Race1 Ker 11.3, Jason Ker, added:

“We have already been impressed by the professionalism shown by Vision Yachts and have confidence that the Race1 Ker 11.3’s will be fully up to the build standards necessary to be competitive under IRM.”

Jonathan Howe of Vision Yachts said:

"This is an exciting project and I am most pleased that Vision Yachts has won the contract to be the builder, especially as the Race1 Ker 11.3 is the first IRM One-Design. Our team will be dedicated to producing the best quality racing yachts in which the owners will have great fun and success, whether racing one-design, under IRM or under IRC."

The schedule had the first boat being launched before the end of April 2001, with subsequent boats being completed at approximately two week intervals. A launch to introduce the first two completed yachts took place on May 25th 2001, at The Royal Southern Y.C. in Hamble. The first four yachts were soon sold and a formal announcement of the owners followed. As expected the first of the boats competed in the Round The Island Race in June, with more boats racing at Cowes Week. Discussions are continually under way for yet further boats which is a tremendous start to this exciting new IRM One-Design class.

For more information please contact:

Philip Crebbin: 07880 717897
Jonny Falkner: 07005 388599
or e-mail: u2canrace1@aol.com