Intro:

Five boats are set to race in the next edition of the Volvo Ocean Race around Britain and Ireland. It's being used by some of the teams as a warm up for the 2014-2015 Volvo Ocean Race starting in Spain in October. The Round Britain and Ireland Race will begin at the Isle of Wight on Sunday

Script:

The Race is expected to take at least fives days to complete -depending on conditions. It's seen as ideal preparation for those teams taking part in the Volvo Ocean Race later this year

SOUNDBITE: (English) Knut Frostad, CEO, Volvo Ocean Race:

"This is the promo, this is the test of our real race, because this is the first time we will see a larger fleet together that we can really track and follow. So we had one small race in the Canaries with three boats. Now we have 5 boats participating in the Round Britain race, and I think we have to go back to the 80s to find an event before the start of this race where that many boats actually met on the same start line."

Apart from testing the form of their own boats - the race is a chance to scout the opposition ahead of the ocean race in October.

SOUNDBITE: (English) Knut Frostad, CEO, Volvo Ocean Race:

"We will see a result now over the next days around Britain, and then all of them will go back to their team bases and they will work very hard on learning from those days, and then we will see how they twist that into their advantage when they come back in October, in Alicante."

The sailors know that racing 1,800 miles around a coastline well known for it's unpredictable conditions is one of the most difficult to complet,e let alone win.