The sailing will be taken to the wire, the weather should be fantastic – and let’s hope for winds – the scenery is unmatchable and the sailing conditions are as varied as you can get. The Round Mull Yacht Race has come round again.

Sponsored by Argyll’s Olympian Owen Sails and by Ardfern Yacht Centre and run by Oban Sailing Club, the 2009 fleet – expected to top the 2008 record of 44 boats – will cross the starting line on Friday 3rd July, then sail and play hard until the finish back in Oban on Sunday 5th July.

In the lull before the duel, tomorrow night (Thursday 4th) Oban Sailing Club hosts a seafood buffet sponsored by the town’s Forteith Food Services – and the Forteiths make their mark on the water as much as in catering. Competitors can also look forward to sailcloth suppliers Dimension Polyant’s generous provision of race items and the club itself has the main committee boat supplied again by North West Marine.

This event is nothing if not a collaborative demonstration of Argyll’s dominance in the calendar of British yacht racing.

The first leg

The first leg on Friday races from Oban, between the Isles of Kerrera and Lismore, up the Sound of Mull, below Duart Castle on its promontory to the west and the magnificent hulking landmass of Morvern on the Ardnamurchan peninsula to the east, then into Tobermory.

Who’s not heard of Tobermory? It’s been a yachties’ Mecca for a long time. Then it became Balamory and made the little town the dreamland of hordes of enchanted children. It’s every Mull visitor’s favourite postcard with its beautiful embracing bay surrounded by brightly painted shoreside buildings – even though the Mishnish Hotel went from its iconic yellow to black.

The newly sober (joke) Mishnish hosts the prize-giving for the first leg on Friday evening. There are individual prizes and the best performance from Oban to Tobermory receives the Mishnish Bucket – an ice bucket of Bobby MacLeod’s.

The second leg

On Saturday the race takes the fleet on the second leg on through the Sound of Mull, past the wide entrance to Loch Sunart (which, in October will see the SSACN’s Tagathon of endangered species of shark, skate and ray) and out into the Atlantic. It then turns south west to race down the island’s west coast below the original Mishnish, then dropping south between the Treshnish islands and Ulva to finish in Bunessan on the Ross of Mull.

A buffet and ceilidh dance, with the prize giving for this second leg make Bunessan’s village hall hum, with the proceeds going to the Ross of Mull Historical Society. Again there are individual prizes with the best performance on the leg awarded  the Bunessan Hall Trophy.

The last leg – in more ways than one

The final leg on Sunday – or the ‘dead men sailing’ leg, takes the fleet from Bunessan south round the Ross of Mull (with the magic of Iona a constant distraction) then east into the Firth of Lorne, running north east between Mull and the Slate Islands before the Isle of Kerera and back home to Oban Bay.

In an imaginative response to the state of the crews at the end of the race, celebrations on the final night are informal. The overall trophies and prizes are presented at Oban Sailing Club’s prize-giving dinner dance on November 7th. By this time the dead are walking once again – dancing even – and meet up, with the salt out of their hair, to reminisce on the thrills and spills of the race.

The awards

Race co-ordinator Billy Forteith says: ‘Immediately after last year’s race we had boats signing up again, everyone enjoyed it so much.  We think it’s the mix of racing in fantastic waters, great après sail entertainment at each venue and the variety of competing options. We expect to have three classes again this year, for fast and slow boats including a restricted sail class which races for the Brian Shellcock Memorial Trophy.’

Other prizes include the fastest for the circuit overall, a double handed award and, as above, special prizes for the winners of each leg including the Mishnish Bucket and the Bunessan Hall Trophy. Bilgewater Gin – the yachties’ greatest secret, produced by an east coast yachtie and available in the Ironmongers in Tobermory en route – also support the event with prizes for each winner.

The Royal Bank of Scotland Trophy is awarded to the monohull – regardless of class – with the best performance on points over all three legs of the race.

The Torran Rock goes to the monohull with the best corrected time overall regardless of class.

Apart from those racing and observing from the water, vistors to Argyll on the coast around the route will have spectacular views of the fleet eyeballing each other every inch of the way. You don’t just need skill and muscle for this game – you need unflinching nerve. Try and see it and if you sail, go for it next year.

For Argyll hopes to have nightly reports on each day’s racing through Oban Sailing’s Club’s Press Officer, Alison Chadwick, who will be racing herself and so whose reports may be partial.

All photographs accompanying this article are by copyright holder, Alison Chadwick and are reproduced here with permission.