Will the World's largest sailing race become the World's largest sporting event?

The count “up” has begun to Bart’s Bash 2015, the global sailing race being held on 20 September on behalf of the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation.

Count “up” because registration for venues around the world intending to hold a race is now officially open. Within days of opening 88 venues across 11 Countries had already signed up to hold a sailing event.

A special message from America’s Cup winning skipper, Jimmy Spithill encourages everyone to get involved this year and lays down a challenge to Iain Percy and Sir Ben Ainslie to beat him.

This is the second time the sailing event has taken place. Bart’s Bash was conceived in 2014 as a participation event in memory of Andrew “Bart” Simpson. It grew beyond all expectations and officially became the largest sailing race in the world, raising over £360,000 for the charity started in Bart’s name.

This year the aim of the 2015 campaign is to increase participation even further across the world with the ultimate goal of becoming the world’s biggest sporting event. Any sailing clubs, community sailing programmes, sail training centres, yacht clubs, scout groups, sea cadets and even groups of sailors globally can hold a Bart’s Bash race.

All Bart’s Bash participants are being encouraged to raise valuable funds for the Foundation which is already undertaking a range of sustainable projects, using sailing to transform the lives of children and young people globally.

Tony Bishop Bart’s Bash Event Founder said “Last year we held our breath and crossed our fingers when we launched the event as we weren’t sure who would support it. We now know that thousands of people loved the event and want to do it again. We hope to see more countries involved and even more people sailing to make it another unique and special sailing race.”


The Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation

We focus on young people between the age of 5 and 24.
Our aims are to:

Use sailing as a means to develop skills and capabilities in young people, enabling them to participate in society as responsible and valuable citizens.

Provide the tools, resources and skills to allow any young person to experience the challenges and education provided by sailing.

Enable participation in sailing by overcoming barriers such as financial, physical, learning disability, mental health or social.

Advance the educational opportunities in the field of sports leadership and training in sailing.

Raise the profile of sailing as a valuable educational and career development tool.
To achieve those aims the Foundation will support, both practically and financially, the providers of sailing across the world.

The first Bart’s Bash saw over 30,000 people taking to the water in a 24 hour period, across 68 countries and raised a staggering £366,391.95 for the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation.