Irish boat sets sail transatlantic solo race

An Irish boat will set sail from France today to take part in one of the world's toughest transatlantic solo races.

Boland Mills is one of 90 yachts that will sail nearly three and a half thousand miles to Guadeloupe over the next three weeks as part of La Route du Rhum.

The project is being organised with the Irish Cancer Society to raise awareness of prostate and testicular cancer.

Skipper Ian Munslow was confident his forty foot boat will come first in its class.

“It’s a pretty good design I think,” he said. “I built bits of it of it myself. It makes a big difference because you just know it inside out. If a crack appears on the boat, it's like, I know what that is, that's OK.”