Actress and TV presenter Denise Van Outen will fire the gun at 0600 on June 25 to send off a record breaking fleet for the 80th Round the Island Race.

She will be joined by Michelle Luke, a Social Worker at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, who won the draw for the ‘Buy a Mile’ charity fund raising promotion run by the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust.

With 1,856 entries registered by the beginning of June the race around the Isle of Wight sponsored by J.P. Morgan Asset Management was set to live up to its reputation as Britain’s favourite yacht race and one of the biggest in the world.

The fourth biggest participation sports event after the London Marathon and the Great North and South Fun Runs was set to break the previous record of 1,875 of entries before the June 18 closing dates.

The race had its first outing in 1931 when 25 yachts entered.

Denise and good friend, actor and TV presenter Chris Parker, will be joining Volvo Car UK as their guest for the race weekend to learn how to sail.

As complete novices to sailing, they will be in safe hands with fellow Essex local, top British 470 Olympian and Team Volvo for life sailor, Saskia Clark. Saskia is confident that they can prove the ‘only way is Essex’ and beat the fellow Team Volvo for life sailors also competing in the race on board J109s.

The Team Volvo for life sailors are taking time out of their busy training schedules to join more than 16,000 competitors in the Race.

One of Britain’s leading Paralympic sailors, Helena Lucas and Nick Dempsey, Olympic bronze medallist and 2009 World Champion RS: X Windsurfer, will also both be sailing in J109s.

Nick said: “I’m pretty excited to be taking part in my first J.P Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race. Getting to grips with competing in a J109 could take me a while as I have always windsurfed, but, I’m really up for taking part and I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

The ‘Match Race Girls’ - sisters Lucy and Kate Macgregor, two thirds of top international Women’s Match Race team and current World Champions, will show their competitive spirit as they battle it out against each other.

The girls will each be joined by a crew of three, including some of the country’s best youth sailors, members of the RYA Volvo Team GBR squad. Laser Radial sailors, Rheanna Pavey and Cameron Douglas and local 29er Lymington sailors Sam Battern and Henri Lloyd Williams were recently selected for July’s ISAF Youth Worlds, Croatia, and are looking forward to sailing with the girls.

The Team Volvo for life sailors are estimating a time of around eight hours to complete the 50 nautical mile course as they circumnavigate the Isle of Wight.

Triple Olympic gold and silver medallist Ben Ainslie has also been confirmed he will race on board a Ker 40 entered as J.P. Morgan Asset Management with 2003 World Cup rugby star Will Greenwood on board.

They will be joined by ace navigator Mike Broughton. This is one major yachting event that has so far escaped Ben’s clutches as far as picking up the main prize, the Gold Roman Bowl, is concerned, so this is another high profile and competitive entry to watch out for. But the race is not just about sailing superstars and records. For amateur enthusiasts it is a special day of fun and testing themselves and their crews. Many of them only race once a year in this classic leaving Cowes- the home of yachting – in the early morning an returning to party into the night in the race village and town.

Spectators gathered around the island and Solent coasts to watch the colourful spectacle will be able to follow the race on line and on mobile phones via tracking systems introduced last year to the introduction of mobile phone tracking technology introduced last year and enhanced for 2011.

It means entrants themselves will be able to track their own progress and improvements to the Race Viewer will show estimated finish times, improved visualisation of main fleet, the ability to save and recall selected boats and search for boats in a class.

It will also be integrated with EventTV so that fleet positions and leading boats can be shown on screen during the day with an estimated time of finish.

Cowes Yacht Haven is gearing itself up as the key venue for entertainments and activities during race weekend.

The official charity, the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, is including a sailing simulator with a leader board for visitors to beat a few well-known sailing personalities and there will be a Segway Challenge and climbing wall sessions.

The ‘Round the Island in 80 years’ Exhibition will be on shown in the Events Centre in Cowes Yacht Haven from Friday 10.00 – 16.00 hrs and on Saturday from 10.00 – 16.00 hrs.

Race partners are making sure there’s plenty of fun and competition with Nautica Watches throwing down the gauntlet to see who can post the fastest time on the Lewmar grinder machine.

Haven Knox-Johnston will hold a fun Spot the Buoy competition on their stand and Henri Lloyd will run an F1 simulator and competition to produce the fastest lap time. Volvo Car UK will have a prominent display in the Race Village.