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allez Van Hee is raising money for Newcastle Hospitals Charity
Participants: allez Van Hee
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Tony Van Hee, Chairman of Van Hee Transport, the Gateshead based logistics specialist, best known these days as a leading logistics training company, is due to set sail from Plymouth on Saturday 6th June in the 2010 Shetland Round Britain & Ireland Yacht Race.
`”This is one more great challenge” said Tony “and it gives us another opportunity to raise around £2000 for our charity fund for the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer appeal which as a company, Van Hee Transport has been supporting for the last eighteen months.
Race competitors will sail 2000 nautical miles around the UK coastline “There are some pretty testing conditions” comments Tony . “You have to expect at least one gale and above all stay very alert. It’s not like an ocean race where you’re unlikely to bump into anything, when you’re sailing reasonably close to the coast, you have to keep an eye out for rocks and promontories, and of course other ships, particularly in the English Channel.”
The organisers allow for this by there being five stages of the race, with a compulsory 48-hour rest between each stage at Kinsale in Ireland, Castle Bay, Barra in the Outer Hebrides, Lerwick in Shetland and Lowestoft in Suffolk on the English East Coast. “The hospitality at these stopovers is pretty legendary” adds Tony. “We expect the race to take around 26 – 28 days overall.”
Tony will be sailing a 30ft Dazcat Catamaran recently re-named ‘allez van hee’ – which in English means Go Van Hee. Tony has been adventuring and sailing for over forty years. He was one of the first British transport drivers to take loads of goods to the Middle East for his fledgling Van Hee Transport company as far back as the 1960’s. In the 1980’s he took a year’s sailing sabbatical taking his family of wife Joan and 3 small children ending up in Main, USA . He has taken part in many yacht races including The Fastnet, and competed in this race four years ago. His co-skipper will be west country sailor Bob Beggs, himself a famous mariner winning the 2001 Times Clipper round the world race and completed the first circumnavigation of North America under sail in 2008.
This will be the 12th running of the Shetland Round Britain and Ireland yacht race, hosted by the Royal Western Yacht Club, Plymouth, which currently takes place every 4 years. Nearly 60 yachts will start the two-handed race attracting entrants from Europe, Scandinavia and South Africa.
Van Hee Transport have an active programme of staff taking part in activities to raise money for local charities. Last year they did the gruelling Lyke Wake Walk, a 40 mile crossing of the North Yorkshire Moors. This year they are walking the full 73 miles of Hadrian’s Wall, as well as the famous 3 Peaks, and on Saturday 7th August they will be hosting a full day of events for staff, customers, suppliers and friends. All proceeds will go to the Alzheimer’s Society and the Sir Bobby Robson Cancer Fund.
If you want to follow his progress in the race check daily at www.rwyc.org
And if you want more information on Logistics Skills for Life log on to www.vanhee.com