STARS of the sailing world are encouraging people to get out on the water for Bart’s Bash 2.

Last year the regatta broke the Guinness World Record for the largest sailing race in 24 hours at multiple venues including on Portland, as thousands of sailors across the world took part.

The event was held in memory of Olympic gold medal-winning sailor Andrew ‘Bart’ Simpson who tragically died in 2013. This year’s event is hoping to be even bigger and better and get more people out on the water than ever before.

Stars of the sailing world including Bart’s team mate Iain Percy, gold medal winners Sir Ben Ainslie and Shirley Robertson, and Sir Robin- Knox-Johnston who became the first man to perform a single-handed non-stop circumnavigation of the globe in 1969, have encouraged people to sign up.

The event will take place on September 20 this year.

A special video has been launched to urge people to sign up.

Shirley Robertson said: “Bart’s Bash is special because we celebrate the life of an incredible man and an extremely talented sailor, Andrew ‘Bart’ Simpson, who tragically died in 2013.

“Bart’s Bash is hosted by sailing club’s, groups and organisations all over the world, so sign up now and support us and let’s make this the biggest sailing event on the planet. It’s great fun.”

This year the team are encouraging people to bring a friend sailing as part of ‘Bart’s Buddies’ and get people out on the water for the first time.

Iain Percy said: “Last year was an incredible event so this year we have decided to do it all over again.

“This time we want to get even more people on the water so we have introduced Bart’s Buddies.

“We have all promised our friends and family to take them sailing one day so why not this day, a day where we can have fun together and remember Bart whilst doing so.

“Now that the sign up process is live, I urge and encourage everyone to sign up to take part and be a part of this ground-breaking event.”

Sir Robin- Knox-Johnston called Bart’s Bash a ‘tremendous event.’ Bart’s Bash is one of the fundraising events for the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation, which allows it to facilitate a range of sustainable projects, using sailing to transform the lives of children and young people globally.

The event last year raised £366,691 for the charity.

Sir Ben Ainslie said that last year’s event had been really good and they were all looking forward to this year’s event.

He said: “It was an incredible day out for everybody that took part, for a fantastic foundation, in memory of an incredible guy.”