The opening day of this year’s Tullett Prebon London Boat Show saw the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race present its 2013 Twitter campaign using the new hashtag #raceforall.

Tremendous support for the #raceforall campaign officially launched by Sir Ben Ainslie at the Tullett Prebon London Boat Show in aid of the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust. Photo: Paul Wyeth

Conceived as a quick and easy way to increase communication throughout the large Round the Island Race community, people can help raise funds for the official Race charity, the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, by tweeting using the hash tag #raceforall.

For every tweet using the approved hashtag, J.P. Morgan will donate 10p to the charity, until the ‘Tweetometer’ target of £3,000 is reached.

Dame Ellen MacArthur, founder and Patron of the Trust spoke about how the money raised through this initiative will help: “There is a huge Race community out there and the ‘Tweet for Charity’ campaign is a great way for people to engage with each other whilst easily donating to the Trust. The target is £3,000 which would help us take 6 more young people in recovery from cancer on a four day sailing trip next year, so get tweeting!”

The Commodore of the Island Sailing Club, Rod Nicholls (left), joined Sir Ben Ainslie and Frank Fletcher from the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust at today's launch. Photo: Paul Wyeth

Tweeting stories to the Race community
All one has to do is tweet his Race news and remember to use #raceforall to add to the charity total. It’s a quick and easy way to share one’s stories with the Race community and pick up useful tips and knowledge. The organizers of the Race want to hear why one is entering, what he is looking forward to and his favourite thing about the Race.

Quadruple Olympic gold medallist and recently knighted in the New Year’s Honours List, Sir Ben Ainslie, was amongst the first to tweet his #raceforall message after presenting the 2012 Timex Outstanding Seamanship Award to Jeff Blue.

The #raceforall display is on show on the Henri Lloyd stand (A112) at the London Boat Show. The visitors can watch the ‘Tweetometer’ rise and also enter the Prize Draw to win a free entry into this year’s Race.

Jeff Blue receives the Timex Outstanding Seamanship Award from Sir Ben Ainslie at the London Boat Show which opened today at ExCel. Photo: Paul Wyeth

The 2013 J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race takes place on Saturday 1st June with a first class start at 0500hrs. To benefit from the early bird entry fee one needs to enter online by midnight on February 2nd after which the Standard entry fee applies until midnight on 11th May.