Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg handed the Tønsberg Båtrace a massive boost this afternoon when she announced that Norway’s borders will reopen to the Schengen area and the EEA from July 15.

The event that is set to be held over the weekend of August 7-9 can now look forward to welcoming an international field for the eighth successive year.

Event organiser Frode Sundsdal was keen to stress after hearing the news that things will have to be very different this year:

We are encouraging spectators to view all of the action on our live stream coverage, we have to make this as safe as possible.

Our VIP areas are always very busy but this year we can only issue 200 tickets.

We will work with the health authorities to ensure that we do our very best to keep things under control.