Photo credit- Patrick Eden
Britain’s favourite yacht race, the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race started at 5am with the firing of the RYS cannon by Dame Ellen MacArthur.
Later Ellen was on board Moonspray, an Ellen MacArthur Trust boat, with a group of young people all in recovery from cancer and leukemia. Four Cancer Charities sailed SailTime Charity Challenge yachts racing hard getting money for their chosen charities.
Thirteen classes ranging from grand prix high tech boats such as ICAP Leopard and IDEC to a 20ft Jo Richards design started. There was a fleet of 1,754 yachts and some 16,000 sailors. Nellie was the oldest boat in the fleet being built in 1826.
Current monohull record holder, ICAP Leopard helmed by her owner Mike Slade, was the first monohull to round the Needles. First multihull to round these infamous rocks was the Extreme 40 Oman Sail, The Wave, Muscat skippered by Paul Campbell-James. Just after 6am, the record-holding multihull IDEC, skippered by Francis Joyon, rounded along with the Open 60 Artemis Ocean Racing and the TP52 Pace.
As usual there was some very competitive sailing from the Needles around St. Catherine’s and on to Ryde. With a Northerly wind the going was not easy but Francis Joyon’s IDEC claimed outright line honours as first multihull home in 04. 24.05 and first monohull ICAP Leopard completed her lap of the Island half an hour later (05.00.06).
Exquisite J Class yacht Velsheda finished at 10.45am. Built in 1933 at Camper and Nicholsons in Gosport, Velsheda is the most famous of the few remaining J Class yachts left in the world today.
Ten hours since the first gun was fired the finishing yachts were streaming into Cowes with half of the 1754 entries having completed the 50-mile marathon and by late afternoon most were home.
Winner of the GOLD ROMAN BOWL, the top prize in the Race for the first overall on corrected time in IRC-rated classes was NORDIC BEAR a Nordic Folkboat owned and raced by Brian Appleyard from Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire.
Other prizes included SILVER ROMAN BOWL & JPMAM SALVER - Second Overall IRC- MADELAINE owned by Madelaine and Isobella Donald and SILVER GILT ROMAN BOWL & JPMAM SALVER - First Overall ISC Rating System- TWILIGHT owned by Patrick Moreton.
Next year’s Round the Island Race takes place on Saturday June 25th. This will be the 80th Anniversary Race and the organisers are anticipating a record entry.