The overwhelming majority of the 1,584-strong fleet finished the 2015 J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race (RTI) after a day of racing in sparkling conditions.
Giovanni Belgrano’s 38ft classic yacht Whooper has been named as provisional winner of the main prize, the Gold Roman Bowl.
In the ISC Rating System fleet, Jeremy Vines’ Dufour 34 Pickle has been provisionally announced as overall winner among the 680 entries. William Ball’s Grand Soleil 34.3 Gazelle is second, while one of the lowest-rated boats in the race, Brain Haugh’s 1958 East Anglian 28 Cherete third, just three seconds behind Gazelle on corrected time.
Participating boats had until the time limit of 2200 to finish.
Full results are posted at rtir.me/results and the prize giving hosted by the Island Sailing Club, with trophies presented by Paralympic gold medallist Helena Lucas MBE, will be held at 1200 noon tomorrow, Sunday 28 June.
Top performers
The MOD70 trimaran Concise 10 took line honours, finishing at 1040, with an elapsed time of three hours, 30 minutes and 24 seconds. This puts her 38 minutes outside the multihull race record set by Sir Ben Ainslie in 2013.
The four GC32 foiling catamarans crossed the line just after 1100, led by Sultanate of Oman and Alinghi, after a close race that saw the boats separated by less than six minutes at the finish.
Mike Slade’s 100ft Leopard finished at 1140 to take monohull line honours, but was outside the record time he set two years ago.
Provisional results show Sir Keith Mills’ Ker 40 Invictus as winner of IRC Group 0, with Tony Langley’s TP52 Gladiator second and Steward Whitehead and Jeff Blue’s Carkeek 40 Rebellion third. A French boat, Arnaud Delemare and Eric Mordret’s JPK 1080 is winner of IRC Group 1, while another boat from the same manufacturer, David Franks’ JPK 1010 Strait Dealer heads Group 2 on corrected time.
In the ISC Rating System divisions, Johnny Plumbe’s Emelina is provisionally winner of Group 4. Group 5 is led by Jeremy Vines’ Pickle, followed by C and M Telford’s Manic and Paul Britton’s Florence. In Group 6, Demian Smith’s Way Beyond is provisionally first, while William Ball’s Gazelle heads Group 7.
PBO at RTI
PBO deputy editor Ben Meakins raced around the island in his own yacht, while PBO news editor Laura Hodgetts joined the crew of Sailing Logic’s First 40 yacht Arthur Logic.
Mason King, skipper of Arthur Logic, which crossed the finishing line at: 2.55pm – some seven and a half hours after starting, said: ‘Absolutely fantastic weather, almost perfect conditions for the racing.
‘A fantastic experience for anyone’s who’s done it first time. But very challenging. It required non-stop concentration and effort from whole crew, every mistake was punished.’
He added: ‘Round The Island is unique because how many sports could you have Olympic and Americas Cup professionals and beginners all sailing against each other. That’s one of the great things about it. Plus it’s a spectacle.
‘Sailing Logic had a collection of boats on the water, including two of our own and eight on behalf of Keech Hospice.’
RTI rescues
If you saw the Coastguard helicopter near Ventnor at around 2.30pm this afternoon it’s because there was a yacht aground close to Ventnor Haven – the independent lifeboat from Sandown and the RNLI lifeboat from Bembridge worked to pull the yacht off to sea.
Ventor Coastguard Rescue Team and the Coastguard helicopter from Lee on Solent were on scene to provide help if needed.
The helicopter also medically evacuated one person with a head injury from the race and one lifeboat person was medically evacuated by the Coastguard helicopter based at Portland.
A spokesman said 16 lifeboats attended this year’s event and helped to rescue: one man overboard and medically evacuate two head injuries, one person with sea sickness and one person with a broken arm from the race.
Next year’s Round the Island Race will take place on 2 July, 2016.