THEY DIDN’T BREAK their old marks but Idea and Silver Bullet sure set the record straight.
Conditions weren’t windy, yet the leading boats still breezed to comfortable wins in their respective divisions of Monday’s 87th edition of the Mount Gay Rum Round Barbados Race.
Racing in the mono-hull category, record holder Idea returned to the Barbados Cruising Club start/finish in five hours, 26 minutes and 18 seconds – almost a full 30 minutes ahead of the nearest finisher Silver Bullet (5:53:35), who repeated as multi-hull champs.
But their respective times were well off the record-setting pace that each champion boat has grown accustomed to as Monday’s light winds didn’t provide them with ideal conditions.
“These were quite tricky conditions [compared] to what we’re accustomed to here because usually there is quite a lot of breeze, but the boat is very, very good in light winds so we were happy,” said Idea skipper Tony McBride.
“With the conditions that we had, we’re satisfied with the time – although we were attempting to break the record we set last year, but we don’t think we could have done any better.”
Packed in a tight bunch of boats coming down the East Coast, Idea pulled away from the field after rounding East Point before stretching that advantage along the South Coast.
“After an hour of very light winds the breeze filled in and we were able to get away from the rest of the boats,” explained McBride.
“You can plan as much as you want about how you want the race to go but Mother Nature always makes things tricky.”
The Blue Peter (8:07:25), a contestant in the transatlantic Panerai Transat Classique, won the classic yacht class while local Rapajam (7:44:26) took top honours in the mono-hull 60-foot-and-under category.
English yacht Happy Morning (9:45:30) was victorious in the 40-foot-and-under mono-hull, while local boat Whistler (8:39:44) took the 35-foot-and-under equivalent.
Dragon Magic (11:18:16) and Immigrant (10:13:30) finished first in the single- and double-handed classes, respectively. (JM)
