A Class 40 yacht beat 112 other boats round the Isle of Wight in record time at the weekend in the Royal Southampton YC’s two-handed Island Double race. Ned Wakefield and Luke McCathey on Concise, beat the previous record by just 13 seconds, finishing in 5hrs 58 minutes and 38 seconds.

Double-handed Round the Island race 2009 -View the PBO photo gallery

Photo: Yacht Concise – Sailingscenes.com

The UK was trapped between two low pressure weather systems, with a gale warning in force for sea area Wight, and competitors experienced some exciting conditions. A bumpy and wet beat towards the Needles preceded something of a sleigh ride round the back of the island for those who ventured to fly their kites. There were plenty of broaches as the sea had built and together with the gusts it was easy to be caught out. One or two paid the ultimate penalty and shredded their spinnakers but with plenty of wind it was still quick for those under white sails only.

Concise failed to display a yellow flag for a port/starboard incident at the Needles, so were given a four-place penalty. Their class was won on corrected time by Ray Crouch and Peter Baker on their Adams 10, Boomerang with Chris Rushton and Steve Homewood second on Ding Dong! (Stewart 37) and Katie Miller and Alex Adams on the J105 Voador third.

Class 2 saw a victory for Paul Dunstan and Gavin Tappenden on the Folkboat Mandarin. Infinite Jest, an Elizabethan 30 with David Aldridge and Phil Pafford were 2nd and Mike Garvey and Mike Newton were 3rd on Jarrow.

The senior of the two club classes saw Bob and Jan Trimble take line honours on their very recently aquired Arcona 400, Arc, but victory went to Magewind of Roke, a Maxi 1050 sailed by John Skipper and Tom Henderson. In class 4 the win went to Challenge Round the World skipper Paul Kelly sailing with Peter Draycott on Scruffy, a Contessa 26.

Full results at www.rsyc.org.uk