Pineapple Cup – Montego Bay Race – Winners awarded

by Julianna Barbieri on 11 Feb 2017 Last night the Montego Bay Yacht Club celebrated winners of the 33rd edition of the Pineapple Cup – Montego Bay Race. Over 120 attendees including Acting Custos Rotolorum Claudette Bryan, Montego Bay Mayor Homer Davis, MBYC Commodore Nigel Knowles and Royal Jamaican Yacht Club Past Commodore Andrew Thwaites were on hand for the awarding of the Governo General's Trophy, also known as the Pineapple Cup.

The Pineapple Cup is one of the oldest yachting trophies dating back to 1961 where it was handcrafted in London. Throughout the years, the trophy has been awarded to some of the most well known names in yachting including: John Kilroy, Ted Turner and Robert F Johnson. The winner of the 2017 Governor General's Trophy was awarded to the first place team in IRC, which was Prospector.

Paul McDowell co-owner of Prospector said, “The Pineapple Cup was one of those races that you remember from way back in the day. I used to do a lot of IOR races in the 1980’s, so you’d see Kialoa and Windward Passage win [the Pineapple Cup]; some of the greatest ocean racers of all time have won this race. So we said ‘this has got to be one on our bucket list that we have to do, the Pineapple Cup.’ And so here we are!

We have a mixture of professionals and Corinthians, we’re not one of the all professional crews where you have just owners and nothing but professionals; we race with our friends. Ken Read is one of the top professionals in the world, but he’s been my friend of 35 years, so he raced with us as a friend, not as a professional. [We said] 'Lets go have fun like we used to back in the day.’ We came to race with our friends, but we take it seriously.

Winning the Pineapple Cup is like a dream come true. You hear about these trophies, the trophies that have been around for forever, and now to have gone out and won that trophy is extraordinary.”

The trophy itself was presented by Acting Custos Rotolorum Claudette Bryan on behalf of the Govenor General Sir Patrick Allen. Custos Bryan said, “This is a wonderful tradition that Jamaica has held for many years and to see the camaraderie, the participants and competitors in this kind of fashion and to see the time and effort they have made to compete in this traditional race, it is an honor. And so I believe Jamaica has something great going and I encourage this race to continue as long as it can because Jamaica has much to offer.”

In addition to the Govenor Generals trophy, the Silver Rose Bowl was presented to Wizard for line honors. The Arawak Perpetual Trophy was presented to Hermie Louise for their first place finish in the PHRF division. The Silver Seahorse Trophy also was awarded to Prospector for the top corrected time in the IRC division.