Round the Island Race 2014 - Big battles on the water + Prizegiving

by Kate Laven on 22 Jun 2014 J.P.Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race 2014 - The longest day of the summer came close to delivering the longest J.P.Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race ever, writes Kate Laven, as winds ranging from zero knots to painfully light tested the patience of crews with high performance catamaran Team Richard Mille emerging as line honours winner with a time of almost nine hours.

Most of the 1,585 entries started the race around the Isle of Wight in around three knots and bright sunshine and as the hours went by, temperatures rose but wind speed dropped leaving hundreds of boats becalmed and a large proportion of the 16,000 crew desperately seeking ways of making their boats go faster or resorting to stretching out on deck to enjoy the sunny conditions.

First to the Needles was Jamie McGarry and Colin Moore's Swan 45 Eala of Rhu but the going was slow and Sir Ben Ainslie, racing on the Farr 45 Rebel with members of his BAR America's Cup crew, took longer to complete the first 13 miles than the record-breaking 2hrs 52mins 15secs he took to finish the entire race last year.

Rebel very quickly became involved in a match race with rival Farr 45 Toe in the Water crewed by injured servicemen and women who had served recently in Afghanistan and the lead swapped several times over the 50 nms course though it was Capt Lloyd Hamilton's ecstatic crew who nudged across the finish line ahead of Ainslie and his team of professionals.

'This means everything to us,' he said recording a time of 8 hrs 51 minutes 39 seconds.

'Beating Ben Ainslie is better than beating the Taliban for these guys.

'He left us shortly after St Catherine's Point and flew away but we kept on trying and it is apt when you look at who we have on board because it proves you should never give up.

'The guys are ecstatic at beating Rebel. They don't know many of the America's Cup sailors but they know and love Sir Ben Ainslie, so are thrilled.'

Racing debuts pay dividends
Another big battle to ensue on the water was between the brand new high-performance catamarans, the GC32s Team Richard Mille and Spax Solution making their racing debuts in the Solent. Former line honours winner Pete Cumming had gathered together a professional crew for Team Richard Mille, including helmsman Paul Campbell-James and proved consistently faster than their rivals.

They took five long hours to reach St Catherine's Point where the sea breeze kicked in to give the leading boats a big push over the next two hours towards the finish but just as they were within sight of the line, the wind in Stokes Bay died and their final flourish was delayed by a further hour to record a finish time of 8 hours and 51 minutes.

'We have had a great week and to round it off with a line honours win in the 2014 J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race is a fantastic achievement especially in these conditions,' said Cumming who put the project together.

'It wasn't the easiest race but these boats are superb - very fast even in light airs and fun to sail. We want to thank our sponsors for giving us this opportunity and look forward to working together in the future.'

First monohulls in battle royale
First monohull across the finish line was Dutch boat Tonnerre de Breskens, with a time of 9 hrs 56 minutes 13 seconds but they too had a battle royale to gain an advantage over Mike Bartholomew's Tokoloshe II, which trailed in just 22 seconds later after one of the biggest tests of endurance and patience since the Round the Island Race started in 1931.

Twelve hours after the first start, 246 boats had finished and a further 445 had retired but the rest were still out on the course valiantly trying to make the finish before the cut off time of 10.00pm when the overall race winner and new holder of the Gold Roman Bowl was set to become clear.

The Island Sailing Club is grateful for the continued support of the Race Title Sponsor, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, and the Race Partners for 2014: Dream Yacht Charter, Haven Knox-Johnston, Henri Lloyd, Nautica Watches, Old Pulteney, Raymarine, Red Funnel, Volvo Car UK.

Sir Ben Ainslie joins the ISC Commodore and J.P. Morgan Asset Management for the Race Prizegiving

The Island Sailing Club, organisers of the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race, was packed to the rafters with happy Race competitors this morning as they celebrated individual and team successes at the Prizegiving for the 83rd edition of this annual one-day nautical extravaganza.

The Commodore of the ISC, John Dudley, was joined on stage by Sir Ben Ainslie, Richard Chambers, CMO, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Corrie McQueen, Events and Sponsorship, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, and Chris Thomas, Sailing Secretary, ISC, who galloped through the proceedings in under an hour.

After the Commodore welcomed the VIPs and the assembled gathering, he ran through some of the more interesting Race facts and stats, including that there were 715 finishers and 791 retirees; always regrettable to have more retirees than finishers but a very positive response from the majority of competitors nonetheless.

The slowest elapsed time for a line honours boat ever recorded in the Race's history was 08.51.37 achieved by Team Richard Mille on their GC32 foiling multihull...and Dudley enjoyed pointing out that Sir Ben had done it on his AC45 in 02.52.15 last year!

Also applauded was the winner of the Tenacity Trophy, awarded annually to the skipper of the last boat home. This year it fell to Stuart Whitmore to win the applause. He crossed the finish line on his Sigma 33, Sixes and Sevens, (IRC3) at 21.51.35, having started his race at 0730 - that's 14hrs, 21mins 35secs later.

The Gold Roman Bowl was awarded to...a Folkboat, Madelaine, skippered by Edward Donald, who hasn't quite achieved the record four wins of the Gold Roman Bowl by Edward Heath but he's nearly there, having won it individually three times and the Donald family has collected this famous trophy four times.

The Island Sailing Club is grateful for the continued support of the Race Title Sponsor, J.P. Morgan Asset Management whose CMO drew the loudest applause when he referred to the ten years of title sponsorship of this amazing Race and importantly announced an extension of this up to and including 2016. The ISC also wishes to thank its Race Partners Dream Yacht Charter, Haven Knox-Johnston, Henri Lloyd, Nautica Watches, Old Pulteney, Raymarine, Red Funnel, Volvo Car UK.

Everyone looks forward to welcoming back the competitors, families and friends, on Saturday, 27th June 2015.