Pintia wins Class 1 in 540 mile Biscay Challenge

by Event media/Mike Short on 22 Jun 2009 The Spanish boat Pintia has won Class 1 of the Royal Southampton's 540-mile Biscay Challenge yacht race from the Solent to northern Spain.

But it was a close run thing, and skipper Borja Garbizu's J133 had only ten minutes margin on corrected time from the winner of the last Santander race, Andy Hill and Matthieu Lathoud on the J105, Only Just, with the Corby 40, Cracklin Rosie of Brian and Graham Wilkinson in third place.

Race director Roger Townsend said: 'It is wonderful that after over 500 miles racing, only 16 minutes (corrected time) separated second and third boats and 30 minutes separated Change of Course ahead of Mirua.'

The result of Class 2 was a real cliffhanger with another Spanish entry, Geure Ametsa taking it to the wire. Bill Caldwell and Bill Brimble's Westerly, Growler eventually won the class, but if Geure Ametsa finished by around 02.15 local time this morning, she would have won. Asier Cristobal and Inaki Elortegi crossed the line at approximately 02.21, giving Growler victory by six minutes on corrected time.

Will Claxton and Matthew Gill won the Multihull class on the Dazcat 10, Paradox. - Event Media

Friday night saw the prize giving after a very enjoyable crew dinner with our guest of honour Rafael Munilla Zabalza, president of the Basque Sailing Federation.

Prizes were awarded to Classes one and Multihull, class two being still in play. One of the two boats still competing for class two (Growler, Bill Caldwell and Bill Brimble) docked during the dinner and were given a rousing reception when they arrived at the restaurant. The final boat in class two (Geure Ametsa, Asier Cristobal and Inaki Elortegi) arrived some five hours later in the early hours of the morning. Amazingly, after more than 150 hours at sea, class two was decided by less than six minutes on corrected time.

Class one was won by the local boat Pintia, with Only Just in second place and Crackling Rosie third.

Class two was won by Growler with Geure Ametsa second, all other class two boats retired.

The multihull winner was Paradox with Cold Fusion Reloaded second.

The Unai Bazurko prize was awarded to Spliff, the first boat to arrive in Hondarribia. - Mike Short

Provisional Results

Class 1
1 Pintia J133 Borja Garbizu and Carlos Lizancos
2 Only Just J105 Andy Hill and Mathieu Lathoud
3 Crackling Rosie Corby 40 Brian and Graham Wilkinson

Class 2
1 Growler GK34 Bill Caldwell and Bill Brimble
2 Geure Ametsa Puma 38 ketch Asier Cristobal and Inaki Elortegi

Class Multihull
1 Paradox Dazcat 10 Will Claxton and Matthew Gill
2 Cold Fusion Reloaded Dragonfly 35 Tim Wilson and Richard Haynes

Full results: ckick here

http://www.rsyc.org.uk