Zoulou, skippered by 84-year-old Peter Cunningham, is the first boat to cross the finish line in this year’s Round the Island Race, completing the course in 3hrs, 26mins and 20secs.
More than 800 boats gathered at the Royal Yacht Squadron start line off Cowes this morning (Saturday) for one of the biggest events on the Isle of Wight’s sailing calendar.
The MOD 70 trimaran led the fleet with Ocean 11 following in 2nd place, crossing the line in 3:55:18.
The current course records remain unbeaten, with ICAP Leopard holding the monohull record at 3:43:50, set in June 2013, and Concise 10 leading the multihull category with a time of 2:22:23, set in July 2017.
Despite forecasts of thunderstorms and squally showers, competitors have enjoyed largely favourable conditions throughout the day.
The majority of the fleet are now making their way across Sandown Bay and around to Ryde for the final stretch back to Cowes.
PHOTO GALLERY
Photographs of the action captured by Clive Blount.
Well done, great to see pensioner rules the waves.
Well done to everyone who took part, especially the skipper of the winner, 84 years old an example to all of us. It’s been very windy and raining chilly too, watched it from different locations it’s pretty awesome! What more can one say?
Peter Cunningham, well done and at 84 years old you must be extremely proud.
It’s so nice to see that the island race went with no mishaps, well done to everyone who took part.
Keep it up everyone as the government hates anyone who enjoys what
they enjoy doing, all these mp’s only enjoy destroying our country.
So true, never trust politicians, the pandemic
showed us that.