The Round the Island Race 2021 was again won by Jo Richards’ Cowes based ‘Eeyore’, a bilge keel Alacrity 18 retaining the Gold Roman Bowl which they first won in 2019.
Multihull MOD 70 PowerPlay finished first, 4hours 11 minutes and 1 second after starting.
Press release from Round the Island Race organisers Island Sailing Club;
At 0630 this morning, the starting cannon at The Royal Yacht Squadron boomed across the Solent to mark the start of the 90th anniversary edition of Round the Island Race.
Renowned solo sailor Pip Hare did the honours of being the official race starter for the Island Sailing Club’s iconic 50 nautical mile annual race around the Isle of Wight.
She said: “It’s one of the big sailing events in the calendar, a race that you never want to miss. The mass participation element means it’s an incredible sight and you get a fantastic feeling from being part of it, but also it’s a great race. The course offers so much; it’s technical, it’s tactical and the weather can be anything, so definitely a race I want to do every year. It’s like a mini round-the-world!”
Peter Cunningham’s MOD70 PowerPlay was the first to finish the race with a time of 4hrs 11mins 01secs.
A light start to the race prevented any chance of beating the race record, which was set by PowerPlay, as Concise 10 in 2017 (2hrs 22mins and 23 secs). PowerPlay finished this year’s race ahead of the ULTIM Actual and the 32m trimaran IDEC.
Boats to continue to cross the finish line in Cowes, and it’s likely that the last boats will be completing the course at around 20.00 tonight.
A selection of photos from this year’s race below;
Round the Island Race 2021
