The Round The Island Race in Cowes 2009 1779 Boote nehmen teil www.roundtheisland.org.uk - Übersicht - www.w-w-i.com 20th June 2009 http://www.w-w-i.com/round_the_island_2009/ The JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race Britain¹s favourite Yacht Race. The annual JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race, organised by the Island Sailing Club, is the fourth largest sporting event in the UK, competitors come from all over the UK as well as Europe and the USA to follow the 50 mile course round the Isle of Wight. Oman Sail Masirah an den Needles Foto:Gilles Chiorri The 2009 event takes place on Saturday 20th June in Cowes, Isle of Wight, England, and this year the race has attracted the fourth highest entry of 1767 boats making it the biggest race in the world of its kind. This year's event has an all-star line up of personalities, including Olympic sailors Ben Ainslie CBE and Shirley Robertson OBE and solo round the world sailors Dame Ellen MacArthur and Francis Joyon, Americas Cup Legend Russell Coutts and charity Ambassadors singer Jonathan Ansell & Comedian Dave Spikey. Starting on the famous Royal Yacht Squadron line in Cowes, the fleet races westabout, to The Needles, round St Catherine's Point and Bembridge Ledge buoy back into the Solent. Spectators can find many vantage points, both on the indexland and Isle of Wight, to watch the race progress. Oman Sail Masirah takes line honours Flavia Bateson - 16:19 Saturday 20 Jun 2009 Oman Sail Masirah has led the fleet back to Cowes in the JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race as well as taking line honours in the Extreme 40 class. It was a nail-biting finish, with a provisional 29 seconds separating the Omani boat from Russell Coutts helming Team Aqua. Pete Cumming, skipper of Oman Sail Masirah said: "We were behind Team Aqua right up to Yarmouth but once round The Needles it was true champagne sailing. At St Catherine's we out-gybed Team Aqua and extended our lead to 22 minutes at Bembridge. We thought we might be able to cruise back to Cowes but then the wind started to go light. Once in the Solent it was even lighter and it shut down completely. We could see Team Aqua and Team Origin (Ben Ainslie) trying to short tack out of the tide. We decided to stick in the middle. It was a case of holding your nerve and covering Team Aqua. It's always good to have a close race but to go from a 22 minute lead down to a 29 second win, that's really something." The winning team comprised Olympic 49er silver medallist Chris Draper on helm, Pete Cumming trimmer with Mark Bulkeley, Olympic Tornado sailor on indexsheet. David "Freddie" Carr and Khamis al Anbouri shared the bow. Meanwhile, the leading monohulls were back in the eastern Solent. ICAP Leopard (Mike Slade) led from Liara (Tony Todd) followed by Sebastien Josse and Ellen MacArthur on the Open 60 BT. These boats were hugging the indexland shore whilst the TP52s Cutting Edge and John Merricks II favoured the Island side and might just have the advantage on handicap. "Rebecca will you marry me?" was the message on the spinnaker of Pavlova (Sigma 38) spotted south of the Island. Who is Rebecca and will she say "Yes"? One couple returned from honeymoon early to take part in the race this year. Will the same apply to Pavlova next year? Regards World Wide Images (W-W-I) The Media Download Centre T: +44(0)20 7498 9100 E: info@W-W-I.com W: http://www.W-W-I.com Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE