JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race 3 June 2006 Cowes, Isle of Wight

Volvo Extreme 40 takes line honours in Round the Island Race

The Volvo Extreme 40 Class, which competed during the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06, made its debut at the JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race today. No records were broken, in the light and frustrating breeze, but Team Holmatro put in a spectacular performance and took line honours in the 50.1 mile race which attracted over 1587 boats.

It was a hard fought race and after eight hours, the first three Volvo Extreme 40’s, Holmatro, Tommy Hilfiger and Team Motorola – CHR all finished within 5 minutes of each other.

This was the first time the Volvo Extreme 40 class have competed in a category 4 race. Expectations were high for a fast finish when the boats reached the half way point of the race in just one and a half hours. However the strong tide and dying breeze meant the boats spent the next 7 hours in light, variable and very frustrating conditions.

Guest on board the winning boat Holmatro, Gael Pawson from Yachts and Yachting enjoyed the VX40 experience immensely.
“It was an amazing race of snakes of ladders. The slightest bit of breeze and you are flying on these boats. It was unbelievable how close the class was, right up to the finish it could have been anybody’s race.”

Skipper of third placed Team Motorola Conrad Humphreys commented,
“It was an awesome start, we got to the right end of the line at a nice angle and we were flying down as far as Yarmouth. It was a frustrating race with moments high speed action followed by long patches at all.
Having said that, we’d love to come back to the JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race next year, with a few friends. We’d love to see a British Grand Prix event on the South Coast next year. I think everyone enjoyed the spectacle of the VX40 class racing round the Isle of Wight today.”

Richard Lewis - Sunday Times spent the day on Motorola
“This is a thrilling experience – often you report on sporting events from the press box which can be a pretty static experience. Its’ not until you get on these boats that you realise that this is sport at the highest level and its’ amazing to take part.”

Round the world record solo yachtswoman Dee Caffari was on board Basilica.
“It was a great opportunity to sail with these guys because I have never sailed a multi-hull like this before and it was nice they gave me some responsibility navigating. There are still talking to me so I must have done an ok job.”

FINAL POSITIONS
Place Finished Elapsed HOLMATRO 1 14:40:55 08:20:55 TOMMY HILFIGER 2 14:43:14 08:23:14 MOTOROLA - CHR 3 14:45:17 08:25:17 BASILICA 4 15:24:35 09:04:35 VOLVO OCEAN RACE NOD 15:22:56 09:02:56