Yacht race

Richard Mille record attempt foiled by weather

The all-British Team Richard Mille crew won the J.P Morgan Asset Management Round the Island 50 miles nautical sailing race with the slowest winning time recorded since the 1930s.

The team had announced just days ago that it had hoped to break Sir Ben Ainslie’s record finishing time of 2:52:15, set last year, but encountered some of the most becalming conditions in the race’s history and finally limped across the finishing line eight hours, 51 minutes and 37 seconds after setting off.

Team Richard Mille was helmed by Extreme Sailing Series winner, Paul Campell James and supported by multihull sailors including fellow AC34 Luna Rossa team mate, Nick Hutton, previous winning skipper, Pete Cumming, GC32 expert Adam Piggott and experience tactician Mark Campbell James.

1,500 yachts competed in the 83rd edition of the race held at Cowes.

Peter Harrison, chief executive officer of Richard Mille Europe, Middle East and Africa sent his best wishes to the team, saying: “Richard Mille congratulates Pete Cumming and his team for an incredible achievement. Despite weather conditions not being ideal for a record breaking result the guys showed persistence and determination sailing in extremely light winds to win line honours; an impressive result for the first foiling catamaran to race in a Round The Island Race”.

Pete Cumming added: “We have had a brilliant week on the GC32 and to get line honours today is the best finish we could ask for given the conditions. We’d like to thank our sponsors for enabling this to happen; both Richard Mille and MUSTO have been hugely supportive and we look forward to working with them both in the future.”

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