Four and a quarter hours after their damp 1000 start, the first Open 60s began crossing the Squadron line, with Brian Thompson’s Pindar producing a convincing performance, finishing four minutes ahead of Seb Josse in BT. Ecover and Hugo Boss followed, 10 minutes behind Thompson, with Mike Golding stealing the remaining podium position from Alex Thomson by just 45 seconds.
The Juan Kouyoumdjian-designed Pindar once again proved she’s got pace, especially in the experienced hands of Brian Thompson. With a ‘celebrity’ crewing on each of the boats though, there’s no doubt that having Mike Sanderson (Team Director for TEAMORIGIN) on board, won’t have hampered Thompson’s performance! Dee Caffari came in fifth, 16 minutes after Pindar, with the two Artemis Ocean Racing boats (Simon Clay pipped Jonny Malbon’s new boat by five minutes) and Spirit of Weymouth bringing up the tail. In the increasingly intensive run-up to November’s Vendee Globe start, today will have been a brief, but interesting test of pace for the various skippers. The £10,000 prize fund will be donated to Brian Thompson’s chosen charity Earthwatch and the prize giving takes place this evening at 1730 in Cowes Yacht Haven.