Congratulations to Peter Harding, who finished the Transat Jacques Vabre race earlier this week 14th in the Class 40s, the first of the Brits to finish.

His result says a lot about the potential and excitement of the Class 40s. Just over a year ago, Peter, a 41-year-old fund manager and property developer, was racing round the cans in his DK46. He had never worked on the bow, never done a long offshore race and certainly never thought of racing across an ocean short-handed.

A year on, aided and abetted by Miranda Merron and Alex Sizer, he has a new semi-custom Class 40, 40 Degrees, has learned how to do everything on board and now has a fantastic result under his belt from his first ever first ocean race.

He and his co-skipper, French sailor Anne Liardet, beat a raft of professional sailors and were usually not too far behind runaway leader Giovanni Soldini. How cool is that?

“It’s been a great experience, and it really didn’t seem like 24 days at sea,” comments Peter. ” I feel less tired than after a normal RORC race. The boat is in one piece, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

For more on the ‘Roaring’ Class 40s and the opportunities for pro-am ocean racing, don’t miss the January issue of Yachting World.