Jamie McWilliam’s Etchells ‘Shrub’ takes overall honours in Around the Island Race
Around 1,400 sailors on board 230 boats take part in the annual event in tricky conditions as Shrub wins the race on corrected time
Jamie McWilliam’s Etchells “Shrub” were the big winners in Sunday’s Turkish Airlines Around the Island Race, winning the race on corrected time to take overall honours.
With its crew of Simon Macdonald and Peter Austin on board, Shrub finished the race at just past 2.19pm in an elapsed time of five hours, 14 mins and seven seconds, and a corrected time of 4:59.02.
McWilliam was delighted with the win and said: “Sailors talk about how the Around the Island Race is never the same but today was really not the same. I thought that Helmuth Hennig’s Marten 49 Vineta sailed the best from Green Island to the finish that I have ever seen, I don’t think they missed a single thing. There were more lead changes in the Etchells then I ever remember.
“Yah so there were lots of cool things about today’s race. I thought it was very punchy not to shorten the race at Green Island and would I imagine there will a lot of people moaning about it but there will be just as many people not moaning about it. The weather was wet but to be honest after the reach down past Shek O Rock we were soaked, so by the time it started raining it made no difference to us at all.”
Around 1,400 people on 230 boats and even two life jacket-clad dogs took part in this year’s 26 nautical mile circumnavigation of the Island on a day of varied conditions.