KEY POINTS:
Mike Slade was celebrating yesterday after pulverising the record for a Fastnet Race that was one of the hardest since the storm-lashed yachting catastrophe of 1979.
His new 30m Leopard knocked 8h 50m off Ross Field's 1999 record to set a new target of 44h 18m 53s.
This was despite losing a sail, stopping to remove a dead shark wrapped round the rudder, and being becalmed for nearly six hours off The Lizard.
"It was tough, tough, tough, but the race lived up to its reputation," Slade said. "We didn't back off once."
The 608-nautical-mile race had been delayed for 24 hours to avoid severe weather in the Celtic Sea. Even so, 191 of the 271 starters retired or were forced out through damage and Slade paid tribute to a crew that also included Ray Davies as a helmsman, Jules Salter as navigator, Dirk de Ridder as trimmer and both Justin Slattery and Jan Dekker running the foredeck.
Slade also paid tribute to rival skipper Ken Read and the crew of the American 27m Rambler, which led him by 3s around the lighthouse rock off southwest Ireland and chased him home at up to 33 knots.
Read, preparing to skipper the 21m Puma in next year's Volvo Ocean Race, had done enough to beat not only Slade on handicap but, according to the computer, the rest of the fleet.
Doubly pleasing for Slade was to have beaten, after seven years of trying, New Zealander Neville Crichton's 30m Shockwave, which retired with a damaged mainsail.
- Independent
