After a start delayed by 25 hours due to gale force winds forecasted for the race area, a total of 271 boats set out from Cowes on the Isle of Wight on the south coast of England on Monday. The fleet battled strong winds and awkward seas as they headed west along the south coast, before heading north to the Fastnet Rock off the southern coast of Ireland, then returning to Plymouth. Due to these difficult conditions, 191 of the entries retired from the race.

"It is great to see Mike Slade win and set a new record in a boat that has only had a brief few weeks to work up for this demanding race. We are very happy to see this multi-purpose boat perform so well in its first major offshore racing event", said Jim Schmicker, Senior Naval Architect at Farr Yacht Design. ICAP Leopard was designed to blend the often-conflicting dual requirements of charter work with full-on competitive racing.

Farr Yacht Design Open 60's also dominated that class filling the first two places on the podium. Vincent Riou and Sebastien Josse on PRB and took first place winning the Artemis Trophy, second place went to Cheminees Poujoulat, formally Virbac, Farr Yacht Design's 4- year-old design skippered by Bernard Stamm. The Fastnet Race is a prelude to the upcoming Barcelona Round the World double-handed race for the Open 60's starting in November this year.

On corrected time in IRC, Ger O'Rourke's Cookson 50 Chieftain, Farr Yacht Design's 50 ft canting keel design, continued its impressive form of the season and leads the overall IRC standings at the time of this release.

"We are thrilled to see our canting keel designs across three quite varied boats prevail in this very testing race and look forward to receiving valuable feedback from the crews to contribute to our ongoing development", said Pat Shaughnessy, Vice President of Farr Yacht Design.

For further information: Tel +1 410 267 0780 or info@farrdesign.com