The Swiss trimaran Nelia had been chasing the French catamaran Sir Henri 4 all the way from the Cape Verdes and crossed the finishing line only some 19 hours later. This is an excellent performance as, compared to Nelia, Sir Henri was fully crewed.
While waiting for the various officials to come and clear them in, Matthias of Nelia and Stéphane of Sir Henri compared experiences… and speeds.
The top speed recorded by Nelia was 21.8 knots, whereas Sir Henri hit an amazing 23 knots while surfing down a big wave… surfing so fast, in fact, that they caught the previous wave, buried their bows into the wall of water, and sustained some damage to their forestay attachment. For the rest of the passage they moderated their speed but still managed to average a respectable 8 knots for the entire crossing.
The Swedish yacht Kerpa, whose crew were extremely happy to have reached the Caribbean, was next to arrive followed by the Canadian yacht BnG.
Barbados 50 is sponsored by Barbados Tourism Marketing and Tenerife Port Authority.