RESULTS FROM THE BIG SAIL

Ben Fogle's team win the first Big V Challenge!

1st in John Merricks - Ben's Boat at 16:19:39

2nd in Foot of Pi Squared at 17:17:00

3rd in Audacious - Team Caffari at 19:43:21

John Merricks were triumphant over another high profile entrant ‘Team Caffari’, the brainchild of inspirational sailor Dee Caffari. The team were created by the adventurous sailor who combines her passion for offshore racing with her business training and consultancy work. Team Caffari’s boat, a Farr45 was crewed by experienced racers and novice sailors taking part in Dee’s Complete Confidence programme.

Dee - who claimed a new world record on 18th May 2006 when, after 178 days at sea, she became the first woman to sail round the world, non-stop against the prevailing winds and currents - was in Portsmouth to see the boats off, and present in Cork to host the prize giving ceremony.

Reflecting on the World Sailing Speed Record record Ben Fogle said; “I am absolutely delighted. It was incredibly close throughout. We got off to tremendous start and the guys worked so hard to get us into a great position ahead of Team Caffari. Even though the winds completely left us, the team were brilliant and they got absolutely everything they could out of the boat. Team Caffari took a real risk by going further west but we just got our heads down and concentrated on doing everything right and it paid off.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. It was a real privilege to sail with the RYA Keelboat squad, and I will certainly be following their progress in future. However, hopefully the real winner overall is cancer awareness. The Big V is a great event and it will help to fund more essential research by Everyman into male cancers, so I am delighted to have been a part of it and I look forward to coming back and trying to better the record in 2008!”

To read the whole press release on the race results click here.

For a full list of the boats and their times, click here.