Ellen MacArthur aboard JP Morgan Asset Management has taken line honours in the 76th JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race! Her provisional finish time is 0916.03 – 50 seconds ahead of ABN Amro at 0916.53.

ICAP Leopard finished minutes later, with a provisional finish time of 0923.05, and so has Offshore Challenges, the last Extreme 40, provisionally at 0923.59

If Mike Slade (pictured left) was disappointed not to establish a new record, he didn’t show it. Grinning widely, he said that he was ‘absolutely thrilled’ with the boat’s performance. ‘She feels fantastic, really well balanced and for a brand new boat straight out of the box, she performed superbly today’ he said. ‘St Catherine’s Point is always tricky but we had a cracking sail round the back of the island to Bembridge with the kite up all the way from The Needles. With today’s wind direction, we had a lot of tacking to do up the Solent, which slows you down, so sadly we didn’t quite beat the record, but we’re not disappointed at all – and there’s always next year!’