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THE route from Cowes to Madeira is a fantastic race track and the weather played a starring role in the drama that was to unfold.

Line honours for the 1,480 mile race went to the elated crew on Norddeutsche Vermoegen Hamburg, taking the gun at 21:25:33 on the 18th August after more than eight days of hard racing into the wind, nearly the whole way, apart from the last few miles under spinnaker.

"It was a great race and we are delighted to be the first yacht to Madeira," commented skipper George Christiansen. "Special thanks should go to the Royal Ocean Racing Club for providing a well run event. The conditions were hard all the way to Cape Finisterre and we didn't really come off the wind until Gibraltar. Today all the crew want to do is catch up on some sleep, but it is great to be in Madeira enjoying the sunny weather. Tomorrow, I think we will find a nice bar and have a long lunch with some large beers."

Just about all of the dockside banter centered around the conditions off Ushant in the early part of the race, the pit was open and the beast was awake, as wind speeds of up to 40 knots, conspired with ocean currents, to produce some massive conditions at the notorious gateway to the Atlantic.

"I have done a lot of offshore yachting and I have only ever seen seas as bad as that once before," commented British Soldier's helmsman, Paul Anderson. "To be honest with you, you would not have wanted to be there, but after a long hard race we are glad to have stuck it out. We have got a few bumps and bruises for our troubles and we are all very tired, but we will all live to fight another day and as a crew we have come out of this race stronger than when we went into it."

Only five yachts made it around Ushant but the yacht race was still to have one final twist to decide the overall winner.

"We had a very good battle with British Soldier, they are very clever," said Pen Azen's skipper Philippe Delaporte." We were just behind them for the first six days of racing. They were about eight to ten miles ahead of us at Cape Finisterre, but later there was a surprise: a small low pressure system that was supposed to have gone about level with Lisbon, about 100 miles offshore. We managed to get to the right side of the system and the breeze was 15-20 knots at an angle of 140-150 degrees, so it was excellent for us. Very good surfing by the time we got off the coast of Gibraltar and we were 20 miles ahead of British Soldier."

Pen Azen's decision to go offshore paid off and may well have been the defining moment in the race as Philippe Delaporte's J/122, Pen Azen was declared overall winner of the RORC Cowes Madeira Yacht Race on corrected time.

The win also puts the French boat on top of the RORC Season Points Championship for 2008.

3:06pm Wednesday 20th August 2008

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