1989–1990 Whitbread Round the World Race

The 1989–90 Whitbread Round the World Race was run from Southampton to Southampton in 1989–90. It was run with several classes of yacht.

1989–90
Whitbread Round the World Race
Event Title
Edition5th
YachtsMulti-class
Competitors
Competitors23
Results
WinnerSteinlager 2

Steinlager 2 skippered by Peter Blake won the race easily. For the first time since 1981–82 (when the race comprised just four legs), the victor won every leg (albeit closely chased by both Grant Dalton's Fisher & Paykel NZ and Pierre Fehlmann's Merit entries). The vast difference in speed and capability of the many different boats involved in the 1989 to 1990 race lead to the creation of a committee to examine the commission of a Whitbread class boat for use in future races. Many of the Maxi yachts in this year's race were nearly twice the size (LOA) of the smallest, and carried well over twice the sail area. The net result of this was that many of the smaller boats finished the longer legs more than ten days after the leg winner. In the overall results, the last finisher was some 52 days behind Blake's Steinlager 2 128-day aggregate time. In addition, the cost of the big yachts was becoming too expensive to fund - even for the well sponsored teams like Steinlager, Rothmans and Merit. Eventually, the new class would be called the Whitbread 60.

The race featured the first all-woman crew on Tracy Edwards' Maiden. Although in a much smaller boat than many of their male counterparts the women fared wellclaiming two leg victories in Division D.[1] Edwards was named yachtsman of the year and awarded an MBE. Recently a documentary has been made about the team's participation in the race.[2]

Route

Race route
Event Start date Start Finish Distance (nmi) Winner
Leg 12 September 1989 Southampton Punta del Este5,938Steinlager 2
Leg 228 October 1989 Punta del Este Fremantle7,260Steinlager 2
Leg 323 December 1989 Fremantle Auckland3,272Steinlager 2
Leg 44 February 1990 Auckland Punta del Este6,255Steinlager 2
Leg 517 March 1990 Punta del Este Fort Lauderdale5,475Steinlager 2
Leg 65 May 1990 Fort Lauderdale Southampton3,818Steinlager 2

Results

PosBoat name SkipperCountry Corrected time
1Steinlager 2 Peter Blake New Zealand128d 9h
2Fisher & Paykel NZ Grant Dalton New Zealand129d 21h
3Merit Pierre Fehlmann  Switzerland130d 10h
4Rothmans Lawrie Smith Great Britain131d 4h
5The Card Roger Nilson & Ann Lippens Sweden135d 7h
6Charles Jourdan Alain Gabbay France136d 15h
7Fortuna Extra Lights Javier de la Gaudera, Jan Santana & José Luis Doreste Spain137d 8h
8Gatorade Giorgio Falck & Hervé Jan Preire Sicouin Italy138d 14h
9Union Bank of Finland Ludde Ingvall Finland138d 16h
10Belmont Finland II Harry Harkimo Finland139d 4h
11Fazisi Alexi Grischenko, Skip Novak & Valeri Alekseyev Soviet Union139d
12NCB Ireland Joe English Ireland139d 19h
13Satquote British Defender Frank Esson & Colin Watkins Great Britain143d 12h
14Equity & Law II Dirk Nauta Netherlands148d 23h
15Liverpool Enterprise Bob Salmon Great Britain151d 4h
16Creighton's Naturally John Chittenden Great Britain162d 6h
17Esprit de Liberté Patrick Tabarly France164d 21h
18Maiden Tracy Edwards Great Britain167d 3h
19Schlüssel von Bremen Rolf Renken, Ham Müeller-Röhlok, Jochen Orgelmann, Wilhelm-Otto Beck & Peter Weidner Germany167d 19h
20With Integrity Andy Coghill Great Britain170d 16h
21La Poste Daniel Mallé France181d 22h
Rucanor Sport Bruno Dubois BelgiumDNF
Martela OF Markku Wilkeri FinlandDNF

    Legend: DNF – Did not finish;

    The boat Creighton's Naturally suffered a serious broach on leg 2, at about 3 in the morning. Crew members Anthony (Tony) Philips and Bart van den Dwey were swept over board. They were both pulled back on deck. Van den Dwey successfully resuscitated, but, after three hours of trying, crewmembers were unable to revive Philips. A few days later, by radio agreement with relatives ashore, Philips was buried at sea.[3]

    Martela OF lost it's keel and capsized 350 nautical miles from the finish of leg 4. The unharmed crew was picked up from the overturned hull by Charles Jourdan and Merit. Union Bank of Finland also broke off the race to participate in the rescue.[4]

    References

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