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.

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 in their division (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 well—claiming two leg victories in Division D.^[1] Edwards was named yachtsman of the year and appointed MBE. Recently^[when?] 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 1	2 September 1989	Southampton	Punta del Este	5,938	Steinlager 2
Leg 2	28 October 1989	Punta del Este	Fremantle	7,260	Steinlager 2
Leg 3	23 December 1989	Fremantle	Auckland	3,272	Steinlager 2
Leg 4	4 February 1990	Auckland	Punta del Este	6,255	Steinlager 2
Leg 5	17 March 1990	Punta del Este	Fort Lauderdale	5,475	Steinlager 2
Leg 6	5 May 1990	Fort Lauderdale	Southampton	3,818	Steinlager 2

Results[]

Pos	Boat name	Skipper	Country	Corrected time
1	Steinlager 2	Peter Blake	New Zealand	128d 9h
2	Fisher & Paykel NZ	Grant Dalton	New Zealand	129d 21h
3	Merit		Switzerland	130d 10h
4	Rothmans	Lawrie Smith	Great Britain	131d 4h
5	The Card	Roger Nilson &	Sweden	135d 7h
6	Charles Jourdan		France	136d 15h
7	Fortuna Extra Lights	,  & José Luis Doreste	Spain	137d 8h
8	Gatorade	&	Italy	138d 14h
9	Union Bank of Finland	Ludde Ingvall	Finland	138d 16h
10	Belmont Finland II	Harry Harkimo	Finland	139d 4h
11	[ru]	,  &	Soviet Union	139d
12	NCB Ireland	Joe English	Ireland	139d 19h
13	Satquote British Defender	&	Great Britain	143d 12h
14	Equity & Law II		Netherlands	148d 23h
15	Liverpool Enterprise		Great Britain	151d 4h
16	Creighton's Naturally		Great Britain	162d 6h
17	Esprit de Liberté		France	164d 21h
18	Maiden	Tracy Edwards	Great Britain	167d 3h
19	Schlüssel von Bremen	, , ,  &	Germany	167d 19h
20	With Integrity		Great Britain	170d 16h
21			France	181d 22h
–	Rucanor Sport		Belgium	DNF
–	Martela OF		Finland	DNF

Legend: DNF – Did not finish;

The boat Creighton's Naturally suffered a serious broach on leg 2, at about 3  am. 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 its 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[]