Peter and David Askew’s Wizard crossed the finish line in Montego Bay at 9:00:15 ET this morning to capture line honors in the Pineapple Cup – Montego Bay Race. The Pineapple Cup is an 811-mile "beat, reach, and run" starting in Miami and ending in Montego Bay. The course record is two days, 10 hours, 24 minutes, and 42 seconds, set in 2005 by Titan 12. This was not, however, the year to expect a course record, as winds were light and fluky. Wizard finished in two days, 18 hours, 55 minutes, and 15 seconds, with a corrected time of four days, 13 hours, four minutes, and 51 seconds.
All photos are by Edward Downer from the Pineapple Cup - Montego Bay Race Facebook page.
“This was my first time doing the race," says Peter Askew, co-owner of Wizard. "I thought the course and race were great. I grew up in the days of IOR boats and always wanted to do this as a kid and was happy to be able to do it. Dave and I bought this boat so we could go around and do a bunch of these races that we always admired doing, so it’s fun. Downwind, once we turned from Cuba, in was awesome. The boat does really well in that type of stuff, and reaching down the Bahamas was really cool. It sure beats a bad day at the office and I would love to come back and do it again.” The Askew brothers recently broke the monohull record for the Key West Race.
One hour 38 minutes and 50 seconds behind Wizard was the Shelter Island Partners Prospector, which was enough to propel them ahead of Wizard to first in IRC. If the results stand, Prospector will be awarded the Pineapple Cup.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post credited Billy Black with the photography above. We apologize to Mr. Downer and the Pineapple Cup for the mistake.
