Knocking off the 42-nautical mile contest in near record-breaking fashion, Mike Slade's powerful ICAP Leopard roared to an impressive "double-double victory" winning both line honors as first-to-finish and correcting out to first overall on corrected time in the 2009 edition of the Guadeloupe to Antigua Race.

The annual event, which attracted 25 entrants, serves as both a feeder race for Antigua Sailing Week and one of three races that comprise the new Antigua Ocean Series. ICAP Leopard's elapsed time of 2h, 26m, 07 seconds was just over seven minutes off the race record of 2 h, 18m, 42s, set by Bob Millerâ's 140-foot schooner, Mari Cha IV, in 2004.

Hugh Agnew, the navigator aboard Slade's powerful 30-meter sloop, said that as far as the record was concerned, the prevailing conditions did not play entirely to ICAP Leopard's considerable strengths. "The weather was exactly on forecast, with winds of 16-20 knots, just north of east," said Agnew. “We had a true wind angle of 70-85 degrees, which is not our fastest point of sailing. A bit wider angle, with a bit more south in the breeze, would've helped us.

"We had a nice tidy start," he continued. "Jeremy Robinson, our tactician, did a great job. We had a huge rainsquall with easterly breeze that was uncomfortable in terms of yachting - it wasn't quite what was in the brochure- but it did mean there was wind to get off the start line. One of the challenges in the Guadeloupe Race is getting a pretty good start because the easterly inevitably means you're starting behind the island. Last year it took us forever to get out from behind Guadeloupe. But as it turned out we got off fine."

"The start line was interesting," said Agnew. "There was a fisherman actually on the start line laying probably the 150th of the 149 pots that were there. There were fish pots all over the line but we managed to find a way through them. We sailed a little bit low to start off to maximize out speed towards Antigua."

The first half of the race was extremely quick, with ICAP Leopard trucking along at speeds in the high teens with the occasion burst over 20 knots. "Halfway across we were just ahead of the record," said Agnew. "If we'd kept up with the same speed we did in the first half we'd have finished in about 2 hours, 12 minutes. But basically the second half of the race didn't quite hand out what we would've hoped for. The breeze was a little softer and ended up going ahead so we ended up coming into the finish line almost hard on the breeze."

Overall, however, the ICAP Leopard team was very pleased with the result. "It was beautiful," said Agnew. "Mike Slade, the owner, was very thrilled to get the handicap win as well."

The victory also put ICAP Leopard into the driver's seat in terms of the inaugural Antigua Ocean Series, which Agnew said was an exciting new innovation to Antigua Sailing Week. "It's terrific for us," he said. "It really makes the week much more interesting because a big boat like Leopard needs long legs to kick up its heels and get going. So we really like the idea of the longer races."

With the completion of the Guadeloupe to Antigua Race, the 2009 edition of Antigua Sailing Week is officially underway. For complete information, news, photographs, video, entry lists and much more, visit the Antigua Sailing Week website at www.sailingweek.com.

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