wizard 1 sDavid and Peter Askew’s VO70 Wizard was second boat to finish the Transatlantic Race 2019 this evening. Wizard completed the 2,970 nautical mile race in Cowes on July 6 at 0031:42 UTC for an elapsed time of 10 days, 9 hours, 1 minute and 42 seconds. Wizard finished some 6 hours and 48 minutes after the 100-foot maxi SHK Scallywag.

The Wizard crew included David (Park City, Utah) and Peter Askew (Riderwood, Md.), Richard Clarke (Salt Spring, Canada), Charlie Enright (Barrington, R.I.), Joe Faneli (Middletown, R.I.), Rob Greenhalgh (Sydney, Australia), Phil Harmer (Bishops Waltham, U.K.), Chris Maxted (Newport, R.I.), Will Oxley (Castle Hill, Australia), Mark Towill (Honolulu, Hi.), John Von Schwarz (Charleston, S.C.), Mitch White (Sydney, Australia)

Wizard is guaranteed to defeat SHK Scallywag on corrected time to win IRC 1 and is in contention for the overall victory, although that decision won’t come for a few more days as more than 10 boats are still on the racecourse and Wizard owes all of them time allowance.

wizard 2 s“Of course, it would mean a lot to all of us—David and Peter really bought into this—if we won overall honors,” said Enright, the sailing master. “We probably sailed at 90 to 95 percent of our potential. There’s really not a lot that we left on the table. Huge credit goes to navigator Will Oxley, who did a fantastic job, especially picking our way through the Gulf Stream, and to Chris Maxted, our boat captain. We had few technical issues in this race.”