Tony Lawson’s Class40 Concise 8, skippered by Jack Trigger, finished the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race on Monday 20th Aug at 22:39:20, less than six hours after Phil Sharp’s record-setting Imerys Clean Energy.

A huge welcome party greeted the youngest team in the race after they crossed the finish line, including RORC Commodore Steven Anderson, RORC Racing Manager Chris Stone, and Phil Sharp and his entire crew. Concise 8 had chased Imerys Clean Energy around the 1,805 nautical mile course until a broken forestay forced Concise 8 to reduce sail.

Second boat across the finish line: Tony Lawson’s young team led by 23-year old Jack Trigger on the Class40 Concise 8 after 8 days and 10 hours at sea © Paul Wyeth/RORC

“If you race around this course you know it’s going to be tough. You want to test yourself and test the boat, and we had everything that we had asked for. The crew and the boat was punished and we feel a real sense of achievement,” said Trigger who is a Type-1 diabetic with a goal to compete in the Vendée Globe.

“Phil (Sharp) has been one of the top guys in the fleet for over 10 years, so for me to be able to benchmark myself against him is important because you push yourself. It was a little disappointing to have a problem with the boat which stopped us pushing hard towards the end. We are a young team that has done a lot of sailing together, so it is nice to progress together. The guys are solid and we have got a really good thing going. You go through stuff like that and you come out stronger the other side,” continued Trigger, dockside in Cowes.

Sixteen teams were still racing in the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race. All bar Charlene Howard’s Sun Odyssey 45 AJ Wanderlust have rounded Muckle Flugga and are heading south in the North Sea.