Third Place For Phil Sharp

Jersey sailor Phil Sharp has finished third in the Route du Rhum.

He crossed the finish line in Guadeloupe in a time of 16 days, 13 hours, one minute and 50 seconds.

The solo skipper battled bad weather and several problems with his boat Imerys Clean Energy during the gruelling 4,500-mile race from St Malo.

They included two ballast leaks and a main auto failure.

Installing the less-effective backup system did not solve his woes as it continued to malfunction causing the boat to lie flat on its side twice and broach 30 times during the race.

“It’s incredible to at last be here, I’ve been dreaming of Guadeloupe for a long time now…

The last few weeks have been a real test coping with the weather, competition and with a faulty autopilot I’ve been sacrificing a huge amount of sleep to helm the boat.

For most of the race, I’ve had a tremendous battle with a newer generation boat, a Mach 3 ‘Aina’. Overall this made the racing very exciting and pushed me to my limits, which I think is what good racing is all about. I defended second place by playing VMG tactics, but the last 12 hours were not to be and on the final stretch I just missed out on the current.

I am disappointed to lose out on 2nd place after such a battle, but I am pleased to finish on the podium and am really looking forward to sharing experiences with the other skippers over the next few days.

Finally, I just want to thank everyone for the support, it has been really uplifting to read the messages during the race and acted as a great motivator.”