Shockwave falls short of Pineapple Cup – Montego Bay Race record

Published on February 9th, 2015

Twelve teams began the 32nd edition of the 811 nm Pineapple Cup – Montego Bay Race on Friday (Feb. 6), with only the J/120 Tampa Girl dropping out after incurring steering failure 30 miles into the race.

George Sakellaris’s 72-foot Shockwave stormed through the Windward Passage in the wee hours on Feb. 8, taking aim to break the record set in 2005 by the 75-foot Reichel Pugh Titan 12 of 2 days, 10 hours, 24 minutes, 42 seconds, a pace Shockwave fell 58 minutes short of in 2013.

However, light fickle winds near the finish in Montego Bay foiled Shockwave again, leaving the team 41 minutes off the pace when they crossed the finish line at ten minutes past midnight (Feb. 9). Her elapsed finish time was 02:11:05:03.

The course takes the fleet from the start line south of Port Everglades inlet, through the Bahamas Islands to the finish line off Montego Bay, Jamaica, leaving Great Isaac (including Northeast Rock and East Brother), Great Stirrup, Eleuthera Island, Long Island, and Cuba to starboard.