Cork’s Slattery breaks own Fastnet record

CORK sailor Justin Slattery was celebrating breaking his own record in the Rolex Fastnet Race last night after arriving into Plymouth on board Azzam, the Abu Dhabi entry for this year’s Volvo Ocean Race.

Slattery sailed on Mike Slade’s ICAP Leopard in 2007, which was a similarly windy event to this year.

The UAE entry is a new-build 70-footer and edged ahead of rival Groupama 4 by five minutes in the last stretch of the race from Land’s End to the finish.

“It is fantastic to break the record with a new boat and a new team,” Slattery said. “It was pretty tight racing with Groupama 4, but as we’ve only been sailing together for a very short time, it means a lot to us to have done so well.”

Slattery has also sailed on Rambler, the boat that capsized on Monday night, and expressed his relief that the entire crew was safe following the frightening incident.