Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Mike Holme Crowned "Champion of Champions"

J/97 JIKA JIKA sailed by Holmes family winning(Southampton, England)- In a new initiative launched in this 175th Anniversary year of the Royal Southern Yacht Club, the Barbados Tourism Authority and the Hamble-based Club have co-operated to offer the owner of the most consistent and successful yacht in the Club's four Summer Series Regattas, a prize trip to view the Mount Gay Rum Round Barbados Race on 21st January 2013.

The winner and "victor ludorum" is Mike Holmes from Bath, Avon, who has sailed his J/97 JIKA-JIKA (which means "twist & turn" in Swahili) with his son Jamie to a resounding series of 13 wins and two 2nd place finishes out of 15 races, in the highly competitive IRC 3 class.

A member of the Royal Naval Sailing Association and Royal Yacht Squadron, Mike is an ex-submariner who started sailing in 1958, competing mainly offshore throughout the 1970s and 1980s in many RORC events and several Fastnet Races (including the fateful 1979 edition). He took part in the 1977 World 3/4 Ton Cup in La Rochelle and placed 4th in the 1978 World 1/4 Ton Cup in Japan. He also competed in the inaugural double-handed 1981 Transat, taking 1st in class in his 30ft trimaran and was part of the winning crew in the 1988 and 1989 Three Peaks Race (a brutal, endless, 24 hour competition that takes place for days and includes running, rowing your sailboat and sailing to the famous "three peaks" in Scotland).

The Barbados Tourism Authority, Mount Gay Rum (The Rum that Invented Rum) and the Barbados Cruising Club are co-sponsors of the annual Round Barbados Race and are partnered in this superb prize trip by British Airways and the Mango Bay hotel group.  Congratulations to Mike and Jamie Holmes, we wish them well and "God Speed" in adventures in the Caribbean.  Thanks for this contribution from Peta Stuart-Hunt.  Sailing Photo Credit- Paul Wyeth- http://www.pwpictures.com.
For more Royal Southern YC Champion of Champions information