Cape to Rio 2000

This race was planned not for 1999, but for 2000, to allow it to co-incide with the 500th anniversary of Pedro Cabral’s discovery of Brazil.. Once again the race attracted some of the world’s top maxis. On the startline to compete for line honours were Robert McNeill’s new 22.9m Zephyrus IV, Jim Dolan’s 23.78m Sagamore, and former Capetonian Ludde Ingvall on the 24m flyer, Portugal-Brazil. But within hours of the start Ingvall’s yacht had broken her boom, and forced to return to harbour to make a repair. When she set out less than 24 hours later, the gap was too big to close.

Zephyrus IV sailed a spanking race, superbly judging the weather systems, to set a virtually unbeatable new course record of 12 days, 16 hours and 49 minutes, taking not only the line honours trophy, but also winning on corrected time, a massive achievement, and only the second time a yacht had taken both major trophies. The marginally longer Sagamore crossed the line 11 hours later.