1989–1990 Whitbread Round the World Race

The 1989–90 Whitbread Round the World Race was run from Southampton to Southampton in 1989–90. It was run with several classes of yacht.

Steinlager 2 skippered by Peter Blake won the race easily. For the first time since 1981–82 (when the race comprised just four legs), the victor won every leg in their division (albeit closely chased by both Grant Dalton's Fisher & Paykel NZ and Pierre Fehlmann's Merit entries). The vast difference in speed and capability of the many different boats involved in the 1989 to 1990 race lead to the creation of a committee to examine the commission of a Whitbread class boat for use in future races. Many of the Maxi yachts in this year's race were nearly twice the size (LOA) of the smallest, and carried well over twice the sail area. The net result of this was that many of the smaller boats finished the longer legs more than ten days after the leg winner. In the overall results, the last finisher was some 52 days behind Blake's Steinlager 2 128-day aggregate time. In addition, the cost of the big yachts was becoming too expensive to fund - even for the well sponsored teams like Steinlager, Rothmans and Merit. Eventually, the new class would be called the Whitbread 60.

The race featured the first all-woman crew on Tracy Edwards' Maiden. Although in a much smaller boat than many of their male counterparts the women fared well—claiming two leg victories in Division D.^[1] Edwards was named yachtsman of the year and appointed MBE. In 2018 a documentary has been made about the team's participation in the race.^[2]

Event	Start date	Start	Finish	Distance (nmi)	Winner
Leg 1	2 September 1989	Southampton	Punta del Este	5,938	Steinlager 2
Leg 2	28 October 1989	Punta del Este	Fremantle	7,260	Steinlager 2
Leg 3	23 December 1989	Fremantle	Auckland	3,272	Steinlager 2
Leg 4	4 February 1990	Auckland	Punta del Este	6,255	Steinlager 2
Leg 5	17 March 1990	Punta del Este	Fort Lauderdale	5,475	Steinlager 2
Leg 6	5 May 1990	Fort Lauderdale	Southampton	3,818	Steinlager 2

Pos	Class	Class Pos	Sail Number	Yacht	Country	Yacht Type	LOA (Metres)	Skipper	Elapsed Time d:hh:mm:ss
1	A	1	KZ 2	Steinlager 2	New Zealand	Farr 84 Ketch Maxi	25.60	Peter Blake	128:09:40:30
2	A	2	KZ 400	Fisher & Paykel	New Zealand	Farr 82 Ketch Maxi	25.30	Grant Dalton	129:21:18:22
3	A	3	Z 3333	Merit	Switzerland	Farr 81 Sloop Maxi	24.60	Pierre Fehlmann	130:10:10:14
4	A	4	K 100	Rothmans	Great Britain	Humphreys 81 Sloop Maxi	24.54	Lawrie Smith	131:04:54:23
5	A	5	US 42624	The Card	Sweden	Farr 79 Ketch Maxi	24.17	Roger Nilson	135:07:15:43
6	A	6	F 8992	Charles Jourdan	France	Ribadeau Dumas 72 Sloop Maxi	21.95	Max-Philippe Couteau Alain Gabbay	136:15:14:51
7	A	7	E 1992	Fortuna Extra Lights	Spain	Visiers 77 Sloop Maxi	23.47	Jan Santana	137:08:14:11
8	A	8	I 11441	Gatorade	Italy	Farr 80 Sloop Maxi	24.38	Giorgio Falck	138:14:30:12
9	A	9	L 8008	Union Bank of Finland	Finland	Joubert-Nivelt 82 Sloop Maxi	24.99	Ludde Ingvall	138:16:38:12
10	A	10	L 8009	Belmont Finland II	Finland	Farr 80 Sloop Maxi	24.29	Harry Harkimo	139:04:31:13
11	A	11	SR 1989	Fazisi	Soviet Union	Murnikov-Design Group VTK 82 Sloop Maxi	24.99	Alexei Greschenko Skip Novak	139:09:01:04
12	A	12	IR 1992	NCB Ireland	Ireland	Holland 81 Sloop Maxi	24.69	Joe English	139:19:22:38
13	A	13	K 303	Satquote British Defender	Great Britain	Francis-Faroux 81 Sloop Maxi	24.69	Colin Watkins	143:12:42:23
14	C	1	H 400	Equity and Law II	Netherlands	Judel Vrolijk 63 Sloop	19.11	Dirk Nauta	148:23:50:33
15	A	14	K 1996	Liverpool Enterprise	Great Britain	Farr 80 Sloop Maxi	24.38	Bob Salmon	151:04:52:22
16	Cruiser	1	K 808	Creighton's Naturally	Great Britain	Williams-Peterson Ocean 80 Sloop Maxi	24.54	John Chittenden	162:06:34:58
17	D	1	F 1789	L'Esprit de Liberté	France	Briand 58 Sloop	17.58	Patrick Tabarly	164:21:36:16
18	D	2	K 1418	Maiden	Great Britain	Farr 58 Sloop	17.75	Tracy Edwards	167:03:06:53
19	D	3	G 944	Schlüssel von Bremen	West Germany	Judel Vrolijk Baltic 63 Sloop	19.20	Rolf Renken Harm Müller-Röhlck	167:19:07:34
20	Cruiser	2	K 3566	With Integrity	Great Britain	Gurney 77 Sloop Maxi	23.52	Andrew Coghill	170:16:19:07
21	D	4	F 9302	La Poste	France	Frers First 51 Beneteau Sloop	15.54	Daniel Mallé	181:22:56:17
DNF	D	5	B 763	Rucanor Sport	Belgium	Ribadeau Dumas 58 Sloop	17.63	Bruno Dubois	Retired-Leg 4
DNF	A	15	L 9000	Martela O.F.	Finland	Frers 81 Sloop Maxi	24.60	Markku Wiikeri	Retired-Leg 4
References:[3][4][5]

The boat Creighton's Naturally suffered a serious broach on leg 2, at about 3  am. Crew members Anthony (Tony) Philips and Bart van den Dwey were swept over board. They were both pulled back on deck. Van den Dwey successfully resuscitated, but, after three hours of trying, crewmembers were unable to revive Philips. A few days later, by radio agreement with relatives ashore, Philips was buried at sea.^[6]

Martela OF lost its keel and capsized 350 nautical miles from the finish of leg 4. The unharmed crew was picked up from the overturned hull by Charles Jourdan and Merit. Union Bank of Finland also broke off the race to participate in the rescue.^[7]