by Ryan Walters

Putney sailor Pete Carroll celebrated double success at the Round the Island Race earlier this month.

The 42-year-old sailed aboard Puma Logic for the 50-nautical mile race round the Isle of Wight on June 1 and won both IRC Division 1B and the Owen Parker Memorial Trophy, for finishing first overall in IRC Group 1 - coming home in six hours, 29.28 minutes.

"I had done the Round the Island Race four times before but this was my first time doing it on Puma Logic and it was great to come out on top, there were some good boats out there," he said.

"I have been at the back, in the middle and up near the front in this race before and this was the first time to come away with a win so it’s special.

"It is a great boat to sail and is quite forgiving which may have helped some of our less experienced sailors.

"There were of course a couple of errors but nothing that caused us any big problems so it was a great day."

Carroll and co were joined by almost 1500 boats and 16,000 competitors for the 76th running of the race - which attracts thousands of amateur sailors to sail alongside some of the sport’s biggest names, Ainslie and Dame Ellen MacArthur included.

The J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race is the fourth largest participation sporting event in the UK and the largest yacht race of its kind in the world, attracting anything between 1,500 - 1,800 yachts and 16,000 competitors. Visit roundtheisland.org.uk.