THERE was an exciting, nip and tuck battle by two Cowes-based yachts for line honours in this year's Myth of Malham Race.

The race — from Cowes to Eddystone Light and back and which featured 138 boats and around 900 crew — was won by Farr 42 Redshift, skippered by Ed Fishwick.

Botin IRC52 Tala took up the early running, but having led for much of the race on corrected time, the breeze picked up for the chasing pack, turning the advantage towards two FAST40+ yachts.

Isle of Wight County Press: The Myth of Malham race course, between Cowes and the famous Eddystone Lighthouse.The Myth of Malham race course, between Cowes and the famous Eddystone Lighthouse.

Farr 42 Redshift and HH42 Ino XXX, both based in Cowes, battled throughout the 230-nautical mile race with no clear advantage between them.

In the second half of the 30-hour race, having rounded the Eddystone Lighthouse off Plymouth, a high-speed duel developed on the run back to The Solent.

In strong downwind conditions, the two teams battled hard for line honours, executing numerous gybes to gain the upper-hand — at times with over 20 knots of boat speed and just inches apart.

But Redshift won, crossing the finish line just 20 seconds ahead of Ino. Fishwick's crew comprised Quentin Bes-Green (GBR), Hugh Brayshaw (GBR), John Coffey (IRL), Hannah Diamond (GBR), Henry Foster (GBR), Donall Ryan (IRL), George Thompson (GBR), Arianne van de Loosdrecht (NED) and Mason Woodworth (USA).

“An amazing race and an awesome feeling to have won it,” commented Fishwick.

“The Redshift crew were unbelievable, just sensational! It was a long battle just to get to the lighthouse. "We made a good rounding and could see Ino. From then on we were gybing across each other all the way down the track. By Christchurch Bay we were a boat length apart.

"Ino made a great call going all the way into the bay and pulled away. We went into low mode across the bay and eventually made it back. The last ten minutes were crazy, a match race, just inches apart.”

HH42 Ino XXX raced by James Neville (GBR) was second by just four minutes on corrected time.

The Myth of Malham Race was the fourth of the 2019 Royal Ocean Racing Club's season's points championship.

Second overall in the RORC Transatlantic Race, Sun Fast 3600 Black Sheep, sailed by Trevor Middleton (GBR) is the overall leader for the series.

After winning the last two races overall, Isle of Wight yacht Redshift moved up to second.