Nannini and Peggs, Podium result at Shetland Round Britain and Ireland race on Class 40 SunGard Front Arena

Italian skipper Marco Nannini and british Co-Skipper Paul Peggs have completed the Shetland Round Britian and Ireland Race achieving a well deserved podium result taking second place overall in the final leg from Lowestoft to Plymouth on the Class 40 named SunGard Front Arena for the race. The duo led the the RBI fleet up to the last headland where the wind shut off and forced some of the boats to kedge in the adverse current waiting for the morning breeze to fill in and transforming the final few miles in a lottery as to who would get the wind first. In the end the Norwegian team of Rune Aasberg e Arild Schei on  Solo, who had been trailing in fourth up to the point, got their lucky break and pipped the Anglo-Italian duo to the finish line.
Nannini and Peggs had taken second place in the first leg of the race to Kinsale then held the top spot among the Class 40s for three consecutive legs at Barra, Lerwick and Lowestoft through a variety of conditions including a storm in the North Sea with winds of over 40 knots; quite a contrast for the last leg where the fleet has plodded slowly through very light conditions which tested the nerves of the crews and erased previous gains for a restart at the last headland, aptly named "Start Point" near Salcombe.
"I am extremely happy with how the race went and the overall result, of course i'm gutted we were pipped to the finish line by Solo, but in truth I never imagined we would be at the top during such a testing race against pros such as Alex Bennett on Fujifilm, especially as this was our first race on the boat, we learnt a lot as the race progressed through a variety of conditions and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the season".
Marco Nannini will now start his preparations for the Route du Rhum which start at the end of October, a gruelling 3800 miles solo race from France to Guadalupe where he will race the boat under the name of UniCredit.
For photos and videos of the race visit www.marconannini.com