Nannini and Peggs on SunGard Front Arena take first in Barra

Few minutes past 4am this morning june 12th, Italian Skipper Marco
Nannini and British racing partner Paul Peggs, sailing the SunGard Front
Arena sponsored Class 40, have crossed in first place overall the finish
line of the second leg of the Shetland Round Britain and Ireland yacth
race organised by the Royal Western Yacht Club of England.
Fifty six yachts have set off for this classic offshore race on June the
6th from Plymouth taking the crews first to Kinsale in Ireland where the
first of the mandatory 48 hours stopovers took place, then Barra,
Lerwick, Lowestoft and back to Plymouth sailing around Britain and
Ireland in a clockwise direction.
Marco and Paul had taken second place during the first leg to Kinsale
trailing by 8 minutes the race overall leaders Phesheya Racing of the
Republic of South Africa crewed by Nick Legatt and Philippa
Hutton-Squire. In Barra the positions are reversed and now the
Italian-British duo leads the race with their Class 40 SunGard Front
Arena by just a handful of minutes.
"I didn't think we'd manage to climb back the rankings after a very poor
start of the race where we dropped from second to fourth in Class
40 within hours of the start, we sailed poorly in the light airs" -
commented co-skipper Paul Peggs - "I am clearly ecstatic at being first
boat in Barra, we worked hard on the boat and on the routeing and
gradually recovered, by the morning of the second day we were back
behind Phesheya and it took another 24 hours to close the gap, we only
finished a handful of minutes ahead of them! The boats are identical
Akilaria Class 40s so we had no specific advantage over them and it just
took a lot of hard work" added Paul.
Skipper Marco Nannini said "Those who know me personally will understand
how much this means to me, I realise this is only the second leg of the
race but is a tremendous result to be here in first after all the hard
work and personal sacrifice it took me to put together a Class 40
campaign. Paul and I worked very well together and this is very much a
team result. Anything can happen from here to the finish of the race in
Plymouth, we're only leading by a handful of minutes and the other Class
40s are not far behind, but it is a fantastic feeling to be first in the
infamous Barra"
The duo will now rest in Barra for the duration of their mandatory
stopover and restart exactly 48 hours from their arrival time, carrying
forward their advantage over their followers.