Lucia X crowned overall winner of the 6th Thousand Islands Race 2018

Thousand Islands Race 2018 © SCOR

Slovakian Lucia X owned by Milan Fabian with Croatian crew onboard and Mladen Kraljic at the helm is the winner of 6th Thousand Islands Race. Second leg form Tivat to Rijeka changed only the course direction among more then 1000 islands of Croatian coast but NE wind (BURA) stayed constant throughout both legs and will be long after talked about.

After five boats retired on the first leg, four races started in Porto Montenegro on Thursday 27 September and only two of them finished. First retired was Hungarian Wild Joe due to battery problems and powering its newly installed Dynamic Stability System that needed looking after before their participation at Middle Sea Race in Malta coming in three weeks. They stopped half way up the second leg in their home Marina Kremik near Primošten. This left in contest for overall win: Godspeed 52 helmed by Peter Steinkogler, Lucia X helmed by Mladen Kraljic and Stribor helmed by Jeremija Kurbanovic. All of them at the t time had chance to win the regatta overall.

Austrian Godspeed 52 pulled out in elapsed time ahead of Lucia X and Stribor. Only question was: would Godspeed 52 make enough time difference for a win under corrected time. However, Lucia X managed to reduce Godspeed's advantage down to 12 NM distance leaving Stribor further back in her wake. When Godspeed 52 cut finish line in Rijeka harbour after 56:38:50 hours racing, Lucia X needed to finish until 00:45 on Sunday 30 September to claim win of second leg and overall as well. It was easily achievable given the elapsed time delay and existing NE wind (BURA) that lead them to the very finish and they did it on Saturday 29 September at 21:03:50 hours.

Stribor remained the only boat still racing and had also chance to win overall provided she finish before 04:07 on Sunday. However, BURA again strengthened and showed her real bite after so many times in this year's regatta forcing Stribor, considering safety of the boat and the crew, to seek leeward shelter to the south of Pag island where they spent night from Saturday to Sunday. It became apparent that they would not be able to finish regatta so they decided to retire and motor to Rijeka. They kept their place overall. They deserve recognition for their project that included chartering boat in Šibenik, sailing to Rijeka, completed first leg to Tivat, almost completed second leg and at the end return to Šibenik.

Thousand Islands Race is for runner-up, Austrian Godspeed 52, the first stop of their project of participation in best known offshore regattas and their next stop is Middle Sea Race in Malta where Wilde Joe will also take part for the eight time.

The winner Lucia X is the only boat that participated in every single Thousand Islands Race to date. With their last year's win in ORC Group 3 at Middle Sea Race the crew demonstrated they are well prepared for the high winds that marked this edition of Thousand Islands Race. Lucia X's crew constitute Mladen Kraljic, Karlo Kraljic, Mladen Kvasic, Dinko Petrov, Neven Cuculic, Vlado Grego, Martin Tvrdon and Alen Mrakovcic.

Next, 7th Thousand Islands Race will be held on the same course from 19 – 29 September 2019.

Find out more at www.scor.hr/regate/2018e/tir.htm