Prospector the Mills 68 crossed the finish line in Montego Bay, Jamaica to correct out ahead of Mini-Maxi rival Wizard by 1 hour 20 minutes after a close fought race in idyllic conditions.

Ken Read, Prospector Strategist on the win, “It was a great race for Prospector. It’s a really good group, a bunch of old friends, a really good team. Really good boat. We worked hard I can tell you that, this boat is new to them and it was fun, but it’s bloody hard work.”

On sailing in the Pineapple Cup, “You know I’ve sailed around the world a couple of times and two of the prettiest nights I’ve ever been out on the water for were in the last two days. Bright moon, stars, just gorgeous sailing conditions. I just did an 800-mile race and I didn’t touch my foul weather gear, so it’s heaven. For people not to consider this race as part of their bucket list if you have a boat that even semi races is crazy, because this is about as good as it gets.”

Paul McDowell, co-owner, Prospector, “It was our first time doing it — Larry Landry, Dave Siwicki and I. We bought a Farr 60 a few years ago to do bucket list races. We did the Transatlantic Race, we did the Fastnet Race, we did the Middle Sea Race, some of the iconic ocean races. And we had so much fun doing that, we said ‘let’s buy a boat that’s bigger and faster and even more exciting and lets continue to do all these different programs’. The Pineapple Cup was one of those races that you remember from way back in the day. I used to do a lot of IOR races in the 1980’s, so you’d see Kialoah and Windward Passage win [the Pineapple Cup]; some of the greatest ocean racers of all time have won this race. So we said ‘this has got to be one on our bucket list that we have to do, the Pineapple Cup.’ And so here we are! The race couldn’t have been better, it really was spectacular all the way along. It’s one of those rare things where you get to race through amazingly scenic islands, the weather is good, the wind is from the right direction, and you come to a spectacular place.”

On the Prospector team, “We have a mixture of professionals and corinthians, we’re not one of the all professional crews where you have just owners and nothing but professionals; we race with our friends. Ken Read is one of the top professionals in the world but he’s been my friend of 35 years, so he raced with us as a friend, not as a professional. [We said] ‘Let’s go have fun like we used to back in the day.’ We came to race with our friends, but we take it seriously. We have all the weather data, the grib files, our own weather router, and we pay attention to all that, so we take the racing part seriously. But when we’re out on the boat we have a ball. We’re very intense but a lot of fun, a lot of laughs.”