Stromness Sailing Club member David Bowdler and his co-skipper Nigel Colley have  won overall the grueling 2011 North Sea 1000 Mile double handed race in a Jeanneau Sun Fast 3200 "Fastrak VIII ". They put in a brilliant and consistent performance winning all 3 legs as well as claiming overall victory against serious competition from The Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Canada & the UK..

With very mixed weather, from hours of calms off Norway to strong winds in the North Sea, this was a fantastic result for David, Nigel and for Jeanneau Yachts! The same team came second out of 62 boats overall in last year's Round Britain and Ireland Race.

The race consisted of 3 legs from Scheveningen in Holland, to Bergen in Norway, to Lerwick in Shetland and then back to Bergen. A total of 1000 miles of racing and a further 1000 miles to/from the race start/finish.

In legs 2 & 3 the race was joined by a large fleet of 50 fully crewed yachts from Norway. Sailing double handed, David and Nigel won overall the double handed division AND finished 2nd Overall in the whole race behind only a TP52, one of the world's fastest racing yachts ….. no mean feat!

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