Mr. Solo roared to winners row in the Great race on Saturday, by clocking a time of one hour and fourteen minutes. The leader of Mr. Solo’s crew, veteran Ken Charles said the team encountered many challenges before the race. He said this particular race held no guarantees, because of the difficulties the team encountered during preparation for the race.
The Solo team clocked the fastest time in the 55th edition of the annual race. The race began with in a staggered start at 7.15 am from the Mucurapo Foreshore in Trinidad. Twenty eight boats competing in eight classes aiming to complete the 90-mile journey to Store Bay, Tobago.
Mr Solo the only craft in the 130 mph A class, took off at 8:00am. Ken Charles said: “We had a little problem on Thursday after trying out the boat. We had to pull the engine, take it down, strip it out, rebuild it and put it back into the boat.” The team encountered challenges up to 6pm on Thursday. They put the boat in the water, test it, realised that they were ninety nine per cent ready and then they said, ‘We’re going with what we have.’”
Throttleman Darin Marshall said they encountered six-foot swells rolling on the morning tide and up the coast, it was choppy.” Added to this the GPS itself went out of commission before Maracas. They got it working again turning off Grande Riviere. The team was thrilled as to the boast performance and their victory.