Amante wins first leg of Shetland Race

A REGULAR participant of the Shetland Race has become the overall winner of the first leg of the annual yachting event for the first time.

The Bergen registered Amante has in previous years often been named as the winner of the wooden spoon, but this year skipper Terje Saetre and his crew have turned things around in dramatic fashion and after calculations of the handicaps the team have come out top the field of 40 yachts.

Full results can be found here.

Arriving at Lerwick harbour at 8pm last night, the Amante took 32 hours to make the 200 miles crossing from Norway.

Yachts participating in the Shetland Race arriving at Lerwick harbour.

Yachts participating in the Shetland Race arriving at Lerwick harbour.

First over the line though was the much larger German yacht Haspa Hamburg shortly before midday on Thursday.

The winners of the various categories will be named during a prizegiving ceremony, hosted by council convener Andrea Manson, in Mareel at 6pm tonight (Friday).

This year’s Shetland Race is the first to be held since the Covid pandemic. The 2020 and 2021 events had to be cancelled.

Thirty five of the participating yachts will be lining up at the start of the return leg to Bergen on Sunday morning at 9am.