"We crossed the finishing line, here in St Lucia, at 01.45am local time coming in at just under 14 d

Mark Flew, Hyde Sails distributor for Portsmouth, supplied a rather special set of Hydranet sails for the Catana 431 Intrepid Bear. The boat was off on an eight-month family sailing trip, and needed the right sails for the job. The trip started off with the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, and not only did the sails do the boat proud, they helped the family to sail to victory in the cruising catamaran class, as well as finishing second catamaran over the line.
"We crossed the finishing line, here in St Lucia, at 01.45am local time coming in at just under 14 days at sea. We sailed 2,806 nautical miles, reached a top speed of 18 knots (terrifying) and averaged between and 9-10 knots a day. We surfed four metre swells, blew out our asymmetric sail and reattached the boom, which, unhelpfully, decided to come off the main. Crossing the finishing line and arriving at the marina was one of the happiest and most emotional times of my life - what a fantastic feeling it was," the Simpson family reported in their blog , adding: "Unbelievably Intrepid Bear was the winner in the multihull division of ARC 2012!! Not bad