Appleton Estate celebrates with Callisto, 35th Pineapple Cup - Montego Bay Race winner
Callisto Racing — owned by Kate and Jim Murray — is the winner of the 2023 staging of Appleton Estate’s Pineapple Cup - Montego Bay Race.
The announcement of Callisto Racing’s victory was made on January 25 at the Montego Bay Yacht Club during the Appleton Estate sponsored Pineapple Cup Awards Ceremony, where they received the Governor General’s Trophy, also known as Pineapple Cup, one of the oldest yachting trophies dating as far back to 1961 where it was handcrafted in London.
The team of sailors from Callisto Racing, navigated by Ian Moore, along with the other competing teams: Kent Racing, Pyewacket 70 and Rikki, bravely sailed over 811-nautical miles in monohulls and multihulls from Miami to Montego Bay. The race commenced on January 21 and ended on January 23.
Moore, the leader of the winning vessel, was awarded The E.J. Garmhausen Perpetual trophy for safely steering the team to the tropical island of Jamaica in the shortest time.
Teams, Pyewacket70 and Rikki, followed with the second and third places respectively.
At the Appleton Estate Pineapple
Cup - Montego Bay Race Awards Ceremony, Murray was beyond excited after the announcement was made of his victory. During the excitement, he explained to the Appleton Estate family of a three boat strategy his team used to journey the 811-nautical miles to cop the first place award.
“There were a lot of questions about why you’d do a race with three boats and I’m going to answer that now. You do it because it’s an epic race course, and you do it because the people here tonight all share a common love of going to sea and laying it all on the line sailing with a great group of people. At the end of the day, we do it because we love it and we get to spend time with people like you, so thank you for putting on this race and thank you for having us and thank you all for what has been a terrific time,” Murray said.
Kamal Powell, Regional Marketing Manager, J. Wray & Nephew Limited was on hand at the Appleton Estate sponsored Pineapple Cup Awards Ceremony to congratulate the winning team, along with presenting Murray with a bottle of Appleton Estate 12 Year Old Rare Casks.
After congratulating the winners and runner ups, he explained why Appleton Estate chose to return as title sponsors of the event, following its two-year hiatus.
“The Pineapple Cup has been hosted in Jamaica since 1961, meaning that this event, just like Appleton Estate Jamaica Rum is unequivocally Jamaican. That coupled with the fact that the Pineapple Cup boasts an exceptional platform, one which we at Appleton Estate are proud to bolster – we are happy to be on board for this, the 35th edition of this offshore classis event,” Powell explained.
He continued, “Appleton Estate was among the first distillers locally to formally standardize rum production, and today, every drop of Appleton Estate Jamaica Rum across the globe reflects the integrity and quality of our expressions crafted with joy. As a platinum level partner, Appleton Estate’s support will reach all aspects of the event from Miami to Jamaica, providing an exceptional level of promotion for one of the oldest offshore races in the world.”
Throughout the years, the Governor Generals trophy has been awarded to some of the most well known names in yachting including: John Kilroy, Ted Turner and Robert F Johnson.
In addition to the Governor Generals trophy, the Silver Rose Bowl was presented to Pyewacket70 for fastest elapsed time for a monohull at 2 days 18 hours 22 minutes and 39 seconds.