By Ryan Walters

NORTHFLEET veterinary surgeon David Mason put the disappointment of last year’s early exit from the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race behind him as he guided his crew over the line this time.

Mason and his team were among a fleet of nearly 1,500 boats and 16,000 amateur and professional sailors tackling the famous 50-nautical mile course around the Isle of Wight where last year they failed to complete the race.

There they were also raising cash for PetSavers with Mason, who has worked at the Shrubbery Veterinary Centre in Longfield since 1977, hoping to crest the £500 mark for the charity, which funds studies into unsolved medical and surgical problems in pets.

And the 60-year-old, who also plans to tackle the British 10K London Run next month to raise more money for PetSavers, was thrilled to finish the race having been forced to pull out in 2012.

“We’re a fairly inexperienced crew, we’d tried to do it last year but we had to give up at the Needles so we decided to have another go this year,” said Mason.

“As a veterinary surgeon, the idea of PetSavers is that we do clinical research and the aim is to improve our knowledge of the diseases of all pets – dogs, rabbits, cats.

“And over the years we’ve made some quite significant findings in cancer treatment and virus treatment which I as a vet in practice use every day.

“Our aim was to finish inside the time limit, not hit the island or anybody else.

“After last year we were disappointed to not finish although we knew it was the right decision, so to complete the task in hand was the aim.”

With its ‘Race for All’ philosophy, the event attracts thousands of amateur sailors to race alongside some of the sport's biggest names including Sir Ben Ainslie and Dame Ellen MacArthur.

And Mason, whose crew finished the course on Kora, a Hanse 325, in a time of 9:17:56hours, ending the day 22nd in their class, insisted it had been an honour to share the water with such stars.

“This is the fourth biggest mass participation event in the UK, and you are competing against world renowned racers such as Ben Ainslie and Alex Thomson,” he added.

“You know you’re not competing directly against them but just to be in the same event is a tremendous excitement really.”

The J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race is the fourth largest participation sporting event in the UK and the largest yacht race of its kind in the world, attracting anything between 1,500 and 1,800 yachts and 16,000 competitors.

For more information, visit roundtheisland.org.uk

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