Final standings:
| Pos | Boat | Nat | Skipper | LOA/Des | Aggregate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steinlager 2 | New Zealand | Peter Blake (NZ) | 84' Ketch | 128 d 9 h |
| 2 | Fisher & Paykel NZ | New Zealand | Grant Dalton (NZ) | 82' Ketch | 129 d 21 h |
| 3 | Merit | Switzerland | Pierre Fehlmann (F) | 80' Sloop | 130 d 10 h |
| 4 | Rothmans | United Kingdom | Lawrie Smith (GB) | 80' Sloop | 131 d 4 h |
| 5 | The Card | Sweden | Roger Nilson / Ann Lippens (S) | 80' Ketch | 135 d 7 h |
| 11 | Fazisi | Soviet Union | Alexi Grischenko / Skip Novak / Valeri Alekseyev | 83' Sloop | 139 d |
| 18 | Maiden | United Kingdom | Tracy Edwards (GB) | 58' Sloop | 167 d 3 h |
| 21 | La Poste | France | Daniel Mallé (F) | 51' Sloop | 181 d 22 h |
The Whitbread Round the World Race was run with several classes (for size of boat). This race featured the first all-woman crew on Tracy Edwards' Maiden. Although in a much smaller boat than many of their male counterparts the women fared well—claiming two leg victories in class. The tradition of the Whitbread including an all-female crew remains to this day.
The boat Creighton's Naturally suffered a serious broach on leg 2, at about 3 in the morning. Crew members Anthony (Tony) Philips and Bart van den Dwey were swept over board. They were both pulled back on deck. Van den Dwey successfully resuscitated, but, after three hours of trying, crewmembers were unable to revive Philips. A few days later, by radio agreement with relatives ashore, Philips was buried at sea.[1]
Leg Winners:
| Leg | Start | Finish | Leg winner | Skipper |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Southampton, England | Punta del Este, Uruguay | Steinlager 2 | Peter Blake(NZ) |
| 2 | Punta del Este, Uruguay | Fremantle, Australia | Steinlager 2 | Peter Blake (NZ) |
| 3 | Fremantle, Australia | Auckland, New Zealand | Steinlager 2 | Peter Blake (NZ) |
| 4 | Auckland, New Zealand | Punta del Este, Uruguay | Steinlager 2 | Peter Blake (NZ) |
| 5 | Punta del Este, Uruguay | Fort Lauderdale, USA | Steinlager 2 | Peter Blake (NZ) |
| 6 | Fort Lauderdale, USA | Southampton, England | Steinlager 2 | Peter Blake (NZ) |
Steinlager 2 skippered by Peter Blake won the race easily. For the first time since 1981 to 1982 (when the race comprised just four legs), the victor won every leg (albeit closely chased by both Grant Dalton's Fisher & Paykel NZ and Pierre Fehlmann's Merit entries). The vast difference in speed and capability of the many different boats involved in the 1989 to 1990 race lead to the creation of a committee to examine the commission of a Whitbread class boat for use in future races. Many of the Maxi yachts in this years race were nearly twice the size (LOA) of the smallest, and carried well over twice the sail area. The net result of this was that many of the smaller boats finished the longer legs more than ten days after the leg winner. In the overall results, the last finisher was some 52 days behind Blake's Steinlager 2 128 day aggregate time. In addition, the expense of the big yachts was getting to be too much - even for the well funded teams like Steinlager, Rothmans and Merit. Eventually, the new class would be called the W60 - but its gestation would not be quick or lack controversy.
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