Mike Slade and a hot shot crew of America's Cup sailors rewrote the record books on Saturday when his 90-foot monohull Skandia Leopard set a new time for sprinting round the Isle of Wight in the 65th Hoya Round the Island Race.

Slade's previous boat Longobarda already held the monohull record of 5 hours 12 minutes 3 seconds set in 1996. But he knocked more than an hour off his record round the 50- mile course, surfing through the lumpy Solent waters at breakneck speed of around 18 knots to beat the rest of the monohull fleet, which included four America's Cup boats and Mike Golding's Open 60.

On a day in which records tumbled despite some deplorable wet weather, the £3 million Woolston-built Skandia Leopard, driven by Slade and a crew of 30, including the Daily Echo's new America's Cup columnist James Stagg, arrived home in four hours, five minutes and 40 seconds, beating the favoured British America's Cup crew, racing in their first ever regatta on GBR 44 in their newly unveiled red, blue and silver livery, by a remarkable 18 minutes.

Slade said: "We were lucky with the conditions. Half-way round the course at St Catherine's we were 50 minutes inside regulation time and knew that a record was on the cards. We saw over 20 knots on the speedo a couple of times surfing down big waves."

There was close competition between the two fastest monohulls on the course and, at one point, GBR 44, skippered by Adrian Stead and driven by Andy Beadsworth, was within four minutes of Leopard's time despite starting two hours later but conditions favoured the boat designed for long distance sailing rather than the lightweight America's Cup yacht which was built for three-mile runs in the calmer Auckland waters.

Olympic Rowing Gold Medallist Greg Searle, who has joined the British America's Cup team as a grinder said: "It felt really good to get the first race under my belt, although this was nothing like the races will be at the America's Cup.

"In fact, the racing today was probably less intense than usual as we had to perform less manoeuvres than we do when we are match racing."

Despite Leopard's success, it was the French multihull Dexia Eure et Loir, crewed by veteran Olympic sailor Rodney Pattisson, which was the first overall to cross the Cowes finishing line in just three hours, eight minutes and 29 seconds, smashing the current record by over 45 minutes.

Winner of the Gold Roman Bowl, the ultimate RTIR prize after size and weight of the competing boats have been calculated, was the Farr 50 Mandrake, owned by Winchester businessman Peter Morton, who completed the circumnavigation in five hours and 45 seconds.

In all, ten monohulls broke the 1996 record held by Longobarda including Golding's Open 60 and two Ultra 30s, sailed by Bursledon's Russell Peters and Olympic 49er silver medallist Ian Barker.

Hoya High Voltage, the America's Cup boat skippered by Warsash yachtsman Eddie Warden-Owen was also among the record breakers despite ripping a headsail within a minute of the start.