Jet around Cayman is back

By Stuart Wilson

Jet around Cayman returned with a resounding roar of race engines over the Easter Weekend for the second year in a row, after a two year hiatus.

Business man and community leader. Mr. Mario Rankin, explained that he had purchased the Jet Around Cayman moniker and business license from Mr. Kenny Rankin, and was extremely pleased with how the community has responded to its relaunch.

He noted that the Jet Around Cayman brand was a huge part of the Caymanian experience and recalled the sentiment that has always been expressed through the years for the event.

“It used to be held in June but we have now moved it to the Easter Weekend and for the past two years we have been seeing huger growth in the numbers, as well as interest from sponsors, with major entities from Australia and Singapore wanting to come onboard,” said Mr. Mario Rankin.

He added that after Tory Snider was the winner last year and noted that this year featured three world champion riders, along with over CI 25,000 in prize money.

“We had some of the best racers in the world competing with our guys and our local Cayman riders beat them,” he noted.

Jordan ‘JJ’ McLean set the fastest time ever for the course and took home the trophy, beating the previous time by over 15 minutes, with a course time of 51 minutes. 1 hour 5 min

Cline Glidden Jr. took 1st place in the Amateur Class, 3rd overall for Professional Class.

The Jet around Cayman races starts at 7 mile beach and takes riders around the Island of Grand Cayman to finish up at the starting point.

This year featured 22 riders and four classes, (pro, amateur, veteran and natural aspirated).

Afer purchasing the Cayman offshore racing team from the Ugland Group, known as the 345 racing team, which competes in the fastest division of speedboats in the world (Class 1), Mr. Mario Rankin said the thought it would be a great idea to bring something home and five back to the community, which is why he invested in the Jet Around Cayman brand.

“People love the festivities and we want to make sure our youth have something positive to get involved with,” he remarked.

Mr. Rankin went on to state that next year, it is hoped that major sponsors such as Monster will be competing with a ‘ski’ and rider.