Caribbean Compass Yachting Magazine - April 2022

2022 RORC CARIBBEAN 600
APRIL 2022 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 14
RORC
THE
2022 RORC Caribbean 600
attracted 74 teams with
738 sailors from 32
different nations, setting a
record for the most impressive fleet in the 14-year
history of the race.
The “600” is the Caribbean region’s signature
offshore event. The non-stop 600-mile race, organized
by the Royal Ocean Racing Club, begins and ends just
off English Harbour, Antigua, and takes a looping
course around 11 different islands and cays, sailing
north as far as St. Martin and south as far as
Guadeloupe, taking in Barbuda, Nevis, St. Kitts, Saba
and St. Barth’s.
This year’s race started on February 21st. Despite
moderate tradewinds fading to a lighter breeze during
the five days of this year’s race, Jason Carroll’s
MOD70, Argo, set a new multihull race record in a
nail-biting finish duel with Giovanni Soldini’s Multi
70, Maserati, which was fresh from taking line honors
at the Grenada finish of the recent RORC Transatlantic
Race. The ClubSwan 125 Skorpios, skippered by
Fernando Echavarri, took Monohull Line Honours
after a keen battle with the VPLP/Verdier 100
Comanche, skippered by Mitch Booth, which had just
smashed the previous monohull record for the RORC
Transat race by two days. Racing in IRC Zero class,
Christopher Sheehan’s Pac52 Warrior Won was the
overall winner, earning the RORC Caribbean 600
Trophy for the best corrected time under IRC.
Warrior Won’s tactician Richard Clarke, a four-time
Olympian for Canada and a Volvo Ocean Race winner,
says, “Tactically, the RORC Caribbean 600 rates as
one of the hardest in the world. It is like a heavyweight
boxing match: the lefts and the rights just keep
coming at you and you wait for that knockout punch.
At any moment you can park up — no lead is safe until
the very end. There are so many islands to round and
the tactics vary according to the time of day. Add fickle
tradewinds and squally clouds into the mix, I equate
this to going ten rounds in a boxing match.”
Chris ‘Lew’ Lewis, navigator on Warrior Won,
commented, “We spent a lot of time preparing for this
race, going through the tracks of some of the great
navigators that have taken part. The Warrior Won team
has instituted a two-and-a-half-year testing
programme, so we know at every given angle and every
given wind strength what the best sail combinations
are, and after that it is all about execution. With an
incredible crew, every time we needed to change sail it
would magically appear.”
A new multihull race record
In the multihulls, Argo took Line Honours while
setting a new Multihull Race Record of 29 hours, 38
minutes, 44 seconds. Maserati was just 2 minutes and
13 seconds behind, and who finished first was decided
only in the final few miles of the race. Peter
Cunningham’s MOD70, PowerPlay, led in the early
part of the race but finished third.
“This race is always an emotional rollercoaster,”
says Carroll. “I think we traded the lead with the other
boats about five or six times and the last change was
20 minutes before the finish with Maserati. It was a
boat-on-boat tacking duel. Before the awesome finish,
the closest match racing we had was in the lee of Nevis
and St. Kitts. We traded the lead two-sail reaching,
doing 35 knots! At that pace, everything happens so
fast and you have to plan in advance, but it is so
exciting for sure.”
Approaching Redonda, Maserati was ahead by about
three miles, but Argo closed the gap to about half a
mile on the rounding and from Redonda to the finish
was almost a one tack beat on port.
“We knew there was about a 30-degree header
coming and we had a tacking duel with more tacks
RICK TOMLINSON / RORC
‘LIKE A HEAVYWEIGHT BOXING MATCH’
than we had done the whole race.
Maserati tacked a little too close to us
before they could build speed and we
luffed them and pulled out the win.
This win is one of the sweetest from
how hard-fought it has been. This
was an opportunity not just to sail
fast but to flex your sailing skills. This
is our favorite regatta of the year; it is
very well run and we love coming to
this one.”
After time correction, however,
Maserati won the MOCRA Class
and Gilles Lamire’s Multi50 Groupe
GCA-1001 Sourires was third.
Monohull Line Honours
and IRC Super Zero
To take Monohull Line Honours,
Skorpios’s elapsed time was 1 day, 16
hours, 39 minutes, 51 seconds.
Comanche won IRC Super Zero after
time correction. Groovederci Racing -
Sailing Poland, sailed by Deneen
Demourkas was runner-up. The
Polish National Foundation’s Volvo
70, I Love Poland, skippered by
Grzegorz Baranowski, was third.
Less than an hour separated Skorpios and Comanche
with Comanche beating Skorpios on handicap.
Class40 Division
The winner of the nine-strong Class40 division went
to the wire with a dramatic finish. Charles-Louis
Mourruau’s Guidi had led for most of the race but
stalled as the breeze faded with the finish line
beckoning. Finimmo took the lead in the last few miles
to win by just 61 seconds after racing for well over
three days and nights. Finimmo’s co-skipper Gerald
Veniard commented, “We had a good start, the first
Class40 to Barbuda, but then Guidi came back and
smashed us downwind. At St. Maarten we
fought back but Guidi extended on the
downwind leg to Guadeloupe. Our
strategy at Guadeloupe did not work and
when we were 20 miles behind we thought
the race was lost. After Redonda, Guidi
was offshore in no wind and we passed
them to win. It was the icing on the cake,
after a match race like that.”
IRC Two
Ross Applebey’s victory in IRC Two was
his eighth class win as skipper in the 600
and the seventh for his Oyster 48, Scarlet
Oyster. Scarlet Oyster had finished 2022’s
RORC Transatlantic Race second to
Comanche by just over an hour after IRC
time correction. Global Yacht Racing’s
First 47.7 EH01, skippered by Andy
Middleton, was second and Richard
Palmer’s JPK 1010, Jangada, was third.
Special awards
Special awards included the Mariella
Trophy Challenge Trophy for best boat
over 40 years old, which went to Caccia
Alla Volpe, sailed by Rocco Falcone; Best
ARTHUR DANIEL / RORC
Mighty monohulls Comanche (007) and Skorpios at the start.
Richard Clarke, tactician on overall winner Warrior
Won. “The lefts and the rights just keep coming
at you, and you wait for that knockout punch.”
Caribbean Boat went to Pamala Baldwin’s Liquid; the
Bella Mente Trophy for the first yacht to finish that
is manually powered without either variable or
moveable ballast went to Shelter Island Transatlantic
Partners’ Prospector; first monohull past St. Maarten,
winning an FKG rum barrel, went to Skorpios; first
multihull past St. Maarten, winning an FKG rum
barrel, went to Argo; and the RORC Caribbean Series
Trophy for best combined score in the RORC
Transatlantic Race and RORC Caribbean 600 was
awarded to Comanche.
The RORC Caribbean 600 is made possible by the
continuing support of the government of Antigua &
Barbuda, Sevenstar Yacht Transport, Rolex and the
Antigua Yacht Club.
At the prizegiving on February 25th, the RORC
Commodore took a special moment to applaud the
race volunteers: “The Spirit of the RORC Caribbean
600 is represented by the wonderful volunteers that
work 24 hours on shifts to finish the boats and to meet
every sailor with a smile, cold Carib Beer, and cheers
on the dock. Thank you, you have been amazing!”
The Ministry of Tourism and the Antigua & Barbuda
Tourism Authority have signed on to host the RORC
Caribbean 600 for another four years. The renewal of
the agreement is in keeping with the Tourism Ministry’s
and the Tourism Authority’s strategy, which calls for
the development of the sailing and yachting sector as
a means of economic development.
Visit https://caribbean600.rorc.org and
http://caribbean600.rorc.org/News/rorc-caribbean-
600-wraps-up-in-antigua.html for more information.
Full results are available
at www.rorc.org/raceresults/2022.