MOD70 Argo set a new multihull course record for the RORC Caribbean 600, while ClubSwan 125 Skorpios took monohull line honors, beating Comanche
In a fast run of the RORC Caribbean 600, the MOD70 Argoset a new course record and took multihull honors, while the ClubSwan 125, Scorpioswon the monohull honors.
The multihull fleet battle between the two MOD70s, Argo and power playand the modified old MOD70 (now Multi70) maserati must have been close. And it did not disappoint.
The three trimarans stormed the 600 nautical mile course, which circles 11 Caribbean islands, in just under 30 hours, with positions changing regularly.
The 600 mile course departs from Fort Charlotte, English Harbour, Antigua before heading north to St Martin and south to Guadeloupe via Barbuda, Nevis, St Kitts, Saba and St Barth’s.
In strong northeasterly trade winds of 13 to 18 knots, the long courses allowed the trimarans to regularly post speeds of more than 25 knots, while the many turns and changes of angle as the fleet circumnavigating each island offered many possibilities for changing places.
by Peter Cunningham power play led early in the race but was overhauled both by Jason Carroll Argo and Giovanni Soldini maserati to finish 3rd.
Argo on course to win line honors and a new multihull course record in the Caribbean 600. Photo: Arthur Daniel/RORC
Argo finished ahead of both teams and set a new multihull race record of 29 hours, 38 minutes, 44 seconds, with maserati just 2 minutes and 13 seconds behind with these two battling it out to the finish.
This was the first Line Honors win for Argo having finished second twice.
“This race is always an emotional rollercoaster; I think we swapped leads 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 against boat duel. I am sorry for maserati because they had a great race,” explained Carroll.
Approaching Redonda, Maserati was leading by about 3 miles, but Argo closed the gap to about half a mile on the rounding and from Redonda on the finish there was almost a beating of a tack to port.
Maserati heads into the tight finish in Antigua. Photo: Arthur Daniel/RORC
“We knew there was a 30 degree head ahead. We waited for this instability and chose to tack, leaving maserati with a decision, and they chose to cover us through the volatile conditions. From there we had a duel of about 10 tacks, more than we had done the whole race. We dug a little lead and then maserati turned a little too close to us. Before they could pick up speed we luffed them a bit and then got the win,” concluded Carroll.
Monohull battle
Long-awaited contest for line honors win between ClubSwan 125 Scorpios and the Maxi 100 feet designed by VPLP/Verdier Comanche was always going to be an intriguing contest.
The recently launched Scorpios is designed to push the limits, as the largest offshore racing monohull, possibly the deepest draft (7.4m) non-raising keel and largest sail plan combination ever.
But in Comanche, the crew would be up against a multi-record holder, who had recently won the RORC Transatlantic Race for line honors and the IRC overall in corrected time. Plus, the only time these two have met before in the 2021 Rolex Middle Sea Race was Comanche who went home first.
In the end it was Scorpios who prevailed in the Caribbean 600 taking the line of honor wins with a time of 1 day, 16 hours, 39 minutes, 51 seconds. Although Scorpios set a record pace at the start of the race, he finally missed several hours to beat the monohull course record of 1 day 13 hours 41 minutes and 45 seconds, established by Rambler 88 in 2018.
Scorpios took an early lead on Comanche to be the first around Anguilla, and although Comanche was able to stay in touch with the larger Swan, even in the reach conditions in which Comanche is notoriously fast, Mitch Booth’s team couldn’t find a way. Less than an hour separated the two monohulls, with Comanche close enough to revise Scorpios with a disability.
All eyes are now on the smaller IRC fleets to see who is in contention for class wins and the overall IRC prize. Thomas Kneen’s exceptional JPK 1180 Sunrise is leading the general classification of the third day of racing.
Follow the tracker on https://caribbean600.rorc.org/Tracking-Players/2022-fleet-tracking.html
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