RORC CARIBBEAN 600

The third edition of RORC Caribbean 600 starting from English Harbour, Antigua on February 21st is set for a bumper entry of some of the world’s best race boats with top professional crews. It promises to be a battle of the super maxis ICAP Leopard and Rambler 100 and will be the first time that Mike Slade’s ICAP Leopard and George David’s Rambler 100 will have raced against each other. George David has chartered the 100 Juan K-designed Speedboat for the 2011

Start of the 2010 RORC Caribbean 600.

TRANSATLANTIC RACE and renamed it Rambler 100.  The boat is undergoing alterations to improve its already exciting performance and hopes to be ready in time and an epic battle is eagerly awaited. Mike Slade’s ICAP Leopard set the record for the race in 2009 and will fight tooth and nail to keep it.

Two new boats will use the RORC Caribbean 600 for their very first serious outing. Brian Benjamin will race his brand new Carbon 80 cruiser racer for the first time in the Caribbean and is looking forward to putting his new boat to the test. “The RORC Caribbean 600 is a spectacular race course and just the kind of racing I want to do:  beautiful scenery, a wonderful race track and great company, it just ticks every box.”

Another brand new boat entering the race is Richard Matthews’ Humphreys 54 Oystercatcher XXVIII, which was built in New Zealand and shipped to the Caribbean in time for the RORC Caribbean 600. Richard has wanted to do the race ever since it started as he has a home in Antigua and has been waiting for completion of this grand prix race boat built in carbon fiber. It is the perfect size for this 600 mile race course and Richard will push hard to win.
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Three canting keel Cookson 50s are expected including: from Ireland, Adrian Lee's Lee Overlay Partners  which won the race in 2009, Ron O'Hanley's Privateer (USA) and Chris Bull's Jazz (GBR). These boats will all be of similar speed and will fly around the race track.

There is a huge fleet of Class 40s (45) currently racing across the Atlantic in the Route du Rhum. Five of these

Lee Overlay Partners drops her spinnaker.

boats have already confirmed their entries for the RORC Caribbean 600 and we expect to have quite a few more. Tony Lawson, the owner of Concise which was chartered by Pete Goss (to make his come-back to competitive racing) for the ‘Rhum’, is the provider of the Class 40 trophy for the Caribbean 600 and although Concise is not yet entered, Tony will be sure to be supporting the race.

A number of boats that plan to enter the RORC Caribbean 600 are assembled in the Canary Islands in readiness for racing across the Atlantic to St Lucia in the RORC Racing Division of the ARC. The Swan 80 Berenice is one of these and her sole aim is to get to the Caribbean to try to win the 600.

The RORC Caribbean 600 is not just about high-tech race boats and many teams will be chartering yachts just for the experience of getting around the non-stop 600 mile race track which circumnavigates eleven islands as far north as St. Martin and as far south as Guadeloupe.

Catapult sails into the sunset

For more up to date news on this outstanding 600-mile race check out the website: www.caribbean600.rorc.org.

Article submitted by Eddie Warden Owen.
Photos © Tim Wright www.photoaction.com.