Friday 24 February, Antigua
ROYAL OCEAN RACING CLUB
20 ST JAMES'S PLACE, LONDON SW1A 1NN
DAY 5 - Winners Decided: RORC Caribbean 600
By Louay Habib
It has been a busy 24 hours at the Antigua Yacht Club. At dawn on the fifth day
of the RORC Caribbean 600, only three yachts were still at sea vying to complete
the course before tonight's Prizegiving celebrations and all of the class winners
are now provisionally decided. The bar at the Antigua Yacht Club has been in full
swing, buzzing with stories between the crews and songs in a myriad of different
languages.
Team Selene skippered by Benjamin Davitt finished yesterday morning. The Swan 80
sailed an excellent race to claim third place overall and will lift the prestigious
Swan Caribbean Challenge Trophy later this evening.
Without doubt, the closest racing for this year's event was in IRC One. Colin Buffin's
Swan 62, Uxorious IV, was first to finish, but the team did not celebrate a class
win. Buffin and his young team knew that Amanda Hartley's Swan 56, Clem, was extremely
close to eclipsing their corrected time. Just over three and half hours passed before
Clem crossed the finish line to win the class by just 21 seconds on corrected time.
There were ecstatic scenes dockside as the Spanish crew of Clem celebrated their
class win. The entire crew of Uxorious IV including Colin Buffin sportingly applauded
their rivals. Amanda Hartley spoke of their win.
"'We had no idea until we crossed the line and turned on our phones which went crazy
with people calling in from Spain. By our calculation we thought we had lost out
by five minutes. We got stuck at Guadeloupe for four hours and we could only sit
and watch Uxorious get away. We are obviously extremely delighted and really appreciate
Colin and his team coming over to give us such a lovely welcome back to Antigua."
Jaime Torres' Puerto Rican First 40, Smile And Wave, finished shortly after midnight
last night to claim third in IRC One.
Scarlet Logic, co-skippered by Ross Applebey and Tim Thubron, finished the RORC
Caribbean 600 shortly after 2300 last night. The Oyster 48 has been vying for the
overall win for the last two days. In the end Scarlet Logic missed out, but the
team had put in an incredible effort and have been rewarded with a convincing win
in IRC Two. Scarlet Logic has the best corrected time in IRC One, Two and Three
and as a result will be awarded the fantastic prize of a week's accommodation at
the luxurious Inn at English Harbour.
"Fantastic, elated but bloody tired," admitted Tim Thubron, co-skipper of Scarlet
Logic. The weather lined up nicely for us and we were aware that we were in with
a chance of beating the big, well funded professional teams and that really spurred
us on and made us push even harder. A lot of credit must go to the whole team, especially
Ross Applebey. Scarlet was immaculately prepared and we hardly had a single breakage,
however we did need to drop the index to replace a sail slide. The job was done and
the index back up in eight minutes, that to me says it all."
There was joy and pain for both IRC Canting Keel and the Class40s. Ernesto Cortina's
Volvo 70 Gran Jotiti finished the race in just over two days. The Spanish team is
racing the yacht formerly known as Telefonica Black in the last Volvo Ocean Race.
Ernesto spoke about his team shortly after finishing. "This has been a great experience,
even though our result was badly affected by a lot of sail damage. Many of the sails
are tired from thousands of miles of racing. However, the crew have been a joy to
sail with and this race is helping us build for the future. Gran Jotiti's aim is
to create a world class amateur Spanish offshore sailing team and we have learnt
a lot through this race.
Ron O'Hanley's Cookson 50, Privateer, showed exceptional pace and boat handling
throughout. Unfortunately the American team failed to start correctly and accepted
a 10% penalty from the race organisers resulting in Gran Jotiti being declared winner
of IRC Canting Keel.
The Class40s turned into a battle royale between Christophe Coatnoan's Partouche
and Christof Petter's Vaquita. The two Class40s were locked in a heroic tacking
duel for the final push to the finish line, a 40-mile beat from Redonda to the
finish in Antigua.
Vaquita crossed the line just after sunset beating Partouche by a slender margin,
just 15 minutes in a race lasting over 3 days. However, Vaquita failed to start
the race correctly and to the Austrian crew's disappointment, the class win was
awarded to Partouche: "It was a tough race and we had a couple of moments that really
slowed us down," commented Christophe Coatnoan who raced two-handed with Eric Calmard.
"We picked up a fishing float after Nevis without realising and we probably lost
8 miles before we knew it was there. Later at Guadeloupe, I had to dive into the
water to free Partouche from yet another fishing buoy. The race was an excellent
test for our new design especially for our sails as I think we used every one of
them during the race."
Vaquita's Andreas Hanakamp commented: "Obviously we are disappointed to have been
penalised but we were delighted with our performance. Partouche is a brand new Finot
design, whilst Vaquita is a 2006 Akilaria. The RORC Caribbean 600 is a testing race
course and a very tough race, exactly what we needed to prepare for our index competition
of the season, The Atlantic Cup later this year."
The latest competitor to finish the RORC Caribbean 600 is Bernie Evan-Wong's Mumm
36, High Tension. Falmouth Harbour exploded with noise as the smallest yacht in
the race tied up right outside the Antigua Yacht Club. Thunderous blasts from megayachts,
superyachts and foghorns literally shook the dock as the whole of the sailing community
in Falmouth heralded the arrival of local hero Bernie and his crew.
"I said we would be here tonight but I always like to be early for appointments,"
joked the Antiguan dentist. "It was a hard but satisfying race and the beat from
Redonda to the finish seemed to take forever. We could see Antigua but it just
didn't seem to be getting any bigger, however a few miles out a massive rain squall
hit and veered the wind favourably for us to speed our way to Antigua. After last
year's dismasting, I think maybe someone was looking out for us!"
Tonight the RORC Caribbean 600 Prizegiving Ceremony will take place at the Antigua
Yacht Club. The two yachts still racing are Igor Zaretskiy's, First 40.7 Coyote
II and the RACYC Offshore Racing Team - White Knight's Spirit of Venus. Both are
expected to make tonight's party, which should be a momentous occasion.
Race Results: can be found on the RORC Caribbean 600 website: http://caribbean600.rorc.org
Swan 56 Clem, Amanda Hartley's Spanish team arrive on the dock in Antigua and celebrate
their IRC One win:
Credit: Tim Wright/Photoaction.com
Scarlet Logic win IRC Two Credit: Tim Wright/Photoaction.com
Niklas Zennstrom's RAN win 2012 RORC Caribbean 600 Overall Trophy and Class Zero
Credit: Tim Wright/Photoaction.com
Local hero Bernie Evan Wong's jubliant crew celebrate their arrival today. Racing
the smallest yacht in the fleet, the crew aboard the Mumm 36, High Tension arrives
dockside Antigua
Credit: Tim Wright/Photoaction.com
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