RORC Caribbean 600 - Day 2
by Louay Habib / RORC 26 Feb 10:30 NZDT
25 February 2025
Monohull Line Honours
Just over 24 hours into the RORC Caribbean 600, the international fleet is evenly spread over the extremities of the course. Bryon Ehrhart's Juan K 88 Lucky is just about through the Guadeloupe wind shadow doing over 13 knots of boat speed and likely to take Monohull Line Honours in the early hours AST of Wednesday morning (26th February).
Lucky's biggest danger to taking the gun is the Farr 100 Leopard 3 with Joost Schuijff at the helm. Leopard 3 is nine miles behind but is still a threat. Roy P. Disney's Pyewacket 70 is also in the mix just 12 miles from Lucky.
IRC Overall
For the overall win under IRC, at 1300 AST on Day Two, Christian Zugel's Volvo 70 Tschuss 2 has a slender lead from four boats: Frederic Puzin's Carkeek 54 Daguet 5, George Procopiou's Volvo 70 Aiolos and Niklas Zennström's Carkeek 52 Rán.
IRC Zero
The IRC Zero Class leaders have yet to round Guadeloupe whose wind shadow could easily shake up the class leaderboard. Puzin's Daguet is six miles ahead of Zennström's Rán on the water and 27 minutes ahead after IRC time correction. James Neville's Carkeek 45 is ranked third, less than three hours behind Daguet after IRC time correction. Andrew Berdon's TP52 Summer Storm and Jon Desmond's PAC52 Final Final are locked in a terrific battle on the water with Summer Storm just ahead after IRC time correction.
"Locked in a battle with Summer Storm," commented Jon Desmond while having a full workout on the helm of Final Final. "It's been a sporty morning!"
IRC One
Alister Richardson's Class40 Tquila is storming along on the leg to Guadeloupe, leading on the water by nine miles and by over an hour after time correction. Ranked second is Philippe Franz's NM43 Albator. Locked in a battle for the podium are Bob Manchester's J/133 Vamoose and Andrew & Sam Hall's Lombard 46 Pata Negra, plus the young Antiguan team skippered by Jules Mitchell, racing Jim Voss' RP37 Warthog.
All of the boats in IRC One have now reached the Anguilla Channel at the top of the course. Tquila is ahead by over one hour after IRC from Albator. Vamoose is third by a razor-thin margin from Pata Negra. Warthog is also in the hunt, along with Tom Selldorff's Baltic 52 Kinship, skippered by Ryan Walsh.
IRC Two
Negotiating the chicane at the top of the course with over 400 miles to go, Ross Applebey's Team Scarlet on Emily holds a lead of over an hour after IRC time correction. Ranked second is JPK 10.30 Momo, skippered by Tobias Brinkmann. Momo will be hoping for more off the breeze action as the JPK 10.30 should be significantly quicker on the surf. Ranked third is Cox & Dunlop's J/122 Mojito. The wind is expected to back east during tomorrow giving the boats in IRC Two a better angle of attack for the long leg to Guadeloupe.
Matic Vrecko, skipper of Slovenian entry, Elan 450 Karpo has reported damaging or destroying several sails on board. No doubt, Karpo is not the only one to have damaged sails. The last 400 miles may not have as many manoeuvre, but damaging vital sails will affect any boat's performance.
Multihull
Approaching Montserrat, Marc Guillemot's MG5 Wellness Training leads on the water by 8 miles from Thomas Kassberg ORC 50 Malolo, which is in pole position after MOCRA time correction. Calamity in third. Both Wellness Training and Malolo look set to leave Montserrat to port, which is rarely seen in the RORC Caribbean 600. It will be interesting to see if the move pays off. Calamity have put in a big move east and is looking to pass Montserrat to starboard, the more usual route.
Class40
Just two remain after Reve de Lare 5 retired on Day One. Ulysse Pozzoli & Steven Griener's Team Renovatec has rounded St. Martin and leads by 13 miles from Mussolo 40.
The RORC Race Team have received official retirements from eight boats with no reported injuries to crew from: Bullitt, Escapado, Huey Too, Il Mostro, In Theory, Ocean Breeze, Palby Marine, and Reve de Lare 5.
Follow the RORC Caribbean 600 via the official website for the latest pictures and videos of the action including the competitors' live blog. All of the boats can be tracked via the race player.
For more stunning pictures from the start of the 2025 RORc Caribbean 600 visit the gallery here.