RORC Caribbean 600: On Tilmar Hansen's birthday: "Outsider" on the brink of overall victory

Never before has a German boat won the overall ranking of the RORC Caribbean 600 rally. In keeping with owner Tilmar Hansen's birthday today, the Kiel-based "Outsider" now has a good chance of claiming this historic victory. The crew on the TP52 completed the 600-nautical-mile long-distance race around eleven islands in the dream Caribbean on Thursday morning at 7.01 a.m. local time and is now eagerly waiting to see whether one of the smaller yachts in the IRC Handicap fleet with a total of around 700 sailors from 37 countries can come out on top and challenge her for the RORC Caribbean 600 Trophy.

The mood on board was already great when the ship entered the harbour, as the first interview with Tilmar Hansen, who had just received the German Offshore Award, shows. The owner of the "Outsider", which had just been honoured with the German Offshore Award at Hamburg City Hall, said: "I'm delighted that it went so well and send warm sailing greetings back home. The TP52 yachts are great boats when you sail them the way this crew did." Skipper and helmsman Bo Teichmann, part of the powerful Afterguard together with Ian Moore, Chris Larson and Robin Zinkmann, said: "We wanted to fulfil a birthday wish here, and it looks like we may have succeeded. It was a lot of fun!" The crew took up the challenge of the race, which started out with extremely little wind and never had more than 18 knots of wind for the "Outsider", as Teichmann reports: "That's why it was so exciting! We had to tackle the many calm zones with great concentration and keep our focus. Ian Moore set us up very well strategically. Chris Larson and Robin Zinkmann navigated with confidence." The 15-strong team celebrated the successful race with beer and burgers at the Antigua Yacht Club on arrival.

The previous Crribbean 600 overall victories from 2009 to 2019 were shared by yachts from America, Great Britain, Hong Kong and Ireland. Last year, David and Peter Askew's Volvo 70 "Wizard" won the coveted trophy in the overall IRC classification. Boats around 50 feet have only won twice before. The majority of the winning boats had lengths between 70 and 100 feet. The organisers will announce on Friday at the latest whether a 52-foot yacht and the German overall victory will be enough for the twelfth edition of the race.

On the Class 40 "Iskareen", the Hamburg brothers Arnt and Sönke Bruhns and their crew still had around 150 nautical miles to go to the finish line on Thursday afternoon. In the lee of Guadeloupe, the team had once again battled through mild winds overnight, but made some very lively new friends, as a short video clip from on board showed:

Here it goes to the interim results in the IRC overall standings.

UPDATE28 February, 3 pm: Around 30 hours after crossing the finish line, the victory of the "Outsider" in the RORC Caribbean 600 was actually confirmed. On Friday afternoon, there were no more boats underway that could have displaced the German YACHT from first place in the overall IRC classification.

The eleven winners of the RORC Caribbean 600 at a glance:

• 2020: Tilmar Hansen, "Outsider" (TP52), GER
• 2019: David and Peter Askew, "Wizard" (Volvo 70), USA
• 2018: George David, "Rambler 88" (Maxi), USA
• 2017: Hap Fauth, "Bella Mente" (JV72), USA
• 2016: George Sakellaris, "Proteus" (Maxi 72), USA
• 2015: Hap Fauth, "Bella Mente" (JV72), USA
• 2014: George Sakellaris, "Shockwave" (RP72), USA
• 2013: Ron O'Hanley, Privateer (Cookson 50), USA
• 2012: Niklas Zennström, "Rán" (JV72), GBR
• 2011: George David, "Rambler 100" (JK 100), USA
• 2010: Karl C. L. Kwok, "Beau Geste" (Farr 80), HKG
• 2009: Adrian Lee, "Lee Overlay Partners" (Cookson 50), IRL