The first duel for victory in the RORC Caribbean 600 has been decided: Jason Carroll's MOD70 "Argo" has won the race in the fast multihulls. Carroll and his crew of skipper Chad Corning, Alister Richardson, Brian Thompson, Charles Ogletree, James Dodd, Pete Cumming and Imoca expert Sam Goodchild came out on top in a duel with class sister "Final Final - Zoulou" that went down to the wire.
RORC Caribbean 600: "Argo" ahead in top duel
With a lightning start and a lead of around 100 metres, "Argo" had already opened the 600 nautical mile race strongly. After 1 day, 12 hours, 1 minute and 46 seconds, one nautical mile and a lead of less than four minutes were enough for the line honours for the US trimaran in the duel with its French rivals on "Final Final - Zoulou", which was not even helped by the familiar skulls in the name lettering.
The "Argo" crew had already shone shortly before the 17th RORC Caribbean 600 in the final of the new RORC Nelson's Cup series, which was introduced in 2023. The Carroll team set a new record in the Antigua 360 Race with a time of 2 hours, 29 minutes and 20 seconds. In contrast, the fast two top boats missed out on a new best time in the RORC Caribbean 600. "Argo" was just over six hours off its own best time from 2022 (1 day, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45 seconds).
The RORC Caribbean 600 continued in the monohulls on Wednesday, but the leading maxis did not have far to go to the finish on Wednesday morning German time. Under the Monaco flag, Remon Vos' Maxi 100 "Black Jack 100" led the field with skipper Tristan Le Brun ahead of Jost Schuijff's Farr30m Custom "Leopard 3" and Filip Balcaen's Mills-Maxi 72 "Balthasar". They were followed by the two VO65s "Jajo" and "Sisi". A total of 60 boats and their crews are taking part in this year's RORC Caribbean 600.
Half a century old: "45 South 2" is the only GER boat taking part
With a good 300 nautical miles to go to the finish, the only German boat "45 South 2" was in sixth place in its IRC 2 classification group. Henrik Teichmann's modified Farr 1104 is an aged, but speed-orientated one-tonner that was once built in New Zealand for the 1976 One Ton Cup in Marseille and finished fourth in the powerful field at the time. With the "45 South 2", Henrik Teichmann and Karl-Heinz Henzel from the Rhineland had just won the the 40th Atlantic Rally for Cruisers togetherhad travelled to the Caribbean on the sporting route.
Now the "45 South 2", sailing for the Geesthacht Sailing Association with the sail number GER 1870, is one of the smallest challengers in the Bucket List Regatta, which offers its participants one of the most beautiful race courses in international sailing with the race around eleven Caribbean islands. Dan Bauermeister, Simon Henzel, Hannes Jo Büsscher and Janik Matschuck are racing with Henrik Teichmann. They are expected to finish the RORC Caribbean 600 on 27 February. The live tracker for the current RORC Caribbean 600 can be found here.
Highlights from the start of the 17th RORC Caribbean 600:
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
