RORC Caribbean 600: Burke and Fink narrowly miss out on victory coup - "Leopard 3" triumphs

Lennart Burke, Melwin Fink, Simon "Simi" Koster and Nicolò Gamenara narrowly missed out on victory in the Class 40 at their joint premiere in the RORC Caribbean 600. The German duo and their two team-mates finished second behind "Sogestran Seafrigo". The top three in the Class 40 reached the finish line within 15 minutes.

Initially, "Nestenn - Entrepreneurs pour la Planète" was listed as the Class 40 winner in the results, but the crew had sailed through a restricted area and received a severe time penalty for this at the green table. Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink reported this in the evening from Antigua. As a result, the German "Sign for Com" of Lennart Burke and Melwin Fink, which had already sailed strongly, moved up to silver. The official adjustment of the results was still a long time coming.

"The RORC Caribbean 600 was a mega race, really challenging and not quite ideal for our boat because there was a lot of downwind and light wind sailing. But then there were also downwinds where we were really fast. Our team worked really well," said a delighted Melwin Fink.

We had to put up with a big blow. Shortly after St Barth, we burst the knot from the big drop" (Melwin Fink)

Fink had high praise for the crew of Lennart Burke, Melwin Fink, Simon "Simi" Koster and Nicolò Gamenara, who acted as a quartet for the first time: "We were a fantastic team. Simi did the navigation. Lennart and I were in charge of everything on deck, and Nicolò was the jumper for everything and every job."

"We worked together more and more and better and better. We were a very calm team. We like that because Melwin and I also like to sail calmly and relaxed," explained Lennart Burke. However, the crew, who were so happy at the finish, also suffered setbacks in the 600-nautical-mile race through the beautiful Caribbean islands. "We had to put up with a big blow. Shortly after St Barth, the knot on the main halyard burst," reported Melwin Fink.

The mishap was not without consequences. Melwin Fink explains: "I had to climb into the mast and do a bit of repair work. That cost us a lot of time. We had to get off the course for about half an hour and convert the spinnaker halyard into a main halyard. That worked out in the end. And the calm in Guadeloupe brought us back into the field."

'Simi' is a weapon as a navigator" (Lennart Burke)

Lennart Burke's conclusion on the happy arrival of the "Sign for Com" crew in the start and finish harbour on Antigua sounded suitably cheerful: "All in all, it wasn't really the race for our Pogo, but we really fought our way through it. Simi did a really nice job of navigation. We had a little bit of a problem in Guadeloupe. We could have done a bit better there. But overall the navigation was so clean! Simi is a weapon as a navigator."

On the evening of 22 February, the organising Royal Ocean Racing Club also crowned the Farr 100 "Leopard 3", skippered by Joost Schuijff, the overall winner of the 15th RORC Caribbean 600. Of the 24 boats still sailing in the IRC at the time, none of the teams could have beaten "Leopard 3" on calculated time.

Hanno Ziehm's modified Marten 49 "Moana" had initially placed 13th in the overall IRC standings and eighth in IRC Zero after sailing for 3 days, 6 hours, 15 minutes and 20 seconds. Click here for the live tracking of the RORC Caribbean 600 and the results.

The winning video of the success of "Leopard 3" in the 15th RORC Caribbean 600: