Trades beckon for RORC Transatlantic

(November 26, 2018; Day 3) – The battle between the multihulls has entered another phase during the RORC Transatlantic Race, as both Giovanni Soldini’s Maserati Multi 70 and Peter Cunningham’s MOD70 PowerPlay are diving south of rhumb line in the 2,865 nautical mile-long race from the Canary Islands to Grenada.

The main objective for both was to escape their area of high pressure to the solid 20 knots of wind that awaits them, but as Maserati has taken a hotter angle to the northwesterly breeze, whilst PowerPlay was heading downwind, this difference in opinion will play out today as they prepare for the downwind sleigh ride to come.

It was a busy night on board Italian Supermaxi My Song as Pier Luigi Loro Piana’s magnificent 130ft Baltic put in several manoeuvres which would have required all 20 of the crew to be on deck. My Song is expected to make the solid trade winds later today and unfurl its huge inventory of downwind sails.

“On the delivery down to Lanzarote we saw a top speed of 22 knots without the spinnaker up. We are really looking forward to experiencing her full potential,” commented My Song navigator, Nacho Postigo.

News in from the Class40 Division confirms a great battle between Catherine Pourre’s Eärendil and Henrik Bergesen’s Hydra: “The first 24 hours have been a little uncomfortable upwind in 12 to 16 knots and we took a reef in during the night,” commented Catherine Pourre. “All-in-all it was okay in terms of speed as we managed to recover from our not-so-good start.

“We passed Hydra upwind when it was a bit stronger. They did a good job afterwards as they stayed close and we have been match racing. It is fun really and we are enjoying it immensely on board as we managed to stay a bit ahead of them, staying between them and the islands to the south.”

Pip Hare reported in from Norwegian Class40 Hydra from the north side of Tenerife: “We are not in a lot of wind and for the most part we have been playing an intense game of cat and mouse with Eärendil. We have been swapping the lead, but right now they are just in front of us flying a Code Zero. We crossed tacks twice during the day, winning one each. We have been clinging to each other and if we do this all the way across the Atlantic it will be an amazing race.”

At 0830 UTC today, Eärendil had pulled three miles ahead of Hydra. Stephane Bry’s French-Finnish team racing Sirius was 27 miles behind the leader.

In the IRC fleet, My Song was leading on the water by 53 miles from Franco Niggeler’s Swiss Cookson 50 Kuka3, which pulled off a great strategic call last night. Kuka3 passed very close to the south side of El Hierro reaching a speed of over 8 knots; presumably after picking up land breeze emanating from the islands 1,500 metre high peak.

Trevor Middleton’s British Sun Fast 3600 Black Sheep is going well. The team saw significant gains yesterday by staying in the pressure to the north of the fleet, and on the third day of racing the high pressure ridge has moved north, giving the smallest boat in the race more wind to head south to the full trade winds.

Race details – Tracker – Facebook

Background: Ten teams started the 5th edition of the RORC Transatlantic Race from Marina Lanzarote at 1200 UTC on November 24, 2018. The 2,865 nautical mile-long race from the Canary Islands to Grenada is the final challenge in the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s 2018 calendar, and is viewed as a transition to the RORC Caribbean 600 in February 2019.

CURRENT RACE RECORDS:

Monohull Record:
10 days 07 hours 06 minutes and 59 seconds
NOMAD IV, FINOT-CONQ 100
In 2015, Jean-Paul Riviere’s French Finot-Conq 100, Nomad IV set a record for the RORC Transatlantic Race and was also awarded the International Maxi Association Transatlantic Trophy for Monohull line honours

Multihull Record:
5 days 22 hours 46 minutes 03 seconds
PHAEDO3, MOD70
In 2016, Lloyd Thornburg’s MOD70, Phaedo3 set the multihull record for the race

Class40 record:
12 days 12 hours 36 minutes 32 seconds
TALES II, CLASS40
Gonzalo Botin’s Spanish Class40, Tales II was the first Class40 to complete the race in 2015, setting a Class40 record

Source: Louay Habib