Phaedo³ shatters RORC Caribbean 600 record

(February 24, 2015; Day 2) – Lloyd Thornburg’s MOD 70 Phaedo³ finished the 600-mile RORC Caribbean 600 in Antigua at 20:35:30 AST in an elapsed time of 33 hours, 35 minutes, 30 seconds, smashing the Multihull record by 6 hours, 35 minutes and 35 seconds which had held since the inaugural race in 2009. For the last six editions the record set by John Burnie and Claude Thelier on ORMA 60 trimaran, Region Guadeloupe (40 hours 11 mins 5 secs) had remained unbeaten.

Phaedo³, Lloyd Thornburg’s MOD70 ©RORC/Tim Wright/Photoaction.com

As forecast, the wind has gone south of east and decreased in strength. George David’s Juan Kouyoumdjian designed Rambler 88 is expected to finish the race in the early hours of Wednesday morning, taking Monohull Line Honours but the American Maxi looks to be outside record pace (40 hours 20 mins 02 secs), unless the breeze picks up significantly.

Giovanni Soldini’s Volvo Open 70 Maserati was forced to pull after a hydraulic tube fitting for the keel broke, making it impossible to move the keel. “It was a completely unforeseeable and fatal occurrence,” Soldini said. “A fitting on a tube that feeds the hydraulic pump for the keel just exploded and the bilge filled with oil. We can’t move the keel at all now. When the tube burst, we were lying third overall with Bella Mente, just behind Rambler and Leopard. We were second in elapsed time and first in our class. But now we’re going to make our way slowly back to Antigua.”

Event website – Tracker

Report by Louay Habib, race media.

Background: The RORC Caribbean 600 starts from Antigua on Monday 23rd February 2015. The 600nm course circumnavigates 11 Caribbean Islands starting from Fort Charlotte, English Harbour, Antigua and heads north as far as St Martin and south to Guadeloupe taking in Barbuda, Nevis, St Kitts, Saba and St Barth’s.