Teasing Machine wins Transatlantic Race

St George’s, Grenada (January 19, 2023) – RORC Vice Commodore Eric de Turckheim, racing his NMYD 54 Teasing Machine (FRA) is the overall winner under IRC for the 2023 RORC Transatlantic Race. While 10 boats are still racing, none of them can beat Teasing Machine’s corrected time under IRC for overall victory.

Their handicap victory follows Giovanni Soldini’s Maserati Multi70 claiming Multihull Line Honors while setting a new race record, and the Polish National Foundation’s Volvo 70 I Love Poland (POL) collecting Monohull Line Honors.

Teasing Machine became the first boat to win the RORC Transatlantic Race Trophy on two occasions; Teasing Machine also won overall in 2017. This year’s triumph follows on from their overall win under IRC for the 2022 Rolex Middle Sea Race, so Teasing Machine will be going for a hat-trick of victories in next month’s RORC Caribbean 600.

“Winning the trophy for the second time after such an incredible race is fantastic,” commented Eric de Turckheim. “It was downwind all the way at huge speed, with very tough competition from Black Pearl, Rafale, and Tulikettu.

“All these 50-footers are in different configuration, so Teasing Machine had to be in top, top form. The biggest battle was with Black Pearl; we were constantly watching each other on the tracker updates to see how we were performing.

“This year’s RORC Transatlantic Race is probably the most amazing race I have done. It was not individuality which gave us success in the RORC Transatlantic Race, it was because of an incredibly good team with extraordinarily good team spirit.”

Teasing Machine Tactician Laurent Pages added, “Many things have worked for us in this race and it is a great feeling to win. We have been optimizing the boat since 2017 and we are very happy with the boat’s performance and reliability.

“Good preparation has been a key area of our success and the team has been very efficient in getting the fastest boat speed that we can. We have four drivers and Eric (de Turckheim) has the speed record for this race (25.72 knots), but all of the drivers are fast and that gives us consistency. Good team work between the driver and trim team is essential; the team constantly delivers the fastest speed possible.”

Teasing Machine Crew: Eric de Turckheim, Laurent Pages, Quentin Bouchacourt, Bertrand Castelnerac, Aymeric Chappellier, Quentin le Nabour, Paco Lepoutre, Gabriele Olivo, Christian Ponthieu, and Jerome Teillet.

Race details – Entry list – Tracker – Results – Facebook

The 9th edition of the RORC Transatlantic Race started January 8 from the Spanish island of Lanzarote of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, with 21 entries racing under the IRC and MOCRA Rating Rules competing on the 3,000 nm course to Grenada.

Multihull elapsed record is 5 days 5 hours 46 mins 26 secs set in 2023 by Giovanni Soldini’s Maserati Multi70.

Monohull elapsed record is 7 days, 22 hrs, 01 mins, 04 secs set in 2022 by the 100ft VPLP Design/Verdier Comanche, skippered by Mitch Booth.

Source: RORC