New record for RORC Transatlantic Race

(December 4, 2018; Day 11) – Pier Luigi Loro Piana’s Supermaxi My Song finished the 2018 RORC Transatlantic Race today at 17:47:11 UTC to claim both Monohull Line Honours and to set a new Monohull Race Record.

My Song completed the 2,865 nm course from the Canary Islands to Grenada in an elapsed time of 10 days 5 hrs 47 mins 11 secs, shaving 01:19:48 off the previous monohull race record set in the 2015 race by Jean-Paul Riviere’s French Finot-Conq 100, Nomad IV.

“I feel very happy to come to Grenada, but it is too close to Lanzarote! We were enjoying crossing the Atlantic so much and racing My Song at 20 knots was amazing,” commented Pier Luigi Loro Piana.

My Song navigator Nacho Postigo found the conditions for the RORC Transatlantic Race to be the best he’d ever had. “Almost every day we had very few squalls, and at night we had brilliant stars, so it was fantastic,” reflects Postigo. “After getting through the pressure ridge at the start, the wind was between 16-22 knots, which is perfect and really pleasant.

“The main objective for us was to safely get the boat to the Caribbean. After the first few days, we were 240 miles behind the record, so we just forgot about it. Then slowly we were cutting it down and in the last three days, every half an hour someone was coming to the chart table wanting to know if we were on record pace.”

My Song Crew for the RORC Transatlantic Race were: Pier Luigi Loro Piana, Giacomo Loro Piana, Luca Albarelli, Jaime Arbones, Andrea Balzarini, Gerri Baracchi, Giorgio Benussi, Alberto Bolzan, Ambrogio Francesco Maria Cremona Ratti, Gaetano Figlia di Granara, Andrea Forlani, Flavio Grassi, Cristian Griggio, Jose Ignacio Braquehais, Giorgio Peretti, Jacopo Piazzolla, Ignacio Postigo, Nicola Simoncelli, Vittorio Zaoli, Gabriele Zoppi.

Race details – Tracker – Results – 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 5 hours 47 minutes and 11 seconds
MY SONG, Baltic 130
Pier Luigi Loro Piana’s Baltic 130 My Song (ITA) broke the Monohull Race Record in the 2018 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