Class40 honors in RORC Transatlantic

(December 8, 2018; Day 15) – Catherine Pourre’s Class40 Eärendil finished the 2018 RORC Transatlantic Race today at 04:10:18 to take Class40 Line Honours for the 3,000 mile race from Lanzarote to Grenada.

Pourre and crew members Pietro Luciana and Gery Atkins received a surprise welcome on the dock from friends Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron – who was fresh from her Route du Rhum adventures with Class40 Campagne de France. In the 2016 race, Campagne de France had won class ahead of Eärendil, but this year it was Catherine Pourre’s turn to celebrate finishing the race in pole position for the Class40 Division in a time that was over three days quicker than 2016.

“The conditions this year were much easier than in 2016 because the wind was much more stable and we had very few squalls,” commented Pourre. “We had some good wind to test the modifications to Eärendil. Whilst we had problems with the new rudder system and also electronic issues, the boat is faster, which was our main goal.

“Racing with Gery and Luciana was superb; they are both easy-going characters, but they know how to push a boat hard. We saw 20-25 knots of wind for long periods, so we were really flying.

“However, with our main competition Hydra falling behind after their pit-stop, we could be a little more conservative. It was a real shame that Hydra had to stop for a while in Cape Verde as we were having so much fun.”

Henrik Bergesen’s Norwegian Class40 Hydra, skippered by Tristan Kinloch, was approximately 380 miles from the finish as Eärendil crossed the finish line and Stephane Bry’s Sirius had over 500n miles to go.

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