Pyewacket 70 sweeps Caribbean 600

Antigua (February 23, 2023) – The Royal Ocean Racing Club confirmed the overall winner of the 14th edition of the RORC Caribbean 600 is Roy P. Disney’s Pyewacket 70 (USA). None of the teams still racing under IRC has any realistic chance of beating Pyewacket 70 after time correction.

The winning crew for the RORC Caribbean 600 Trophy are Ben Mitchell, Peter Isler, Tony Mutter, Brad Jackson, Brian Janney, Daryl Wislang, David Tank, Jan Majer, Mark Callahan, Matt Mialik, Robbie Kane, Rodney Daniel, and Tristan Louwrens.

Pyewacket 70 also claimed Monohull Line Honors, finishing yesterday in a time of 42:45:06. Mitchell was the stand-in skipper for Disney who was not on board due to knee surgery. He has always been part of the Pyewacket family ever since Roy Disney started it in 1989.

“We are super-excited about winning overall,” commented skipper Ben Mitchell. “With Pyewacket 70 we don’t go into these races necessarily thinking that a corrected time win is our goal, we go for Line Honors and potentially to set a new record. So, when a handicap win comes, that is fantastic and we are excited that we were able to achieve that.

“The Caribbean has been a popular destination for American sailors for a long time, but the hard core Southern Californian racers do not come here that often. When you come here you realize how beautiful this course is.

“With fabulous wind conditions combined with warm water and weather, it’s a fantastic race area. As we saw with Wizard and now with Pyewacket 70, the Volvo 70s are well heeled for this course, which has plenty of windy reaching conditions.

“For me personally, I feel very fortunate. I am very lucky to be put in the position by Roy (Pat Disney) with the support of Robbie Haines. This win is right up there with the biggest victories and Pyewacket has had a lot of success with the program.

“In recent years the RORC Caribbean 600 victory is right up there with our record in the Cabo Race. This is a great course, but it is also very tricky. In Southern California we are more use to point-to-point distance races. The course designers were definitely using their imagination when they came up with the RORC Caribbean 600.”

Pyewacket 70 joins an impressive list of overall winners from the United States: Warrior Won, Wizard, Rambler 88, Bella Mente, Shockwave, Privateer, and Rambler 100.

RORC CEO Jeremy Wilton congratulates Skipper of Pyewacket 70 Ben Mitchell. © Arthur Daniel/RORC

Event information – Tracking – Facebook

2023 RORC Nelson’s Cup Series
February 14 – Inshore racing in coastal waters of Antigua
February 15 – Inshore racing in coastal waters of Antigua
February 16 – Lay Day in Antigua
February 17 – 360 Round Antigua Race
February 18 – Series Prize Giving and RORC Caribbean 600 Opening Party
February 20 – Start of the 14th RORC Caribbean 600
February 24 – Prize Giving RORC Caribbean 600

Seventy boats racing under IRC, Class40, and MOCRA Rules, with crew from 30 different countries are competing in the 14th edition of the RORC Caribbean 600. 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.

RORC Caribbean 600 Records:
• Multihull record (2022) – Jason Carroll, Argo, MOD70 (USA) – 29 hours, 38 mins, 44 secs
• Monohull record (2018) – George David, Rambler 88, Maxi (USA) – 37 hours, 41 minutes, 45 seconds

PREVIOUS WINNERS: RORC CARIBBEAN 600 TROPHY – IRC OVERALL
2022 – Christopher Sheehan, Warrior Won, Pac52 (USA)
2021 – Cancelled
2020 – Tilmar Hansen, Outsider, TP52 (GER),
2019 – David and Peter Askew, Wizard, Volvo 70 (USA)
2018 – George David, Rambler 88, Maxi (USA)
2017 – Hap Fauth, Bella Mente, JV72 (USA)
2016 – George Sakellaris, Proteus, Maxi 72 (USA)
2015 – Hap Fauth, Bella Mente, JV72 (USA)
2014 – George Sakellaris, Shockwave, RP72 (USA)
2013 – Ron O’Hanley, Privateer, Cookson 50 (USA)
2012 – Niklas Zennström, Rán, JV72 (GBR)
2011 – George David, Rambler 100, JK 100 (USA)
2010 – Karl C L Kwok, Beau Geste, Farr 80 (HKG)
2009 – Adrian Lee, Lee Overlay Partners, Cookson 50 (IRL)

Source: RORC