Lucky sets new Transatlantic Race record

Bryon Ehrhart’s Juan K Maxi 88 Lucky (USA) took line honors in the 2025 RORC Transatlantic Race on January 20, breaking the monohull time record by 01 hour 25 minutes. After the start on January 12 from the Canary Islands, Lucky completed the 3000nm course to Grenada in 7 Days 20 Hrs 34 Mins, 41 Secs.

Lucky crew: Bryon Ehrhart, Antonio Cuervas Mons, Brad Butterworth, Brian Giorgio, Charlie Enright, Chris Lefferdink, Daniele Raddavero, Dean Phipps, Joca Signorini, Jonathan Clough, Jonathan Rankine, Juan Vila, Peter Van Niekerk, Rodney Daniel, Sam Mason, Samuel Rosenbaum, Scott Beavis, Simon Daubney, Stuart Wilson, and Will McCarthy.

The mnohull elapsed record was previously set in 2022 by the VPLP 100 Comanche, skippered by Mitch Booth, in a time of 07 days 22 hours 01 mins, 04 secs.

“The breeze picked up for the last third, but honestly, six hours from the finish we did not think we would make the record,” admitted Ehrhart. “Comanche is a boat that we have great respect for; it’s good to see that we can actually perform to a level that is a little bit better than they did, but not by much!

“This is the longest race that we have done and it is a beautiful racecourse. The RORC organize great races and the RORC Transatlantic Race is a very desirable way to come to the Caribbean to take part in the RORC Caribbean 600.

“On Lucky, we have a very experienced and senior leadership group making the boat go fast all the time, so the boat does what it’s supposed to do at all times. We’ve had tight spots in this race, especially a light patch of wind in the second third, but we fought through.”

Joca Signorini, helmsman and watch captain on Lucky, which was previously named Rambler 88, runs through some of the defining decisions in the race:

“We went north of Canaries because we were looking to get the right hand shift that would be coming from the west, and we managed to also get a little bit of an acceleration close to La Palma. This has been a very long VMG race, we only went upwind in the last few miles.

“Juan Villa did an awesome job placing ourselves in some really good positions in terms of the shifts and the best pressure, and sometimes playing with clouds. The last big decision was approaching Barbados. Juan was very confident that we would find more pressure north of Barbados and we did.

“Conditions changed quite abruptly in terms of direction and the wind speed got up to 29 knots. The crew work was just unbelievable, we were running along the edge of a shift requiring a lot of high speed maneuvers.”

Race details – Entries – Tracker

The mnohull elapsed record was previously set in 2022 by the VPLP 100 Comanche, skippered by Mitch Booth: 07 days 22 hours 01 mins 04 secs.

The multihull elapsed record was set in 2023 by Giovanni Soldini’s Maserati Multi70: 05 days 5 hours 46 mins 26 secs.

Source: RORC