Glimcher's J/122 CATAPULTs Home
(Antigua- Feb. 23)- The 2010 version of this new bluewater classic really was an enormous navigational and tactical challenge. The majority of the fleet entered into the "black hole" stage of the race when they all arrived at the easternmost turning "mark"- Guadeloupe Island. Seemingly, the weather Gods played a nasty trick on the fleet, shutting down the smaller boats leaving them bouncing around in swells with little wind while the big boats simply blasted off under fast reaching conditions to the finish line. After spending long periods with little rest and virtually no wind, the sailors began to feel the effects, leading to substantial numbers of boats retiring.
The long leg south from the northern turning mark off the coast of St. Maarten to the island of Les Saintes off the southern tip of Guadeloupe was an upwind surprise for the fleet, with the breeze from the south, turning southwest early on Wednesday morning. This was quite a different story from the start where clear blue skies, fresh breeze and aquamarine seas greeted the sailors-- the sailors were treated to some superb champagne sailing conditions that typify these waters at this time of year. The first boats crossed the starting line for the 605 mile race on February 22nd to start an adventure that would take them around fourteen Caribbean islands, in what is regarded as probably the finest sailor's play ground. By the morning of the second day, the wind direction had changed to southerly and windless spots were appearing all over the race course. And, that was all she wrote for a vast majority of the fleet. Les Saintes proved to be the nemesis for many boats that were caught in the wind shadow from the high mountains of Guadeloupe, the bigger boats managed to get through but the breeze was really beginning to tail off and the smaller boats became trapped. Marc Glimcher's J/122 CATAPULT had been sailing a very intelligent race and were leading overall on handicap when the breeze died out. Despite such challenges, kudos to Marc and team on CATAPULT for persevering until nearly the fourth day, still leading and having rounded Les Saintes/ Guadeloupe headed towards Antigua, English Harbour, before making the difficult decision to simply pack it in and turn on the "iron genny". From the track of CATAPULT above, you can see they were seventh boat-for-boat with 50-65 footers around them! Better luck next time! For more RORC 600 sailing and regatta information.
