(English Harbour, Antigua)- The “newest” race in the Royal Ocean Racing
Club’s quiver of offshore events has simply gone from strength to
strength and its popularity is gaining numerous new enthusiasts. The
attraction for most any offshore sailor is quite simple- stage an event
in the aquamarine waters of the Caribbean, sail thirteen legs around 12
unbelievably beautiful “turning marks” (e.g. mostly spectacular
islands), spend most of the time fetching upwind or reaching under
spinnaker in 10-25 kts tradewinds underneath bright, sunny skies or
moonlit, starry nights and you have an instantaneous recipe for
success. The race has numerous, challenging legs, perhaps the most
difficult one being the rounding of Guadeloupe.Bella Mente’s winning British navigator, Ian Moore, spoke about this crucial part of the course. Nicknamed the “Guadeloupe Casino”, the wind shadow of Guadeloupe can make or break a performance, as the largest and tallest island on the course can be an unforgiving trap.
“We
knew that the wind direction would flick to the south east just as we
were arriving at Guadeloupe and, although we were looking at the current
situation, we had pretty much made the decision to take our chances by
going inshore. In the past, we have had some bad experiences going
offshore, if you run out of wind you can be trapped for a very long
time. I would give Bella Mente’s performance in the wind shadow a solid
nine out of ten, we did really well but we had to fight for it and use
all our skill to keep the boat going. Moose (Mike Sanderson) was
driving, Terry (Hutchinson) and Ado (Adrian Stead) had their eyes out of
the boat and I was just giving them the numbers and I believe that
combined tactical sailing knowledge got us through.”Jonathan Bamberger’s J/145c SPITFIRE took part in IRC One Class. Two-thirds of the way into the race, the SPITFIRE crew were sailing smart and fast against a cross section of custom one-off 45 to 72 footers; they were hanging in at 5th boat-for-boat and about the same in class under IRC handicap. After passing Montserrat to starboard, SPITFIRE was still in hunt for class honors. However, the massive wind-shadow of Guadeloupe’s tall mountains (the “green monsters” that top 4,600 ft!) proved to be their undoing. As soon as they entered the “invisible tracking zone” early Wednesday morning (coincidentally, about the same size as Guadeloupe’s wind shadow), the SPITFIRE gang made slow progress, losing considerable distance to their classmates. By going offshore to the southwest of the island, they lost dozens of miles on their competitors, most of whom elected, instead, to take the inshore (rhumbline) route closer the shore and squeak through! By the time SPITFIRE rounded the turning mark of Iles des Saintes off the southern tip of Guadeloupe, the damage had been done. In the end, they sailed well, enjoyed their first RORC Caribbean 600 Challenge race, and managed to post a 10th in class! Being a team from Canada, it was a stark and most enjoyable contrast to their friends and family at home up north suffering yet another “polar vortex” of sub-zero weather! For more RORC Caribbean 600 Challenge sailing information
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