Thursday, February 25, 2016

RORC Caribbean 600 Race Preview

J/120 sailing RORC Caribbean 600 (English Harbour, Antigua)- A record fleet with a record number of big boats were ready to take flight off English Harbour on Monday.  The weather models are predicting 14 knots of wind from the southeast at the start on Monday, freshening to 20 knots in the early hours of Tuesday morning with the wind in the east. By Wednesday morning the wind speed is due to increase and by Thursday weather models predict 25 knots of wind from the east. By the afternoon, the wind is forecast to move to the southeast and decrease.

That kind of Caribbean weather should enable the trio of J sailors participating in this year’s event to demonstrate their all-around capabilities, from light to heavy and from broad-reaching to a long uphill slog.  Sailing in IRC Doublehanded is the Trans-Atlantic Race duo on the J/120 NUNATAK- Elin Haf Davies and Chris Frost.  This team is highly experienced and should have a good race in store for them.  One of their competitors will be the new J/11S SLEEPER sailed by Jonty Layfield.  In the larger boat IRC 1/ CSA 2 division will be David Ballantyne’s J/133 JINGS, another veteran offshore team with thousands of miles under their belts— they are a bit like a train rolling down the tracks, takes them a good bit of steam to get rolling but do not be surprised to see them on the podium at the end of the race!  For more RORC Caribbean 600 race sailing information