RORC 600 - What a View

The RORC 600 set off from Falmouth yesterday morning and we hiked up above English Harbour for  a fabulous view of the start line.

This race of 600 nautical miles takes just two to three days for these boats to complete and sees them on a winding tour of the north-eastern Caribbean.

The guys who win this race will travel at average speeds over 20 knots!

There were four starts - the first group was the largest and consisted of your average racing sailboat.  Lots of crew onboard with grinders built like football players, these were the guys that partied it up on Saturday night with a day of recovery before the real fun began here on Monday morning.

One of these boats is not like the others.  Comanchee was just warming up as the first race started.

Spectator boats and helicopters had the best views of the day.

The second start was for the really big boys and canting keels.  All high-tech sails; even across the distance we could hear the winches grinding and the lines creaking.

As George called it - looking like a murder of crows.

All struggling to hold position as the start line quickly approached.

Team Brunel placed first on the ARC - here they may be a little outsized.

Just over the start line and the fleet already starts to spread out.

Tacking to catch more wind - like frogger trying to cross the highway.

Third start was for the cruising class - just two boats in this one, and boy was this one a beauty.  We'd been watching them tack back and forth behind the start line while the other classes stared, quite something to behold when a three-masted schooner makes quick tacks and manoeuvres.

Sunlit sails and the beauty of this boat makes you forget that they're actually in a race.

The fourth and final class was the multi-hulls, including two wickedly fast trimarans who had match raced across the Atlantic.  Phaedo3 and Concise put on a speedster show as they ran for the start line, with everyone else scattering out of their way.

Cat in the middle!

Phaedo3 had starboard advantage and Concise ducked behind.

Well before the start line and the race is one!

These guys can really fly.

Concise was picking up spray from Phaedo3.

The gap momentarily widened just before the start line.

The schooner went off on a tack from their start 10 minutes before and the cats & trimarans quickly outpaced them.

These guys will be back in Antigua lickety-split for sure.  Checking on the tracking page on the website, these two are already down around Guadeloupe just 24 hours after their start and the rest of the race is still circling Anguilla.