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The carefully – as opposed to crazily – optimised former MOD70 Argo and (inset) its skipper Jason Carroll standing with that essential must-have accessory when going big multihull racing, Great Britain’s own oceanic machine Brian Thompson. It was always ambitious building a class of large oceanic trimarans for one-design racing, the same initiative had been tried many times in big monohulls but the large yacht owner is an individualist beast so it rarely gained traction. But the seven MOD70s built have turned out to be wonderful boats with a little tweak here and there; very fast yet still robust enough to rack up thousands of miles and with few structural issues
Nearly there
Those who follow our races will be familiar with the MOD70 Maserati, skippered by Giovanni Soldini, that has been a regular in the Caribbean 600 and holds the course record for our Transatlantic Race of 5d 5h 46m and 26s. That’s averaging 25kt over the 3,000- mile course, where he reached a top speed of a blistering 37kt. The reason I mention this is Maserati was due to race this year’s Transatlantic Race but pulled out at the last minute as Giovanni had a potential purchaser come forward for his trimaran and he didn’t want to risk damaging the boat. He also shared that he had an exciting new project in the pipeline… Well, Giovanni has now come clean and announced a new
collaboration with Ferrari to pioneer a groundbreaking sailing project. The unprecedented partnership between two pillars of Italian crafts- manship and innovation in two different sports has ignited antici- pation within the sailing community and beyond. With Ferrari and Giovanni renowned for relentless pursuit of
excellence, expectations are running high. As the project unfolds one thing is certain: were Soldini not fully confident that his new offshore foiling monohull is capable of breaking records he himself has set with his 70ft foiling trimaran Maserati, then this project would not be happening. Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long until the first concept designs slide out beneath the curtain of secrecy. Then again this is Ferrari we are talking about, so we may have to wait longer than we are used to with these mega-projects. The current Caribbean 600 will be our 15th edition and as I write
at least 65 teams are expected on the startline. Looking at the 2024 line honours contenders, three MOD70s are once again lining up for their private battle and there is little doubt that one of the three will be first home… Erik Maris racing Zoulou is defending their win by 21 seconds
last year, Jason Carroll’s Argowho holds the outright course record of 29h 48m 45s and Alexia Barrier’s MOD70 Limosa–The Famous Project, the first MOD70 to enter with a majority female crew, which
66 SEAHORSE
includes Dee Caffari as co-skipper. With C-foils and rudder elevators, Zoulou and Argo have a speed edge on Limosa in decent breeze, but the Caribbean 600 course has many twists and turns around 11 Caribbean islands which may suit Limosa in her lower-drag conventional configuration. Three racing Maxis are in contention for monohull line honours.
The Farr 100 Leopard 3, skippered by Chris Sherlock, is now under new ownership and has been on a savage diet, shedding 5 tonnes of weight while also acquiring a new more modern rig. In recent months Leopard took line honours in both the Rolex Middle Sea Race and RORC Transatlantic Race. The Wally 107 Spirit of Malouen poses the biggest threat to
Leopard. The longest boat in the race is crewed by France’s Paprec Sailing Team managed for 25 years by skipper Stéphane Név. The trio of boats over 100ft is completed by the beautiful 102ft Southern Wind Egiwave, skippered by Mauro Montefusco and Pierpaolo Mori. The current monohull record of 1d 13h 41m 45s was set in 2018 by George David’s Rambler 88. While all three MOD70s will also be vying for the corrected time
win under the MOCRA Rule, reigning champion Adrian Keller’s Irens 84 Allegra is favourite to retain the title. The largest multihull in the race weighs in at about 30 tonnes yet is also capable of tooling along for hours at around 30kt. Class40s have been racing the Caribbean 600 since the first
edition. This year 10 of them are entered, including eight modern designs launched in the last five years. Vice-commodore Richard Palmer was slated for his debut race in Jangada 40, a 2017 Verdier design; however, an unfortunate injury means he is ceding the helm to Commodore Deb Fish, ‘the boss’ stepping in to take up the chal- lenge of the Caribbean’s biggest offshore race. The Jangada crew also includes Rupert Holmes, winner of the 2022 Sevenstar Round Britain & Ireland with Richard, and Vendée Globe sailor Pip Hare. Jeremy Wilton, CEO
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ARTHUR DANIEL/RORC
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