One of the wonderful things about our sport is that, however much racing you’ve done in different places on different boats and with different people, there are still new things to try. Even though I race around 3,000 miles most years, and occasionally more, I had never made it to RORC’s Caribbean 600 until this year’s edition.
It also marked the first event in a new two-handed Class 40 campaign for myself and Richard Palmer, the club’s vice commodore. Sadly, he was not able to be on board for the race, and instead Jangada 40 sailed four up with Vendee Globe sailor Pip Hare, RORC commodore Deb Fish and Paul Brandel, who works for the boat’s previous owner, Louis Burton (also a Vendee Globe veteran). Paul was responsible for looking after the boat for the past couple of years and had just raced 4,500 miles in the Transat Jacques Vabre, from Le Havre to Martinique, so was also invaluable to have on board.
With the race 15 years old, the 600-mile course that weaves around a myriad of stunningly beautiful Caribbean islands is now well known. In stereotypical tradewind conditions it combines short beats and runs with long power reaching legs. Acceleration zones between islands,
