A Record Breaking forecast for the RORC Transatlantic Race set to depart Marina Lanzarote on Sunday 8 January.
Near perfect, record conditions are forecast for the start of the RORC Transatlantic Race, supported by Calero Marinas, the International Maxi Association and the Yacht Club de France.
Weather forecasts are predicting five days or more of 20 knot plus north-easterlies; a perfect angle for a high-speed 3,000-mile race across the Atlantic Ocean.
Teams from Belgium, France, Italy and the United States make up the high-performance multihull division.
Three of this year’s multihull alumni are turbo-charged MOD70s that are capable of eclipsing the Multihull Race Record set in 2015 by Lloyd Thornburg’s MOD70 Phaedo3, 5 days 22 hrs 46 mins 03 secs.
Four Maxis racing in IRC Super Zero are favourites to take Monohull Line Honours and lift the IMA Transatlantic Race Trophy.
The largest boat competing in this year’s race is the Supermaxi Swan 115 Jasi, skippered by Toby Clarke. The 21-strong crew includes top professionals; Ken Read, Paul Wilcox, Mark Sadler, Andy Meiklejohn and Mike Pammenter.
Two Volvo 70s will be racing . . . The Polish National Foundation’s Volvo 70 I Love Poland is skippered by Grzegorz Baranowski, with Konrad Lipski as navigator.
Johannes Schwarz’s Volvo 70 Green Dragon has the youngest skipper in the race: Ireland’s Cathal Mahon from Galway. Scott Shawyer’s IMOCA 60 Canada Ocean Racing will be racing two-handed with Alan Roberts.
IRC Zero is Packed with cutting edge 50-footers . . . With the highest rated boat the water-ballast Botin 56 Black Pearl with Stefan Jentzsch at the helm.
Arto Linnervuo’s all-Finnish team will be racing Infiniti 52 Tulikettu. Weighing less than 7000kg and built with DSS side-foils, Tulikettu is capable of adrenaline-pumping speed.
In IRC One, the most wide-ranging class in the race features six totally different designs racing under the IRC Rating Rule.
The overall winner of the RORC Transatlantic Race is decided by IRC time correction, with the monohull fleet divided into three IRC Classes with prize winners for each class, including a special prize for the best Two-Handed team.
While the multihull fleet will race under the MOCRA Rule and for Multihull Line Honours.
Louay Habib/RORC
For more information visit the dedicated RORC Transatlantic Race website
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