RORC Caribbean 600 - George David's Rambler 100 breaks race record

by Trish Jenkins on 24 Feb 2011 RORC Caribbean 600 - George David’s maxi yacht, Rambler 100 crossed the finish line in Antigua in the early hours of Wednesday morning in an elapsed time of 1 day 16 hours 20 minutes and 2 seconds.

Subject to official confirmation, Rambler 100 has broken the monohull race record set by race rival, Mike Slade’s ICAP Leopard, by nearly four hours.

Two of the world’s most impressive racing yachts have been locking horns over 600 miles of high-speed action in a fight to the finish. Competing against each other for the first time and battling it out to snatch the record for the third edition of the RORC Caribbean 600.

The Rambler crew contained the entire compliment of the Puma Ocean Racing team which will be competing in the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race. Tired but elated, Puma skipper, Kenny Read commented dockside in Antigua:

'That was a lot of fun but hard work for a while. You do something like sail around the world and that is almost easy compared to this because there is no time to take any sleep. You’re taking so many corners and turns, but it is also a gorgeous course, it’s a dream-come-true type of event. I am glad we came and that George invited me. Probably the most memorable part of the course was at night with a full moon at the top of St.Maarten, big breeze and massive breaking waves.

It was huge fun and really cool, we came out of there doing 26 knots. It has been a real adventure and both the course and Rambler 100 has been a whole new dimension for sailing.' Rambler 100's George David, an avid sailor and member of the New York Yacht Club, has been sailing with Kenny Read for 17 years:

'Rambler 100 is quite a handful, it’s like a Volvo 70 on steroids and this is a big fast race, which favors us,' commented David. 'It is part of the Atlantic Ocean Racing Series. The RORC Caribbean 600 has been a great race as part of that series. We never took this win for granted, we have carried out some optimization towards the IRC rating and we really didn’t know how we would perform as this is the first time that the boat has been raced to be IRC competitive. Leopard is a powerful boat and they are a good team that has been sailing together for a number of years.

Thank you to the RORC and the Antigua Yacht Club. A lot of people have put a great deal of effort into making this a great race. I think this race is going to attract a lot of competitors. We have a record fleet this year and I can only seeing it growing. I think we will be back next year.'
RORC Caribbean 600