a third of the fleet this year eventually retired.
Ludde Ingvall’s supermaxi CQS was the first to return,
after a software or electronic problem with the engine
meaning they couldn’t run the hydraulic systems. After
the first day and night there was a growing list of torn
mainsails, batten pockets ripped out. Local yachtsman
Bernie Evan-Wong diverted to St John’s when a crew badly
injured her hand. Water ingress was a big problem on
many boats – walls of water were being shipped.
America’s Cup sailor Shannon Falcone, sailing his foiling
F4 catamaran (and not doing a lot of foiling in these
conditions) was forced to retire when water got into the
wind instruments at the end of the bowsprit; at the
masthead is a unit to stop the boat turning turtle.
“It being quite dark and quite breezy, you need them at
these speeds and when trying to foil downwind, and we
didn’t feel it would be prudent to continue the race, at least
if we wanted to stay right side up,” says Falcone. These
same conditions were giving other crews ‘big air’, leaping
off waves, surfing down them at breakneck speeds. Fully
loaded, and flat out, this was as exhilarating as it comes.
Plymouth-based Nigel Passmore was doing his first
Caribbean 600. A seasoned offshore racer who has had a
string of offshore yachts from J/133s to a TP52, Passmore
was racing his new Dazcat 1495, Apollo, which he had
shipped out to take part. Water ingress knocked out
one of the engines – “our race was ended by a £9 relay,”
he said. His decision was a typical call made on the
Above: Shaun
Carroll’s doughty
30ft trimaran
Morticia. Right:
charter crew
taking it safely
with two reefs and
a storm staysail on
the Girls for Sail
Beneteau 40.7›