BLESMA (British Limbless Ex-Service Men's Association) are delighted to take part in one of the Caribbean's most impressive offshore races on the 22^nd of February 2010. As the only all-amputee crew in the race, this promises to be a huge challenge.

The RORC Caribbean 600 is an exciting 605 nautical mile yacht race, which has been set up by The Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) and Antigua Yacht Club. The race starts in Antigua and will take the BLESMA crew north of the Caribbean, passing a mark off Barbuda, the islands of Nevis, Saba and St Barths, to circle St Maarten before heading down to Guadeloupe and finishing in Antigua.

Ondeck, the UK's fastest growing charter, events and sea school company, has a strong relationship and provided long-term support to the charity BLESMA. They have previously assisted the crew of eighteen sailors, who have all lost limbs serving in armed forces, to sail the Atlantic and take part in the world famous Rolex Fastnet race onboard one of their matched fleet of Farr 65's, named Spirit of Juno.

With only weeks to go to the second edition of the RORC Caribbean 600, a highly competitive international fleet are assembling to take part in an ocean racing spectacular.

"We already have 11 nations represented" commented RORC Chief Executive Eddie Warden Owen about the entries so far. " Antigua, Canada, France, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa and the United States. The inaugural race in 2009 created quite a stir in the ocean racing world and the entry list shows a number of new competitors in a diverse fleet."

Two high performance Maxis are top contenders for line honours and mounting a strong challenge for ICAP Leopard's mono-hull record. Genuine Risk designed by Ed Dubois is a 98ft canting keel speed machine based in Baltimore, USA but Karl Kwok's, Beau Geste will also be a strong contender. The Hong Kong based boat is fresh from winning the Transatlantic Maxi Yacht Cup, in a new race record of just over 9 days, the Farr 80 skippered by Gavin Brady has awesome pace off the wind.

"Ever since we first heard about the RORC Caribbean 600 it has been in our plans to compete" said Karl Kwok. "The Caribbean is the perfect playground for sailing with its warm water and guaranteed trade winds. We are looking forward to pushing Beau Geste to the limit around this excellent course and enjoying the performance that the boat will achieve and was designed for."

From Italy, the stunning Swan 90, DSK Pioneer is back to defend their class title and will be pushing hard. Owner, Danilo Salsi has done a lot of miles since the last race and against top opposition. The highly experienced Italian team should have a close battle on the water with two other magnificent yachts, Peter Harrison's 114ft ketch, Sojana and the 148ft classic schooner, Windrose of Amsterdam skippered by Alexis Howard.

RORC Caribbean 600 Race

Start: 22nd February 2010
First Warning Signal: 10:50 hrs
(all times are local time)

Organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club in association with the Antigua Yacht Club

Pre-Notice of Race

(the Notice of Race will appear in the RORC 2010 Programme)

The Pre-Notice of Race for this year's race is now available. Click on Read more... [2010 Pre-Notice of Race] to read it.

The RORC Caribbean 600, as the name suggests, is a 605 mile race around the Caribbean islands starting from Antigua. It was first run in February this year and attracted world wide interest. The 2010 race is due to start on Monday 22nd February and is already amassing a fleet of star studded boats and the best sailors from around the world.

The race record holder, the 100 foot super maxi ICAP Leopard, owned by London property millionaire Mike Slade, will be shipped from Sydney in January after her attempt to win the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race. Taking the same ship as Leopard is the 2009 Rolex Fastnet Race winner, Niklas Zennstrom's JV72, Rán, who will also be attempting to win the Rolex Sydney Hobart:
"It will be a quick turnaround at Hobart", commented Leopard's boat captain Chris Sherlock, "but we are determined to make the Caribbean Race because the beautiful trade wind conditions, blue sea, blue sky and guaranteed wind are the perfect conditions for a boat like Leopard".

Also joining Rán and Leopard in the race will be the 80 foot Beau Geste whose owner Karl Kwok hails from Hong Kong and has a star studded line up of professional sailors with lots of America's Cup experience.

From America we can expect to see two very competitive boats: The STP 65 Rosebud owned by Roger Sturgeon, who won the 2007 Rolex Sydney Hobart and will revel in these perfect conditions and Tom Hill's brand new Reichel Pugh 75 Titan will also be looking to stretch her legs in the wonderful conditions around the Caribbean.

The next RORC Caribbean 600 Race will start on Monday 22nd February 2010.

RORC members John Burnie and Stan Pearson are two well known characters in the yachting community in the Caribbean. They have often talked about an offshore yacht race, something that the Caribbean has never had, their plans devised over a few beers have now become a reality. The RORC Caribbean 600, in association with the Antigua Yacht Club, is now firmly established as annual event.

Mike Slade's 100ft Maxi ICAP Leopard came to Antigua with a clear target; to set a monohull record for a new offshore race, that task is completed. ICAP Leopard needed 44 hours 5 minutes 14 seconds to complete the race course for the first ever RORC Caribbean 600. 13 minutes less than they took to complete the 2007 Rolex Fastnet, a race of roughly the same length but of totally different conditions, this was a breezy race but t-shirts and shorts were the order of the day for competitors.

"A fantastic yacht race" commented ICAP Leopard's boatcaptain Chris Sherlock. "High speed sailing in warm conditions. We might have gone round a bit quicker if we hadn't snagged a fish-trap but if the breeze had been up a bit more then I reckon we could have taken a few hours off the time, let us hope we get some more wind next year."

Danilo Salsi's magnificent Swan 90 finished the RORC Caribbean 600 crossing the finish line after dusk on Wednesday night, to claim line honours for a fixed keel monohull. Skipper Andrea Casale said: "This is our first race and we are still learning how to sail the boat to its potential, all of the crew have enjoyed the experience, the race course is fantastic; always interesting. We would love to see more Italian boats here next year."

There was high tension later that evening as Adrian Lee's Cookson 50, Lee Overlay Partners, was approaching the finish. It was pitch black, just after midnight on Thursday morning. Lee Overlay Partners took the gun, in an elapsed time of 60 hours 45 minutes and 40 seconds. It was soon confirmed that the Irish canting keel Cookson, from the Royal St.George Yacht Club was leading overall, under IRC with a small possibility of being beaten by a local boat, Bernie Evan-Wong's Mumm 36, Café Americano High Tension.

"This says it all - fetching to Guadeloupe at 18 kts....All well - this can't be offshore racing, if it is so nice?!" commented Adrian Lee in his boat blog, obviously enjoying the sleigh ride, through the Caribbean. "I want to promote Irish offshore sailing that is why we race all over the world and what better way to do that than to compete at the RORC Caribbean 600."

Result 2009 RORC Caribbean 600 Monohull

ICAP Leopard/Mike Slade
Elapsed time: 44 Hours 5 minutes 14 seconds

"We have set a time for this fantastic race, so come and join us next year to try and beat it." said a chirpy but tired Mike Slade as ICAP Leopard moored up at the Antigua Yacht Club. "Make no mistake; this is a tough race, especially for the smaller boats still out there. It has taken us nearly two days and that is just about enough, hats off to the smaller boats who may not be in for some time, I am sure the crews will all be very tired but will be looking forward to a warm Antiguan welcome."

ICAP Leopard's crew

Physically exhausted, wringing wet and full of pride, John Burnie's 60ft ORMA Trimaran, Region Guadeloupe crossed the finish line under Shirley Heights, Antigua at 03:51:05 Local time (GMT-4) to set the multi-hull elapsed time for future multihulls to beat.

Result 2009 RORC Caribbean 600 Multihull Class

Region Guadeloupe/John Burnie
Elapsed time: 40 Hours 11 minutes 5 seconds

Dockside at the Antigua Yacht Club, John Burnie said: "That was an incredible ride, all credit to the crew but hats off to the yacht owner Claude Thelier who has completed an Atlantic crossing in this boat, in nine days on his own. We wanted to set a standard for others to beat, we pushed the boat really hard and we never backed off."

Besides John there were eight other crew; Claude Thelier, Iain Bradshaw, Mark Stevens, Ben Craig-Cameron, Ben Wood, Ed Danby, Stephane Squarcioni and Steve Branagh.