Early on Sunday morning, Willy Bissainte and Benoit Reefe sailed Pogo Class40, Tradition Guadeloupe, across the finish line of the RORC Caribbean 600 after almost a week at sea in an event that saw 64 percent of the 22-boat fleet retire due to lack of breeze. Bissainte and Reefe’s perseverance and determination nets the sailors from Guadeloupe two prizes: the Concise Trophy for Class40s and overall winner of IRC Zero.

In total, three Class40s raced in the event alongside Tradition Guadeloupe: Ocean Warrior of Joe Harris, Josh Hall, Michel Kleinjans and Peter Van der Wel and Peter Harding’s 40 Degrees with Michael Boyd, Niall Dowling, John Patrick Cunningham and Miranda Merron. The first section of the 600 mile race provided stunning condition with the three Class40s racing in close formation around Nevis, St. Kitts, St. Barts and St. Maarten separated by a handful of miles with 40 Degrees leading and Ocean Warrior and Tradition Guadeloupe often only metres apart.

(from left Rolex Watch U.S.A.’s President and CEO Allen Brill, 2009 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.), 2009 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year Bora Gulari (Detroit, Mich.), US SAILING President Gary Jobson. Photo - Dan Nerney/Rolex) 

Neither rain nor sleet nor snow, all of which had combined to cancel flights and delay trains in the Northeast, could deter Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.) and Bora Gulari (Detroit, Mich.) from  getting to Manhattan today for their moment in the spotlight at US SAILING’s Rolex Yachtsman and Yachtswoman of the Year Awards ceremony.

The two remaining Class40s in the RORC Caribbean 600 finally found some breeze late on Thursday as Michael Boyd, Niall Dowling, John Patrick Cunningham and Miranda Merron on 40 Degrees closed up with Willy Bissainte on the double-handed Tradition Guadeloupe. As the two Class40s met just north of Marie-Galante island, both teams opted to head towards the south-eastern tip of Guadeloupe, followed by the First 40.7 Coyote, and picked up speed to seven knots.

“We had another long day today, the bulk of it spent in French territorial waters on the south coast of Guadeloupe,” reports Boyd this morning from 40 Degrees. “We left you yesterday morning after doing our four pirouettes in the vortex currents off Les Saintes in Guadeloupe's south-west corner,” he continues. “Two more 360s and 24 hours later we have left the south coast at the island of La Désirade and are heading for our penultimate corner, the second rounding of the North Sails inflatable mark, just south of Antigua's sister island, Barbuda, 90 miles to the North. Thence, it will be to Redonda and the finish at Antigua's Fort Charlotte.”