Maxi class victory for Deep Blue in the RORC’s Antigua 360

There were celebrations this evening for Wendy Schmidt and her Deep Blue crew -  winners of the IRC Super Zero/maxi class in the Antigua 360, organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club in conjunction with Antigua Yacht Club. The 47 mile anti-clockwise lap set off from Charlotte Point, with staggered starts - the smallest yachts at 0805; the maxis last away at 1100. 

With IRC Super Zero being (1.550+ IRC TCC), so the fleet grew to nine with the additions of Christian Zugel’s VO70 Tschüss 2, winner of the RORC’s recent Transatlantic Race and the VO65 Sisi. 

Compared to the last three days of competition at the RORC Nelson’s Cup Maxi Series, the Antigua 360 was in lighter conditions, starting in 11-13 knots. As a result even today’s line honours winner, Karel Komárek's 100ft V, was unable to beat the 4 hours 1 minute 42 seconds monohull record set by Niklas Zennström’s CF520 Rán in 2023. 

The key moment of the race occurred when the maxis negotiated a transition zone off Antigua’s southwest corner. Here, the frontrunners were caught while those chasing were not, the higher rated maxis then unable to regain their time: Under IRC corrected time, Deep Blue finished 2 minutes 32 seconds ahead of Bullitt - Andrea Recordati and his crew on the Wally 93 putting in another exceptional performance after their RORC Nelson’s Cup Maxi Series victory yesterday. Meanwhile the 72ft Balthasar, sailed today by father and son Filip and Louis Balcaen, came third 3 minutes 8 seconds later. 

 

Of their day Deep Blue strategist Dave Armitage commented: “We didn't have the greatest of starts - we got our timing a little wrong [up by the offshore end of the line]. Once we got up to Man of War Point, we got freed up and reached at a pretty tight angle all the way down. Leopard 3 struggled to stay high and ended up dropping their reaching sail and came in under jib. We went down this narrow little gap between a rocky outcrop and the shore and then we all set normal VMG downwind sails to the corner of the island.” Downwind along Antigua’s north coast Deep Blue seemed to keep pace with her longer opponents. 

After gybing they were close to laying the transition zone off the southwest corner of Antigua. “We tight reached under kite into the transition zone down by Cades Reef. The transition came quickly - we saw Galatea and V up forward. Ourselves, Lucky and Bullitt held high and stayed in the old breeze for longer and skirted the worst of it, making a tremendous gain.”

By this stage Deep Blue had worked herself up to second on the water, with just V ahead. She then sailed upwind to the finish in 14-16 knots – the most they saw during the race. “The bigger maxis slowly started to grind us down, but we played the shifts up the shore and did our best and managed to keep our time, beating the other boats…”

Deep Blue finished fifth overall across the whole Antigua 360 IRC fleet, which was won by Niklas Zennström’s CF520 Rán. 

Although showing moments of exceptional pace during the RORC Nelson’s Cup Maxi Series, Joost Schuijff's 100ft Leopard 3, with her canting keel and daggerboards, is more geared up for racing offshore. She had come sixth in that as she did again today, just four seconds behind Chris Flowers’ Galateia. 

“In many ways, our day was like going to the grocery store,” wryly observed Leopard 3’s tactician, America’s Cup and TP52 winning helmsman Ed Baird. “You find nearly everything you want, it’s going pretty smoothly. Then you get in the line that's the shortest for the checkout and you think you're in good shape, but for some reason, the two people in front of you have a lot of questions, want to pay with a different currency, they're calling the manager, etc. And you're watching as other people that came into the store after you have already gotten their shopping and checked out… That was our experience today.”

While Deep Blue largely breezed through the transition, the opposite was true for Leopard 3. “We sailed in in more northeasterly wind (70-80°) while on this (south) side of the island it was 120-125°. The cloud we were sailing under - you knew when you got to the other side of it, there was going to be a big shift: The two boats just in front started to get it, and we saw it coming and got our sails changed…but the cloud just stayed on top of us and there was no wind at all…

“The guys behind arrived at the same spot ten minutes later, when the cloud had moved so they just sailed right on past while we struggled the most. V got out of there well. Galatea was right next to us and somehow got into the wind and sailed away. Deep Blue, Lucky, Bullitt - they all passed us, but we sat there…”

They then slowly redeemed themselves: “Joost steered well, the boys kept us going fast, and we picked a couple shifts that were reasonable and we got back, crossing the line second. But we needed not to have stopped for 10 minutes.” 

V, Galateia and Deep Blue now conclude their racing in Antigua while Bullitt, Balthasar, Leopard 3, Lucky plus seven former Volvo Ocean Race boats, including George Procopiou’s Aegean 600 winner Aiolos, Tschüss 2 and Roy P Disney’s Pyewacket 70, ready themselves for Monday’s start of the RORC Caribbean 600. 

Results for IRC Super Zero here