Out of the demanding yet usually gloriously sunny conditions of the Caribbean in early 2026, ISORA Chairman Peter Ryan of the National YC - together with his members on both sides of the Irish Sea – can look back with satisfaction to podium performances by two of their leading boats, while Wicklow-based designer Mark Mills had one boat in particular that shone amongst a formidable amount of glitter.
It started with the RORC east-west Transatlantic Race in January, when Sam Hall of Pwllheli – skippering his family’s rare but wonderful J/125 Jackknife – won his class and took third overall. Then in the Nelson’s Cup four day series in Antigua before the RORC Caribbean 600 got under way, Jackknife never put a foot wrong and won IRC overall.
Despite being one of the more senior boats in the fleet, the J/195 Jackknife was overall winner of the Nelson’s Cup series.
And although the 100ft ‘brutal beasts’ of the SuperMaxi class tended to dominate attention, the Mark Mills Maxi 72 Balthasar had a dream race in the Round Antigua, and won that special contest overall.
SNAKES & LADDERS
In the snakes-and-ladders of the RORC Caribbean 600 Race, for a while it looked as though Jackknife and fellow Pwllheli sailors Vicky Cox and Peter Dunlop with the J/122 Mojito might even give it the old one two for the honour of Tremadoc Bay, though in which order was anyone’s guess.
Winners! Michael Boyd RIYC in his role as Commodore, Royal Ocean Racing Club, with ISORA Champion Vicky Cox of Mojito as an ISORA prize-giving in the National YC.
But Jackknife had slippage here and there, yet Mojito managed to hang in to take third in IRC 2 and 14th overall, while Jackknife was 6th in IRC 1 and 16th overall.
The J/122 Mojito (Vicky Cox & Peter Dunlop, Pwllheli SC) in the Caribbean, were she took a podium place at third in class in the RORC Caribbean 600.
Meanwhile, with the sheer power of the Super Maxi Leopard 3 resulting in the overall IRC win for the much-modified Farr-designed veteran, it had nevertheless looked for a while as though Balthasar was going to take the top IRC trophy until the race tracker showed she’d come to a sudden stop - with just under 15 miles to the finish - after she’d been showing 14-15 knots while rocketing upwind from Redonda.
The only statement when her splendid dash suddenly halted was: “Sadly, we’ve had to retire”. No further information was forthcoming. But after she’d got to port, a long lens provided the answer. It may well be that Balthasar is looking for a new backstay man. For they’ve very intention of getting back into the thick of it at top level racing in the very near future.
Oh dear……the crew of Balthasar, on their way to winning the RORC Caribbean 600 2026 with just 15 miles to sail, didn’t say why they’d suddenly retired. But in port the reason was painfully visible.
