Ireland is well represented in today's RORC Transatlantic Race by two Irish sailors onboard two hot boats in the 24-boat fleet for the 3,000-miler.
Royal Cork's Tom McWilliam is onboard a race favourite, the Farr 100 Leopard 3 (MON), skippered by Chris Sherlock, who is expected to line up against five former round-the-world racing yachts in the IRC Super Zero division.
As Afloat previously reported, Solent-based McWilliam is a regular on the sleek racer, having competed most recently in the 2023 Middle Sea Race last October.
Roy P. Disney’s Pyewacket 70 (USA) is making its race debut and is the biggest threat to Leopard.
Also racing is former Dublin Bay sailor Christy Welsh, who is onboard the Pac52 Warrior Won, the winner of the 2022 Caribbean 600 race when Howth's Shane Diviney was on board.
Welsh raced earlier this year on the Maxi A Galateia with a strong Irish crew and also the Wally Cento and the Volvo 70, Tschuss.
The Royal Ocean Racing Club’s 10th-anniversary edition of the RORC Transatlantic Race will start from Lanzarote on the 7th of January 2024 at midday. The fleet will set off from Marina Lanzarote to race across the Atlantic Ocean, bound for Port Louis Marina in Grenada, West Indies.
The much anticipated two-handed entry of Dublin's Conor Corson on the Sunfast 3300 Asgard did not materialise, but Corson is competing as boat captain on board Pata Negra skippered by ISORA's Andrew Hall.
An estimated six Maxi yachts will be vying for the overall win under IRC, as well as the IMA Transatlantic Trophy awarded to the first Maxi yacht to complete the race.
Six Multihulls are expected in the MOCRA class, including an unprecedented four 70ft trimarans vying for Multihull Line Honours.
The big boat entries feature all-carbon boats with canting keels; two Volvo 70 entries from Johannes Schwarz in Ocean Breeze (NED) and Green Dragon (AUT). Jens Lindner’s Volvo 70 HYPR (ESP), and Farr 65 Sisi (AUT), skippered by Gerwin Jansen, are ramping up for the battle.
As regular Afloat readers know, Sunday's course was changed to remove a requirement to leave the Canary Islands to port due to weather.
