English Harbour, Antigua: 19th February 2018
Ludde Ingvall’s CQS starts the Caribbean 600 ocean race today with a top crew and a new DSS foil, in what is expected to be a very fast race. Watch leader Chris Dickson commented, “the forecast is for about 25 knots of breeze, a lot of breeze, it’s going to be a tough race, we’re ready to go.”
The race, organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club, starts from English Harbour, Antigua, with the fleet of 88 boats from 22 nations blasting around a 600 mile course using Caribbean Islands as marks.
Since arriving in the Caribbean before Christmas CQS has continued the development of their DSS foil, and have the latest version installed for this race.
Talking before the start Ludde Ingvall said, “I think Rambler will be extremely hard to beat in this kind of race, because there’s a lot of reaching in the 80 to 100 degree wind angle conditions, with lots of breeze. The wind is not perfect for us, but we are going to learn a lot about what the foil does, and particularly this new one.”
The crew includes New Zealand sailing legends Chris Dickson and Rodney Keenan, plus many of the team that sailed the boat to line honours in the RORC Trans Atlantic Race.
In previous races during this Caribbean season CQS has broken the race record from Barbados to Antigua by an impressive 14 hours.