Maiden Racing in the Caribbean 600!

THE ICONIC MAIDEN IS RACING ONCE MORE!
Maiden has not raced since her full restoration after being abandoned in the Seychelles. Now, skippered by Liz Wardley, the all-female crew have set sail in the RORC Caribbean 600, with four guests onboard.

 

 

Maiden is racing once more! The crew have set sail in the offshore racing classic: the RORC Caribbean 600. Setting sail at 15:00GMT on Monday 24th February 2020, the 600nm race circumnavigates around eleven Caribbean Islands. Departing from Fort Charlotte, the race heads north as far as St Martin and then returns southwards towards Guadeloupe, taking in Barbuda, Nevis, St Kitts, Saba and St Barth’s- before finishing back in Antigua.

It’s a diverse fleet, with sailors from at least 37 nations competing. They made up an incredible 73 teams, featuring close to 700 sailors on the starting line! There was a gentle start to the race with a light south easterly breeze- and frustratingly lighter than usual conditions continued for the first 24 hours. However that doesn’t stop the fierce competition, with many in Maiden’s class staying neck and neck around multiple checkpoints- Maiden went around Nevis with the same boats they went around the top mark with.

“The race is going well. We made good gains last night in the lee of Barbuda and then held our own in light downwind to Nevis. We are currently sailing past the gap towards St Kitt where we can see boats are once again becalmed... another transition zone to navigate through! The sun is just coming up, which is a welcome sight as it’s been a long busy night, but all is great on the mighty Maiden,” Said Skipper Liz Wardley in the early morning.

Tuesday continued with a frustrating morning with variable conditions as the sun rose, but still reaching 8 knots. Unfortunately, the wind then dropped to 0-1 knots resulting in a long morning in the sun: fifteen unmoving boats in front of Maiden! However, the team are staying positive and expecting to get around St Barths by this evening. 

 

MAIDEN UPDATE - DAY 3 - BELINDA HENRY

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS ©The Maiden Factor/Amalia Infante

It’s day 3 out here on the RORC 600. We have had a busy night onboard Maiden with sail changes rounding St Barth’s and Sint Maarten. Coming into the early morning on our stretch to Guadalupe has seen us sail into some heavy rain and shifty winds. 

As for me, it’s an incredible feeling to be sailing this legendary boat. After joining Maiden during her refit, sailing on board for the 29,000 miles duration thus far of her world tour, to now being part of the team to sail her on her Maiden race since her restoration...it’s just the icing on the cake!

MAIDEN UPDATE - DAY 4 - LIZ WARDLEY

So the last 35 miles have been pretty good, we’ve been upwind since Redonda, then we got a massive lift nearly pointing towards home! But the breeze just decided to stop, so 5 miles looked like it was going to take 36 hours while there… 

But now we’re honking along, doing 4 knots at boat speed, except the wind is doing probably 70 degree shifts! So when we think we’re making progress, we get a massive header, we tack, we look like we’re famous, then we get a massive header and we have to tack again. So we’re doing a lot of miles in the last five miles. - Liz Wardley

MAIDEN UPDATE - RACE COMPLETE

Maiden has completed the Royal Ocean Racing Club Caribbean 600 race in 3 days, 21 hours and 43 minutes! 

Stats: 

Skipper: Liz Wardley

Owner: Maiden World Tour Inc.

Position at: 28 Feb 2020 09:28 AST

Lat/Lon: 17° 0.67 N, 061° 46.25 W

DTF: Finished at 28 Feb 2020 08:43 AST

Distance (last 24hrs): 160 NM

30th in Line Honours Monohull

23rd in IRC Overall

12th in IRC 1

16th in CSA Overall

11th in CSA 2

Check out our Facebook page for all the race updates. You can also check out our pinned story highlights on Instagram for all the Caribbean 600 behind the scenes shots and never seen before photos!

 

You can track Maiden throughout the race here: Caribbean.600.rorc.org

Keep updated by following The Maiden Factor's story on both Instagram and Facebook. You can also get live updates through our twitter page - links in page footer.