Diverse ORC fleet enjoys close fast racing to Palm Beach
Palm Beach, USA - December 09, 2023 - Thirty Racer and CruiserRacer designs from 14 US states enjoyed ideal reaching conditions for the 60-mile 67th annual edition of the Wirth Munroe Race from Miami to Palm Beach on December 1st. This race is the second in the SORC’s Islands in the Stream series, a coastal classic dating back to 1957, and this year featured perfect southeast breezes of 12-15 knots and warm South Florida temperatures.
Race organizers from the Storm Trysail Club and Sailfish Club of Palm Beach used the ORC’s Predominant Reaching Medium model on Time on Time ratings, where overall and ORC Class A victory was earned by Victor Wild‘s Botin TP52 FOX. Only 21.5 minutes behind in corrected time was Leo Vasiliev and the NEKA team’s HH42 INCEPTION, followed 8 minutes later by Austin and Gwen Fragomen‘s Botin 44 INTERLODGE IV, who also won perpetual trophies for being the first Sailfish Club yacht to finish and having the best corrected time for a Sailfish Club yacht.
The ideal reaching conditions prompted David Greenstein and Stephen Murray’s Mills 68 SPACE MONKEY to set a new monohull course record time of 4H 25M 49S, breaking the previous record set by Hap Fauth’s J/V 66 BELLE MENTE in 2018. Jason Carroll’s MOD 70 ARGO still holds the multihull elapsed time record of 2H 36M 35S set in 2022.
Corrected time results in Class B and C were much closer. Chris Saxton‘s J125 VORTICES 2 won ORC B over Jon Desmond‘s Mills 41 FINAL FINAL by a little under 1 minute, with Terry McSweeney’s Melges 32 FLAT STANLEY RACING in third another 6.5 minutes astern.
Yet in Class C the podium finishers were only impressive 15 seconds apart in over 6 hours of racing! John Harvey’s J120 SLEEPING TIGER SOUTH defeated Chris Lewis‘ J44 KENAI by only one second, with Eamonn deLisser and James Bill's Farr 395 SENARA another 14 seconds back.
On the shorter 40-mile Sprint ORC Class D course from Fort Lauderdale to Palm Beach, the racing in corrected time among the top three Class 40’s was also close. Carl Kah III‘s Class 40 PRIVATEER won over Marty Roesch‘s Class 40 VELOCITY by 3.5 minutes, and FK Day‘s Class 40 LONGBOW was another 12 minutes back after about 5 hours of racing.
