January 23, 2025


Luckily…records are made to be broken

That’s right. Eventually all the great sporting records fall when new ideas, faster designs, or more favorable conditions allow. Remember how in 2003 when STC Members Rich Wilson and Rich du Moulin broke the 154-year-old Tea Route record from Hong Kong to New York? Well, on Monday, January 20, another record fell.

In 2022, Jim Clark’s VPLP 100 COMANCHE broke the then standing RORC Transatlantic Race monohull record. That record has already been bested by more than an hour by STC Member Bryon Ehrhart’s Juan K Maxi 88 LUCKY, that made the crossing beating COMANCHE’s record over an hour. On a corrected basis, LUCKY finished third in IRC Overall. 

LUCKY’s elapsed time was 07d 20:34:41. See full results.

Bryon had the following to share with his fellow STC Members: 

“We entered LUCKY in the RORC Transatlantic Race because it is a great course in the trade winds with compounding navigational challenges - and it was a great way to get the boat to the Caribbean for this season’s races. 

The race was also a chance to complete our Atlantic experience after sailing from Newport, RI to Southampton, UK years ago. The North Atlantic route is a battle with low pressure systems - very different from this course.

Getting the record in the race was something we could only dream about given its holder was COMANCHE. We must have gotten better breeze than they did because COMANCHE is otherwise unbeatable in the 88. Less than six hours from the finish we thought we were not going to get the record. We seemed to be losing too many battles with storm clouds. In the end we beat the record by more than an hour, but it felt closer than that on board.

The toughest parts of these races are boat preparation and then getting the initial navigation choices to a level that we all are convinced of the routing. The race brought so many transitions and gybes to avoid troublesome clouds. The navigation and crew work to get the record were excellent. We have no regrets from our decisions - a rare feeling after such a long race.”

Lucky crew:  Bryon Ehrhart, Antonio Cuervas mons, Brad Butterworth, Brian Giorgio, Charlie Enright, Chris Lefferdink, Daniele Raddavero, Dean Phipps, Joca Signorini, Jonathan Clough, Jonathan Rankine, Juan Vila, Peter Van Niekerk, Rodney Daniel, Sam Mason, Samuel Rosenbaum, Scott Beavis, Simon Daubney, Stuart Wilson, Will McCarthy.


FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL: