The 16th edition of the RORC Caribbean 600 will start on Monday, February 24th, 2025. Starting and finishing in Antigua, this classic Royal Ocean Racing Club's non-stop 600nm race goes around 11 Caribbean islands.
The start is located at English Harbour in Antigua, from where the fleet will sail north to St. Maarten, then south to Les Saintes, near Guadeloupe, passing Barbuda, Nevis, St. Kitts, Saba, and St. Barth's. It is a spectacular and challenging race, requiring many maneuvers, multiple sail changes, and difficult tactical decisions, especially when passing the islands from their lee sides, sheltered from the wind.
The RORC Caribbean 600 is truly an international affair, with over 500 sailors taking part from more than 25 different countries. The first warning signal will sound at Fort Charlotte for an epic race featuring a highly competitive and varied fleet of IRC Offshore boats, Class40s, and Multihulls.
The crews are from 32 different countries, and among them are some of the best sailors in the world: from Olympians, participants of the round-the-world Volvo Ocean Race, Vendee Globe, and America's Cup races to world record holders for circumnavigation.
The classification of monohull yachts will be based on the IRC rating system, which takes into account the varying sizes of competing vessels and sails and allows, through time corrections, to standardize the results. The Polish yacht will be classified in the IRC Super Zero subclass, which includes 15 yachts, 6 of which are in the same class – Volvo Open 70. The start of this group is scheduled for 11:20 on Monday, after two classes of smaller yachts and before the fastest multihulls.
The record time for completing the course for monohull yachts is 1 day, 13 hours, 41 minutes, and 45 seconds, held by the Rambler 88, Maxi (USA), with skipper George David.
The RORC Caribbean 600 is part of the Royal Ocean Racing Club's Season Points Championship, the world's largest offshore racing series, which in 2025 also includes the Rolex Middle Sea Race, RORC Transatlantic Race, and the Rolex Fastnet Race.
Website: For race updates and reports, links to the race tracker, RORC photo gallery, live results and much more, go to: caribbean600.rorc.org
Watch the start live - RORC YouTube + Facebook
From 10.45 AST (+4 UTC) - Watch the start of the RORC Caribbean 600 live with Axxess Marine connectivity, as Race Reporter Louay Habib and guests take us through all the action in the race build-up to the start as it happens. Streamed on RORC YouTub and Facebook.
Race tracker:
All yachts will carry a tracker so you can follow the progress of the whole fleet, particular class or individual boat from the race website: caribbean600.rorc.org/tracking
Photo credit: RORC Caribbean 600 2024