Caribbean 600: Top 10 Sweep

The team on Teasing Machine began their 2016 season the same way they ended 2015: as class winners. After taking IRC 3 in the Sydney-Hobart Race, they loaded the 43 foot Archambault A13 on the same ship as Comanche, beat that maxi to Antigua (thanks to starting several days earlier from a different port), and then won IRC 1 in the Caribbean 600—which was the event that had forced them to hurry from Hobart to Antigua. Overall they finished third in the seventy boat fleet, the first boat under 50 feet ever to make it onto the event’s biggest podium.

“We like to win, but not at all costs,” owner Eric De Turkheim explained on the dock afterward. He said the team toasted the glorious sailing conditions—and their performance—with an evening glass of red wine.

Teasing Machine tactician Laurent Pages says, “We were careful to avoid making any big loss and one of the key areas was Guadeloupe; we didn’t stop at all in the wind shadow of the island and a lot of that was due to our navigator, Jeremie Beyou.”

With a carbon deck, twin wheels and twin rudders, Teasing Machine has a lot of stability and power, and she ate up the Caribbean tradewind reaching conditions. Her North Sails inventory includes 3Di ENDURANCETM sails and nylon spinnakers.

Congratulations to the rest of the top ten finishers, all powered by North Sails: Proteus, Momo, Jethou, Comanche, Spookie, Nikata, Tonnerre 4, Team Brunel, and La Bête. North also helped teams win the top five spots in IRC Z, top three in IRC CK, top two in Multihull, and first in the Class40 and superyachts classes.