RORC Morgan Cup Race 2022 – Preview

by Louay Habib 16 Jun 07:32 EST
17 June 2022

The Royal Ocean Racing Club Season’s Points Championship continues with the 8th race of the series, the Morgan Cup Race. Starting from the Royal Yacht Squadron Line at 1800 BST on the 17th of June.

The intention is to start the RORC fleet to the east and around the southside of the Isle of Wight. The final destination will be Dartmouth where a warm welcome awaits from the Royal Dart Yacht Club. 44 teams have entered the Morgan Cup Race competing for the overall win under the IRC Rating Rule and for IRC Class Honours.

Favourite for Line Honours will be Antoine Magre’s Class40 Palanad 3, one of the world’s fastest Class40s. Palanad 3 won her class in the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race and the 2021 RORC Transatlantic Race overall. Magre will also be taking on the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race this August.

For the Morgan Cup Race Palanad 3 is also entered under IRC, it will be very interesting to see how the team fair against the fleet after time correction. Joining Antoine Magre for the Morgan Cup will be the highly accomplished young British navigator Will Harris and Dutch protégé Rosie Kuiper, both are destined to compete in The Ocean Race 2022-23.

The largest and highest rated boat in IRC One for the Morgan Cup Race is Jonathan Butler’s Swan 62 Coco de Mer. Returning to the UK offshore arena is Tom Kneen’s JPK 1180 Sunrise, overall winner of the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race and class winner for the 2022 RORC Caribbean 600.

Fresh from winning the North Sea Race overall…