Raphael Blot highlights the upsides of life on a Cat during a long distance race:
‘The MC²60 ‘Mach²’ finished 2nd in the Hong Kong to Vietnam Race behind Ragamuffin 90 skippered by Syd Fisher with around 20 professional sailors on board, ahead of the three TP52, the other 90ft monohull, Chivas and a fleet of racing 40ft monohulls. Mach² sailed the 656 miles in 49h30m. (around 330nm/24h)
Nobody expected us to finish ahead of the TP52 in a downhill race. In Nha Trang, all crews were complaining about how wet of a ride it was, bailing water from inside the boat all the way down. The helmsman had to be attached for fear of being washed off the helm on a Ker 40. The automatic life jacket of one crew of the TP52 Free Fire activated when he was down below!
The only time we were showered on was when we took proper showers. Unlike everybody on the monohulls, we didn’t put on foul weather gear, just shorts and T Shirts only.
While they had a rough time, we had good food and red wine whilst reaching speeds of over 30kts.’
