Jan 16 : Fresh from winning the IMOCA Globe Series title in 2025, Britain’s Sam Goodchild has quickly shifted from the solitude of solo ocean racing to the intensity of fully crewed competition, helping break the RORC Transatlantic Race record aboard Argo, the MOD70 trimaran owned by Jason Carroll.
Argo completed the 3,000-nautical-mile crossing from Lanzarote to Antigua on Friday in four days, 23 hours, 51 minutes and 15 seconds, setting a race record and claiming Multihull Line Honours.
Goodchild, 36, who dominated the IMOCA Globe Series last season and secured the overall title in November, joined a fully crewed offshore campaign under skipper Chad Corning.
The six-man crew also included Pete Cumming, Charles Ogletree, Alister Richardson and Brian Thompson.
“Why am I on Argo?” Goodchild said smiling on arrival in Antigua. “It’s good fun. Basically, it’s a great boat. The MOD70s are awesome boats.
“I sailed them a bit a few years ago … and raced with Argo for the RORC Caribbean 600 two years ago. Chad Corning invited me to come down, and (it’s) doing it with a bunch of great people on a great boat.
“And … it’s a pretty quick trip for us,” he added.
Goodchild explained that part of the appeal is that Argo is more agile than the larger, even faster Ultim multihulls he has also sailed.
“You can throw it around,” he said of the 70ft Argo. With six people you can do whatever you want, whenever you want. The manoeuvres are really quick – about 20 seconds. On an Ultim it can take several minutes, so it’s just smaller and more manageable.”
SIMPLICITY KEY TO PERFORMANCE
Goodchild said the boat’s simplicity was key to its performance.
“On Argo we’re doing 35 to 40 knots and it feels easy. The boat goes fast without much trouble and it’s a lot of fun. It’s a different game.
“(But) it’s all about having people on board you trust so you can get to sleep properly, and then they can trust you when they want to go to sleep. I mean, multihulls all have got a little bit of danger involved in them, and part of the fun is trying to find that balance of risk and reward.”
The new record comfortably eclipsed the previous Antigua race benchmark, set by the Volvo 70 Green Dragon in 2021, which took more than nine days to complete the crossing.
Organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC) with partners including the International Maxi Association and the Yacht Club de France, the RORC Transatlantic Race has quickly established itself as one of offshore sailing’s most respected ocean contests since its modern launch in 2014.
Run biennially, recent editions have been held in January, starting from Marina Lanzarote in the Canary Islands and finishing in the Caribbean.
Spanning roughly 3,000 nautical miles, the race attracts a broad and competitive fleet, from cutting-edge multihulls and grand-prix monohulls to powerful IRC racers and Corinthian crews.
It uniquely brings together Olympic medallists, America’s Cup veterans and round-the-world sailors alongside ambitious amateurs, all tested by sustained trade-wind sailing where preparation, weather strategy and endurance matter as much as raw speed.
(Reportingby Ossian Shine; Editing by Ken Ferris)
