Chris Tibbs, an Ambassador for Raymarine, took overall victory in the Azores and Back Race (AZAB), a double-handed endurance race from Falmouth, UK, to the Azores and return. Racing a J105 Taika with Don ‘Jawsie’ Wright, Chris convincingly won the IRC 3 class on both the outward and return legs of the race, and secured the overall race win on corrected time. Taika is fully fitted with integrated Raymarine electronics.

Chris is an experienced round-the-world yachtsman and professional weather forecaster. When faced with a difficult range of weather conditions in this year’s AZAB, Chris was able to use his
Raymarine equipment to give precise information and formulate his navigational strategy; with RayTech software enabling him to overlay weather grid files on his computer he was able to turn a difficult 200 mile beat in 35 knot winds at the end of the first leg to advantage, pulling ahead by over 14 hours on corrected time in IRC 3.

Chris says; “I’m delighted with our result, and there’s no question that our integrated Raymarine electronics equipment was a big help during the race in allowing us to push the boat hard. Our
SPX10 inboard autopilot in particular was fantastic. Integrated with our ST70 wind instruments it meant that we could set our course to either a compass bearing or to the wind direction. We were also both very impressed with our new remote controller for the Autopilot, which meant that we could fine tune our course from our sail trim position, which certainly helped to give us an advantage. By having the C90W widescreen chart plotter in the cockpit, it meant we could undertake all our navigation work on deck, rather than from the cabin.”

As experienced round the world racers, both Chris and Don are no strangers to the challenges of ocean sailing. Having Raymarine’s LifeTag man overboard alert system onboard gave the pair the
additional peace of mind they needed to perform to their best in this race. Chris says; “Safety is a big thing in short-handed racing, but we knew we could rely on the LifeTag’s loud alarm and ability to fix the boat’s exact position when the alarm is activated should one or the
other of us have fallen overboard.”