Racing sailors like to say that if you want to win, then take a gun to a knife fight. US sailor Lloyd Thornburg has got himself an appropriate weapon in his new boat, MOD70 trimaran Phaedo3. Get a tour of this phenomenal trimaran here.

With a rock star crew of Michel Desjoyeaux, Brian Thompson, Pete Cumming and Sam Goodchild, Thornburg is aiming to blaze round the RORC Caribbean 600 race to line honours, and hopefully to set a new course record this week. The record of 40 hours 11 mins has stood since 2009, when it was set on an ORMA 60 trimaran.

To say she’s fast would be a huge understatement: the boat made the crossing from Brittany to Antigua in February in just over nine days.

In this video, Brian Thompson takes us on a tour of the new Phaedo (Thornburg’s previous regatta weapon was a Gunboat 66). Brian shows us the curved foils and explains how they work, the rotating and canting wingmast, and the hydraulic systems that depower the mainsail and are an essential safety feature on this massively powered up multihulls.

The video also shows what the accommodation looks like below – small, but with everything needed for offshore racing.

Commenting on his new project, Thornburg says:

“Brian Thompson and I have been working on getting a MOD 70 for two years and it only came to fruition in January. Phaedo 3 sailed direct from France, across the Atlantic. She was originally Foncia, skippered by Michel Desjoyeaux and Michel will be racing with us for the RORC Caribbean 600. Brian Thompson put all the crew together and from what he has told me about Michel, he is an extraordinary sailor.

“For me this race is just fantastic, once you have gone around this course fast, you just want to go faster and that is the real driving force behind the MOD70. As far as the record is concerned, the boat and the crew are capable of beating it but we will wait to see what the conditions are like for the race and we know we have to finish the course before we can start talking about record pace. Besides keeping our eye on the competition, we will be watching the clock for sure.”