Rambler 88 won monohull line honors this morning, after crossing the Plymouth finish line at 09:55:02. American Owner George David and his all-star crew were delighted to have beaten their rivals on the 100-footer SHK Scallywag to the punch.

For a while it looked like breaking the outright monohull race record was on the cards, especially after Rambler 88 set a new record from Cowes to the Fastnet Rock, George David beating his own record by 88 minutes, which he set on Rambler 100 in 2011. The race back across the Celtic Sea towards the Scilly Isles was also very quick with straight-line sailing at speeds of around 20 knots. But it was the final run into Plymouth from the Scillies that put paid to any race record hopes. In the end, Rambler 88 finished in a time of 1d 19h 55m 2s, 1 hour and 16 minutes off the record set by the Volvo Open 70 Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing in 2011.

Not that George David was complaining. This was his fifth assault on the Rolex Fastnet Race and he has succeeded in repeating his line honors victory from two years ago. “We’re delighted to have that outcome. It was a contest this year because we had the big hundred-footer Scallywag and they had some, should we say, strong statements ahead of the race about how good they were! And so we were especially motivated to get here 10 or 12 miles ahead of them, which we did. And we were in heavy competition right from the start.”

Passing the Rock was an emotional moment for David, with Rambler 88 encountering very similar, rough conditions that had befallen the ill-fated Rambler 100 there eight years ago. As the boat reached the Rock this time, David had no idea that he’d just set a new record to the Fastnet lighthouse. “I had some other things on my mind – from 2011 when we were up there in comparable conditions, 25-30 knots in really lumpy seas a few miles west of the Rock. The keel came off, the boat rolled over and that was the end of that. So we have some special memories. At least I did personally.

“My wife Wendy wasn’t on the boat this time. She was in 2011 and she and I spent three hours in the Celtic Sea courtesy of that little issue. Baltimore lifeboat was there yesterday, to meet and greet and wave and say hello. We know those people pretty well. We’ve been back to Baltimore four or five times since.” David paid tribute to everyone who helped in that rescue operation and remains grateful to this day for an outcome that could have been a lot, lot worse.

Once past the Fastnet, the New Yorker’s mind turned towards the possibility of breaking the race record. It was looking good until the final run in from the Scillies. “Our route plan at the rock was we would finish at six or seven this morning, which would have been ahead of the record. The problem was we turned the corner at the Scillies and came down the Channel and it was VMG the whole way. So we sailed probably an extra 40 or 50 miles. And that extra distance sailed added maybe another two or three hours on to our time.”

Rambler 88‘s navigator, Jules Salter, had just completed his 14th consecutive Fastnet Race but said this was one of the best. “That was a great run on board a fantastic boat with a really good bunch of guys. It would have been great to have beaten the record, but at least I’ve still got the record because I was on board Abu Dhabi in 2011. We’ll have to come back for another go.”

SHK Scallywag finished just 27 minutes after Rambler 88. “It was a very close, exciting race,” said owner Seng Huang Lee. “We had a little bit of everything – fine weather, rough sea and a squall just before we rounded the Rock. But these were the conditions that Rambler was designed for, so congratulations to them.”

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The Rolex Fastnet Race started early again this year, kicking off at midday on a cold and gloomy January Monday. This start wasn’t on a crowded Solent, but rather at the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s offices in London when the online entry portal opened for business. There were 340 places available in the IRC fleet, and they were all gone in 4 minutes and 37 seconds — a mere 13 seconds outside the record achieved in 2017. The reserve list has a hundred boats on it.

The record sign-up runs counter to all the things we read about modern life — ­attention spans are dropping; no one wants to do anything for more than a couple of hours; the multiplicity of entertainment now on offer is diluting participation generally; and sailing in particular has lost its way in attracting and keeping its people.

None of which seem to apply to the Fastnet Race. The first boat to enter this year was Venomous, a Farr-designed, Carroll Marine 60 owned by Derek and Sandra Saunders. Derek has completed 14 Fastnet races, going back to the 1980s. They now race their boat as a business called Windward Sailing, which offers paying clients the opportunity to do the race, along with all the qualifying sailing.

The desire to participate in the RORC’s classic has made the entry period a stressful time. “It’s led to a stressful New Year for those who really want and need to do the race,” Derek says. “As a charter company, we need to reassure our clients that their participation is assured as long as the sailing part is complete, and not be told ‘sorry we can’t sail the race as we do not have an entry.’”

The demand to do the Fastnet — whether from individuals signing up with companies such as Windward Sailing or owners wanting to take their own boats — comes at a time when the entry and qualification demands are stricter than ever. In the case of the Fastnet, the experience ­requirements mean that at least 50 percent of the crew must sail 300 nautical miles of RORC (or equivalent) racing, sailed within 12 months of the start of the race. There are additional rules mandating that survival and first-aid training be undertaken as well. And that’s just the crew. Each boat must meet OSR Category 2, plus the RORC’s additional prescriptions.

Given all hurdles — and let’s not get started on the cost — what is it about these races that keeps bringing people back in such huge numbers? The first boat from the United States to enter the 2019 race was Joseph Mele, with his Cookson 50 Triple Lindy. Ironically, he didn’t have to rush — as a RORC member he gets a week to register interest in the race, since members have first priority — but he did anyway. “I was too excited about the race not to submit my entry as soon as possible,” he says.

Mele’s crew consists of committed offshore racers; they raced the Newport Bermuda, Sydney Hobart, Fastnet and Middle Sea Race in one 16-month period and also have done the Caribbean 600. When they first entered for the Fastnet in 2017, the entry period came right after they had completed the 2016 Sydney Hobart Race.

“I was vacationing in New Zealand with my family, and because of the time difference I had two crew members back in the USA assigned to submit our entry as soon as the process opened,” he says. It turns out the back-up was necessary, after an internet connection failed. “It took us 28 minutes to submit the entry, and after reading that over 400 boats had applied in the first five minutes or so, I was sure we had missed out.”

RELATED: Full for the Fastnet Race

What is the appeal for Mele?

“I came to offshore racing from a cruising background,” he says. “I love the natural beauty of being offshore for sunrises, sunsets and different weather systems. I enjoy putting a fun, compatible and competent crew together to tackle the adventures and challenges that offshore racing involves.”

Derek Saunders also sees the ­attraction of the personal challenge. “The Fastnet Race is an iconic race that represents to many weekend sailors their personal Everest,” he says.

Saunders started taking people around the Fastnet Rock 30 years ago. “The 1979 Fastnet disaster brought the race to the attention of the general public, as it received a lot of media coverage. It’s ironic that instead of putting people off the idea of competing in the race, many see it as a challenge — which of course it is.”

Eddie Warden Owen, the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s chief executive, has noticed that offshore racing now appeals to an entirely different group of people than those that race inshore. And he feels that this might be the key to its growth — the sustainability of so many other long-distance ocean races such as the Bermuda Race, Transpac and the newer Caribbean 600.

“There used to be quite a big overlap years ago,” he says. “People would do the Solent points [a series of inshore day races], and they would do offshore racing. Now it’s clear from the IRC Europeans that we did last year that inshore racing appeals to a much narrower band of people. We only had 30-odd boats; we had half the fleet that we expected. Very few of those were the boats that really sail with us offshore.

“The offshore people didn’t want to do the inshore racing, and the inshore guys didn’t want to do the offshore, and that was interesting. Also, when the Offshore Sailing World Championships was going on in Scheveningen in Holland with just under 100 boats, there were 125 boats doing the Cowes to Dinard to St. Malo Race.”

There are people who want to go offshore, he adds, because of the quality of the crews they have.

“If you want to win inshore, you’ve got to really be on the boil with crew, with your boathandling and performance, you really need to be up there,” Warden Owen says. “Yet offshore, you can have a really good race, and the result doesn’t really matter — you’re with your mates, you’re with your friends. You’ve got more time to change sails. The tack at the windward mark doesn’t really matter that much. It’s about strategy and tactics. And it’s probably about switching the phone off and saying, ‘I’m away from work, I’m doing something that I enjoy, and I’m with a group of friends that I enjoy sailing with.’

“I can only imagine that that’s why people prefer it. They know they can’t win inshore, but they have a chance of getting a decent result offshore, which enthuses them. Then there’s the challenge of the navigation, there’s the arrival at a port and a nice meal, a few drinks with your mates, and then somebody steers the boat back while you have a sleep.”

Warden Owen suspects that the success of the Fastnet is an extension of its popularity. “Because it has got a worldwide reputation, and the fact that it’s limited to 340 boats means there has been a bit of a push to try and get in the race,” he says. “And it has come down to how quick are you on your computer at midday, the first week in January.”

The popularity of offshore racing is not restricted to the Fastnet; while the RORC’s glamorous centrepiece is the big daddy in this field, the Newport Bermuda Race attracted 170 entries to the starting line in 2018, the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race had 92, and the Caribbean 600 (also run by the RORC) got a record of 88 boats in 2018. The Rolex Middle Sea Race also drew a new record of 131 registered entrants in 2018, the race’s 50th-anniversary running.

While such races remain popular, the entry levels are mostly static and short of the entry limit, however. There is something about the Fastnet in particular, and much of that might just be about accessibility. There are lots boats geographically close to the racecourse, particularly in some of the powerhouses of offshore racing — France, Holland, Germany, Scandinavia and the U.K. While the phenomena is reflected worldwide to some extent, it is strongest in Northern Europe, and it finds its greatest expression in the one classic race in the region — the Fastnet.

“To back up this idea that in our area, the Channel, Northern Europe, offshore racing is getting stronger is the fact that last year, all our races were above the target that we’d set,” Warden Owen says. “We were above all those targets in 2018, a non-Fastnet year. This year we would expect it to be up again [because of the Fastnet], but we think it will be above 2017, because the interest seems to be growing.”

The RORC has played its part in ­encouraging the growth by simplifying online entry with a bespoke software system that records and stores each entry’s unique details.

“If you come back every two years, it’s there, all your information is there,” Warden Owen says, “and we try and make sure that everybody gets into the same marina; we have a great party at the end, and I think we try and make the competitor experience as challenging and fun as possible.”

Whatever the secret sauce may be, long may it continue to work.

The biennial Newport Bermuda Race serves as one barometer of the health of ocean racing in the United States. Despite increased safety regulations and costs to compete, the race has maintained healthy participation for two decades.

• 2000 – 175 starters
• 2002 – 182
• 2004 – 154
• 2006 – 263 (centennial year)
• 2008 – 197
• 2010 – 183
• 2012 – 165
• 2014 – 163
• 2016 – 133 (predicted storm)
• 2018 – 170

The post Iconic Distant Races Like the Rolex Fastnet Race Thrive in Spite of Barriers to Entry appeared first on Sailing World.

Once again, the Rolex Fastnet Race has confirmed itself to be by far the world’s largest offshore yacht race. After the entry for the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s flagship event was opened at 1200 UTC, the 340 available places for boats in the IRC fleet were all taken within just four minutes and 37 seconds. This was just 13 seconds outside the record time recorded in 2017.

The first entry to sign up on the RORC’s Sailgate online entry system for the biennial 605-mile race from Cowes to Plymouth via the Fastnet Rock off southwest Ireland, was regular competitor Derek Saunders and his Farr 60 Venomous. He narrowly beat the German Hamburgischer Verein Seefahrt club’s Judel Vrolijk 52 Haspa Hamburg and Tom Kneen’s JPK 11.80 Sunrise who were next fastest.

After the first two minutes, 180 boats had already been entered successfully. After the first frenetic four minutes and 37 seconds when the maximum entry limit was reached, subsequent requests were filtered through to the reserve list. Ultimately, after the deluge subsided, 440 boats had entered in total.

Yachts from 25 countries are due to take part this year: The bulk of these are from the UK, from where 201 boats were registered, followed by the dominant French (winners of the last three editions of the Rolex Fastnet Race) with 81 and the Netherlands with 33.

The entry includes a strong contingent of 16 boats from the United States, many making the passage across to the UK in the Rolex Transatlantic Race 2019. This leaves Newport, Rhode island on June 25, bound for Cowes via the Lizard and is organized by the RORC in conjunction with the New York Yacht Club, Royal Yacht Squadron and Storm Trysail Club. Entries from further afield have been received from Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Turkey, Hong Kong and Korea among others.

This strong entry shows that the change of date has made little impression on the desire to do the Rolex Fastnet Race: The start date was moved to Saturday, 3 August and for the first time it will be setting off before Lendy Cowes Week (rather than on the traditional Sunday immediately after it).

For the RORC’s Australian Racing Manager Chris Stone this is his first Rolex Fastnet entry day experience since taking up his position in Cowes a year ago: “It has been unbelievably busy. Before 1200 we had about 500 people who were all on standby, logged into their accounts, which was a good indicator about how busy it was going to be. Then we went straight to 340 and on to 440, including the waiting list.”

Among the entries is at least one 100-foot maxi while Stone reckons that one of the top fights in the race will potentially be between the six Cookson 50s.

It should be noted that with the Rolex Fastnet Race the RORC has led the way among the organizers of the world’s classic 600 milers in inviting other grand prix racing yacht classes to compete outside of the main IRC fleet. This has led to the race featuring some of the very best offshore racing hardware from yachts competing in the Volvo Ocean Race to the giant 100-foot long French Ultime multihulls and the IMOCA 60s of the Vendée Globe. For 2019, an especially strong line-up of Class 40s is anticipated. “We are expecting around another 50 boats – thirty Class 40s and twenty IMOCA boats,” Stone forecasts.

Meanwhile for the fleet, there remains the qualification process that will take place over the course of the 2019 season, with teams required to gain adequate miles and experience in order to meet the Rolex Fastnet Race’s stringent entry requirements. Competing yachts must complete more than 300 race miles with at least 50 percent of their Rolex Fastnet Race crew onboard.

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Probably the toughest battle in the 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race was the duel for the lead in the largest class of the smallest boats, IRC Four. This was an all-French affair, both in French-built JPK 10.10 sisterships and both teams from northern France. However one was doublehanded from Cherbourg; the other fully crewed from Le Havre. And they have considerable history.

In 2013 the father and son team of Pascal and Alexis Loisin aboard Night and Day became the first doublehanded crew ever to win the Rolex Fastnet Race not just in their class, but outright, ahead of all the fully crewed boats. But in second place overall that year was Noel Racine’s Foggy Dew. This was also the case two years ago when Night and Day finished fifth overall with Foggy Dew ninth. And while it would be nice to say that it was third time lucky for Racine’s Le Havre crew, in fact, Pascal Loisin, the Cherbourg-based orthopaedic surgeon and his professional Figaro sailor son Alexis prevailed once again. This time both boats were racing in the same class, Night and Day’s time correcting to out to 2 hours 13 minutes ahead of her rival, although this year neither made an impression on the overall IRC results, which favoured larger boats.

“It was very nice race…” Alexis Loisin began, his father interjecting: “It was a bit hard at the beginning! I don’t think I have spent the best part of three days of upwind like that!”

The Loisins were pleased with their tactics at Portland Bill where they went very inshore (too far inshore, judging from the look on the face of père Loisin), however that gained them three miles. Crossing the Celtic Sea, their tactics were conservative, not hitting one or other side of the course hard although they are renowned for tacking on every shift. However they did err to the right of the rhumb line en route to the Fastnet Rock leaving them in good shape when the wind veered right.

The fight for IRC Four honours was initially between four boats including the lead duo, another JPK 10.10 Richard Fromentin’s Cocody and the rather different S&S 41 heavyweight, Harry J Heijst’s Winsome. “The first to separate was Cocody which made a small mistake and after that it was Winsome and from Land’s End to the Fastnet it was just the two of us fighting,” recounted Racine.

Incredibly, the two nimble JPK 10.10s led the whole IRC fleet at the Fastnet Rock. Racine continued:

“We were very close, but we fell into a wind hole 100m from the Fastnet and stopped for two minutes and they disappeared.” Night and Day is recorded as rounding Fastnet Rock 20 minutes ahead on corrected time and their lead just increased from there. “Then a patch of light wind was coming from astern, so the boats behind had more difficulty than us, but the boats ahead were gone,” Racine explained, or as Alexis Loisin put it after the Fastnet, “we took the wind and closed the door. Maybe we had 20 knots, but I think Foggy Dew only had 15. We extended by 10-11 miles.”

While the JPK 10.10s had the best conditions going to the Rock, the larger planing boats came into their own, recovering their lost time downwind and reaching in the second half of the race towards the Plymouth finish.

Aside from winning IRC Four, Night and Day also claimed the IRC Two Handed prize, which they had won in 2013 but lost to Kelvin Rawlings and Stuart Childerley on the J/105 Jester in 2015. This year, the Loisins said they had been worried about the bigger J/122e Ajeto! sailed by Dutch Two Handed Champions, Robin Verhoef and John van der Starre. The Netherlands boat had been leading the IRC Two Handed class until Night and Day finally overhauled them yesterday, leaving them second.

The Dutch duo, racing their new boat which they have optimised for two handed racing, had an up and down race.

“We sailed well, but we had some bad luck with a wind hole at the Lizard,” said Verhoef. “We were not close enough to the shore and not far enough from the shore to get away from there. There was a big wind hole and we had to anchor twice for about 30 minutes letting out 120m of line!”

This episode dropped them to 13th by the time they reached Land’s End, however they recovered this lost ground by going up the favourable east side of the Land’s End traffic separation scheme and then sailing into the favourable right hand shift in the Celtic Sea.

“The Irish Sea was like lake sailing – wind shift-tack, wind shift-tack,” said van der Starre. “Then at the TSS we were up with the leaders in the group again.” They rounded the Fastnet Rock shortly before dawn, under the full moon. After the prolonged upwind conditions, there was tangible relief as they turned downwind. “That was one big smile. Then at the Scillies we saw for the first time we were leading our class again.”

However soon after they got stuck in another wind hole forcing them to back down the course and then sail south in order to extricate themselves. It was this that allowed Night & Day to move ahead of them in the IRC Two Handed class.

Third overall in the IRC Two-Handed was Rob Craigie and Deb Fish on the Sun Fast 3600 Bellino. They are also the first winners of a new prize being offered to the first Mixed Two-Handed yacht overall. Craigie and Fish were generally pleased with their race. The low point was went the wind went light for them off Plymouth.

“Some people went right inshore and they pulled out miles on us,” said Craigie. They made a good job of the outbound Celtic Sea crossing and maintaining some height reaped rewards. “We got lifted so we didn’t have to tack in the last bit,” said Fish of the final run into the Fastnet Rock. “Those boats ahead of us that did, like Game On, and had to tack lost a lot.”

Once again the blast back from the Rock was among the most memorable of sails.

“It was moonlit night and we were hooning along, going like a train with a few dolphins around. It was just great, only we were having such a good time we overstood!” recalled Fish, who was helming at that point.

The reach to the finish from Bishop Rock was a case of having the perfect sail for the job even if they were forced to push their asymmetric beyond its comfort zone.

“It really paid over the whole of that 60 mile reach. We were catching Redshift,” concluded Craigie. As to their third place behind Night and Day, Fish admitted: “They are in a different league, but that is the nice thing about the race – you get to pit yourself against the best.”

This morning, the sole remaining all-female IRC Two Handed yacht arrived in Kirsteen Donaldson and Judith Eastwood, sailing the X-332 Pyxis. Donaldson reported that the race itself was not without challenges.

“We endured 400 miles on the wind, which was quite tough. The race wasn’t unkind but it was just a bit frustrating in places, with some very quiet patches. We had to put a lot of tacks in around the Fastnet Rock, and we also encountered a light patch south of the Lizard. We hit a tidal gate there just at the wrong time, so we were stuck for a bit. We had a quiet run into the finish, but although we had to work hard to keep the boat moving the last bit was an enjoyable stretch of sailing.”

The post Third Time’s the Charm for Night and Day appeared first on Sailing World.

Overnight and into a magnificent West Country morning, boats have been streaming across the Rolex Fastnet Race finish line and into Plymouth Yacht Haven. With this the leaders in the bigger classes have begun firming up along with the prospects for the boat will be the crowned overall winner under IRC in the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s biennial flagship offshore race.

American Ron O’Hanley’s Cookson 50, Privateer is the leader in the IRC Zero from the Ker 46 Lady Mariposa, and yesterday seemed to be in good shape to take the overall prize across the 312-boat IRC fleet vying for the Fastnet Challenge Cup. However overnight the IRC One leader Lann Ael 2, the JND 39 of Paris-based Didier Gaudoux pulled into the lead. In IRC One the powerful looking La Crouesty based boat holds a lead of more than two and a half hours on corrected time over the equally angular Lombard 46, Pata Negra, being campaigned by the Dutch de Graaf family of Baraka Ker 40 fame.

“We had a fantastic race – we were lucky with the weather,” said Gaudoux. “The conditions were quite good for the team and the crew and the passage from Fastnet Rock to the Scilly Isles was perfect for us.” However at present there are many smaller boats still capable of lifting the overall IRC prize off the IRC One leader.

Last night, first home on the water in IRC One was James Neville’s Ino XXX, winner of May’s Myth of Malham race. Like all of the planing boats, the HH42 enjoyed the downhill conditions enabling them to blast back from the Fastnet Rock, hitting speeds into the mid-20s and covering 75 miles in four hours. This made up for the headbang of an uphill struggle they experienced outbound to the Rock. As Neville recounted: “We found it quite challenging because the chop was quite short and the heavier boats, like the Italian boat [Vittorio Biscarini’s magnificent Mylius-designed 50 footer, Ars Una], make better way in those conditions. Off the Lizard we went inside and they found more wind offshore. We were the last boat to go to the east of the TSS.”

In IRC Two Gilles Fournier and Corinne Migraine’s J/133 Pintia is looking good for first prize following their arrival at the finish line at 05:33 this morning.

“We had some good results already in IRC Two this year,” said Fournier. “But the Rolex Fastnet Race is the peak of the season. We have had an internal battle with our friends on Lisa, including Commodore of the RORC Michael Boyd, since the beginning of the season.”

Due to the tidal state at the time, Pintia went to the west of the all-important traffic separation scheme off the Scilly Isles. Fournier said he enjoyed rounding the Fastnet Rock, even though it was at night. “You are pleased when you round that because it is an amazing place. You wouldn’t want to spend your holidays there, but it is a legendary place and we are now part of the legend.”

Nick and Suzi Jones’ First 44.7 Lisa, skippered by RORC Commodore Michael Boyd, finished 36 minutes after Pintia this time correcting out into second place, 1 hour 13 minutes behind of the French boat on corrected time.

Boyd acknowledged that Pintia had stolen a march on them at Portland Bill. “We failed to get to there in time. Pintia went in and we probably should have followed her and they just managed to get through the gap. We went outside and lost quite a few miles but we gained them back at Lyme Bay when an awful lot of boats went in and we were surprised to see some of our competitors at anchor there. We were further offshore, in the wind. That kept us up with the IRC One boats.”

The boats in Lisa’s group saw 25 knots on the nose, some of the strongest conditions crossing the Celtic Sea to the Fastnet Rock, requiring the crew to live on the rail. Boyd described the Fastnet Rock, off his native Ireland, as “extraordinary, absolutely magical”. While the First 44.7 isn’t a weapon downwind, the boat had a bowsprit and asymmetric spinnakers added to her Banks sail inventory for this season, aiding their return journey back from the Rock.

Lisa currently lies second in IRC Two and eighth overall under IRC, results with which Boyd was pleased. “I don’t know if we had the best of the conditions, but certainly it is a great result and does seem to show that we were very favoured. But we had a great group of guys, everybody very focused, very good food, lots of stories and lots of laughs.”

This afternoon the leaders in IRC Three and Four are due, along with the Two Handed class, where the Loisin father and son, Pascal and Alexis, on their 2013 overall Rolex Fastnet Race winning JPK 10.10 Night and Day have taken the lead from Ajeto!, the J/122e of Robin Verhoef and John Van Der Starre.

Track the fleet in the Rolex Fastnet Race: http://cf.yb.tl/fastnet2017 www.rolexfastnetrace.com

The post Class Leaders Firming up in Rolex Fastnet appeared first on Sailing World.

Unchallenged, Concise 10 blazed into Plymouth this morning, first boat home in the 47th Rolex Fastnet Race. Tony Lawson’s MOD70 trimaran crossed the finish line off Plymouth breakwater at 05:55:00 BST with a race time of 42 hours and 55 minutes. This time didn’t come close to the overall multihull record for the Rolex Fastnet Race but it was still respectable considering they sailed upwind all the way to the Fastnet Rock.

Dockside at Plymouth Yacht Haven, a beaming Tony Lawson commented, “to take the record for the Round the Island Race just a few weeks ago and then this… they deserve it, they have sailed well. Everyone thinks multihulls can’t go to weather, but we led three state of the art monohulls around the Rock by about 100 miles and we led them into Plymouth by 200 miles. So if you want to go fast you have to get yourself a multihull!”

Skipper Ned Collier Wakefield said he had enjoyed the start, leaving the Solent amid the giant spectator fleet and the journey back from the Fastnet Rock:

“Last night we gybed south and just sat there doing 30+ knots in flat water and brought that pressure all the way in. The moon was out so you could see what was going on.” As to their exceptional performance to the Rock he added that the MOD70 was sailing upwind, typically making 21 knots at 50 degrees. “The MOD70 is an amazing machine. Every time we go out we still come back smiling.”

Among Concise 10‘s crew were Paul Larsen, the world’s fastest sailor (who sailed Vestas Sailrocket 2 at 65.45 knots average over 500m in 2012) and towering Rio 2016 Finn gold medallist and Land Rover BAR crew Giles Scott, sailing his first offshore race.

“It was really good,” said Scott. “Upwind, it felt like a long way out to the Fastnet, although I know a lot of the fleet have still got to go through all of that. On the turn round, when we started ripping downwind, Land’s End didn’t feel that far away at all. The fastest speed I saw was 36 knots.” But fairly pedestrian compared to the 40+ knot speeds he was seeing during the America’s Cup in Bermuda? “Not at night in a seaway! These boats are awesome – get the boards set up right and they just fly. They are amazing bits of kit.”

Ned Collier Wakefield said of his new crewman:

“Giles enjoyed it. We scared him quite a few times! He’s not used to heeling over quite so much! He was on the helm on that favourable run back from Bishop and he had a lot of fun. I think he might have the offshore bug – apart from the freeze-dried food… And the lack of sleep… And the cold…”

At the time Concise 10 finished, the first monohull, George David’s Rambler 88, still had 224 nm to go to the finish. Her ETA is now around 0300 tomorrow morning.

Back in the race proper the biggest monohulls are now round the Fastnet Rock and, thanks to their now sailing downwind are pulling ahead under IRC. At 0900 CET Rambler 88 was mid-Celtic Sea on a long gybe east, but had pulled into the lead, not just in IRC Zero, but overall under IRC, taking over the yellow jersey from the biggest boat in the Rolex Fastnet Race, the 115ft Nikata. These two giants displaced the smaller French boats Codiam and Pintia from the overall lead, although they remain ahead in IRC One and IRC Two respectively.

The bulk of IRC One is currently setting off across the Celtic Sea with Vittorio Biscarini’s Mylius 15e25 Ars Una leading the charge on the water while handicap leader Codiam was astern and to weather. Overnight IRC One divided equally up the sides of the Traffic Separation Scheme off Land’s End with the front runners on the water, Ars Una and James Neville’s HH42 Ino XXX, taking the eastern route and Richard Fearon’s RP45 Katsu and Dennis Maijer’s Farr 45 Bucket List leading the charge up the west side, closer to the Scilly Isles. With the wind veering into the NNW, the boats have all tacked and are close to laying Fastnet Rock.

IRC Two are following a similar regime, however their lead trio on the water, Gilles Fournier and Corinne Migraine’s J/133 Pintia, Nick and Suzi Jones’ First 44.7 Lisa (skippered by RORC Commodore Michael Boyd) and Frans and Carla Rodenburg’s First 40 Elke, all headed up the west side of the TSS while James Sweetman’s First 40 Joanna of Cowes led the group up the east side off Land’s End. The leaders in both groups tacked at around 0400 when they were close to laying Fastnet Rock.

Conversely the first group of boats in IRC Three took the eastern side of the Land’s End TSS with Ed Fishwick and Nick Cherry on their Sun Fast 3600 Redshift Reloaded leading (on the water) up the east side alongside Ian Hoddle’s sistership Game On. Meanwhile yesterday’s IRC Three leader on corrected time, Altikhan – Linxea Valoris & Benefits, the A-35 of France’s Johann Bouic, was first on the water heading up the west side of the TSS. However Arnaud Delamare and Eric Mordret’s JPK 10.80 Dream Pearls is now leading IRC Three on corrected time.

Incredibly, the leaders among the smallest, slowest boats in IRC Four are also up among the IRC Two and Three boats. Again, there have been significantly differing tactics here with the two French JPK 10.10s: the Loisins’ 2013 winner Night and Day and Noel Racine’s Foggy Dew taking the eastern route while the present IRC Four leader, Paul Kavanagh’s Swan 44 Pomeroy Swan, had gone west.

Among the professional classes, the stand-out performance remains that of the doublehanded crew of Paul Meilhat and Gwénolé Gahinet on the IMOCA 60 SMA, which is not only 23 miles ahead of the next boat in her class but also 7.5 miles in front of the first fully crewed VO65 Dongfeng Race Team. Among those VO65 crews competing on Leg Zero of the Volvo Ocean Race, the Chinese VO65 was first to round the Fastnet Rock at 07:58 this morning, followed eight minutes later by Team Akzonobel and then Mapfre. Bringing up the rear was Dee Caffari’s fledgling crew on board Turn the Tide on Plastic at 08:55. All seven VO65s initially headed south with MAPFRE the first to gybe east.

In the Class40s Phil Sharp and Imerys were back in the lead this morning about two thirds of the way to the Fastnet Rock however, five other boats were looking threatening, especially yesterday’s leader, Campagne de France, sailed by Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron, the furthest north of the Class40s at present.

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In front of the Royal Yacht Squadron’s magnificent clubhouse in Cowes, a record-breaking fleet of 368 yachts embarked on the 47th edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race on Sunday 6 August. Lying ahead is the famous 605-nm race to Plymouth via the Fastnet Rock on the southern tip of Ireland.

The 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race fleet is truly diverse; a quality clearly evident to all of those watching on the shore in Cowes or the thousands following the live start of the race on the internet. The first of seven start sequences was reserved for the fastest multihulls, the final saw the leading monohulls comprising the contrasting designs of Nikata, CQS and Rambler begin their quest for line honours.

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In the last two editions of the RORC’s biennial flagship event from Cowes to Plymouth via southwest Ireland’s most famous rock, French boats have not just won, they have dominated.

In the last race in 2015, Géry Trentesaux’s JPK 10.80 Courrier Du Leon won by more than two and a half hours, and, despite racing in IRC Three, beat all of the IRC Two boats on the water. That year seven of the top ten boats overall were French.

It was similar in 2013 when the Rolex Fastnet Race had its first ever doublehanded winner in father and son team, Pascal and Alexis Loisin on their JPK 10.10 Night and Day, beating all the boats, even those sailed fully crewed. That year, 12 of the top 14 boats were French.

This year little has changed. Trentesaux is back, but is instead sailing in the Multihull class on the TS42 catamaran Guyader Gastronomie. This year’s race will be special, marking the 40th anniversary of his first Fastnet race.

The Loisins are returning on Night and Day. They still have their competitive edge, winning IRC Four and finishing third overall in the recent Channel Race. Pascal admits this was the only training they have done together this year. But they have sailed a lot individually: “Alexis did the Figaro and I did a three week holiday on my boat at the beginning of July!” Alexis is one of France’s leading Figaro sailors. Although he hasn’t won the short-handed one design class’ effective championship, he has finished in the top 10 in the last seven editions.

Night and Day remains much the same as 2013, although they have been experimenting with off the wind sail configurations. Their latest set-up comprises a short bowsprit from which they fly their masthead Code 0, a longer pole for their symmetric spinnaker and an A5 – one less sail than 2013. Thanks to this, their boat being four years older and having gained 20kg, Night and Day has shed six points of rating.

Battling hard with them will be sistership, Noel Racine’s fully crewed Foggy Dew. His JPK 10.10 finished seven minutes astern of Night and Day on corrected in the Channel Race, and was second to her again overall in the 2013 Rolex Fastnet Race. This year Racine is sailing with around half of the crew he sailed with in 2015 when he finished ninth overall. Ever modest, Racine feels that Night and Day is favourite again this year.

As to why JPK yachts have won the last two races and filled four of the top five places in 2015, Racine believes that it is due to the wide range of set-ups and ratings they have. “You can have an old and heavy boat and if we have light air at the beginning and wind at the end, they can be ahead of us.”

At the other end of the size/speed range, second fastest French boat in the IRC fleet is Bretagne Telecom, a canting keel Mach 45 skippered by Nicolas Groleau, who runs JPS Productions, builder of the Mach 45 and the highly successful Mach 40 of which six are competing in the Class40. This will be Bretagne Telecom’s fifth consecutive Rolex Fastnet Race and in the last two she won the Canting Keel class. However due to lack of numbers, this class has now been incorporated into IRC Zero. Groleau hopes they will see some reaching conditions, where Bretagne Telecom can excel.

As to why French boats do so well, Groleau believes it is due to the production boats the French manufacture: “In medium conditions, production boats with a low rating and a good crew are best. The JPKs are very efficient in these conditions. The English boats are more real racers.” In this respect, his own boat is more racer-cruiser. “We don’t have cabins. There is no wood inside.”

All three skippers agree on one thing. The main reason for France’s dominance is having two top offshore racing ‘schools’: The Figaro class and the Tour de France à la Voile of old (before it became an inshore event for multihulls).

As Loison observes: “I noticed in 2013 that among the ten first boats, on eight you had one, or several people who had done the Figaro. I only had one – my son!”

Noel Racine agrees: “The Figaro is a very good school for shorthanded offshore racing and very good for offshore racing generally. The Tour de France à la Voile was too – I have several crew who have done that race.”

The Rolex Fastnet Race sets sail from Cowes on Sunday, 6th August with the first start at 1100 BST.

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Finnish Whitbread Round the World Race legend Ludde Ingvall returns having previously put in one of the most exceptional performances in the 92 year history of the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s flagship event.

Firstly in 1985, the same year Simon le Bon’s Drum famously capsized, Ingvall raced on the Whitbread maxi Atlantic Privateer when it won her class. But the race which has gone down in history was a decade later, when he skippered Nicorette, the former 1989-90 Whitbread Round the World Race maxi Charles Jourdan but much modified, to line honours, finishing a massive 24 hours ahead of the next boat. But significantly that year Nicorette not only claimed line honours but victory on handicap as well.

“We won it on CH*, we won it on IMS and we got line honours,” Ingvall recalls proudly. “We walked away with 16 trophies, which was amazing. I still remember the speech at the prize giving where they said ‘the Vikings have been here before and now they have come back to steal our silver!'” That race, 22 years ago, was the last occasion someone won the Rolex Fastnet Race line honours and handicap ‘double’.

This time Sydney-based Ingvall is back with another weapon, and again one which is heavily modified. CQS was originally built in 2004 as the 90ft canting keel Simonis Voogd-design Nicorette aboard which Ingvall claimed line honours in that year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart. During 2016, this boat underwent major surgery extending her to 100ft by fitting a new bow. Small wings were added at deck level to widen her shroud base to accept a larger, more powerful rig and she was also fitted with retracting lateral Dynamic Stability Systems foils to provide lift to leeward.

Since competing in the Rolex Sydney Hobart race, CQS has arrived in Europe and, weekend before last, set a new course record in Sweden’s AF Offshore Race (Round Gotland), breaking the existing record which Ingvall had established on his previous Nicorette.

However Ingvall warns that he and the crew, that includes sponsor Sir Michael Hintze and Kiwi sailing legends Chris Dickson and Rodney Keenan, are still green when it comes to the new beast. “We are taking steps forward all the time, but everything still feels quite new and we really haven’t had enough time with a regular crew.” A week and a half’s training with her race crew before the Rolex Fastnet Race will help rectify this.

CQS will face stiff competition from American George David’s Juan Kouyoumdjian-designed Rambler 88. She may have a shorter waterline but in her long career racing Jim Clark’s 100ft Comanche, this has seemed to have made little difference: In the 2015 Rolex Fastnet Race, Rambler 88 crossed the finish line just four and a half minutes behind Comanche.

According to tactician Brad Butterworth, their fight with CQS is likely to come down to the weather. “If there is any breeze it will make a big difference as to who wins across the line. If there are any powered up situations then Rambler will do pretty well, but if it is light airs running or even upwind, it will be a struggle. The modern maxis like Comanche and Rambler have huge wetted surface so when they are not heeled you are carrying a lot of viscous drag around with you.”

Like Ingvall, Butterworth is a veteran of countless Fastnet Races dating back to 1987 when he skippered the top-ranked Admiral’s Cup boat Propaganda in that year’s victorious New Zealand team. Two years later he claimed line honours on Peter Blake’s all-conquering maxi ketch Steinlager II. He says Rambler 88 has changed little from her 2015 configuration other than some sail development and a weight loss program. “That is why we’re hoping for a bit of breeze.”

Ingvall agrees with Butterworth’s assessment of their relative form going into the Rolex Fastnet Race: “Rambler is a bloody good boat with top guys and they have been sailing the boat for a long time whereas we are still learning about what we’ve got. CQS is very long and skinny, while Rambler is very wide and her hull stability gives her a huge advantage. We are still learning about the DSS foil which improves our stability. When it is a matter of stability and power they will be hard to beat, whereas if it is about light airs and finesse, then I think we will be pretty good because we are so narrow and low resistance in the water. It will be fun to race each other.”

The Rolex Fastnet Race starts from the Royal Yacht Squadron, Cowes at 1100 on Sunday 6th August.

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This line-up makes the Rolex Fastnet Race the world’s largest offshore race in terms of competitor numbers. Its entries are the most diverse, ranging from maxi-multihulls to the world’s fastest monohulls, including those that compete in the fully crewed and singlehanded round the world races, to the racer cruisers and cruiser racers that form the majority of the IRC classes.

The fleet is also the most international. At the present tally, boats from 25 nations will be heading west down the Solent from Cowes on start day, Sunday 6th August.

As expected, the largest entry is from the UK with 58% of the fleet, but this means that 42%, or a whopping 164 boats, will have come from overseas.

France has dominated Rolex Fastnet Race results in both the IRC and non-IRC fleets in recent years and once again is back with a vengeance with the second largest entry, representing 13% of the fleet, followed by the Netherlands, Germany and Ireland with 7, 5 and 4% respectively.

Several teams will be making the journey from the furthest corners of the globe especially for the Rolex Fastnet Race. One of the most impressive efforts is from the Australian trio. This includes Finnish former Whitbread Round the World Race skipper Ludde Ingvall with his heavily remodelled Rolex Sydney Hobart Race line honours-winning maxi, CQS (ex-Nicorette). In her latest incarnation, this boat has been lengthened to 100ft and is futuristic-looking with a low volume reverse sheer bow, deck wings to increase her shroud base and a Dynamic Stability Systems lateral foil arrangement.

Also from down under, Rupert Henry’s Judel-Vrolijk 62, Chinese Whisper will be back on familiar waters: She was previously Sir Peter Ogden’s all-black 62ft Mini Maxi, Jethou. She is joined one of the most famous ‘classic’ maxis, Kialoa II, the elegant 73ft aluminium S&S design, enthusiastically raced by American Jim Kilroy from 1963-1973, when she won both the Transpac and Sydney Hobart races. She is now campaigned by Patrick Broughton.

As usual there are strong entries from the USA led by George David’s Rambler 88 and Privateer, Ron O’Hanley’s Cookson 50 competing a decade on from when Ger O’Rourke’s sistership, Chieftain, won overall.

This year’s race has its largest ever Asian entry with boats coming from Korea, Japan and China.

In the Class40, Japan’s Hiroshi Kitada returns to the UK with his Pogo40 S3, Kiho, having competed in the Transat bakerly and Quebec-St Malo races last year.

From China is Ark323, skippered by Li Yun. This Botin & Carkeek-designed TP52 (ex-Sled/Warpath), in 2015 became mainland China’s first entry with an all-Chinese crew in the Rolex Sydney Hobart. The boat is now making the long haul to the UK to compete in another of the internationally renowned ‘classic 600 milers’.

Korea’s first entry in the Rolex Fastnet Race comes in the form of the GP42 Sonic. Campaigned by Andrew Rho, Sonic has been one of the most competitive teams in Korea’s burgeoning big boat racing scene.

Russia is becoming an increasingly major player in international yacht racing and will be fielding at least three entries including Pjotr Lezhnin Racing in the Class40, while in the IRC fleet is Sergei Zhedik’s Sunfast 3600 Voyager and Igor Rytov’s JPK 10.80 Bogatyr. Rytov competed in the last Rolex Fastnet Race as a crewman and, according to the Bogatyr team’s Ivan Sharapov “he thought there was room for improvement, so he is doing it again on his own terms with a crew he’s selected.” Rytov acquired a JPK 10.80 following the victory of Géry Trentesaux’s sistership Courrier Du Leon, in the last Rolex Fastnet Race.

Following on from its MOD70 entry in previous years, Oman Sail returns to the Rolex Fastnet Race this time in the Class40 fleet. Once again the crew will be led by French round the world sailor Sidney Gavignet who is spending this season coaching up top Omani sailor Fahad al Hasni in shorthanded offshore racing.

From the eastern Mediterranean, the race has a Turkish entry in Yigit Eroglu’s First 35 F35 Express, while following the successful debut with Team Israel in last year’s Brewin Dolphin Commodores’ Cup, Omer Brand is returning with another Israeli crew, this time aboard Richard Loftus’ Swan 65 and long serving competitor, Desperado. Brand and his crew will have to get used to some ancient Desperado traditions such as the black tie dinner at the Fastnet Rock not to mention the team’s pet gorilla, Joe Powder.

“It is brilliant to see such a diverse fleet with huge international representation,” says RORC CEO, Eddie Warden Owen.”The Rolex Fastnet race is recognised worldwide as one of the most challenging 600 mile offshore races. It combines the tidal challenges of the Channel, with headlands to negotiate on the English South Coast, with open ocean racing in the Celtic Sea going to and from that iconic landmark, the Fastnet lighthouse off southern Ireland. Add to these navigational challenges typically unpredictable English weather which tests the seamanship and stamina of all the crew. This is why serious offshore sailors from all over the world want to take part.”

Via World Sailing

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