Max Klink’s Botin 52, Caro, has officially been declared the winner of the Rolex Fastnet Race 2023, with the announcement coming early afternoon on Wednesday 26th July.

“This is a legendary group of sailors who I have been fortunate to sail with for a few years now,” said Swiss owner, Klink, “but when we set out on this race I never expected that we could win. It’s a dream come true, and all the more special that this is the 50th edition of such an iconic race.

“The first 12 hours we were just in survival mode, trying not to break anything, trying to keep the boat at 100 per cent. I wasn’t thinking about any title or trophy, it was just about getting through the conditions.”

Tactician aboard Caro for the race, Adrian Stead – himself a two-time winner previously with Niklas Zennström’s Rán – added: “Conditions were pretty extreme and to the west of Portland we found ourselves all sitting in the cockpit and sailing at 5-6 knots just to get through, just to make sure we didn’t break the boat.”

The team lost their wind instruments in those early moments and so had to complete the majority of the course without a significant amount of their instrumentation. But having weathered the early conditions well otherwise, they proved very quick, particularly after rounding the Fastnet Rock.

Stead admits they had the dream run back from the Isles of Scilly. “We pretty much straightlined it all the way and we realised we had a very good shot at winning IRC Zero so pulled out all the stops, got out some extra chocolate bars and had everyone hiking hard on the rail for the last few hours into the finish.

“We were fortunate how the weather worked out for us, but I think we did a great job of preparation and keeping ourselves in the game for as long as possible and we are so pleased how it all paid off.”

The Caro team had practised the start and all the way out to the Fairway Buoy on the Wednesday before the race start, with similar current and in 25 knots in order to ensure that they were acclimatised to the course start, and the conditions expected.

Caro crossed the finish line at 06:25:02 on Tuesday 25th July giving them a total race time of 2 days 16 hours 40minutes and 2 seconds. But they faced a long wait for confirmation of their win with the bulk of the fleet still out on the water and with several boats still hypothetically in contention.

However, the outlook was positive for the eventual winners as the wind dropped off for the fleets behind, particularly on Tuesday afternoon and evening when conditions turned very light, particularly in the English Channel.

Caro closing in on the Rolex Fastnet Race finish/ Photo: Paul Wyeth / RORC

Caro had already been declared winner of IRC Zero on Tuesday, so all eyes were on the slower fleets to see who might challenge. The wind was forecast to build again from the south-west overnight on Tuesday and during the course of the day on Wednesday 26 July, which potentially could have seen some of the smallest boats coming home in faster conditions towards the finish.

But, though the breeze did increase (and the forecast looks for much more wind and rain later on Wednesday night) the build did not come early enough for the smaller boats to put up any real challenge for the win.

“Max is a great owner, he’s got a fantastic team with a really well prepared boat and those are all the boxes you need to tick for a race like the Fastnet,” Stead concluded.

The winning crew on Caro are: William Parker, Wade Morgan, Ryan Godfrey, Justin Ferris, Jono Swain, James Paterson, Harry Hall, Cian Guilfoyle, Andrew McCorquodale, Andy Green, Adrian Stead and owner Max Klink.

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Max Klink’s Botin 52, Caro, crossed the Rolex Fastnet Race finish line at 06:25:02 on Tuesday 25th July to earn the class win IRC Zero – while their corrected time also makes them current leader on the IRC leaderboard, though the overall race win is still too close to call with so many fleets still racing.

Caro completed the the course in 2 days, 16 hours, 40 minutes, 2 seconds. With a two and a half hour advantage over nearest rivals Warrior Won on corrected time, Caro is now unbeatable in IRC Zero.

Launched in 2021, Caro came into the Rolex Fastnet Race on strong form. The team finished top of a strong contingent of 52-footers in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race in 2022, finishing 3rd in class and overall.

For this year’s Fastnet the Caro team saw tactician Adrian Stead step onboard, who has won the Fastnet Race twice before with Rán.

“It’s my first time racing Caro,’ Stead explained. “Max is a great owner, he’s got a fantastic team with a really well prepared boat and those are all the boxes you need to tick for a race like the Fastnet.”

It was a rough start for the whole fleet leaving Cowes upwind in 25 knots heading into 40 knots overnight. But Caro showed their intention to race hard from the start and while many set off heavily reefed – some even choosing storm jibs for the race start – Caro crossed the startline under full mainsail and J4, sailing with confidence after a thorough training session earlier in the week.

“We had a really good start” Stead reflects. “We’d actually practised the start and all the way out to the Fairway Buoy on the Wednesday before, with similar current and luckily we had 25 knots for that so we were acclimatised to what we were going to see, where we wanted to place the boat and where we wanted to be on the startline.

Caro closing in on the Rolex Fastnet Race finish/ Photo: Paul Wyeth / RORC

“We’d identified that the first 8 hours were going to be survival mode and the goal was to get to Lyme Bay in good shape. I have to say the Portland Race was horrendous. We had two reefs and the number 4 jib there.

“Conditions were still pretty extreme to the west of Portland and we found ourselves all sitting in the cockpit and sailing at 5-6 knots just to get through, just to make sure we didn’t break the boat.”

Despite a conservative approach and meticulous planning, Caro was not immune to damage and lost their wind indicator while passing Portland. They attempted a fix in flatter water off Falmouth to no avail, so were forced to sail the majority of the race with a significant disadvantage.

“Losing the wand early was pretty disconcerting,” Stead explained. “Andy Green our navigator from Australia is on his first trip to sail in the Solent and first Fastnet. But he did a phenomenal job and what instruments were working were reliable so you just had to sail what you had.

“It was hard work sailing at night with no instruments, no wind angle, but it keeps you honest.”

In IRC overall Caro was always in contention and led the the IRC Zero fleet around the Fastnet Rock, before blasting back to the finish in Cherbourg in almost exactly 24 hours – a very impressive time to cover the distance and where they saw some big gains against many of the contenders around them.

The start of IRC Zero and Super Zero. Photo: Paul Wyeth

Fastnet Super Zero

The Volvo Ocean 65 Wind Whisper was first to top the IRC leaderboard for much of yesterday, with the team relishing the early conditions in the well-tested VO65, until Caro overhauled the Polish flagged VO65 in the closing stages of the race.

Wind Whisper were later penalised with a 5% discretionary penalty when they were found to have an incorrect TCC rating, which was adjusted after the race from 1.658 to 1.662. The team issued a statement saying: “As a WindWhisper Racing Team, we respect fair play and honesty as the core values of our sport.

The Juan K designed, Lucky (ex-Rambler 88) had been hopeful of setting a course record before the start but missed out on claiming line honours by just 15 minutes, coming in behind the leading IMOCAs, including Fastnet Race line honours winner, Charlie Dalin. The crew, led by America’s Cup legend Brad Butterworth were the first IRC boat to cross the finish line but it was quickly clear they would be overhauled at which point all eyes turned to the VO65s and the fastest 50-footers.

Wind Whisper revelled in the strong winds at the start of the Fastnet Race. Photo: Kurt Arrigo / Rolex

Waiting game for IRC overall win

Going into the race Stead reckoned there were 12 boats capable of beating Caro in the highly competitive IRC Zero and Super Zero fleets. “We knew that we had Warrior Won, INO [Noir] and Teasing Machine all in our class, so there were plenty of boats that we knew we would have to push hard to beat.

“We knew our target boats and the goal was to win our class. Once we knew we had done that, then we looked at working really hard Monday night [into the finish] to see if we could get our time a little better against the Volvo 65s and Lucky.

“We knew the tide was going to be against [in the vital, final miles into Cherbourg]. So we were watching our watches and we pushed really hard through the channel last [Monday] night. So we had the FR0 up, 2 staysails and reefed main and were sitting at probably 18-20 knots in the dark with only boat speed and heading so it was quite lively.”

“We knew our target boats and the goal was to win our class. Once we had that, we were working pretty hard Monday night to see if we could get our time a little better against the Volvo 65s and Lucky.

“So we achieved that and now we’ll see what happens with the rest of the fleets,” Stead concluded, as the early leaders wait to see if any other yacht can yet beat them on corrected time.

The bulk of the IRC Zero fleet now slowly closing in on Cherbourg are out of overall victory contention thanks to a shut-down of breeze in the Western Channel last night, and with light winds currently to the south of Ireland the smaller boats have hit a big slow down too. However, the wind is forecast to build again from the south-west overnight and during the course of the day on Wednesday 26 July, which could yet bring some of the smallest boats faster conditions towards the finish.

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In the battle of the big boats it was the brand new IMOCA Macif, skippered by Charlie Dalin with Pascal Bidégorry which was first monohull home to take line honours in the 50th Rolex Fastnet Race and set a new course record in the process.

Dalin crossed the finish line after 2 day 07 hours 16 minutes and 26 seconds. This shaves over an hour off the time set by the giant ClubSwan 125 Skorpios in 2021 when the race first sailed the new course to finish in Cherbourg.

It’s also a back to back win for Dalin who also took IMOCA class victory in the 2021 edition – though on that occasion it was Skorpios that took line honours.

It was Yoann Richomme’s IMOCA Paprec Arkea that led the fleet in the early stages, before being overhauled by Dalin in the final approach to the finish. In the end Dalin squeaked to victory by just 4 minutes to claim the win from Richomme. British skipper Sam Goodchild rounded out the podium, with an impressive performance on his second race in For the Planet. 

IMOCAs in Rolex Fastnet Race

This year’s Fastnet was long heralded as a mouth-watering proposition for IMOCA 60 fans to follow, with a clutch of brand new designs, as well as skippers who’ve newly joined in the fleet lining up in their biggest race to date. And it didn’t disappoint.

Twenty-nine IMOCAs lined up for the start in Cowes, making one of the most spectacular starts of the whole race as a series of strong gusts came through shortly after they crossed the line. Many of the foil-assisted designs took flight with streaming white water rooster tails as they blasted away along the Isle of Wight shoreline.

IMOCA skippers were exercising caution at the start of the Rolex Fastnet Race 2023 in breezy conditions. Photo: Paul Wyeth/RORC

Charal was one of the first away, with the enviable pairing of Jérémie Beyou and Franck Cammas. However, Charal was called OCS at the start of the Fastnet Race, incurring an automatic 2 hour penalty. Pip Hare, sailing with Nick Bubb on the newly refitted Medallia was also called over the line early. Sadly Hare, sailing her newly modified Medallia with co-skipper Nick Bubb, suffered furler and sail damage early on which put them out of contention.

The latest generation designs quickly stamped their authority on the race, with Dalin’s Macif – launched less than a month previously – first out of the Solent. Along with Charal other early leaders included Thomas Ruyant, also with a brand new boat, the Antoine Koch/Finot-Conq-designed For People. Sadly Ruyant later joined the long list of Fastnet retirees on Saturday night after incurring damage in the strong winds and severe sea state. 

“We had two objectives at the start,” explained Dalin on the dock after finishing. “Our first was to survive the exit of the Solent, and survive the first 10 to 12 hours of strong wind so that we could concentrate on racing afterwards – and then that’s what we managed.”

Closely matching Ruyant was his team mate Sam Goodchild sailing For the Planet, who is building up to his first Vendée Globe campaign, and Yoann Richomme, also on his first IMOCA programme with his new Paprec Arkea. 

Fast run from Fastnet Rock

There was a slight split in the fleet after exiting the Solent – Dalin leading a group that opened to head into Studland Bay, Richomme leading a group that headed south before tacking west. On the cross, it was Richomme that took the lead, though the two packs quickly merged.

“It was 30, 35 knots up wind, so not very comfortable, but I was thinking more from all the smaller boats and all the people hiking on the rail compared to us, who have got a big roof on their cockpit to keep us warm and dry. Yeah, the first 12-18 hours were the most difficult bits, but they went fairly well for us,” said Goodchild of the first day’s racing.

30-knot conditions for the IMOCA fleet in the Celtic Sea, here onboard Initiatives Couer.

At the Fastnet Rock Richomme’s Paprec Arkea led Dalin’s Macif, rounding at 2114 last night with Dalin just 20 minutes behind.

The run from the Rock saw the foiling designs posting boat speeds of 25-30 knots, Paprec Arkea hunting down, and then overhauling, the 88-footer Lucky (ex-Rambler 88), which had been an early prediction for the line honours win. 

“We weren’t expected to be that windy,” added Goodchild. “We’re expecting 20 to 25 knots. We had 35 in the end, so we had a bit of a hairy night, but it was obviously quick, as we went round the Rock at sunset and went round the Scillies at sunrise.

“So it was a quick cross in the Irish Sea and we didn’t get much sleep because the boat was a bit of a bucking bronco. But, it went fast and it was a good, fun ride.”

Macif stayed close in touch and after Bishop’s Rock moved up to challenge Paprec for the lead, the two matching each other gybe for gybe on the run back to the Scillies.

IMOCA Macif foiling around the Fastnet Rock. Photo: Rolex/Carlo Borlenghi

Fastnet first monohulls

The Casquets TSS is fast becoming one of the key deciding points in the race, and, with boat speeds down to just 5 knots at times, it was here that Macif took a more southerly line, moving into the lead for the final 30 miles of the race, the two boats separated by less than 2 minutes.

“We had a crazy leg from the Fastnet to the Scillies, we reached 30 or 40 knots several times – crazy speeds and that was great. The boat was just flying,” said Dalin. “And a crazy battle in the end with Yoanne [Richomme]  and Jan.

“We caught them, they took off again, we caught again, managed to overtake and just at the end we had a 2 miles lead and we got some seaweed in the keel! So we tried everything to shake it off but couldn’t. We lost like 1.4 miles due to this seaweed. So we’re pretty relieved when we got rid of that and managed to extend again to the finish.”

Behind the leaders, the lightening conditions had also caused a big compression in the fleet, and behind Goodchild in 3rd, Maxime Sorel’s V&B Montana Mayenne, Sam Davies on Initiatives Cover, and Clarisse Cremer with her newly relaunched L’Occitane en Provence closely packed.

Paprec Arkéa, skippered by Yoann Richomme, is one of several new IMOCA 60s that was contesting the Rolex Fastnet Race 2023, finishing 2nd.

“The IMOCA fleet is great. We had a very tough battle with a lot of other teams, there’s a really high level of sailors. And that’s what make the class interesting. You got these very skilled skippers with a very talented team developing the boats, engineers, architects, and you get this amazingly competitive racing.

“There’s a lot of team that with the same skippers, same sponsors, same team, but with another new boat. It’s getting a bit close to Formula One. I think that’s amazing.

The 88-footer Lucky rounds the Fastnet Rock in the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race, finishing as first IRC yacht. Photo: Kurt Arrigo/Rolex

First IRC yachts finish

Ten minutes after the first IMOCAs finished, Lucky crossed the line at, making them the first IRC boat home. However, they no longer hold the advantage on IRC overall, with the VO65s Wind Whisper and Team Jajo, who finished within the hour currently topping the IRC overall lead, though there are many boats still racing who could yet be in contention.

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Francois Gabart’s Ultime SVR-Lazartigue has claimed Rolex Fastnet Race line honours and set a new course record of 1d 8h 38m 27s over the 695-mile offshore.

With two foiling Ultimes lining up in this year’s Fastnet Race it was always going to be a straight head to head battle for line honours between SVR-Lazartigue and Armel le Cléac’h’s team on Banque Populaire.

After the two giant multihulls opened the Rolex Fastnet Race start sequence yesterday, Saturday 22 July, they went into a tricky tacking duel out of the Solent and through Hurst Narrows.

Tricky conditions for the giant 100ft Ultimes exiting the Solent at the start of the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race. Photo Rick Tomlinson/RORC

Skipper François Gabart told Yachting World after finishing: “These boats, they’re amazing, but it’s not an easy boat to do coastal racing and to be close to the shore like we were in the Solent. There was not a good angle to go out of the Solent. It was just tack, tack, tack. And it was strong winds and gusty, so clearly not easy and not safe to sail out of the Solent in these condition and with other boats around.

“So, yeah, I was a little bit nervous about the start, I was hoping it was not too much winds because more than 30 knots – if you’re out[ of the Solent], it’s okay, but if you’re close to the coast, it can be tricky. But then after, when we were out, it was strong winds.”

Shortly after exiting the Solent the ability of these 100ft goliaths to eat up the miles became evident when the two boats split tactics. Armel le Cleac’h on Banque Populaire headed directly to Cherbourg, crossing the Channel in less than three hours and tacking off the French coast before most of the fleet had even got into Poole Bay.

Meanwhile SVR Lazartigue headed some 30 miles offshore before tacking and reaching to the Lizard. The two boats remained split as they passed the Casquets TSS, SVR-Lazartigue to the north, Banque Populaire to the south, before both powered west. When they reconvened at the Needles, SVR Lazartigue held a 10 mile lead.

SVR-Lazartigue skipper François Gabart greets the press in Cherbourg. Photo: Nicolas Touze/Arrivee Fastnet Cherbourg

30 knots upwind

“The wind was going to the right, so it was a question about the timing and when [that shift] will arrive. If it was too late, it could be a good option to be in the south like Banque Populaire did. If it was arriving early, it was good for us to be on the right.

“I think we were a little bit slower, at least in the few first minutes when we were close to them, a little bit slower. So at the end we were something like 10 or 15 miles in front of them. So it was a good option and we didn’t break anything. Also it was strong winds for a few hours and some big waves.”

Gabart says the strongest windspeed they saw was 34-36 knots. “What was more was the waves, because we were still sailing at 28, 30 knots upwind. And when you arrive at 30 knots in front of big waves, it’s not easy.”

The SVR-Lazartigue crew celebrate winning line honours and setting a new course record in the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race. Photo: Nicolas Touze/Arrivee Fastnet Cherbourg

First around the Fastnet Rock

It was a drag race to the Rock for both teams, before each put in a short tacking hitch off Kinsale, Ireland.

Gabart’s team rounded the Rock at 0804 (BST), after 19 hours 4 minutes 31 seconds of racing – one hour slower than the time set by the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild during the last edition – before flying back to Bishops Rock at 30-35 knot speeds.

“Coming back from Fastnet was downwind all the time, which means for us flying all the time. We went straight to the Scilles. Then after some gybes from the Scillies to here, it was perfect.”

Gabart’s team crossed the finish line off Cherbourg in 1st place at 21.38, setting a new course record of 1d 8h 38m 27s, and breaking team Gitana’s previous time in Maxi Edmond de Rothschild by 36 minutes and 27 seconds.

Armel le Cléac’h in Banque Populaire finished 2nd at 2236, also ahead of the existing course record time.

“Honestly? [I didn’t think about the record] not at all. We had both eyes on Banque Populaire all the time! And we lost them on the AIS when they went north of the last TSS. Then we saw them reappearing again – so just at this final timing, we started to think about the record.

“The focus was on the race and trying to be first.”

François Gabart and crew on SVR-Lazartigue celebrate as they cross the finish line of the Rolex Fastnet Race in Cherbourg Photo: Nicolas Touze/Arrivee Fastnet Cherbourg

Leading monohulls in Rolex Fastnet Race

Meanwhile the first Ultimes were approaching Cherbourg, the leading monohulls were approaching the Fastnet Rock. First monohull and first on the water in the IRC classes, the 88ft canting keel design Lucky (ex-Rambler)  was less than 10 miles ahead of the first IMOCA, Yoann Richomme’s Paprec Arkea. 

After last night’s brutal conditions, the forecast front has passed through with just 7-10 knots of breeze across much of the Celtic Sea going into the second evening of racing and calm conditions for those rounding the Rock tonight.

Lucky is also trading places with Sunrise for IRC overall lead. Were Thomas Kneen’s JPK 1180 to win it would make for a historic double, having won the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race overall – however there are still 500 miles to go and the race remains open for the taking.

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After yesterday’s strong wind start for the Rolex Fastnet Fleet, the number of boats that have retired from racing has continued to multiply. At 0700 this morning over 80 of the 445 entries had officially retired from racing, and by this afternoon that had increased to 112.

It was an incident-packed first day and night for many competitors in the fleet, and for rescue services along the south coast of England and Isle of Wight.

Wind speeds in the western Solent were particularly high, with data from Hurst Castle last night recording 38 knots, gusting 43 shortly after 2000 hours.

HM Coastguard reported that they responded to 28 incidents involving yachts participating in the Fastnet Race.

Lifeboats and coastal rescue teams from Yarmouth, Poole, Weymouth, Swanage, Portland and Wyke were all deployed to multiple incidents, with Yarmouth RNLI in the western Solent being called out six times alone. The Coastguard helicopter was also deployed to assist injured crew members.

Fastnet sinking and dismastings

The most dramatic incident was the sinking of a French double-handed yacht in the western Solent. A search and rescue helicopter and two RNLI lifeboats were deployed after reports that the Sunfast 3600 Vari was taking on water. The two crew members were found in their liferaft – both were safely recovered safely and taken ashore to Yarmouth.

The Rolex Fastnet Race race committee issued a statement saying: “At approximately 16:30 yesterday afternoon the Sun Fast 3600 Vari began to take on water southwest of the Needles.

“The boat is believed to have sunk although the exact reasons are not yet confirmed.”

With near back-to-back callouts for many rescue crews, the Coastguard and RNLI were tasked to assist included yacht Azora with steering failure, and another vessel with medical assistance for a head injury.

In other incidents, one yacht ran aground off Beaulieu (after the anchor dragged), and Richard Matthews’ CF520 Oystercatcher XXXV suffered deck failure.

Though there was at least one MOB/EPIRB alarm, it turned out to be a false alarm and all crew are accounted for.

There were also four dismastings. Golden Globe Race skipper Tapio Lehtinen was dismasted on his 1970 Swan 55 Galiana, which is entered in this September’s Ocean Globe Race – a crewed ‘retro’ style race being held in homage to the 50th anniversary of the Whitbread Round the World Race.

Lehtinen posted on Facebook: “Galiana WithSecure was dismasted at 22.30 local time South East of Portland Bill. Main mast fell down at the lowest spreaders. 

“Everyone onboard and the boat itself is sound and safe. We were able to get the rig and sails onboard. Coastguard and RORC informed. 

“Now slowly drifting towards the Needles and waiting for the daylight to motor back to Gosport. 2/3 of the team are resting.”

The Sun Fast 3200 Mirabelle was also dismasted, along with the Royal Naval Sailing Association’s Sun Fast 3600 Yoyo; and Nick Martin’s Sun Fast 2600 Diablo.

Meanwhile Gery Trenteseaux’s Sydney 43 Long Courrier retired after their mast suffered significant deformation near the base, though the crew rigged a jury system to support it (left).

“The strong winds last night were forecast well in advance,” commented Rolex Fastnet Race Race Director Steve Cole in a statement issued this afternoon.

“The club would like to thank HM Coastguard and the RNLI for their assistance. It is thanks to their effort and skill that the incidents were dealt with professionally and those who required assistance were recovered safely. Now the front has passed the wind and sea state have dropped, and conditions are even set to be light over the next 24 hours.”

Fastnet teams wait out weather

Other teams opted to take refuge from the conditions before restarting. Crew member Jaime Torres, who is racing aboard the First 40 Olympia’s Tigress, posted: “Fastnet update: We are a charter boat racing with an amazing mix of a top pro sailor and several intermediate and advanced crew members  aged from 18 to 60 y/o. 

“We started at 14:00 in 25 knots and slack tide.  In prep for very tough conditions to come, we were sailing under storm jib and triple reefed main. That would turn out to be a wise choice. We went faster as the wind got stronger. 

“We kept a very sharp lookout as the gusty conditions, fast current and the fact that we were surrounded by 450 competing yachts made for a lot of close crossings. We were doing 7.5s on the [boat speed] and up to 9 knots on SOG due to current.

“The wind continued to build as we worked our way west out of the Solent. On approach to the west exit just inside the Needles, our skipper noticed the massive breaking waves caused by the super strong winds against an outgoing tide. 

“Safety is our number one concern so we made the call to temporarily turn back to Yarmouth and moor to let the worse of the weather pass. 

“Conditions are close to extreme and several boats have suffered catastrophic damage.”

“WE ARE STILL RACING. We intend to reengage at dawn when the conditions are forecasted to improve.”

Moonbeam, the 1903 Fife-designed gaff yawl took this plan one step further. The classic, which is skippered by the Vendée Globe Race director and French offshore racing legend Jacques Caraës, waited the worst of the weather out in Cowes overnight before restarting on Sunday morning.

The Ultime SVR-Lazartigue was first boat around the Fastnet Rock. Kurt Arrigo/Rolex

Line honours contenders

Meanwhile the hot competition for Rolex Fastnet Race line honours continues. Francois Gabart’s SVR-Lazartigue is leading the fleet, with less than 200 miles to the finish in Cherbourg after blasting back from Fastnet Rock at 30 knots. They are expected to arrive into Cherbourg late this evening

The 88-footer Lucky is in close contention with the IMOCA Arkea-Paprec for monohull line honours, and early predictions show the first monohull finishing early on Tuesday, 25 July.

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The 50th Rolex Fastnet Race got underway today, Saturday 22 July, with the largest offshore racing fleet ever setting off from Cowes in rain and 20-25 knot headwinds .

With strong headwinds and a significant seaway forecast overnight on the first night of the race, the near-3,000 sailors taking part knew they would be in for a hard fought opening of the race.

However, there were a significant number of retirements just hours into the race, with 50 boats no longer racing. Going into the first night at sea the trackers shows yachts seeking safe refuge in Yarmouth, Lymington, Poole, and small harbours along the south coast.

Given the predicted windy conditions for the start of the race, the race management team had wisely chosen to change the start order to ensure the biggest and fastest boats were the first to set off – as was the case in 2021 when similar conditions delivered another challenging start.

With the wind coming from the south-west most of the boats in most fleets elected to start on port, giving them a long first tack out to the middle of the Solent before they took a hitch back to the Island side.

Banque Populaire leads SVR Lazartigue out of the Solent

This was particularly true for many of biggest and least manoeuvrable boats. Although expected to be the fastest boats around the course by quite some distance, short tacking out of the Solent is not the ideal start for the 100ft Ultim foiling trimarans.

Both Armel Le Cléac’h’s Banque Populaire XI and Francois Gabart’s SVR-Lazartigue were very tentative getting off the line, with their clear priority being to try to avoid traffic around the start before they would be able to stretch their legs once beyond Hurst Point.

The sheer distance the Ultims can cover was driven home shortly after – just two hours after the race start, with most of the fleet still working hard to exit the Solent, Armel le Cleac’h’s Ultim Banque Populaire was tacking off Brittany, having flown across the Solent to set themselves up for a long reach west.

The other Ultim competing in this year’s Fastnet, Francois Gabart’s SVR-Lazartique, remained on the northern English shore and held the advantage according to the race tracker – but with likely more tacks to put in towards Lands’ End the two are likely to be close as they make the turn for Fastnet Rock.

Even upwind many of the newer IMOCA 60 were foiling upwinnd after the start

IMOCA fleet off to a flying start

Due to the huge fleets and tidal effects in the Solent, the Rolex Fastnet Race rules give early starters no option to return behind the line and if you are caught over at the start you immediately incur a a 2-hour time penalty. Given this it was key to get a conservative start for most.

Unfortunately, with the tide now running under the boats, pushing them to the start, during the IMOCA start both Pip Hare on Medallia and Jeremie Beyou on Charal were OCS.

As an indication of just how breezy conditions were, despite the early stages being upwind out of the Solent and most of the IMOCAs being well-reefed, several of the newer IMOCAs were impressively foiling as the fleet flew out of the Solent.

Frustratingly for Pip Hare, who is racing her newly modified Medallia for the first time with co-skipper Nick Bubb, as well as picking up a time penalty for being OCS she incurred some early gear damage.

“It was a mixed start – we know we were over, by about a second – so really gutted about that but actually really, really pleased with the start. All the way up to Hurst [Narrows] we were flying. I was so happy, we were keeping pace with new boats, everything was looking rosy.

“And then just when we got through Hurst the stopper knot on the J2 fuller pulled out, and the J2 just came out. It was flapping like crazy, it hit the J3 and made a hole in the J3… and then we had to go downwind. We had to re-rig the furling line and swop our J3 little jib for our storm jib. So now we’re back upwind, we’re back on track. We can only use our storm jib, so we’re a bit handicapped but that’s sailing for you.

“We’ll carry on, we’ll get through tonight, and whatever gets thrown at us – we’ll take it.”

In the IMOCA class there is also a hotly anticipated chance to see some of the latest generation designs go head to head, and they haven’t disappointed: Bayou’s new Charal leads going into the first night from Thomas Ruyant on his brand new For People, after a cracking start, with Yoann Richomme on his brand new Paprec Arkéa in 3rd, again after a strong start. The newest IMOCA on the block, Charlie Dalin’s box-fresh Macif is in 4th.

Jajo got the best start of the IRC Super Zero fleet

IRC Zero / Super Zero

The multihulls, IMOCAs and Class 40 had largely started with significant reefs in and smaller headsails in anticipation of the 30-40 knot winds they will see later in the day and once they exit the Solent. However, among the highly competitive Class Zero and Super Zero fleets there was a more variation.

The boat aiming to take line honours – and hoping to set a new course record – Lucky, the ex-Rambler 88 crossed the startline heavily reefed, however others in the fleet including INO Noir and Warrior Won set off under full sail.

Sadly some key boats in the IRC Super Zero and Zero fleet were among the early retirement, with the Maxi 72 Notorious retiring before the start, and seasoned offshore campaigners Ran and Tonnere de Glen among those that returned to port shortly after the start. The Cookson 50 Privateer was another well proven offshore boat which retired in the very early stages.

Within the first six hours of racing, around 50 boats had retired – many before the start having examined the forecast, and others with sail and rigging damage.

For those that raced on, conditions continued to deteriorate as forecast, though gusts may be even stronger than predictions.

The J/120 ‘Scream 2’ reported seeing 46 knots on the wind gauge at times, adding: “The storm sail is up and the crew is wet, very wet!”

Conditions are anticipated to be wet, with strong winds and a 1.5-2.5m sea state for many competitors overnight, but should moderate fairly rapidly tomorrow.

Follow all of our coverage of the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race

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The post 50th Rolex Fastnet Race starts: but early retirements pour in with furious conditions forecast appeared first on Yachting World.

Strong headwinds are forecast for the start of the 50th Rolex Fastnet Race, which sets off tomorrow from Cowes, Isle of Wight to Cherbourg, France, via the iconic course around the Fastnet Rock. 

Wind speeds of 20-25 knots from the south-west are expected at the start. This will build to 30-35 knots, potentially gusting 40, as the fleet exits the Solent, although conditions are forecast to moderate rapidly on Sunday.

“At the moment all the information says it will be a gnarly night, but safe to go,” explained Steve Cole, RORC Race Director, at today’s Skippers’ Briefing when asked if organisers RORC had considered postponing.

This year’s race has a record entry, expected to be the largest ever offshore race with over 440 boats taking part and more than 3,000 crew competing.

Record-breaking forecast for Fastnet 2023?

However, the strong winds could potentially also see the course record broken. The current monohull record, set on the race’s first running over its longer 695-mile course in 2021, stands at 2d 8h 33m 55s, set by the ClubSwan 125 Skorpios.

The canting-keeled 88-footer Rambler 88 here competing in the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race, and will be returning for a tilt at the race record in 2023 under its new ownership as Lucky. Photo: Carlo Borlenghi/Rolex

However, the team onboard Bryon Ehrhart’s Lucky, the 88ft canting keel design that was formerly Rambler 88, believe they are in with a good chance of smashing that. 

Andrew Cape, navigator on Lucky, explained: ‘It’s a big possibility, like a 75% chance. The routings have us [finishing] at 2 days and 2 hours, so we’re looking pretty good.

“Like anything with weather, no plan lasts past first contact but we’ll see. Five out of six weather models have us breaking the record.”

America’s Cup legendary sailor Brad Butterworth, tactician on Lucky, cautioned that with the forecast tough start, the big challenge in this year’s Fastnet race would be in avoiding damage. 

“I don’t believe Capey by the way!” he quipped. “You have to finish, and the first day is going to be pretty sporty and I think there’s going to be a lot of boats that will be thinking twice about continuing on. We’re setting up for quite a bit of wind the first day – but you have to get through that and to break any record first you have to finish.

“But we’ll pushing hard, there’s no question about that.’

Tough start expected for IMOCAs in Fastnet

For the 29 IMOCA teams taking part there will be the additional challenge of racing double-handed among the enormous fleet. Pip Hare, who’ll be sailing her newly refitted Medallia complete with monster foils, explained they would be sailing ‘Very cautiously!’ after the start.

“That is the bit I am most worried about, and I know all the other IMOCA skippers are worried about it as well. Obviously we’ve got a lot of bits sticking out the side! And really limited visibility – my boat is actually quite good from that perspective because my coach roof pushes forward so I can actually have my head out the boat, but most of the new build boats are [crew] inside. 

“And as we head out to the west we go through a funnel, and it gets windier and narrower! So I think everyone is nervous about it and I think we’re probably going to see a cautious exit from the Solent from most people.”

The 29-boat IMOCA fleet is one of the most fascinating in the race, with several brand new designs making their race debut. However, there are also several older, straight daggerboard designs in the fleet and with the initially upwind forecast it might not be the newest foilers that dominate.

“I think it’s going to be interesting, with the non-foiling IMOCAs in the mix all the way up to Lands End,” explained Pip Hare. 

“I think they’re going to be quite happy with the forecast, then we’re hoping that once we get past the Scillies we can stick a bit of foil down and pull away from them. It will definitely be a mixed fleet until Lands End.”

Strong winds are again forecast for the initial stages of the Rolex Fastnet Race. Photo: Rolex/Carlo Borlenghi

A wet and windy first night

Due to the strong wind forecast organisers RORC have reversed the start sequence, with the largest IRC yachts starting first instead of last so they can have a clear exit from the Solent. This means the starting sequence is slightly shorter, with the first warning signal for the multihull fleet at 1250 to start at 1300, the IMOCA 60s starting 15 minutes later, and so on in decreasing yacht size until the IRC 4 class start at 1445.

Race meteorologist Christian Dumard forecast 20-25 knots of south-westerly wind at the start, potentially gusting 30.  

By the time the fleet reaches the Needles Channel the wind will increase, and with the current against the west-going fleet it will likely feel stronger again for the competitors as they punch their way out of the Solent. Wind speeds are expected to be 30-35 knots, maybe gusting 40, the sea state will also deteriorate with 1.5-2.5m waves over the first evening.

A front from the west is forecast to cross over the fleet around midnight tomorrow, and will likely bring rain. Dumard anticipates that will be followed by a right-hand shift, with the best of the conditions in the west of Lyme Bay. As the front moves east, the sea state is expected to improve and the wind speed reduce fairly rapidly on Sunday morning.

A second front will bring winds from a more north-north-westerly direction, which could make for a tactically interesting right-hand shift for the leading IRC boats around Lands End. While the weather models aren’t yet in agreement on how far the northerly wind will shift, it’s possible boats may even experience some downwind sailing towards Fastnet Rock if it clocks all the way round to the east.

Here’s how to follow the race start, plus don’t miss our coverage of all the action on yachtingworld.com, social media and YouTube.

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The famous Rolex Fastnet Race always provides an intriguing line up of amateur and professional teams all looking for race glory as they battle the 629nm course from Cowes, round the Fastnet Rock and back to the (new in 2021) finish in Cherbourg.

But there are consequences to the Fastnet Race beyond merely the spoils for the winners and this year will once again see a large fleet of IMOCA 60s taking to the startline.

For the 29 IMOCA 60s, though victory is a significant goal, it is not purely a question of who will win the Fastnet as the aims of the teams go some way beyond the Fastnet Race itself with many gearing up for the Transat Jacques Vabre later this year and, more crucially, the Vendeé Globe in 2024.

With around 18 months to go until the Vendeé Globe 2024, there will be a number of recently launched IMOCA 60s on the startline for this Fastnet Race as well as several boats that are fresh from significant refits.

In short, the IMOCA 60 Fastnet fleet is absolutely stacked with top-end talent and fascinating new boats, so much so, it can be difficult to know where to look.

With so many interesting boats and sailors on the IMOCA startline this is, necessarily, a shortlist of those we are going to be following with most interest. In truth almost every sailor in this fleet will be of interest and there are many sailors that may well win that we have not included here…

New and revamped IMOCA 60 Fastnet fleet

With the Vendée running on a 4-year cycle, those with the backing to do so will typically have only recently launched the boats that they hope will take them to round the world victory in 2024.

As such the Fastnet Race in 2023 represents the first time we will see a number of the new IMOCA 60 launches for the next Vendée competing against one another – though it must be noted there are still a significant number yet to be launched.

A new IMOCA 60 is a significant undertaking with 10,000s man hours involved in the design and build of these technologically advanced semi-foiling machines. But just getting one on the water is only half the battle with sailors needing to understand the performance of their new boats and start to build a better picture of the best moding of the boars in certain conditions and wind angles.

Much of this can be modelled on computers these days but there is still nothing like real-world testing to validate ideas. The challenge is also similar for any older boats which have been undergoing refits.

All this is to say that it may not be the very latest boats leading the field in this Fastnet Race, but it does give the fans a good chance to, at least, start to assess the potential of the boats at this early stage – even if that potential might only be seen in fits and bursts.

Who to watch in the Fastnet Race IMOCA 60 fleet

Photo: Maxime Horlaville / disobey / Macif

Charlie Dalin and Pascal Bidégorry – MACIF Santé Prévoyance

Charlie Dalin has been the standout star in the IMOCA fleet in recent years. He was the winner of the last Vendée Globe on the water – but came home second after Yannick Bestaven was awarded redress for the time he lost assisting in the rescue of Kevin Escoffier earlier in the race.

Dalin has been something of a dominant force in his Apivia IMOCA 60 winning almost everything he has entered. However, he came home second in the Route du Rhum 2022 being beaten by a few hours by Thomas Ruyant.

The 2023 Fastnet race will be the first proper outing for Dalin in his newly launched IMOCA 60 MACIF Santé Prévoyance. Dalin and his team have spoken about this new boat as an evolution of the previous one with refining overall performance.

As is the case with many of the more recent IMOCA 60s a lot of thought has gone into sailor comfort too, with a fully enclosed and more centrally located cockpit.

Dalin is undoubtedly a quick sailor and his new boat should be quick – Apivia was widely regarded as the quickest and best set up in the fleet – but the boat was only launched at the tail end of last month, so the team will be focussed on getting the new boat up to speed.

“To be at the start of a competition just four weeks after the end of construction is quite some feat,” say Dalin. “The team has done and continues to do a fantastic job to make that possible. The four or five sea trials we’ve done so far have been very encouraging, but naturally we’re yet to fulfil the boat’s true potential.”

Photo: IMOCA / TR Racing

Thomas Ruyant and Morgan Lagravière – For People

Such has been the close competition between Dalin and Thomas Ruyant over the last few years in the IMOCA fleet it almost seems unfair to refer to the former as the stand-out star. But, while Ruyant has pushed Dalin all the way and beat him in the recent Route du Rhum, Dalin has won more often than not.

Ruyant suffered foil damage in the last Vendée Globe sailing his LinkedOut IMOCA 60 but sailed an impressive race thereafter to come home in sixth overall despite the damage.

Ruyant has also launched a new boat this year, though unlike Dalin he has had the opportunity to complete a race already, the Guyader Bermudes 1000 Race, which he won alongside co-skipper Morgan Lagravière, an impressive performance from a brand new launch.

Ruyant’s new boat is something of a change from his previous – very quick – LinkedOut with the Frenchman turning to a new design team in Antoine Koch and Finot-Conq to deliver the new hull.

Though the fashion for recent launches in the IMOCA class has been towards scow-style bows, his latest boat does not quite follow that tradition and though there is plenty of bow volume much of it is carried above a dramatic, sharp chine running the length of the hull.

Certainly the boat performed well in it’s first outing but where Ruyant has really been making headlines of late has been in the announcement of the fist ever fully integrated two-boat, two-skipper outfit in the IMOCA fleet, TR Racing, with the talented Brit, Sam Goodchild taking on the skipper duties of the old boat, now named For the Planet.

With the backing of Advens and Leyton this two-boat team is currently creating its own dedicated state-of-the-art team base at Lorient, where up to 30 people will be employed for the next three seasons. It is certainly set to be a potent combination.

Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut – polaRYSE / Charal

Jérémie Beyou and Franck Cammas – Charal

A devastating start to the last Vendée Globe saw Beyou – widely considered one of the favourites to win the race – taking significant damage, forcing him to return and repair his boat before setting off again, essentially dashing his Vendée hopes within days of the start.

It is to Beyou’s credit that he returned to complete the race when victory was clearly out of sight and he achieved a remarkable comeback to finish in 13th position overall.

But Beyou is not a man here to merely compete in the Vendée Globe, he wants to win it and 2024 will mark his fifth attempt to do just that. Having secured an early commitment from his sponsors Charal to go again Beyou’s new Charal was the first of the latest generation to launch – as was the case with his previous boat.

The new Charal has some pretty radical features. She has significant volume in the bow, as with many other IMOCA launches trending towards more scow-like bows. But where she is truly radical is in the rudder assembly, with the twin rudders in an inverted ‘v’ shape.

In theory this should help with the boat’s stability while foiling. So far the boat in Beyou’s hands has proven to be pretty quick but has not quite shown stunning pace. The boat was pretty new when she was entered into the Route du Rhum race in 2022 and Beyou finished in third place behind Ruyant and Dalin on their older, more worked up boats.

Despite a very close battle between himself and Ruyant in the recent Guyader Bermudes 1000 Race Beyou just lost out to Ruyant in his newly launched For People.

Photo: IMOCA / TR Racing

Sam Goodchild and Antoine Koch – For the Planet

Sam Goodchild will certainly be one to watch in the Fastnet Race, he’s one of the two skippers in TR Racing team, alongside Thomas Ruyant. His IMOCA For the Planet is the ex-LinkedOut, on which Ruyant saw a great deal of success, most recently winning the Route du Rhum race in 2022.

Goodchild is an impressive and established offshore racer and was one of the favourites in the Multi 50 fleet heading into the Route du Rhum last year. Unfortunately the British sailor suffered a significant injury during the race start and could not compete.

Alongside co-skipper – and co-designer of For People – Antoine Koch, Goodchild’s first race in his new IMOCA was impressive with a third place in the Guyader Bermudes 1000 Race behind Ruyant and Beyou. But the Brit admits he has plenty to do to get up to speed with the front of the fleet, stating after that race that: “The new boats are going very, very fast, so it’s a bit scary but it gives us goals,” Goodchild told the IMOCA class in an interview at the end of the race.

Apivia, the IMOCA upon which Cremer will compete now rebranded under new sponsor L’Occitane en Provence. Photo: Pierre Bouras

Clarisse Cremer and Alan Roberts – L’Occitane en Provence

There will be a lot of people looking at Cremer’s performance in the Fastnet Race this year. The first female in the last Vendée Globe, Cremer’s sponsor, Banque Populaire dropped the skipper from their plans after she had a baby and went on maternity leave.

The subsequent fall out of that decision and the negative press the French banking giant received saw them pull out of the event entirely.

Cremer was set to sail Charlie Dalin’s IMOCA 60 Apivia in Banque Populiare colours upon which Dalin had seen so much success for the 2024 Vendée Globe once his new boat was launched. But that boat was promptly put back on the market when Banque Populaire pulled out.

The boat was picked up by Alex Thomson Racing, and, with the headline sponsor of L’Occitane en Provence will be sailed by Cremer as she aims to take a spot on the 2024 Vendée Globe startline.

Cremer is a talented sailor and the boat is incredibly fast, so much will be expected of this combination. Cremer has selected experienced Brit, Alan Roberts as her co-skipper for the Fastnet Race – and he will continue as co-skipper of the boat and sailing coach.

Given this is the first race in the newly launched boat and team, outright victory might be something of a stretch but fans will be watching closely for some signs that this rapid boat in the hands of Cremer could be a potent combination going forward.

Photo: Ronan Gladu / Initiatives-Cœur

Sam Davies and Nicolas Lunven – Initiatives-Cœur

British born Sam Davies will arrive at the Fastnet fresh from competing in The Ocean Race as a part of Team Biotherm. Davies will be taking part in her fourth Vendée in 2024 and for the first time will be doing so in a brand new boat under her long-time sponsor Initiatives-Cœur.

Davies has not seen instant success in the new boat with a disappointing finish in the Route du Rhum and only managing 5th in the the recent Guyader Bermudes 1000 Race – though it should be noted that took place almost immediately after the completion of the The Ocean Race.

However, the hugely experienced sailor has a strong history in the Fastnet having finished in the top five in the IMOCA fleet in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2021, though she has yet to finish on the podium, something she will look to correct in 2023.

Photo: Lloyd Images / Pip Hare Ocean Racing

Pip Hare and Nick Bubb – Medallia

Pip Hare sailed a very impressive Vendée Globe in 2021-22 with a boat that was well known to be one of the hardest to sail in the fleet – with halyards led to the mast base, a block and tackle canting keel system, no foils, and little in the way of cockpit protection.

The Brit’s sponsor, Medallia was convinced to help her find a newer boat for the forthcoming Vendée. CEO Leslie Stretch had asked Pip mid-race on the race’s live video show: “What’s next Pip? Let’s get to the end and then let’s go shopping for a new boat, shall we??” – on her return they did just that, buying the fastest boat ever to complete the Vendée Globe.

Launched in 2015 as Banque Populaire, the new Medallia comes with an impressive history. It was one of the first generation of yachts that were built specifically to foil, and it won the Vendée Globe for Armel Le Cléac’h in 2016, setting an unbroken course record of 74 days.

However, development has moved on significantly since the boat was launched but Medallia has just undergone a substantial refit with new, bigger foils added requiring significant structural alterations and the bow has been reworked into a more modern, higher volume configuration too.

Medallia only recently came out of the shed following her refit, so this year’s Fastnet Race will be the first test of the new upgrades.

“We’re really excited coming into this year’s Rolex Fastnet Race. It’ll be the first major test for the boat with her new set-up,” says Hare. “It’s a giant leap forward in terms of performance, but we also need to adapt to these changes with regards trimming and handling and then refine the new polars.”

See the full list of IMOCA Fastnet entries. 

Check out all our Rolex Fastnet Race 2023 coverage.

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The post Rolex Fastnet Race 2023 stacked IMOCA fleet set to entertain appeared first on Yachting World.

This Saturday’s 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race will be the biggest offshore race of all time, with a record-breaking entry list of over 490 yachts for its 50th anniversary edition (the only race to get close to it was the 50th Rolex Sydney Hobart Race in 1994, which saw 371 boats set off).

That makes picking a winner pretty close to picking this week’s Lottery numbers.

The Fastnet Race has only once run over its extended course, after the finish moved from Plymouth to Cherbourg for 2021. This increases the course distance from 605 to 695 miles, and adds a whole new dimension navigating from the Scillies to Cherbourg (don’t miss our superb navigator’s guide to the new Fastnet course by 2021 winner Tom Cheney).

It also means we don’t have much data on which type of boats tend to perform well over the new course. The 2021 race saw 40-footers dominate the overall prizes: 1st in IRC was Thomas Kneen’s 40ft JPK 1180 Sunrise. 2nd the HH42 Ino XXX, and 3rd the Lombard 46 Pata Negra.

For many crews the new course will extend the race by about a day – enough time for the arrival of a new weather system from the north Atlantic. Together with the fact that there are now at least half a dozen key points where the race can be won and lost, it remains a very open contest.

It was a windy start for the 2021 Fastnet Race and 2023 looks likely to see similar conditions.

Big breeze forecast for 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race start

Less welcome news for some of the 3,000 sailors taking part is the early forecast. The Solent will see strong breezes of up to 30 knots – and likely quite lumpy seas – for an upwind start on Saturday 22 July (similar to the conditions faced by competitors in the 2021 race, when conditions moderated after the first 24 hours).

In such punchy conditions, the largest offshore designs are likely to make the smoothest exit of the Solent. Though there are no 100-footers gracing the startline this year, the IRC Super Zero fleet includes two Volvo 70s and two VO65s which are likely to be among the early leaders in the predicted wind and sea state. They include Wind Whisper, which won The Ocean Race VO65 series and is de facto the big boat to beat.

While the IMOCA 60s are also designed to contend with serious ocean conditions, they aren’t eligible for for the overall prize (awarded to a boat racing under IRC) and as they’ll be racing double-handed, short-tacking out of a crowded Solent is likely to have their skippers sailing conservatively for the initial stages at least.

Jeremie Beyou latest IMOCA 60, Charal. Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut

Picking a class winner in the IMOCA fleet is a bit like picking your favourite child these days – there are so many fantastic designs and skippers to follow – but Jérémie Beyou’s Charal is likely a favourite, as one of the latest designs with the most miles under its keel. However, it’s going to be fascinating to see how Charlie Dalin’s brand new Macif performs straight out of the box, while long-time close rival Thomas Ruyant will also be racing his new Finot-Conq/Antoine Koch design For People – on which he won the Guyader Bermudes 1000 Race straight out the box.

The Fastnet is also Pip Hare’s first race with her newly optimised Medallia, complete with new upsized foils, while fellow British skipper Sam Goodchild competes in his For Planet (Ruyant’s former LinkedOut) – another one to watch closely.

Notorious is one of the hot favourites to win the Fastnet Race. Photo: Paul Wyeth

The big boats fighting to win the Fastnet Race

Back to those chasing IRC overall, and one of the most interesting boats contending for the win in IRC Super Zero is Peter Morton’s Notorious, the Mills-designed Maxi 72 originally launched as Allegre in 2013 (later renamed Caol Ila R). After being highly successful on the Med-based Maxi circuit, Notorious is likely to be something of a damp ride in the Celtic Sea, though has been carefully optimised along with an all-star crew onboard for this year’s offshore campaign.

Owner Morton explains: “2023 is a big year for me: I did my first Fastnet in 1973, so it will be 50 years on from that. This will be the 50th Fastnet.

“I won the Fastnet in 1993, 30 years ago on Indulgence and again in 2003 on Enigma. So this also has a ‘3’ in it. Plus I will be 70, so the stars are aligned. They say you need a foot for every year you are old…especially to go offshore.”

The stunning new Ino Noir. Photo: Paul Wyeth

One brand new design that could make a strong bid for the overall prize is RORC Commodore James Neville’s stunning new Carkeek 45 Ino Noir, in IRC Zero. Neville is looking to go one better overall after coming 2nd in 2021, also winning class with his previous boat.

Seasoned contenders in the big boat class include the NMYD 54 Teasing Machine, owned by RORC Vice Commodore Eric de Turckheim. Teasing Machine is on storming form, leading the RORC Season’s Points Championship with overall victories in last year’s Rolex Middle Sea Race, the RORC Transatlantic Race in January and Myth of Malham at the end of May, as well as finishing runner-up in the Caribbean 600.

And you can’t discount Rán. Swedish owner Niklas Zennström won back-to-back Fastnet Races in 2009 and 2011 and his current Rán 8, a CF 520, was 4th in last year’s Rolex Middle Sea Race.

“The first goal when we built the boat was for the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race – the 50th anniversary, so obviously a big race,” explains Rán skipper Tim Powell.

Warrior Won could be on for a good result. Photo: RORC

US entry Warrior Won, a Pac 52, is another with proven offshore winning credentials, having won last year’s RORC Caribbean 600 and the Transpac overall in the same year. The crew includes round-the-world veteran Stu Bannatyne, well known as a heavy-airs expert, and Adrian Stead, who won the Rolex Fastnet Race twice with Rán.

40-footer challengers

If conditions moderate over the course of the race (and if they don’t, frankly, it’ll become a race of attrition), then the highly competitive 40-footers in IRC 1 are likely to be in with a good chance of taking the overall prize.

Favourite among them has to be reigning champions Sunrise, Thomas Kneen’s JPK 1180. After winning the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race they went on to nearly win the Rolex Middle Sea Race (only losing after a highly controversial course change), and then shipped the boat to Australia for the Rolex Sydney Hobart in 2022.

So while they might not have been clocking up the miles in the Channel, the Sunrise team has kept working to squeeze more performance out of the boat. Crew member Dave Swete says the Sydney Hobart revealed a weak spot in boatspeed when VMG running. “So we’ve put a 6.5 metre spinnaker pole on the boat, which is pretty long for the size of the boat, and we’ve had some smaller, flatter spinnakers made.

Tom Kneen and the Sunrise crew. Photo: Paul Wyeth/RORC

“The new Fastnet course is more like a big windward-leeward track, so we think the spinnaker pole could work out to be pretty useful. We’ve paid a bit of a price on the rating but with the right conditions it will be worth it.

“By my calculations we only need to fly the spinnaker for an hour and a half and it will have paid for itself because it looks to be about 10 per cent quicker.”

The well optimised and hard raced J/121 Darkwood, owned by Irish skipper Michael O’Donnell is currently leading the IRC points series in IRC 1, and will be well practised going into what looks like a demanding Fastnet opening stage.

There are also some outstanding French entries in IRC 2. Didier Gaudoux, who won the Fastnet in 2017 on Lann Ael 2, this year has a new Sam Manuard and Bernard Nivelt design. With its distinctive semi-scow, reverse-bow design Lann Ael 3 will likely be turbo-charged in strong reaching or downwind conditions.

Another windy start will make the upwind exit of the Solent particularly tough for the double handed teams. Photo: RORC

Double-handers taking on the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race

The strong winds forecast is likely to make for a tough start for the smaller boats, but 30-35-footers have a good track record in this race (a JPK 10.10 won in 2013 and JPK 10.80 in 2015) and the IRC 2 fleet is one of the most competitive in the whole race.

With seven JPK 10.80s, 12 JPK10.30s, 15 Sun Fast 3600s and 22 Sun Fast 3300s in IRC 2, many teams will be pushing hard against near rivals for the whole 695 miles.

Of the double-handed teams, Brits Rob Craigie and Deb Fish on the Sun Fast 3600 Bellino will be among the strongest contenders. They currently lead the IRC Two-Handed leaderboard and also posted an impressive 2nd overall in last year’s Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race.

But if conditions in this year’s Fastnet ease in the second half of the race to make it a slower boat affair, with victory decided in light, tidal conditions of the Alderney Race, it would be hard to bet against one of the French teams that know the coastline best.

Hugely experienced skipper Noel Racine has won class in the Fastnet no fewer than four times, making his team on the JPK 10.30 Foggy Dew surely one of the favourites for an overall win if the wind gods are in their favour.

Follow all our 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race coverage.

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The post Who will win the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race? appeared first on Yachting World.

As with most big races around the world, bragging rights in the Rolex Fastnet Race race are split into two broad camps, the line honours winners (the first boat to complete the course) and the winner of the event on corrected time.

And since the inclusion of multihulls 20 years ago, these categories are split again into monohull and multihull line honours and handicap winners.

Most of those taking part in the race, in either monohulls or multihulls, will only be focussed on the handicap results as a line honours win is out of reach of all but the fastest, biggest and most expensive boats in the world.

For the Rolex Fastnet Race 2023, the fastest boat to complete the course will almost certainly be one of the two 100ft foiling trimarans, the Ultim of Banque Populaire XI and SVR-Lazartigue.

Banque Populaire XI in full flight. Photo: Jeremie Lecaudey

Fastest Fastnet Race Multihulls

The foiling ocean racers are at the very forefront of technical innovation and are designed to break records – be that offshore races, ocean crossings or the ultimate prize a Jules Verne Round the World record.

The Ultim trimarans are set to become especially newsworthy over the next months with the first ever race for five of these extreme 32m long by 23m wide flying trimarans, around the world, non-stop, singlehanded, setting sail from Brest, France on 7 January next year.

Before then two of the main contenders will be leading the charge on the rather shorter 695 mile Rolex Fastnet Race.

Article continues below…

Extraordinary boats: Banque Populaire XI

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The ultimate foiling machine? Onboard SVR-Lazartigue

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How to win the Rolex Fastnet Race: expert navigator’s tips

The 2021 edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race came with an interesting change. The finish line, having always previously been…

SVR-Lazartigue and Banque Populaire XI are skippered by two titans of offshore racing, Francois Gabart and Armel le Cleac’h respectively. Both are Vendée Globe winners (Gabart 2012, le Cleac’h 2016). Le Cleac’h is part of the exclusive club of triple winners of La Solitaire du Figaro (the unofficial world championship of solo offshore racing). He has been racing Ultims since 2013, this being his second boat.

Similarly, Gabart joined the Ultim class in 2015 winning many events with his MACIF trimaran, culminating in his record for sailing singlehanded non-stop around the world of just 42d 16h 40m 35s, incredibly just under two days shy of the fully crewed record.

Gabart has competed in the Rolex Fastnet Race twice before, winning on his IMOCA 60 MACIF in 2013 and then, in 2019, leading into the Plymouth finish line aboard his Ultim trimaran, only to be pipped at the post by Groupe Edmond de Rothschild, finishing less than one minute astern. “That was a little disappointing,” Gabart admits.

Charles Caudrelier and Franck Cammas on Maxi Edmond de Rothschild win the last Fastnet Race in 2021. Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut / PolaRYSE / Gitana

Neither of these Ultims competed in the 2021 race, when Charles Caudrelier and Franck Cammas on Maxi Edmond de Rothschild established the record for the new course to Cherbourg of 1d 9h 14m 54s.

Their Ultims are more than capable of bettering this and it’s possible a good breeze could even see the 14-year-old outright record for the most miles covered in 24 hours (908.2 miles/average speed 37.84 knots), also broken, given enough runway with suitable conditions and the will. If pressed, the latest Ultims could cover 1000 miles in a day (average speed 41.6 knots).

The top speed on Banque Populaire XI to date is 47 knots, but it is not top speed but high average speeds that Le Cleac’h says is the objective. “40-42 knots for one or two hours is very good, or 35-37 knots for 24 hours. We know that it is possible with our boat if the conditions are good.”

The performance of the Ultims has taken a massive leap in recent years, since new foil configurations have enabled them to fly.

For Banque Populaire XI getting airborne requires 12-13 knots of wind/22-23 knots of boat speed. Ideal conditions are no more than 20 knots as above this the sea state becomes too rough to use the foils effectively. Upwind in 15-17 knots Banque Populaire XI flies and will be making 27-30 knots. “That is the big step forward compared to the last Ultims, and that difference is very important compared to the older generation Ultims.”

“We regularly reach speeds of over 40 knots at less than 90° true wind angle (TWA),” says Gabbart. “In certain conditions, such as 25 knots of wind on flat seas, at 65°-70° off the wind, you’re doing 40 knots. That’s 60-65 knots of apparent wind speed. The maximum AWS in our log is not far from 70 knots.”

Of course one of these two foiling beasts being first to finish the Fastnet Race does require that they actually finish. The giant trimarans are at the very forefront of innovation and are famously susceptible to damage.

Reliability is improving, however, as foiling technology improves but even these hugely developed technological marvels the old adage holds true; ‘to finish first, first you have to finish’.

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The 2021 edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race came with an interesting change. The finish line, having always previously been in Plymouth, is now in Cherbourg. Not only does this extend the race from 603 to 695 miles, but statistically this is likely to increase the amount of downwind sailing.

As a navigator, I find it important to break these longer races down into manageable chunks. I give myself a series of bullet points and prompts for each leg and make sure I know what the big risks/decisions are that’re coming up.

This also helps to identify the less intense sections of the race so that I can manage getting some rest. Here is a breakdown of the Fastnet race course in five sections:

The fleet battles its way out of the Solent after the start of the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race. Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

1 Exiting the Solent

When considering how to win the Fastnet Race is worth noting that the event is never won in the Solent, but it can easily be lost there. A record number of entries in this year’s 50th anniversary edition of the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s flagship race means there’ll likely be close to 500 yachts jostling at the start.

In the 2021 race, we witnessed our friends and sistership Dawn Treader being dismasted just minutes after the start due to a collision with a boat on port tack. With a fleet of boats vying for the strongest current in the centre of the channel, it’s vital to keep your wits about you, even when you’re on starboard tack.

Personally, I favour a cautious approach to the start line on these big offshore races. Obviously you don’t want to be hundreds of metres back from the line at the gun, but with the tide building and pushing you towards the line, there’s a huge penalty to be paid if you are over early.

Article continues below…

How to follow the Rolex Fastnet Race 2023

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Positioning on the line, however, is key. The optimum point on the line for your start will depend on your place in the starting sequence and the wind direction. The ebb tide strengthens earliest inshore, just off Cowes Green, so you will often see boats pushing to be close in. The tricky part is successfully getting out again on port tack on a busy start. There are also some nice local left-hand shifts to be had around Egypt Point and Newtown Creek, where the wind funnels from the south.

Tidal strategy in the western Solent is fairly straightforward: aim to stay in the deep water channel. The port lateral mark, West Lepe, is a good first waypoint and the north cardinal, Sconce, is a good spot to aim at before the Hurst Narrows.

The final obstacle before heading out into the channel is the Shingles Bank. This sand bank moves around considerably year-to-year, so the very shallow bits (it dries at low water in places) are not always where they say they are on the chart. Most of the time you want to be sailing in the deep water on the south side of the bank. There are a few big red lateral marks that will serve as a good visual guide.

The other decision you need to make as you approach open water is where to position yourself against your competitors. Local land effects mean that the western Solent often ends up being a fairly true beat regardless of what the real gradient wind direction is a little further offshore. I always try to have in mind what true wind direction (TWD) I am expecting to see once we are out past the Needles. If you think TWD will be left of what you are seeing on the beat then you need to set up to be to the left of your competition (and vice versa). This will mean you end up with a nice gain when you get that inevitable shift.

Hurst Castle Light on Hurst Spit marks the western end of The Solent. Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

2 Needles to Lizard

This section of the racecourse is all about timing approaching the key tidal gates.

St Alban’s – Even in a very light airs start you would expect to be round St Alban’s Head with positive current. If you are close inshore, there is a nice tidal advantage to be had by making the most of the acceleration along St Alban’s Ledge, although the overfall symbols that you see on the chart are there for a reason!

Portland – The main deciding factor of your route along this 160-mile leg along the south coast will be the timings for whether or not you are going to make the tidal gate at Portland. In the days running up to the start of the race, you should be looking at the medium term weather forecasts and running some routing to work out the timings for your boat. Realistically you need to be confident that you will be west of the Bill seven hours after start time to justify being in close. If you think you are marginal on making the tidal gate then you need to be heading offshore. At its peak, you can experience 5 knots of current against you inshore, whereas five miles offshore there will only be 2 knots.

There is a passage through very close inshore, a reasonable eddy extends a long way north up the eastern approach to the Bill, but it involves being metres from the rocks once you get to the southernmost tip. I’d not recommend doing it on anything other than a flat, calm day with good visibility. I have made it work once, but it was not a relaxing experience.

Lyme Bay and Start Point – There are similar gains to be had further down the coast at Start Point, although the speed of the current there is not as extreme as at Portland. In my experience, the strategy in Lyme Bay (the bay before this headland) is more wind-based than worrying so much about the tide. If you have started the race in a classic British summer sea breeze, then these bays on the south coast can become big wind holes to be avoided at night. Lyme Bay in particular is often windless and difficult to navigate at night in the summer. My rule of thumb is to stay well away after dark.

Exclusion zones for the Lizard to Fastnet Rock leg of the race include the Land’s End, Scillies and Fastnet Traffic Separation Schemes

3 Lizard to Fastnet Rock

The modern Fastnet Race course includes some additional exclusion zones, areas that you cannot enter as a competitor without being disqualified. Three of these obstructions are the Lands’ End and Scillies Traffic Separation Schemes (TSS). These areas are busy shipping lanes, so you also need to be careful when approaching them. The three TSS obstructions around the Isles of Scilly will have a big impact on the route you can take from Land’s End to the Fastnet Rock. The Scillies are only a mark of the course on the way back from the rock, so you have a lot of options here: several routes through the middle, or north/south of all of the obstructions. Routes south and north both add several miles to the course.

The distance from the north-east point of the Land’s End TSS to the south-west point of the Scilly South TSS is over 50 miles. This is a massive amount of leverage if you are going upwind across the Irish Sea.

The distances involved in this decision mean you need to be deciding based on what you’re expecting to happen over the following six hours. A significant wind shift to the right or left is going to be a huge gain or loss relative to a boat that chose the opposite approach. In the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race we left this decision very late, before diving north of the Land’s End TSS. It was a beat from Land’s End to the Fastnet Rock, but we ended up sailing downwind with a spinnaker up (against tide) to the top of the TSS so that we could be set up for a big right-hand shift.

If you are not expecting any large wind shifts, then generally new weather will be arriving from the west, so a good rule of thumb when crossing the Celtic Sea is to stay left of the rhumbline.

The Fastnet TSS must be left clear to port on approaching the Rock, and the same again when heading back south-east

4 Fastnet Rock to the isles of Scilly

Rounding the Fastnet Rock (and the Fastnet TSS) can be stressful as a navigator. Most of the roundings I can remember have either been in the dark or in thick fog. Combine this with having to avoid another TSS obstruction (you have to leave the Fastnet TSS to port on the way to the rock and again on the way back).

When skirting these separation schemes make sure you know where you are and how much margin you have between you and the invisible obstruction. Set yourself some safe waypoints; I usually place these a few hundred metres from the corners of the TSS. A useful reference on your computer is that 0.1 nautical miles is about 185m. Set yourself up with a display somewhere that shows you the cross track error (XTE) on the leg between these points. This number tells you how much room you have. Keep talking to the helm, give them a course to steer and don’t be afraid to update it if you think you are too close for comfort.

Generally the leg back to the Scillies is downwind, and often the wind at the Scillies is further south-west than when you round the rock. It’s easy to get caught out, headed and north of the islands. Now the finish is in Cherbourg there’s much less reason to be close in at Bishop Rock.

Rounding the famous Fastnet Rock and its landmark lighthouse in the Irish Sea. Photo: Rolex/Kurt Arrigo

5 Scillies to Cherbourg

This is where it gets interesting. With the new finish line in Cherbourg, there is an additional challenge in store on the final leg of the race. In the final 50 miles you have to pick a route past one final TSS and the infamous Alderney Race.

Alderney Race, known as Raz Blanchard by our friends across the Channel, experiences some of the strongest tidal currents in Europe. During the equinox the current can reach 12 knots at its peak. On a summer spring tide, you’re likely to see 5-6 knots of current.

Much like the tidal gate at Portland Bill, getting past Alderney and Cap De La Hague is all about timing. As soon as you are past the Scillies (hopefully with an up to date weather forecast), you need to be working out what time you will be approaching the Alderney Race. The Race is a spectacularly dangerous stretch of water and you should exercise extreme caution when sailing through or near it. In addition to the extreme tidal conditions, the north Normandy coast can be fickle wind-wise, particularly on summer mornings. This makes it even more crucial to have a good tidal strategy.

East-going flood tide
Best-case scenario is that you have strong east-going tide in the channel (north in the Race).
In this instance, you can sail the shortest course, south of the TSS and north of Alderney. The main thing to look out for in this situation is not to get pushed too far north as you cross the strongest tidal flow. The correct course to steer will feel very strange, your heading will be a long way right of the headland. You also need to bear in mind that the wind direction experienced on the water will be shifted towards the north because of the tidal vector. Anticipate the shift back as soon as you are back into the east-going tide.

West-going ebb tide
Worst case scenario: if you’re unlucky enough to be arriving with the full strength of the current against you, then you may need to consider a route to the north of the Casquets TSS. If reaching, this route adds 10 miles to the distance sailed (not the case if sailing VMG downwind) so it’s not always going to be a good idea. In light winds you need to be careful not to be pushed back west, into the TSS.

Slingshot effect
If you are arriving at around LW, just as the tide turns to go east in the English Channel (north in the Race), then you can take advantage of the strong north-going tide by leaving Alderney to port. This is a good option if you’re arriving a bit ahead of your original plan and are worried that the tide might be against you initially. At this point there’ll be less than 1 knot of current out in the Channel, but 2-3 knots going north through Alderney Race. You’ll also want to stay quite close in at Cap De La Hague (French mainland) to get the benefit of the strongest current on the mainland shore.

The winning Sunrise crew at the finish of the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race. Photo: Paul Wyeth

Useful tools for the Fastnet Race

Navigation software

Broadly navigators fall into one of two camps: Expedition or Adrena. Both are very mature solutions, although not without their quirks.

An easy mistake to make is to blindly download a weather forecast, plug in a route and a polar table for your boat and just follow the route optimisation that it spits out. In reality these are all tools for exploring options, they’re not supposed to give you a definitive route to take.

Whichever tool you choose, make sure you’re familiar with it and get used to using it off the boat. Try routing one leg at a time, rather than looking too far ahead. Add additional waypoints into your leg to force you into corners and compare the times of the results. This will help you understand the sensitivity of the decisions you’re making. For example, you may not want to take the risk of sailing the long way round a TSS, exposing yourself to a big risk, if you realise that the reward is only a two minute theoretical gain.

Weather models

For the bigger picture I look at the GFS (American) and ECMWF (European) global models. These are independent forecasts that cover the whole planet and can give you a 10-day forecast, although levels of confidence drop quickly as soon as you’re more than a few days out. Global models are then used to initialise the higher resolution forecasts for smaller areas. These higher resolution models are also fed information about local terrain and recent observations or land and sea temperatures. This enables models like the AROME, from Meteo France, to do a really good job of predicting sea breezes that are driven by local thermal effects. These high resolution models are available as GRIB files from subscription services, including (but not limited to) Squid and PredictWind. Tidetech high resolution tidal models cover the whole course – a fantastic tool, but not cheap.

Internet onboard

A good internet connection allows you to get the latest weather information, competitor tracking information and real-time weather observations. Not all boats have the latest satellite systems, though luckily lots of the Fastnet course is covered by regular 4G mobile phone reception and it’s easy to get a cheap pay-as-you-go data system for your navstation, or even simply hotspot to your phone when you’re close to land. Whatever your setup, make sure that you’re familiar with how to use it.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

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The Fastnet Race 2023 will be the 50th edition of the event and is set to be the largest offshore yacht race in the world, with over 440 entries. The Rolex Fastnet Race is one of the most famous ocean yacht races in the world, and completing it widely regarded as one of sailing’s crowning achievements.

Begun as a challenge between a handful of competing yachts in 1925, the Fastnet Race is run every two years by the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC). The 605 nautical mile course traditionally ran from Cowes on the Isle of Wight, west to the Fastnet Rock lighthouse off the south-west corner of Ireland before returning to finish off Plymouth.

The race is well know as a challenge just to complete and the 1979 Fastnet Race disaster remains at the forefront of the minds of many of those who compete. The disaster led to huge improvements in yacht and safety gear design, and the race now has stringent entry requirements. However, the actual race course remained largely unchanged until 2021 when the finish line moved to Cherbourg, France instead of Plymouth in 2021 and 2023. This new course added a further 90 miles to the race – much of it a tricky tidal section – making it an even bigger challenge

When is the Fastnet Race 2023?

The 50th edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race starts on Saturday 22 July with the first start at 1300 BST.

For those wishing to follow the action from the start, there will be a livestream shown on the various RORC channels.

The show will feature expert commentary from a team including British racers Mike Golding, Annie Lush and Pete Cumming, and French meteorologist Christian Dumard, on the Royal Yacht Squadron Platform for the start, along with on-the-water commentators.

Live coverage of the start beings at 1230 with the first class start is at 1300 BST.

Due to the strong wind forecast organisers RORC have reversed the start sequence, with the largest IRC yachts starting first instead of last so they can have a clear exit from the Solent. This means the starting sequence is slightly shorter, with 15 minutes between each class.

The first warning signal for the multihull fleet (including the two giant Ultimes) is at 1250 to start at 1300, the IMOCA 60s starting 15 minutes later, and so on in decreasing yacht size until the IRC 4 class start at 1445.

Windy start to the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race. Photo: Martin Allen/pwpictures.com

Watch the Rolex Fastnet Race start

Race website: https://www.rolexfastnetrace.com/en
RORC YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/rorcracing
RORC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RoyalOceanRacingClub

Where to watch the Fastnet Race 2023

The best vantage points of the start will be along Cowes Green and Egypt Esplanade. As the fleet funnels west out of the Solent there will be lots of chances to see the yachts from Yarmouth as well. From the mainland you can view the yachts on their outbound leg; the best places to watch are from Hurst Castle, Anvil Point, St Alban’s Head and Portland Bill.

Track the Rolex Fastnet Race Fleet

All yachts competing in the Fastnet Race are fitted with a YB Tracker so you can follow an individual boat, a class or the whole fleet. The race tracker is linked to via the official race site https://www.rolexfastnetrace.com or direct at https://cf.yb.tl/fastnet2023

The tracker lets you watch the full fleet, separate classes or follow individual yachts.

Yachting World will also bring you all the latest news and views in the build up to the race and will be reporting throughout at our dedicated Fastnet Race homepage. We will also have several of the team on the ground and will be reporting both online and via video on our Yachting World Youtube channel and on Facebook and Instagram.

A list of competitors can be found at the RORC website.

If you enjoyed this….

Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

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The post How to follow the Rolex Fastnet Race 2023 appeared first on Yachting World.

It’s tricky to gauge speed and scale against anything else when you have to sail a few miles offshore to avoid dredging the English Channel. Nevertheless, sailing onboard the new ClubSwan 125, I could tell that great stretches of the UK’s coastline, passages that would normally drag by over hours, were ripping past at a velocity that made me question my knowledge of known landmarks.

Aboard Skorpios, the imposing new ClubSwan 125, we’re not talking outright silly peak speeds, but more the sheer unrelenting consistency of the high speeds. At 140ft including bowsprit, Skorpios is, by any scale, a beast which, under its substantial sail area, becomes an uncompromising, fiendishly powerful mile-muncher.

Standing at the windward helm when powered up feels so high above the water it’s akin to leaning out of a second storey window. And with over 20 top professional crew sitting on the rail in front of you it is an awesome, slightly terrifying and utterly captivating experience.

However, this is not a Swan built for helming pleasure, rather with a ruthless brief to be the first monohull home in the big offshore races and to rewrite ocean records.

Skorpios is skippered by the Spanish Olympic Tornado gold medallist Fernando Echávarri,  a former Volvo Ocean Race skipper.

The adrenalin of sailing the ClubSwan 125 Skorpios is perhaps heightened by the fear of the unknown: everything about this yacht seems to be on another scale altogether. This is, by some margin, the biggest offshore racing monohull, and certainly the largest ever racing Swan. It boasts possibly the deepest draught non-lifting keel (7.4m) and the largest sailplan combination ever conceived. In short, Skorpios is a seemingly limitless source of superlatives.

Skorpios is the largest monohull to have raced in the Fastnet Race to date, and, as its designer Juan Kouyoumdjian pointed out with a certain glee, it has been issued with the highest IRC rating ever awarded.

Not that handicaps will be of concern – it’s out for line honours only. That it duly succeeded at such a task at the first time of asking is all the more impressive considering the gun for this year’s particularly boisterous Fastnet start was fired just two months after the boat splashed.

This was also the first offshore race for the yacht’s owner Dmitry Rybolovlev. Sometimes it takes an ambitious owner with a substantial chequebook to make a meaningful step forward in design and engineering, and produce a ripple effect in technology.

In the case of ClubSwan 125 Skorpios it was Russian businessman and philanthropist Rybolovlev who fell for the idea of a record breaker after tasting racing victory on his ClubSwan 50. The contract was signed in February 2017 and, four years and a pandemic later, his near three times larger version was wheeled out of Nautor’s famous Pietarsaari yard.

Just a month after its June launch, and during an intense work up period before the Fastnet, I was invited to join Skorpios for a day’s race training.

Science project

The isle of Portland is one of the few safe ports around the English Channel with a deep enough berth for Skorpios. From Dorset’s Jurassic Coast cliffs miles to the west, a single mast stands out on the horizon and as I approach through the commercial dockyard, the scale of Skorpios seems to keep increasing. It’s simply enormous, unlike any other yacht I have seen.

Enough sail? Skorpios off the Dorset coast. The ClubSwan 125 is named after owner Rybolovlev’s famous Greek island, where Jackie Kennedy married Aristotle Onassis. Photo: Mark Lloyd / Lloyd Images

Testing systems and sea trialling for race prep takes a significant amount of sea room on a craft of this size. Thankfully we have ideal 17-22 knot conditions to encourage a long day afloat.

“We’re going to stay two to three miles offshore and sail down to the Isle of Wight,” Fernando Echávarri announces to the crew. The quietly spoken team skipper, a Spanish Olympic Tornado champion, assembled a crack team around him during the build and seems to have the unflappable composure needed for such an endeavour.

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I crane my neck as 660m2 of black 3Di mainsail is hoisted up a mast that scales 59m from the waterline, high enough for the enormous 5.5m gaff of the squaretop to be in a totally different weather system.

“This boat’s a real science project,” says Miles Seddon, reading my mind as he joins me on the aft quarter rail. The British pro navigator has stepped aboard to give some local knowledge during the Fastnet build-up.

“There are so many systems, load sensors, fibre optics etc all trying to integrate… and all are logged at 10Hz so everyone can monitor it (aboard and ashore).”

The giant ClubSwan always sails heeled and the apparent wind never really goes aft of 80º. Photo: Mark Lloyd / Lloyd Images

With loads too high for human power onboard the ClubSwan 125, the grunt is all left to hydraulic pumps to drive winches and movable appendages. Hence the ability to monitor all loads constantly is reassuring and educational.

Nevertheless, I recognise many of the faces of the international crew who have amassed dozens of America’s Cup, Volvo Ocean Race and Olympic wins between them. The size of this craft and its level of tech places it in a high-risk category, so the ability to sail this ‘project’ safely and to the optimum, particularly with such a short training period, requires all their skill and experience.

Key crewmembers talk sporadically through their headsets, which are covered by neck scarves to try to protect against apparent winds that are typically gale force. It’s all coded language, acronyms and target talk – we are in test pilot territory here.

thrill of a lifetime as YW’s Toby Hodges gets behind the wheel. Photo: Mark Lloyd / Lloyd Images

As 1,300m2 of A3 (asymmetric spinnaker) is unfurled we accelerate from a 10 knot canter straight to the high teens. Then out come the J4 (jib) and IRS – the bright orange sail which rates as a storm jib – to fill the large slots and Skorpios is immediately into the 20s.

I record the angles and speeds throughout the day and, looking through these later, it’s their consistency at which I marvel. “We are sailing with nearly 2,400m2 in a 59-tonne boat – so it’s pretty powerful!” Echávarri remarks. Indeed the sail area to displacement ratio of 67.8 is mind boggling.

50% Movable ballast

“Designing a racing sailboat, able to reach a speed in the region of 15 knots upwind and that will always be faster than the wind speed downwind is something unique,” comments Juan K.

The Argentinian designer, who was aboard for our trial, explains that he chose a canting keel in order to keep the displacement under 60 tonnes, which allowed for the necessary righting moment with a smaller bulb.

However, this was not always the plan. The ClubSwan 125 was originally conceived by Nautor as more as a performance cruiser-racer with teak decks and a full interior.

The decision to remove these saved an estimated six tonnes immediately. And once the owner said he wanted to go really fast, the design was continually re-evaluated. The original keel proposal was a complex telescopic/canting mechanism, so replacing that saved another 2.5 tonnes. The interior was also adapted, designed by Adriana Monk to be very minimalist and practical for offshore sailing.

The canting angle of the keel increased from 38° to 42° and a trim tab was added. The potential lift and righting moment benefits this can give were one of the areas the crew were looking at during our sail.

sailing triple-headed makes for a lot of halyard tails and sheets to keep tidy. The smart dodger was a late addition, for protection and to keep the companionway dry. Photo: Mark Lloyd / Lloyd Images

“With a canting keel you need another appendage to produce the required side force. That is provided here by a C-foil, a hydrodynamic asymmetrical foil, but symmetrical from port to starboard, that can be tacked each side of the boat,” Juan K explains.

He estimates that this is less weight than two daggerboards and can help the boat reach a ‘skimming’ attitude when reaching. “It doesn’t give you the performance of side foils, but without the C-foil there would be 5-7° leeway. With the foil, there is zero or even negative leeway with the keel canted.”

Then there is also the equivalent weight of an average 40ft cruising yacht in water ballast, housed in 5,000lt and 3,000lt tanks each side. These take 45 seconds to fill and 30 seconds to transfer from one side to another.

“It’s righting moment without the weight in light airs,” Juan K elaborates. When more than half the weight of the boat can be shifted from side to side, pushing the correct buttons becomes imperative.

After a couple of hours in downwind mode, we’re now somewhere south of the Island and furl to gybe. An army of muscle manhandles the trunk of furled A3 onto the deck and into a bag so it can be lifted by halyard and deposited across the aft deck in preparation for the first upwind leg.

It is while briefly parked like this that the alien noises, reverberations and discomfort start. Every element of this craft is designed around speed, so restrained like this, the giant Skorpios groans and shudders like a tethered animal and the raw vibrations are felt right through to the aft deck.

ClubSwan 125 weight and windage

We’re given a steady 20 knots true for our first beat, which is on the limit of a reef in this sea state. Yet with or without a reef, we still average 14 knots at 25° to the apparent wind.

The single C-shape daggerboard is moved hydraulically from side to side to negate leeway and when fully retracted still sticks out by 80-90cm. Sensors continually inform the crew about the loads on the board. Photo: Mark Lloyd / Lloyd Images

The harmony of the rig and sail package on the ClubSwan 125 is impressive. Southern Spars designed the high modulus mast, 60ft boom and 23ft reaching strut in combination with sister company North Sails and its Helix structured luff technology. The company says it’s one of the most advanced rig packages it has ever delivered.

The tack points were originally designed to take much higher loads, but the advances in structural luff technology and load sharing means that these point loads have greatly reduced, project manager Bob Wylie tells me. “The J2 was originally designed for 45 tonnes, yet the current tack load is around 25 tonnes.”

Future Fibres’ Aerosix rigging minimises windage. “Considering the speeds and the close apparent wind angles you’re sailing at, everything contributes to speed,” comments Echávarri, who is most impressed with the comparative reduction in vibration this rigging brings.

The highly raked mast can be finely tuned with checkstay and backstay deflectors. “To set all the sails needs a bit of play between the mainsheet trimmer and the runner trimmer,” Echávarri explains.

“The J0, which is tacked to the bowsprit, is 550m2. So with the 660m2 main we can go upwind with about 1,200m2, which is a big load!” the skipper exclaims. Occasionally we slam through or over a wave and the vibration is gut wrenching.

Otherwise, however, it’s comparatively quiet speed sailing, with hardly any noticeable wake, just the firehose of a rooster tail spraying from the stern as Skorpios planes along continuously like a giant 49er.

Twin rudders are used for control as Skorpios always sails heeled. These have Juan-K’s trademark sawtooth profile which he compares to the tubercles of a whale. They are designed to limit drag when dipping in and out of the water and to prevent the blades from stalling.

The toe-in system, which changes the angle of attack of the rudders, is adjusted from on deck using a geared system first developed for the VO70 Groupama. “You want the windward one to have the least drag,” Juan K explains. “For downwind VMG sailing we’re looking at 11-15° heel, reaching is 20-25° and upwind is 25°. At around 21° the windward rudder stops touching the water – it’s ideal when it’s just kissing the water.”

Life at heel

While you are certainly aware of the near 30ft of beam when sailing upwind on the ClubSwan 125, it doesn’t feel like alarming levels of heel. Skorpios tracks along on its chine, while on deck the SeaDek closed cell foam decking provides excellent grip and the aft companionway and mainsheet plinth help to break up the large cockpit spaces.

The deck design is remarkably uncluttered and kept deliberately simple, meaning minimal winches and lines on deck. The use of multiple furling foresails, similar to a racing multihull or IMOCA 60, helps simplify manoeuvres. One of the neatest features is having the furler lines all lead under deck.

Sailing Skorpios requires the balancing of phenomenal sail area with moveable ballast and righting moment, while keeping the boat on a narrow (heeled) waterline beam. Photo: Mark Lloyd / Lloyd Images

“They have to be,” comments Wylie, “imagine a 450kg sail sitting on them – they wouldn’t shift!”

A keyboard of constrictor clutches are also used under the deck and the headsails are all on halyard locks, as are the three mainsail reefs. Lights and alarms display when these locks are engaged and then there are sensors everywhere, says Echávarri – “in the hydraulics, linear sensors between cables and sails, on vertical shrouds, on winches etc.”

During our second uphill leg I spend some time at the forward end of the rail’s crew stack filming and getting duly soaked. It really hits home how relentless and potentially exhausting it is sailing in such high apparent winds. It’s little wonder IMOCAs and Ultimes have dramatically increased their protection and aero packages.

Meanwhile, out to windward the chase boat bounces along with photographer Mark Lloyd aboard trying to steady himself. Not many powerboats could keep up with the ClubSwan 125 Skorpios in these seas, but this is no ordinary tender. Theirs is a 15m carbon catamaran, complete with 1,200hp of outboard propulsion, which was built in New Zealand in parallel development with Skorpios.

“When we decided to go lighter and lighter, the anchor became a big factor,” Echávarri elaborates. With a 7.4m deep keel, Skorpios will have to rely on its anchor gear, so the tender was designed to carry and deploy the main anchor and 600kg of chain. And because of the mothership’s restrictive draught, this chase boat also has the tanks to fuel bunker, while a sawn-off bow allows it to nudge up to the transom to unload supplies and swap sails. The sheer scale of this project!

The buzz

And then it happened… one of life’s golden moments. I am offered a glory spell on the wheel. We are smoking along, sheets ever so slightly cracked, making a steady 15-16 knots in 18 knots of breeze and Skorpios is like a freight train, unwavering in its speed and line.

Occasionally I glance the long way down to the leeward rail and see the whitewater shooting past. It makes me giddy. Concentrate on the numbers Toby, this is no time to lose focus.

Minimalist saloon with canting furniture. Photo: Mark Lloyd / Lloyd Images

So much power is felt through that foam-gripped composite wheel. On the pedestals are a hydraulics cut-off, a Jonbuoy release button, a high load alarm, and controls for the canting keel and trim tab. Needless to say I keep my hands on the wheel. The sheets are left alone as we charge back towards Portland, full steam, while I try to log every second in my long-term memory bank.

When the decorated Olympic and round the world sailor Xavi Fernandez turns round from the rail and asks me how it feels on the helm, I am lost for words and simply grin.

Echávarri sums up our sail more casually; he’s concerned with stats not emotion. “Today was a good day. Let’s say we were pretty good in performance – 95-98% of VPPs, which is good when there’s still a lot to learn.”

I simply tremble with nervous adrenaline… for days.

Building a beast

“The opportunity to work together with the greatest boatbuilders, designers and technicians around the globe, was awe-inspiring,” says Leonardo Ferragamo, Nautor’s Group president. Nautor’s Swan conceived and built the yacht in Finland, but with so many teams and subcontractors involved, Skorpios is more a custom race boat than a conventional Swan.

“A team of 30 was initially brought in to laminate the hull,” says Bob Wylie, while explaining the challenge of maintaining a workforce during Covid times. Grand-Prix raceboat construction techniques were used, including unidirectional prepregs and honeycomb nomex cores, with monolithic construction below the chine.

engine room contains the twin 400lt carbon hydraulic tanks and the mast base (mast jack load at full dock tune is around 90 tonnes!). Otherwise it’s just an engine and a spare genset, but no domestic batteries, chargers or inverters. Photo: Mark Lloyd / Lloyd Images

Post sailing we have a chance to look below decks of the ClubSwan 125 and it’s way more Spartan than I had been expecting. There is some cabin comfort for overnight races and a focus on safety in the saloon for guests. That’s it.

“As you get faster and faster you start to think of the security on board,” Echávarri explains. “We developed a super light, safe interior which is minimalist and nice looking.” The saloon seats rotate over a central hinge to suit the heeling angle and the table cants at multiple angles on titanium hinges. The ‘galley’ is a gimballed microwave on a central bulkhead unit with fridge below (“this is all we allow them,” Echávarri grins). Otherwise it’s just pipe cot-style bunks each side of the saloon and a day heads/shower.

The forepeak is known as the cathedral for its exhibition of bare structures, stringers, bulkheads and longitudinals. Photo: Mark Lloyd / Lloyd Images

The minimalist nature encourages you to focus on the build and finish quality, which is quite remarkable. A closer look at the bulkheads and doors reveals they are all bare carbon. Bar the deckheads and sole panels there are no liners, no panels, not even a drop of paint. It really is a Formula One shell built and finished with Nautor quality.

Move forward from the saloon and you won’t find any of the luxury cabins or accommodation you might expect on a large Swan, just a bare central engine room, the foil casing and acres of the black stuff. See for yourself on our walkthrough video on yachtingworld.com

What’s the goal?

“At the moment the challenges are the races – the Fastnet, the Middle Sea Race,” says Echávarri. “And slowly we will see the real potential. The concept didn’t start with a record breaker brief and we don’t know if it will be faster than Comanche yet. If we feel like it has the potential, we would like the north Atlantic.”

Whether speed is best measured for you on a Moth, SailRocket, an Ultime trimaran or this goliath, those who push for line honours and records will always make headlines. The ClubSwan 125 could potentially set a new bar in that respect. And by taking line honours in its first event, Skorpios has already proved it’s got the necessary sting in its tail.

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The post Sailing the fastest offshore monohull, the ClubSwan 125 appeared first on Yachting World.

The Fastnet double-handed fleet made up a whopping 89 boats in this year’s race, almost a quarter of the fleet, and produced one of the closest finishes of the race – and some of the most exhausted crews after 695 miles of intense offshore competition.

The double-handed win went to Alexis Loison, sailing with 470 sailor Guillaume Pirouelle on the JPK 10.30 Léon.

Two-man crews were particularly prevalent in IRC 3 which included former Rolex Fastnet Race winner Alexis Loison, sailing with 470 sailor Pirouelle, while British ocean racer Henry Bomby was sailing with double Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson on the SunFast 3300 Swell.

In the tough start conditions there was some early attrition among the second smallest class of boats in the race in IRC 3. Kelvin Rawlings and Stuart Childerley, who were aiming to repeat their IRC Two-Handed victory from 2015, had to retire, as did James Harayda and Dee Caffari on Gentoo, who suffered a badly ripped mainsail.

Shirley Robertson and Henry Bomby on the SunFast 3300 Swell in the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race

The IRC 3 and Two-Handed winners, Alexis Loison and Guillaume Pirouelle on Leon, crossing the Fastnet finish line in their home port of Cherbourg. Photo: Paul Wyeth/RORC

“I am very happy to win again and very pleased with our performance,” commented Loison, a professional Figaro sailor. “We pushed very hard on board and that is good for Guillaume and me. We trained well together for all of this year with the Figaro, so to win our class in the Rolex Fastnet Race is a great thing to have happened.”

Shirley Robertson and Henry Bomby (Swell, SunFast 3300) after finishing the Fastnet in 2nd in both IRC 3 and Two-Handed division. Photo: Paul Wyeth/RORC

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The overall 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race winner is Thomas Kneen’s JPK 1180 Sunrise, who takes the IRC overall trophy.

Sunrise finished the 695-mile course into Cherbourg today after building a huge lead in the highly competitive IRC 2 class with a corrected finish time of four days and six hours. They finished the race with a two hour advantage over RORC Commodore James Neville’s HH42 Ino XXX. 

Kneen and crew ran a well-planned campaign with the Fastnet as the focus. Their race was characterised by smart, confident navigation, and taking opportunities when they arose, which they built to a 115-mile lead over the rest of Class 2 by the finish.

Owner Thomas Kneen said after finishing that he was delighted with the result – but that the possibility of being the Fastnet winner overall hadn’t really sunk in.

“The reality is that we came with the aim of a class win, I think winning overall is a sort of once in a lifetime dream come true moment. It’s really difficult to kind of get your head around that.

“It’s been a really hard race. Hard because the conditions were tough. And I personally get quite seasick so I was very seasick on the first day. The boat really does well in those big seas and windy conditions. I was the weak link in that to be honest. But the rest of the crew is amazing.”

Fastnet winners: the JPK 1180 Sunrise starting the Rolex Fastnet Race 2021 off Cowes

Navigator Tom Cheney recalled: “We knew we were going out into quite a lot of pressure and we saw low 30 [knots] on the way out. It was quite busy getting out of the Solent as well and ducking boats at 25 knots is quite good fun. But unfortunately, one of our closest rivals was dismasted in the Solent as well, which was a bit shocking to see.

“Then once we were out of the Solent we knew we had to just hold it together for the first day and then make sensible decisions, which I think we did.”

Among the big decisions was how to round The Lizard and Land’s End.

“There was a bit of a decision at the Lizard as to whether you followed what most of the other boats did and turned hard right at the Lizard and went that [starboard] side of the first TSS, which initially we didn’t want to do because the tide was turning against us there. 

Article continues below…

Giant 140ft ClubSwan 125 Skorpios is first monohull in Fastnet 

The monolithic Skorpios, the largest yacht ever to take part in the Rolex Fastnet Race at 42.6m/140ft (including bowsprit!), has…

Seconds separate double-handed IMOCA Fastnet fleet after 695 miles

After three days of racing over 695 miles, less than 30 seconds decided the podium finishers in the double-handed IMOCA…

“But we knew that we were expecting this big right shift. So there was a a lot of reason to push to the right and I think ultimately that’s probably where we did well on the boats in our class because we we went through in a pretty foul tide, but I think the guys behind us went through it in a much worse tide. So we kind of got ahead and footed off to our wind shift. When we looked on the tracker we’d done alright out there.”

Rounding the Fastnet Rock on the JPK 1180 Sunrise

After a grey and misty Fastnet Rock rounding, the Sunrise crew made their biggest gains from the Scillies.

“We knew that there was a ridge coming behind us with no [wind] behind it for a while,” said Cheney. “And we knew that we had to give everything that we had in front of it. 

“I didn’t think we would do it. We’d run a load of routing that said we wouldn’t be in front of it unless we were well over 100 percent of our targets.”

While the routing calculated that Sunrise needed to sail at 10 knots average boat speed to hold their weather advantage, Cheney says they were averaging over 11, and managed to keep ahead of the high pressure ridge. They were also able to work the strong tides off Alderney to their advantage, at one point making 13 knots over the ground whilst doing around 7 knots of boat speed.

Sunrise heading towards the Cherbourg finish line as IRC overall Fastnet winner. Photo: Paul Wyeth/RORC

By the final morning, with a class and potential overall win on the cards, all crew were called up on deck from first light to push the boat as hard as possible.

“We were cracked sheets for probably a third of the way down the Irish Sea,” recalled Kneen. “And as soon as we got around the Scillies we had a problem.

“We broke our mast head lock, so we had no lock to put any of our reaching sails on. But some of the guys performed some miracles with various bits of string we had on board and managed to get a solution. And as soon as the Code Zero was in the air the boat took off, and was doing what she does best.”

Onboard the Fastnet winners JPK 1180 Sunrise during the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race

In an interesting twist, in the first year that the Rolex Fastnet Race has finished in Cherbourg, the trophy will be heading back to Plymouth, as Kneen is a Royal Western YC member. 

“We’re basically a group of mates that sail together a lot,” said Cheney. “Tom’s put a lot of effort into the programme this year and I’m delighted that we could win this one for him.”

The leading IRC 3 boats include Shirley Robertson and Henry Bomby on Swell and former Rolex Fastnet Race winner Alexis Loison on the JPK 1080 Leon, are expected to arrive in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

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After three days of racing over 695 miles, less than 30 seconds decided the podium finishers in the double-handed IMOCA fleet of the Rolex Fastnet Race.

The class winner was never in doubt. Charlie Dalin and Paul Meilhat on Apivia finished in the early hours of this morning with a seven-hour advantage over the rest of the pack. 

But the rest of the podium results came down to seconds as a shifty and puffy breeze off the Cherbourg shore carried seven boats across the line within half an hour.

Paul Meilhat and Charlie Dalin won the IMOCA class in Apivia

At one stage the 13-boat double-handed IMOCA fleet was spread across the race track from Fastnet Rock to Land’s End. However, the fleet compressed in the final stages, building to a nail biting finish with 2nd-placed Charal crossing the line just 28 seconds ahead of 11th Hour Racing in 3rd. Half a mile further offshore, Arkea Paprec caught a puff of wind to reach in at pace and finish two minutes further back.

There was an especially close battle for 5th, Sam Davies and Nico Lunven on Initiatives Couer finishing just a few minutes ahead of Fortinet/Best Western, skippered by Sam’s partner Romain Attanasio.

Apivia had taken an early race lead, pulling out a two mile advantage by the time they had passed the Needles. But their major gains came from executing a key strategic move sailing south in the early stages, a strategy employed by all the leading IMOCAs.

Sam Davies explains: “This race was a really tactical race and I love that. Going upwind there’s obviously always lots of choices. I’d been working with Nico Lunven, my co-skipper and we’d been working on the weather routing for days before the start because we knew that there were some big options to take.

“And luckily we got it right, lucky left! It was lucky left, big time because we headed straight out from the Needles on a long starboard all the way down past Jersey. And we tacked pretty much on the north Brittany coast and actually, incredibly, tacked on the layline to the Runnel Stone, about 150 miles [from it as] there was a left shift. 

“But it was a big call to make because you had to make that pretty much right from the start because of the TSS [zones] in the middle and the islands. And another thing that we thought was going to help us a lot was once getting behind Alderney the sea state calmed down a lot, and then you gain a lot of boatspeed as well.”

This was Davies’s eighth or ninth Fastnet Race – she admits to having lost count after completing her first aged 19 – but says that the start of this one will stick in the memories.

“This Fastnet race is I think going to be remembered for a long time for the start, which was absolutely incredible – very, very nerve-wracking for us especially on the 60s because we’re sailing double-handed. Our boats are really not designed to short tack out of the Solent in any conditions and having to do that in 30 knots, gusting 35 was pretty epic.”

New double-handed IMOCA pairings

Davies was sailing her first race with new co-skipper Nico Lunven, ahead of this autumn’s Transat Jacques Vabre, which has 22 IMOCA pairs entered as the competitive level in the offshore class continues to build.

She commented: “I think the IMOCA fleet is just going up and up in terms of performance. [With] the new boats coming in and the experience that the sailors have now there’s no room to make mistakes in this class now. 

“And I think everybody is now pushing their boats to the limits, where perhaps over the last two or three years, we’ve been discovering the newer big foils and everybody’s kind of being gently pushing the boats a little bit harder and harder. Now everyone’s got their foot in the floor.”

The IMOCA 60 Macsf rounds the Fastnet Rock in the Rolex Fastnet Race

Charlie Dalin echoed Sam’s observations on the IMOCA fleet development. He was racing the 2019 Verdier designed Apivia which he sailed first across the line in the 2020/21 Vendée Globe (overall victory was later awarded to Yannick Bestaven following time redress for his part in the rescue of Kevin Escoffier), but which has had a serious refit since the solo around the world race. 

“We have new foils and some new sails. You have to keep these boats evolving to stay at the top of your game,” Dalin explained. 

Another new double-handed IMOCA pairing taking part in the Rolex Fastnet Race was Simon Fisher and Justine Mettreaux on 11th Hour Racing. 

Simon Fisher – or Si Fi as he is widely known – is one of the most experienced ocean racers and navigators in the world, with five Volvo Ocean Races behind him.

This year’s Rolex Fastnet Race, however, was the first time he has ever raced double-handed, pairing up with another former Volvo Ocean Race crew Mettreaux.

Simon Fisher and Justine Mettreaux on 11th Hour Racing starting the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race 
Photo: James Tomlinson/RORC

‘What a race!” he told Yachting World immediately after crossing the finish line.  “It’s actually a great achievement for us as a team. It’s actually our first double-handed race, so we’re really, really happy with the result. 

“It was pretty chaotic at the start – upwind in 35 knots in the Solent is probably a little more than we would have wanted for our first race, but we were happy to get through it. And then once we got out of the Solent we were going well, happy with our pace, fighting up with the front.

“And I mean, you couldn’t ask for a closer finish. We were definitely looking over our shoulder. It was brilliant. But it’s also an older generation boat, so to be scrapping up with the latest and greatest is really good for our team.

“The double-handed stuff is actually a great adventure. All of my sailing career really has been in teams and this is a really fresh and new challenge. And I’m loving it.”

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The monolithic Skorpios, the largest yacht ever to take part in the Rolex Fastnet Race at 42.6m/140ft (including bowsprit!), has taken monohull line honours in the 2021 edition.

The ClubSwan 125 crossed the Fastnet finish line in Cherbourg as first monohull at 2015 BST this evening, having completed the 695-mile course from Cowes to Cherbourg with an elapsed time of 2d 8h 35m 5s – and set a new benchmark time for the new course format.

The winning Skorpios crew, first monohull in the Rolex Fastnet Race

Extraordinarily, owner Dmitry Rybolovlev was taking part in his first ever offshore race. Rybolovlev is a relative newcomer to sailing, though already a ClubSwan One Design World Championship winner, having raced his ClubSwan 50 in 2019.

Among the 27-man crew on Skorpios was Rybolovlev’s daughter Anna Rybolovleva, also experiencing her first ever offshore race.

“We’re very pleased with the boat,” she commented after finishing. “We want to thank the whole team for such great efforts.

“We were trying to stay conservative, especially in the high wind at the start, but we’re excited to see what the boat can do in future races. Rounding the Fastnet Rock was kind of magical, it felt like a really special moment.”

Skorpios takes line honours in the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race

Skipper Fernando Echavarri confirmed that they sailed conservatively in the initially tough conditions. “The boat is very strong, we backed off on speed coming out of the Solent, but so was everyone else.”

Just ahead of the Rolex Fastnet Race, Yachting World‘s Toby Hodges got aboard Skorpios for a very special sail and onboard tour:

Whilst the spectacular black and gold ClubSwan 125 was always favourite for first past the post prize, victory was not assured. The highly complex design, which carries a C-foil, has only recently been launched and this is its first competitive outing.

Surprisingly, their nearest competition was not George David’s Rambler 88, which has scored the past three back to back monohull line honours victories, but the IMOCA 60 Apivia.

Apivia, Sail no: FRA79, Owner: Charlie Dalin, Boat Type: IMOCA 60, Division: 2H IMOCA 60

Despite being literally half the waterline length of the giant Swan, Charlie Dalin and Paul Meilhat made a bold navigational call on Apivia, the first boat to cross the Vendée Globe finish line, by heading as far south of Guernsey on the outbound leg. 

It’s a tactic that was successfully adopted by multihull line honours winner Maxi Edmond de Rothschild and also many of the French IMOCAs, but Dalin and Meilhat took the most extreme southerly line, which saw them take a huge lead over the rest of the IMOCA class when the fleet reconvened off Lands End.

Apivia is expected into Cherbourg in the early hours of Wednesday morning, followed by Rambler 88.

Elsewhere first home in the competitive MOCRA fleet, which takes in all the multihulls after the giant Ultimes, was Jason Carroll’s MOD 70 Argo, which finished at 1522 (BST) this afternoon.

“The start in 27 knots was spectacular, but everyone pulled off a good port tack start and was safe, which was good,” recounted British multihull and ocean racer Brian Thompson, who was onboard Argo. 

By contrast, Thompson says that the trimaran rounded the Rock in champagne conditions. 

“It was such clear skies and a pleasant 10 knot breeze. The sun was shining, it was warm: It was Mediterranean sailing on the south coast of Ireland.”

The 84ft racer cruiser Allegra at the 2021 Rolex Fastnet start

The first of the ‘cruising catamarans’, Adrian Keller’s 84ft Nigel Irens-designed Allegra is expected tomorrow. Although considerably more luxuriously appointed than the multihulls ahead, the racer-cruiser Allegra is competing hard, with Australian Paul Larsen, officially the fastest sailor on the planet, skippering.

“It was pretty fruity [on the first] night, but we are all good,” Larsen reported. “Obviously, we have a bit more of an asset to manage in those rough conditions, but we chose the right side of the course. We had everything stacked in the main saloon, all the sails and all the crew which made it easier, pitching over the waves.”

Tuesday brought an entirely different story for many of the smaller boats in the IRC fleets. After a brutal, and often boat-breaking start, many were left battling dying winds and strong tides off the south coast over the second day.

For Day 3 of the Rolex Fastnet Race many IRC fleets have been spread along England’s south coast and into the Celtic Sea

Brian Skeet and Nicolas Malapert racing doublehanded on the Sigma 38 Marta passed Start Point, only to drift backwards past it and have to sail past it once again as they were drawn backwards at the mercy of the tide.

“There was absolutely no wind overnight – we were pretty much dead in the water,” described Skeet. 

“When there was some wind we were following it around. There was a lot of mist and fog that came in. It was quite hard work. There was no chance of kedging because it was too deep, so we had to keep moving.”

Tomorrow the IMOCA, IRC Zero and IRC 1 fleets are expected to begin arriving in Cherbourg.

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While the smaller monohulls faced a battle of attrition in the first 24 hours of the Rolex Fastnet Race, the crew of the 100ft trimaran Maxi Edmond de Rothschild have made the 695-mile offshore course look easy, finishing first on Monday evening after 1 day 9 hours 15 mins and 54 seconds of racing.

As the majority of the fleet woke to another 20-knot day as they battled their way west along the English Channel this morning, the Gitana team on the leading Ultim were approaching the Fastnet Rock.

Having blasted out of the Solent as far south as Alderney, the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild trimaran set up on a long port fetch towards Ireland, tacking around the Rock at 0800am. From there, they lit the afterburners, topping 40 knots on a fast reach back towards the Scillies.

Maxi Edmond de Rothschild leaving the Solent. Photo: Mark Lloyd/Gitana

Charles Caudrelier and Franck Cammas smashed the previous race record for the 2019 edition into Plymouth, and have now also set the new benchmark course time for the Cowes-Fastnet-Cherbourg route. 

There was much controversy over the decision by Rolex Fastnet Race organisers RORC to move the finish from Plymouth to Cherbourg in France. But if validation were needed, the reception the giant trimaran crew received into Cherbourg-en-Contentin at 2024hrs will have been a positive early sign.

Spectators gathered on the breakwater, flares were lit, horns blasted and champagne sprayed. While not yet on the scale of a Route du Rhum or French ocean classic, as Cammas noted: “There is a very good ambiance here – maybe a little bit more than if we finish in England.”

Franck Cammas celebrates Maxi Edmond de Rothschild’s line honours win in the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race Photo Paul Wyeth/Rolex Fastnet Race

The winners’ biggest gains came from their early decision to duck south, which put the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild team on the south west of the fleet.

“We did a very good job in tactics,” said Franck Cammas on the dock after finishing. “Charles and Erwan [Israël] did a good job in the routing to go in the south.

“And we had one very good shift, one good tactical call, to stay in south of Sodebo and Actual, and that put us more than 20 miles ahead, so we were not in the same wind. That’s why we finished so far ahead.”

Flat water for Maxi Edmond De Rothschild passing the Fastnet Rock Photo: Rolex

The run back from the Fastnet Rock was where the Ultim was able to really hit top speed, maintaining high 30-knot boat speeds until the Channel Islands. “The wind was stronger than expected so we were very happy,” said Caudrelier.

“We smashed the routing on the way back, and the wind was forecast to decrease but until Gurnsey the wind was much stronger than [predicted]. It was good for us, we’ll have a good dinner in Cherbourg!”

Second boat home will be Yves le Blevec’s Actual Leader, due some five hours later, with Thomas Coville’s Sodebo close behind.

The Ultims were not the only class to dive south on exiting the Solent. While the conventional yachts have plugged the usual tactical course along the English south coast, playing the tidal gates around the headlands, the largest trimarans and IMOCA 60s also opted to sail further mileage by heading south of the Casquets Traffic Separation Scheme. 

The IMOCA 60s Hugo Boss, Apivia and Charal heading west from Cowes after the Rolex Fastnet Race start Photo: Rolex

Charlie Dalin and Paul Meilhat on the IMOCA Apivia took the most extreme route, sailing to within 20 miles of the Paimpol peninsular of Brittany. The gamble paid off, and at Lands End Apivia was side by side with the ClubSwan 125 Skorpios, despite the Swan having more than double the IMOCA’s waterline length.

Initiatives Coeurs skipper Sam Davies explained why so many of the IMOCA fleet had chose the route: “Nico [Lunven, her co-skipper] had done a lot of work on the weather routing with lots of different models and pretty much all of our routing went that way, because we might get flat water in the Alderney Race, sheltered by the Channel Islands and be first into the west going current off the north French coast.”

Skorpios leads Rambler 88 in the Rolex Fastnet Race Photo: Rolex

As anticipated, the ClubSwan 125 Skorpios is leading the monohull fleet on the water. The largest boat ever to compete in the Rolex Fastnet Race was first monohull to round the Rock at 1818 on Monday night, after after 30 hours 38 minutes 43 seconds (leaving the record set in 2019 by Rambler unbeaten at 26 hours 45 minutes 47 seconds).

Last race’s line honours winner Rambler 88 had a challenging night of manoeuvres, ducking the tide closely around Lands End. George David’s Rambler 88 took the east side of the Land’s End TSS, while Skorpios passed to the west, between the TSS and the Scilly Isles. 

However, Dalin and Meilhat on the IMOCA 60 Apivia stayed neck and neck with the giant Swan all the way to the Rock, rounding just 1 hour 5 minutes behind them at.

The Class 40 Project Rescue Ocean was leading class with skipper Axel Trehin before dismasting. Photo: Rolex

Elsewhere in the fleet the brutal conditions continued to have an impact, with over 70 retirements by Monday afternoon.

These included the leading Class 40, Project Rescue Ocean, which was dismasted off Lizard Point – the crew is unhurt and are making their own way to Cornwall.

With potentially significant breeze shifts and windspeed forecast to reduce as the fleet approaches Cherbourg, the IRC overall lead is likely to change. However currently the IRC leaderboard is topped by the Volvo Open 70, I Love Poland, which is 1st in IRC Zero. 

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White-capped waves, a building swell, and gusty breezes saw the world’s biggest offshore yacht race, the Rolex Fastnet Race, start this morning from Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, in demanding conditions.

Winds across the Solent were steady 25 knot south-westerlies, gusting into the mid 30s, as the 337-boat fleet started from the Royal Yacht Squadron line.

The large racing fleet and spectator flotilla churned up an already confused sea state off Cowes, and as the fleet powered west towards the tidal overfalls off Hurst Narrows that sea state only increased to 1m plus waves.

The tricky early stages saw a number of incidents, including collisions and retirements. Yannick Bestaven’s winning Vendée Globe IMOCA, Maitre Coq IV, had to retire very early following a collision with another vessel that caused damage to the IMOCA 60 bow.

The Maserati Multi 70 skippered by Giovanni Soldini was also forced to retire due to damage at around 1830 pm.

Soldini said: “We were sailing at 20-25 knots when the winch drum exploded. We had just replaced it, it was new, it probably had some structural damage.”

Giovanni Soldini’s Multi70 Maserati and Jason Carroll’s MOD 70 Argo exit the Solent after the Fastnet Race start © Carlo Borlenghi/Rolex

Other race favourites to get knocked out early in the race were two serious MOCRA contenders: Christian Guyader, the 2019 winner, on his highly fancied TS5 catamaran Guyader Mext, and Yann Marilley’s Outremer 5x Racing catamaran No Limit, racing with ocean sailing legend Loick Peyron, which had to retire after dismasting.

Given the boisterous forecast, the race officers had decided to reorder the classes for the Fastnet Race start, sending the two multihull divisions – MOCRA and Open, which includes the four giant Ultims – off first, followed by the IMOCA 60s and Class 40s together, then IRC Zero, IRC 1 and Figaro 2, then IRC 4, IRC 3 and IRC 2. 

This was a reschedule from the previous plan of starting the IRC Zero fleet last, creating the famous Fastnet Race start spectacle of fleets mixing it up, amateurs and family crews racing alongside the largest, professional teams. 

Organisers decided that with today’s conditions it was prudent to allow the less manoeuvrable maxi yachts, which includes the biggest yacht ever to compete in the Rolex Fastnet Race, the 140ft ClubSwan 125 Skorpios, through the Narrows first.

Tough Fastnet Race start

Almost all fleets initially started without incident. With tide taking the fleet down to the line, and a lumpen sea state, most fleets were conservative and started cleanly.

First to cross the line were Thomas Coville’s Sodebo and Charles Caudrelier’s Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, which both hit the line at pace and powered away. The dark blue Gitana branded Maxi Edmond de Rothschild took the early advantage, and was first out of the Solent to take the early race lead.

Dmitry Rybolovlev’s ClubSwan 125 Skorpios and George David’s Maxi Rambler 88 beating into the English Channel © Carlo Borlenghi/Rolex

However, with such challenging conditions and a crowded racing area off the start there were numerous incidents as the fleet tacked out to the western Solent, including collisions, torn sails, forestay failures and three dismastings in the very early stages. 

By early evening Cowes Yacht Haven was dotted with boats flying Rolex race flags who had opted to return, and 39 boats and retired from racing.

Windy start to the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race © Martin Allen/pwpictures.com

The forecast for the first 24 hours of this year’s Rolex Fastnet Race is going to continue to make for a tough first night for competitors.

For Sunday night competitors can expect strong winds of 23-28 knots in the English Channel, with acceleration zones around the headlands are likely to increase that to 30 knots. With wind against tide this evening, a short and steep sea state is expected around St Alban’s Ledge and Portland Race.

Winds are forecast to ease by Monday morning as competitors make miles to the west, but only expected to initially abate to 18-23 knots, dropping off further by Tuesday.

As competitors enter the Irish Sea, the wind is expected to back, then veer to the west around the Fastnet Rock. However, by Wednesday there will be a slow moving area of low pressure system west of Ireland, which is creating some uncertainty about where, and how quickly, the fronts will move and which portion of the fleet can anticipate southerly or westerly breezes after rounding the Rock.

The leaders heading to Cherbourg can expect light winds off Brittany, but by Thursday south-westerly winds are expected to blanket the race course, building into Friday. 

So far, it is too early to call whether the 49th  Rolex Fastnet Race will be a big boats’ race, or if the small boats will have a later advantage.

Find out how to follow for all the race updates and exclusive Yachting World content here

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It’s hard to imagine a more diverse and intriguing fleet line up than this year’s Rolex Fastnet Race entries, making it hard to pick out which Fastnet boats to follow.

The fleet is, once again, vast in both size and scope. At last count 355 yachts were preparing to take on the 49th edition of the offshore classic, ranging from the enormous, brand new 140ft ClubSwan 125 Skorpios, to the altogether more petite 11m classic, Le Loup Rouge Of Cmn, and the diminutive 9.33m long T3 Trifoiler L’Albatros, racing in the MOCRA fleet.

Within the huge range of entries are some of the world’s best professionals, family boats, first timers, and everything in between. We pick out 10 Fastnet boats to follow:

Another huge fleet will be lining up for this year’s Rolex Fastnet Race with dozens of intriguing boats to follow. Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

Skorpios

The breath-taking new ClubSwan 125 is the biggest yacht ever to take part in the Rolex Fastnet Race.

Recently launched out of Nautor Swan in Finland, Skorpios has been working up to speed in the UK – but only recently arrived in Cowes yesterday, as with 24ft draught her manoeuvrability in the crowded waters around the Solent is limited.

Designed for offshore record setting, skipper Fernando Echavarri and owner Dmitry Rybolovlev are here for line honours.

On the eve of the Rolex Fastnet Race, we got an exclusive sail and tech tour aboard this monster of a racing yacht: 

Rambler 88

Owner George David has a history with the Rolex Fastnet Race like few others.

His Rambler 88 won back-to-back monohull line honours in the last two editions, but in 2011 his Rambler 100 supermaxi capsized just past the Fastnet Rock – all crew were safely rescued, but it’s an emotive race for David and his team.

This time Rambler 88 goes into the Fastnet after a light year of sailing due to pandemic-related travel restrictions having a big impact on the grand prix racing circuit. Nevertheless, Rambler’s 19 crew have all made it into the UK, while the boat arrived on a ship from the USA in June.

This week the silver maxi has been out for a training sail. “We just want to make sure we can still sail it in anger after a year of not sailing,” tactician Brad Butterworth. Rambler’s last race may have been the Rolex Middle Sea Race in 2019, but her crew is one the most experienced around.

Pen Duick VI

The late Eric Taberly’s name is ingrained in the history of offshore racing and one of the iconic entries in this year’s Fastnet is his Whitbread Round the World Race maxi and 1976 OSTAR winner Pen Duick VI, now skippered by his daughter Marie.

Pen Duick VI is switching back into offshore racing mode in preparation for the 2023 Ocean Globe Race, a nostalgic tribute to the original Whitbread. Check out the October issue of Yachting World magazine for a closer look at this world famous yacht.

Pen Duick VI competed in the first Whitbread Round the World Race in 1973-74. Credit: Ocean Frontiers OGR/ GGR

Hugo Boss

Alex Thomson’s black and hot pink Hugo Boss needs little introduction and is always one of the most popular boats to follow.

This is the British Vendée skipper’s first outing in his foiling IMOCA with its radical ‘inside’ cockpit since it suffered structural and rudder damage during the last around the world race.

Now fully fixed, Hugo Boss will be co-skippered by Swiss racer Ollie Heer, who is the boat captain for the complex design.


Anyone wanting to get a feel for just how punishing the Fastnet Race is in a foiling IMOCA should check out Thomson’s ‘Hub’ page, which shows real time data from the boat and biometrics from the sailors – heel angle, hours of sleep and much more See alexthomsonracing.com/the-hub/

Hugo Boss is one of 13 IMOCAs competing in this year’s Fastnet.

Other star skippers lining up include fellow Brits Sam Davies on Initiatives Couer and Simon Fisher on 11th Hour Racing, plus Jérémie Beyou on Charal, Vendée Globe line honours winner Charlie Dalin on Apivia and overall Vendée champion Yannick Bestaven on Maitre Coq IV.

Morpheus

It’ll be a wet and wild ride for Andrew Fennell and team on his Shuttleworth-designed one-of 39ft carbon trimaran Morpheus.

We took a tour of the boat after they finished the 2019 Fastnet Race, where they described life onboard as “Like trying to sleep in the back of a 1950s pick up truck with leaf suspension being driven down a dark dirt road by a drunk driver…”

Morpheus is racing in the MOCRA class, which has a diverse entry ranging from the modified, foil-assisted MOD70s Argo and Maserati, to the luxurious 84ft performance cruising catamaran Allegra, which will have world speed sailing record holder Paul Larsen onboard.

“I liken [it] to rally driving Bentley Continentals – they are hugely capable cars with incredible brakes and engines and handling packages, but at the end of the day it is a Bentley Continental and, when things go wrong, it weighs a lot,” said Larsen.

Other big names in the MOCRA fleet include French offshore legend Loick Peyron aboard the Outremer 5X No Limit, while Christian Guyader aboard the TS5 Guyader Mext will be among the favourites for a class win.

Amokura


Paul Moxon and Steve Jones’ 50ft Bermudan yawl Amokura is the oldest boat in the race.

Designed by Fredrick Shepherd and built by Moodys in Swanwick in 1939, originally for Lord Mountbatten’s Aide de Camp, Ernest Harston, Amokura competed in the 1959 Fastnet Race and tried again 60 years on in 2019, but finished neither.

In sharp contrast to most of the entries, she is built with a pitch pine hull on oak beams, teak deck and seven ton bilge keel and displaces 20 tonnes.

The oldest yacht in the fleet is Amokura Photo Nic Compton/Yachting World

Maxi Edmond De Rothschild

There are four incredible Ultim 100ft trimarans taking part this year, including the Gitana teams’s Maxi Edmond De Rothschild, which smashed the (old) course record last time and will be hoping to set the benchmark for the new one this time around.

Charles Caudrelier skippers with Franck Cammas. Rivals include Thomas Coville, who returns with his giant trimaran Sodebo.


Jangada

IRC Class 4 is shaping up to be hotly contested, especially among the double-handed entries.

Since its introduction in 2011, IRC 4 has always been won by a French boat and for the last four editions by a JPK 10.10.

Among the 40 or so British teams competing in IRC Four, Richard Palmer’s JPK 10.10 Jangada may have the best shot of breaking France’s winning streak. Racing double-handed with Jeremy Waitt, Jangada was 2020 RORC Boat of the Year and winner of the 2019 RORC Transatlantic Race. 

Richard Palmer is competing in his 10th Rolex Fastnet Race. “It’s the world’s most competitive offshore IRC event,” he commented.

“We are looking forward to the increasing level of competition in the Two-Handed fleet and the new route into Cherbourg. The most difficult part this time will be strategies for the main tidal gates.”

They’re likely to face stiff competition from Emmanuel Pinteaux’s JPK 10.10 Gioia, 2nd in class in the last race (and overall race winner back in 2013, racing as Night and Day with the Loisons).

Richard Palmer’s JPK 10.10 has the best shot of breaking France’s winning streak in IRC4. Racing Two-Handed with Jeremy Waitt © Arthur Daniel/RORC

Stormvogel

The 73ft classic ketch won line honours in the 1961 Fastnet Race, when Francis Chichester was navigator for her original owner Kees Bruynzeel.

Now, 60 years later Stormvogel is back for another go after a full refit. Skipper Graeme Henry, says: “Stormvogel is back to a new level of performance while maintaining the original 1961 concept and 1960s’ style.”

Several classic yachts will grace the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race fleet, including the 73ft van de Stadt ketch Stormvogel, the 1961 Fastnet Race line honours winner © Stormvogel

Swell and Gentoo

IRC Class 4 features some well known British names racing double-handed on SunFast 3300s.

Dee Caffari – who’s completed six around the world races including skippering a Volvo Ocean Race, a Vendée Globe, and was the first woman to sail solo, non-stop around the world in both directions – is racing with James Harayda on Gentoo.

Meanwhile Figaro and Volvo Ocean Race sailor Henry Bomby joins double Olympic Gold Medallist Shirley Robertson on Swell.

Other names bidding for IRC 4 and Two-Handed victory include Alexis Loison, who won the 2013 edition overnight with his father Pascal, and IRC 3 and IRC Two-Handed in 2019 on the JPK 1030 Léon with designer Jean Pierre Kelbert.

For 2021, Alexis will return in Léon with 470 and Figaro sailor Guillaume Pirouelle. Alexis will also have strong local knowledge for the new finish, as his home port is Cherbourg.

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