COWES, 26 July: Spectators in their thousands swarmed Cowes Green and the shores of the western Solent to witness the starts of the 51st Rolex Fastnet Race from 1120 until 1320 BST today. This year’s event marks the centenary of the first Fastnet Race that saw seven boats set sail from Ryde and finish in Plymouth in 1925. Fittingly the start saw a new record entry of 444 competitors, up from the previous largest of 430 in 2023, confirming the event as the world’s largest offshore race.
To witness the start of this special centenary Rolex Fastnet Race, Anne, Princess Royal started the race from the Platform of the Royal Yacht Squadron where she was accompanied by Sir Timothy Lawrence along with several past and present Commodores and Admirals of the Royal Ocean Racing Club, led by current Admiral Janet Grosvenor. Mid-way through the start sequences competitors and spectators got to enjoy an aerial flypast from the Red Arrows.
With Cowes and the Solent overcast thanks to an occluded front, the starts took place beneath an overcast sky in a 10-12 knot southwesterly and a building ebb tide.
The MOCRA multihull class, plus the four flying Ultims and nine Ocean Fifty trimarans were first away. Just over an hour after their 1120 start, it was not the 32m Ultims that were first to pass through Hurst Narrows but American Jason Carroll’s upgraded MOD70 Argo, ahead of the Tom Laperche-skippered SVR Lazartigue, the present race record holder, then the lead Ocean Fiftys, Matthieu Perraut’s Inter Invest and Erwan le Roux’s Koesio.
By 1530 Argo and her MOD70 rival Erik Maris’ Zoulou were leading the fleet having split tacks south of Portland Bill, with Zoulou inshore, just ahead of SVR Lazartique and the Armel le Cleac’h-skippered Ultim Banque Populaire.
Behind it was girlpower in the IMOCA fleet. Having started at 1130, the Justin Mettraux-skippered Teamwork-Team SNEF led the Elodie Bonafous-skippered Association Petits Princes-Queguiner exiting the Solent at 1305. In third place was class favourite Yoann Richomme on Paprec Arkea.
Richomme is an old hand at the Rolex Fastnet Race, this being his tenth, having sailed his first on a Sigma 38 while studying naval architecture at Southampton Solent University in 2003. Today he is one of the world’s leading offshore racers, winning La Solitaire du Figaro in both 2016 and 2019. “I always look forward to the Fastnet Race. I love the race – the history of it, the sheer number of boats doing it. The format is stupidly simple: Go to a rock off Ireland and come back – it couldn’t be much easier, but the course is amazing. The start is always beautiful in front of Cowes. And that’s why so many French boats come across – it’s a very special race to all of us.”
Richomme was expecting to see the most wind of the race this afternoon exiting the Solent. IMOCAs fly and on Arkea Paprec they need around 16-17 knots to achieve this upwind/downwind or 12-13 knots reaching. However he was anticipating some shutdowns between Portland Bill and Start Point and another off the Scillies by which time the wind was expected to have veered northwest.
Finding a favourable shift allowing them to sail straight down the mainland shore, while everyone else short tacked along the island shore, was Guillaume Pirouelle/Cedric Chateau’s Mach 40.5 Seafrigo-Sogestran and Milan Kolacek’s Inland Roots Ocean Soul. They reached Hurst just five minutes astern of the lead IMOCAs (having started 10 minutes after them). The bulk of their 29-boat fleet followed 10 minutes later, led by Belgian Jonas Gerckens’ Belgium Ocean Racing.
Among the next starters in IRC SZ and Zero, Christian Zugel’s turboed VO70 and Caribbean 600 winner Tschüss 2 pulled a similar stunt along the mainland shore, but off Lymington Seng Huang Lee’s 100ft SHK Scallywag came north to cover them. She was first past Hurst at 1255 followed by Tschüss 2 and Joost Schuijff’s 100ft Leopard 3, with Tschüss 2 heading down the north channel, an option that didn’t appear to pay.
Prior to the start Tschüss 2’s navigator Campbell Field looked at the weather: “High pressure is dominant. Out through the Needles, we’ll get some current-enhanced windage and it might get lumpy. Similarly off St Albans Head and Portland Bill. But then it will be quite a moderate race and there’s even potential for it to be slightly lighter than the forecast, or lighter than we’d like on a VO70.”
With the forecast showing no real benefit to the big or small boats, it seemed likely that the lead Admiral’s Cuppers might be most favoured to win the IRC Overall prize this year. However they had to survive the most competitive of starts with Gavin Brady somehow managing to thread Beau Geste on port through a close knit deluge of on-coming starboard tackers as the Hong Kong team’s TP52 attempted to come back from the pin/island end of the line.
In Admiral’s Cup 1 it was Stefan Jentzsch’s Botin 56 Black Pearl that led past Hurst at 1317, followed by Peter Harrison’s TP52 Jolt 3 and Niklas Zennström’s Carkeek CF 520 Rán.
Miles Seddon is navigator on Karl Kwok’s Beau Geste, currently third in the Admiral’s Cup Class 1. “It’s moderate fast – a decent breeze getting us all the way down towards Start Point, a quick transition through the Portland tidal gate and onwards. Then it starts softening up around Land’s End with the wind going right (northwest) probably in the middle of Lyme Bay early evening. Then it’ll be playing the veins of pressure across up the Celtic Sea. There’s a possible big right shift at the top, so we could end up reaching into the Fastnet Rock. Then [to the finish] we’ll be running and maybe a reach at the end.” The make or break will be whether they can make the Alderney Race with favourable current.
The impressive Spaniard Juan Vila, navigator on the Michele Ivaldi-skippered JPK 1180, Django JPK sailed his first Fastnet Race in 1989 on the Whitbread maxi Fortuna. “For us, on the 40s, we get a light wind spot by the Lizard tomorrow morning, but then it should come back pretty good – upwind for the crossing and then obviously downwind on the way back. At the very end, when we’re close to Cherbourg, the wind drops to 10 knots or even less.”
This is also the case on Rán, currently sixth in Admiral’s Cup 1. “It is may be not ideal for us because the conditions are light,” commented Bouwe Bekking. “We would have liked 20-25 knots. This boat is half a metre wider than the TPs and more sticky. But there’s lots of opportunities even on the way back on the big run, where I think there will be probably bigger gains and losses to be made than on the upwind…”
At 1326 the first Admiral’s Cup Class 2 boat passed Hurst with the Pierre Casiraghi-skippered Fast 40 Jolt 6 ahead closely followed by Sean Langman & Josh Alexander’s GP42 Back 2 Black.
In IRC One it was Australian David Griffith’s Judel-Vrolijk 60 Whisper that was first out of the Solent at 1310 followed just over five minutes later by Jens Kellinghusen’s Ker 56 Varuna 7 and Malte Paesler’s Elliot 52 Rafale.
By 1400 with the full extent of the giant 380 boat IRC fleet now underway from Cowes and packing the Western Solent, Lawrence Herbert’s J/133 Corazon was first IRC Two yacht past Hurst. She was followed by the Spanish-owned XP38 Mylla and Evenline Heijning-Nederlof’s First 40 Vesper from the Netherlands.
Lying eighth in IRC Two were the IRC Two-Handed favourites, Jean-Pierre Kelbert and Alexis Loison’s JPK 1050 Léon. “It will be upwind-downwind,” predicted Loison prior to the start. “But there will be a lot of transitions and we will have to find a good way around the Scillies TSS. And then back from the Fastnet to Cherbourg, we have to plan our gybes well.” While Léon is again the favourite, he admits this will only be his third race with the present Léon.
Also hoping for a good result is Derek Shakespeare on his J/122 Bulldog, currently lying sixth in class in the RORC Season’s Points Championship. “I think anyone that did either of the last two editions will be relieved that we haven’t got 30+ knots on the start line,” he observed. “Conditions look pretty steady and I think probably no surprises, but the models are less clear on days three and four, so further out it might be a bit more variable.” He says Bulldog prefers lighter conditions although there might be some areas of zero wind. “Some models are saying Sunday’s light, but even Monday and Tuesday. It depends on this ridge or the convergence of the different systems.”
Leading the charge out of the Solent in IRC Three was Denis Murphy’s Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo ahead of two Sun Fast 3600s, Nicolas Dezuestre’s Princesse Gotionude II and Nick Martin and Jim Driver on the former’s Diablo.
IRC Four benefitted from starting in the strongest part of the ebb and passing Hurst it was former Volvo Ocean Race and America’s Cup sailor Simeon Tienpont’s J/35 Fever that was a nose ahead of Radboud Crul’s Dehler 36 Rosetta, Frederick and George Neville-Jones and Robin Hardy’s J/109 Jamira and James Donegan’s sistership Jalapeno.
Among the IRC Four favourites is Richard and Sophie Palmer’s JPK 1010 Jangara. “At the moment the forecast is looking quite light but it goes round to the north a bit more. Hopefully if it’s a better angle, we can get the Code 0 up.” Palmer remembers the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland, which Jangada won in light conditions, compared to when he previously took part in this race with his daughter in 2023 when it was survival conditions.
Wearing his RORC Vice-Commodore’s hat, Derek Shakespeare commented of the centenary Rolex Fastnet Race: “I think the vision previous committee members had, particularly James Neville, Eric de Turckheim and others, to bring back the Admiral’s Cup and using the Centenary as a platform has been super-well received. I am impressed by the enthusiasm for the Rolex Fastnet Race that our centenary has generated. The buzz around the dock here has been fantastic all week long. Hopefully this will be the crowning glory to a fantastic week.”
Unlike the 2021 and 2023 races, at the time of writing there had been just one retirement, the Farr 1104 45 South 2 of Germany’s Henrik Teichmann and Karl Heinz Henzel.
For all the news, tracking, photos and latest information, please go to: www.rolexfastnetrace.com
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Race Tracker: https://www.rolexfastnetrace.com/en/tracking
ENDS/…. James Boyd/RORC
@RoyalOceanRacingClub
#RORCRacing
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