RORC
Club page Wowza… Rolex Fastnet Race 2015
The forecast was for a slow passage and it was not wrong. On start day a record fleet of 356 yachts from 25 nations with some of the best offshore boats and most famous sailors would participate in the 90th anniversary Fastnet Race… however, one important ingredient was missing and that was the wind. The RORC race committee did not postpone despite the fickle northerly and the sight of the maxi multihull Spindriftand other ocean greyhounds drifting with the early ebb tide did not disappoint a huge crowd in front of the Royal Yacht Squadron and west along the shoreline. The seven separate class starts had soon merged into one as the ebb slowly took boats out towards the Needles. By the time Class Zero got away on the last start, and including two of the fastest monohulls in the world, Jim Clark’s 100ft Comancheand George David’s Rambler 88, the sea breeze had filled in sufficiently to get these boats heeled as they picked their way gingerly through the fleet of much smaller boats packing the full width of the Solent. On reaching Yarmouth a solid 10kt of wind and 3kt of tide finally
The fleet crept slowly past Land’s End on Tuesday as the multihulls made slow progress back to the Scillies. ‘Wowza… I can see about 100 boats around me,’ said RORC Admiral Andrew McIrvine, racing his First 40 La Réponse. ‘It is slow progress but we’ve only anchored once although that was in 57m of water… but we are eating well and enjoying the experience!’ The leaderboard was making interesting reading with Momoback in the lead on corrected time but Géry Trentesaux in his JPK 10.80 Courrier de Leonstarting to make an impression. Just before 2300 on Tuesday Spindriftwas first to finish, drifting across the line, closely followed by Phaedo 3, the first of three MOD 70s in the race. Early on Wednesday Comanchealso finally drifted across the line, with Rambler 88 rushing up to finish only 4½ minutes astern. Mike Slade’s 100ft Leopardwas next with the smaller Maxi 72 Momoonly 30 minutes behind. This group had stretched out a lead of more than 100nm on the next group of boats led by the Imoca 60s – unsurprisingly not finding the game of chasing zephyrs entirely to their liking.
Whatever the final results this year’s Rolex Fastnet will be remembered as a marathon rather than a sprint and the winner will be the team who had the mental strength to keep concentrating while pushing frustrations to the back of their minds.
A busy summer
George David’s latest Rambler 88 inches its way to the Fastnet Rock during the lightest race of the modern era. Rambler was rarely out of sight of the larger Comanche, which given the nature of most very light-air races with the occasional puff splitting boats apart shows how flat the winds were this year
allowed the fleet a fast passage through Hurst Narrows – that was also packed with spectators. One early casualty was Brian Ehrhart’s RP63 Lucky, running aground on the Shingles Bank and eventually having to be towed off.
Overnight the fleet headed offshore away from the diurnal effects of the land in search of breeze, with one exception… American Lawrence Huntingdon in his Ker 50 Snow Lion. Huntingdon was the only skipper to dive inshore into Weymouth Bay and by daybreak had made big gains, no doubt having benefited from a land breeze to free himself from the clutches of Portland Bill much sooner than those out to sea.
By midday Monday the multihulls had entered the Celtic Sea, closely followed by Comanche, Rambler 88 and Mike Slade’s Leopard. The Maxi 72 Momowas also not far astern having made the biggest gains overnight to lead overall on handicap. Monday night and the bulk of the fleet had congregated in Bigbury Bay, just south of Plymouth as they headed inshore in search of relief from the flooding tide. Just slightly further ahead the Imoca 60s were battling in the light winds to round the Lizard, the most southerly point of the UK mainland and notorious for its tidal currents. The 144ft trimaran Spindrift was the first to finally round the Fastnet Rock early Monday evening, closely followed by Lloyd Thornberg’s MOD 70 Phaedo. The leading monohulls Comanche and Rambler 88were also locked in battle, Ramblerhaving taken a southerly route around the Scilly Isles to Comanche’s northern path and made a big gain to briefly draw ahead.
54 SEAHORSE
Since my last report our new club in Cowes has been coping very successfully with a busy season since the arrival of the Transatlantic Race fleet. Brian Ehrhart’s RP63 Lucky was the eventual winner under IRC, arriving in Cowes under spinnaker on a beautiful sunny Saturday with the sea breeze in full flow and Solent full of boats. The weather did not run in favour of the big maxis Comancheand Rambler 88, who took over seven days to complete the course. Comanche did, however, meet some ‘favourable’ conditions to set a new 24-hour monohull record of 618nm. Every boat was met by a combined RORC and RYS welcoming party with a bottle of celebratory champagne… and a much-appreciated stack of beer.
IRC fest
Forty-five of the most competitive IRC boats I have seen in recent times came to the Solent to contest the IRC UK Championship in a week of beautiful sailing conditions. The way the ratings worked out, the new breed of planing raceboats that are starting to take root in the Solent were racing together in IRC 1 and the heavier, traditional 40ft cruiser-racers in IRC 2 and IRC 3 – with a rating band from 1.059 down to a J97 at 0.980. Peter Morton in his JND 35 Salvo was overall winner scoring six wins in the 16-boat IRC 3 fleet. Winner of IRC 1 and second overall was Piet Vroon’s Ker 51 Tonnerre 4and in IRC 2 Steve Cowie from Scotland was the winner with his First 40 Zephyr.
RORC Channel Race
A warm-up for the Rolex Fastnet Race was a 130nm sprint around the Channel for 87 IRC-rated yachts. Eric de Turkheim’s interesting A13 Teasing Machinewas overall winner after a windward-leeward course that took the fleet as far west as Anvil Point and back east to the Rampion Met Mast off Worthing.
Many boats’ results suffered as they approached the Solent finish in a typically soft morning breeze. Nick Jones and the First 44.7 Lisa looked to have the overall win in his grasp, only to be becalmed just half a mile from the finish… eventually losing out by 18 minutes on corrected time to De Turkheim’s French entry. Cowes Week was also hectic at our new club with all our social events being over-subscribed. Clearly the membership appreciate their new home!
Eddie Warden-Owen, CEO q
DANIEL FORSTER
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