(Another) Fastnet frenzy Club page
RORC
09.00am Monday 7 January 2019 and the phones in the RORC Race Office in Cowes were going mad in the lead-up to the regis- tration time for the Rolex Fastnet Race. Calm voices from the RORC team were dealing with excited sailors from all over the world who were desperate to enter our world-famous race when registration opened at 12.00 UTC. It took just 4 minutes and 37 seconds to fill the 340 available
spaces for the IRC rating fleet, which once again confirms that this is the world’s largest offshore race. By the end of the day 450 boats from 25 countries had entered.
The largest number was from the UK (201) followed by the French (81) who have won the last three editions of the race, followed by the Netherlands (33) and a strong contingent from the USA (16) – many of whom will be racing from Newport to Cowes in June 2019 in the west to east Transatlantic Race, the TR 2019, which the RORC co-organise with the New York Yacht Club, Royal Yacht Squadron and Storm Trysail Club. Other entries were received from as far away as Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Turkey, Hong Kong and Korea. But this is not all of the boats who will race to the rock and back.
benign conditions in consistently steady trade winds. The first monohull to arrive, winning the International Maxi Asso-
ciation Transatlantic Trophy for Monohull Line Honours, was the glorious supermaxi My Song. The Baltic 130 owned by Pier Luigi Loro Piana set a new monohull record after completing the 3,000 miles between Lanzarote and Grenada in an elapsed time of 10d 5h 47m 11s, shaving more than an hour off the previous mark set in 2015 by Jean-Paul Rivière’s futuristic Finot-Conq 100, Nomad IV. My Song’s navigator Nacho Postigo said that the main objective
was to get their boat safely to the Caribbean; after the first few days they were 240 miles behind the record so gave up any thought of beating it. ‘But the conditions were the best I have ever had, with very few squalls; at night we had brilliant stars so it was fantastic,’ said this vastly experienced Spanish sailor on the dock in Grenada. ‘Then slowly we were cutting down the deficit and by the last few
days every half an hour someone was coming to the chart table wanting to know if we were on record pace… Personally, I love coming to Grenada; the atmosphere of the island, the fantastic sailing, but especially the people who are super, super nice.’ ‘Welcome to Grenada!’ were the first words uttered to every crew arriving at the Camper & Nicholsons Port Louis Marina. Marina manager Charlotte Bonin welcomed every boat with ice cold beers and Nikoyan Roberts, manager of nautical development for Grenada, also greeted every boat with a large basket of Grenadian goods... including of course a bottle of the island’s prized local rum. But arriving two days after My Songwas
Franco Niggeler’s Swiss Cookson 50 Kuka3, skippered by round-the-world race veteran Roberto ‘Chuny’ Bermúdez de Castro, to set an IRC corrected time that no one could beat to win the RORC Transat- lantic Race overall. This was despite calling in to Cape Verde for engine spares and having to contend with a small fire onboard! ‘This was my first Atlantic crossing and
If you’re going to cross the pond in November (on a monohull…) is there a better boat in the world on which to be invited along? Pier Luigi Loro Piana’s (not a name likely to be caught sailing a polly wolly caravan) Reichel/Pugh 130 is the latest fruit of the San Diego designers’ collaboration with Baltic Yachts, a yard once known for luxurious – but smaller – production designs having transformed itself into a world leader in delivering high-tech supermaxis. As for Reichel/Pugh, when did you last see a boat of theirs that was not super-easy on the eye?
The RORC has led the way in allowing other grand prix yachts outside the IRC fleet to participate in this iconic race, including maxi multihulls, the Volvo Ocean Race fleets including the Volvo 70s and one-design Volvo 65s plus the impressive Imoca and Class40 fleets. With 20 Imocas, 30 Class40s and assorted multihulls the total number of boats racing could well hit 400 this year. However, registration does not guarantee entry, as every boat
has a qualification process which includes RORC races during the season to ensure that the majority of crew are familiar with their boat and are equipped with sufficient experience to cope with what- ever weather is thrown at them. Only then will entry be confirmed, which is why those on the waiting list will be encouraged to continue with their summer programme as many other equally well-meaning campaigns fall by the wayside.
The irrepressible Cookson 50 While I recovered from my dash across the Atlantic on the MOD70 PowerPlay the rest of the fleet were still out there enjoying amazingly
64 SEAHORSE
it could not have been better,’ said Franco Niggeler. ‘Grenada is a beautiful island and we can’t be happier. This is a wonderful race, well organised by RORC, and not forgetting Calero Marinas. A big thank you to my team.’ Franco was duly presented with the antique silver trophy for the overall winner by Dr Clarice Modeste-Curwen, Grenadian Minister for Tourism. Second overall and beating the giant My Song into third place was the smallest boat
in the fleet, Trevor Middleton’s Sunfast 3600 Black Sheep. Trevor had a ding-dong battle with the XP-44 Xtra Staerk owned by Arto Linnervuo and raced by a Finnish team who are on a mission to promote offshore racing back home in Finland. Winning the small three-boat Class40 division was Catherine
Pourre in Eärendil, nearly two days ahead of Norwegian Henrik Berge- sen’s Hydra which also had to stop in Cape Verde for repairs. Catherine had already decided to make Grenada the winter home
for Eärendil, as have previous winners Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron for their Class40 Campagne de France, such is the enthu- siasm they have found for the island and the facilities that it now offers for raceboat owners. Bringing an end to a very enjoyable race was the Swiss team on
the 47.7 Kali owned by Benedikt Clauberg. They avoided last place overall after 19 days of racing by just 11 minutes on IRC corrected time. Nearly 10 days after My Song crossed the line... but the Kali crew enjoyed every bit as good a warm Grenadian welcome. Eddie Warden-Owen, CEO
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INGRID ABERY
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