RORC
Club page France (again)
It was another record entry for what turned out to be a ‘classic’ Fastnet. The 368-boat fleet was greeted on the startline by 12-15kt and bright sunshine, with plenty of spectators on the water, along Cowes Green and at the exit to the Solent around Hurst Castle. In the race to Land’s End passing the headlands of Portland Bill,
Start Point and the Lizard constitute the key tactical elements at the beginning of this race. Go inshore to cheat the current or stay offshore in – maybe – more wind? The faster boats pass Portland before the turn of the tide but the majority of the fleet have a (big) decision to make. This year inshore paid huge dividends. Night and Day, winner of
IRC4 and the Two Handed division, was one of many French teams who had no hesitation in going all the way deep into Weymouth Bay, including eventual winner Lann Ael 2 (IRC1) and the winner of IRC2 Pintia. The same strategy worked for both Start Point and the Lizard with big shifts in the bays to keep the leading teams on their toes. The next key decision is whether to go to the east or west of the
Land’s End Traffic Separation Scheme; the 20nm vertical north- south prohibited rectangle is a huge barrier between Land’s End and the Scilly Isles. The frontrunners had taken the eastern route to get them north early in anticipation of a right-hand shift expected in the early hours of Tuesday morning, but they also had the north- going tide under them so it was an easy decision. The Reichel/Pugh 45 Katsu was one of the first of the chasing pack to pass round to the south and west of the TSS, so too did Pintia, Codiam, Pata Negra, Lisa and Dream Pearls, all leaders in their respective classes. The Nivelt 39 Lann Ael 2 was some 10nm behind Pintia at the
Lizard and the only one of this group who made the decision to take the eastern route – by the Fastnet she’d moved 1nm ahead and, with the wind increasing and shifting to the north, this (relatively) light-displacement 39-footer screamed back from the Rock, pulling
well away from Pintia and Lisa and taking miles out of the much larger Lombard 46 Pata Negra. Tony Lawson’s MOD 70Concise Xwas first home but well outside
the multihull record set by Donna Bertarelli’s 40m trimaran Spindrift. George David’s maxi Rambler 88 claimed monohull line honours, arriving at 10pm on Tuesday night, well outside the race record set by Ian Walker on his Volvo 70 in 2011. Rambler briefly also held the lead on corrected time. The biggest boat in the fleet, the Baltic 115 Nikata, then arrived
to relieve Rambler of any corrected time hopes… until a few hours later when the Cookson 50 Privateer finished and it looked for some time as if the victory was hers. Not until the early hours of Thursday did Didier Gaudoux onLann Ael arrive in Plymouth, pushing Privateer into second overall and Daniel Hardy’s Ker 46 Lady Mariposa into third. With the wind lightening and going back to the west it was now impossible for the chasing pack to beat these boats. Paris-based Gaudoux was sailing with his son Thomas and
daughter Coralie. The boat was launched in 2016 just before the Brewin Dolphin Commodores’ Cup and showed little of the sparkling performance she had for the Rolex Fastnet win. A new keel, bigger rig, new sails and input from former Mini 6.50 and Figaro sailor and sailmaker Fred Duthill made the boat competitive. French boats dominated the results except for the multihull
division, won by Concise, and IRC Class 0, won by American Ron O’Hanley and Privateer. The father and son team of Pascal and Alexis Loison on the JPK 10.10 Night and Day won both the 35-boat two-handed division and IRC4. Paul Melihat and Gwénolé Gahinet on SMA won the Imoca 60s
and Charles Caudrelier on Dongfengwon the first round of the long battle of the Volvo 65s which now continues until June 2018... Eddie Warden-Owen, CEO
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Inset: be-winged and be-foiled, the jury’s out on the extravaganza of experimentation that is CQS. However, a new purpose-built design is under discussion – remember the ‘chassis’ of CQSdates back to 2004. Designer Bernard Nivelt wants IRC designs to speed up more across the whole size range (many are already rather fast above about 42ft…). Having shown 10 years ago that life went on without draggy keel bulbs with his super-successful A35, Nivelt continued the quest with the 43ft Teasing Machine, launched five years ago and ‘obviously’ too powerful, too light and too fat for IRC… After two years’ development she was winning everything. In 2016 his chined JND 39s appeared – powerful reaching but a challenge inshore, demanding to be sailed lower and faster upwind and higher and faster down. There is a way to go but the JND 39 Lann Ael 2 (above) won the 2017 Fastnet overall. Now there is a bigger, ‘fatter’ new Teasing…
SEAHORSE
CARLO BORLENGHI
RICK TOMLINSON
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