Never a dull moment* Club page
RORC
The Rolex Fastnet Race continues to surprise. Another record fleet of 388 boats (356 in 2017) from 26 countries set off from Cowes for the Fastnet Rock – of those 334 were IRC-rated yachts racing for the title Fastnet race winner and the Fastnet Challenge Cup. Remember too this edition had a waiting list of 150 boats… This year was different from other Fastnets with the start the
week before Cowes Week and on a Saturday, a day earlier than usual, so boats could get back for Cowes Week itself – which many did. Cowes definitely benefited from the split from Cowes Week as 130 Fastnet competitors berthed there in the days leading up to the start which is not possible during a busy Cowes Week. The atmosphere in Cowes was therefore quite different: restaurants had a week of additional business, the competitors enjoyed getting together in one place rather than spread across the Solent and our club in Cowes entertained 415 competitors for a pre-race dinner… plus a Fastnet crew party was held on Cowes Parade, the first time in my memory that competitors have had a party before the big event! What makes this race so special is the diverse mix of gifted
amateurs and seasoned professionals who compete on an equal basis, knowing that if they sail well and win their class they have a chance of winning overall. However, for the majority of the 3,000 crew from 50 countries the race is about human endeavour, a rite of passage; just completing the course is the challenge for many.
arrived this year and David conceded later that thoughts of the 2011 rescue by the Baltimore lifeboat had indeed come flooding back. Thereafter the fleet arrived at regular intervals, unlike 2015 and
2017 when there were huge gaps because of irregular weather patterns. But on handicap nothing could beat the heavily optimised American Volvo 70 Wizard, which won the Fastnet Challenge Cup for the overall winner and a special edition Rolex presented by Rolex’s Richard de Leyser to Wizard’s co-owner David Askew. Overall runner-up was another canting-keel flyer, Nicolas Groleau’s
Mach 45 Bretagne Télécom. This is the sixth Fastnet for Groleau in his Manuard design finishing seventh in 2017; surely his persis- tence will be rewarded with a win one day? Third and fourth were TP52s with David Collins’ Tala also the first UK boat just ahead of Tilmar Hansen’s Outsider team from Germany. I had expected the canting-keel Cookson 50s to have done better than the TPs in these reaching conditions, but the intense competition within the TP52 class generates a remarkable level of refinement which is evident in their overall performance. The first Cookson 50 was Ron O’Hanley’s Privateer, 2017 runner-up but only eighth overall this year. French teams filled five of the top 10 places with the first cruiser-
racer being the JPK 11.80 Courrier Recommandé of 2015 race winner Géry Trentesaux. Courrier finished fifth ahead of Mr JPK him- self, racing his brand new JPK 10.30 Léon two-handed with Alexis Loison – who won this race overall racing two-handed with his father Pascal in 2013. A full list of prizewinners is at
rolexfastnetrace.com. On behalf of the club I would like to thank the many people who
made this race so successful, including the RORC staff under the leadership of Chris Stone and the large team of volunteers who are vital to the smooth running of the event. Also the RORC and Rolex media teams who bring the race to life for fans around the world. Modern communications make the race feel much closer to those
ashore, but it still needs a talented team of hardworking individuals to sort out the many messages, videos and photos from the boats and make them available to all the world.
Many years after… the Frers 45 Scaramouche competed as part of the US Admiral’s Cup team in 1981, she crossed the finish line in Plymouth in the capable hands of the Greig City Academy crew, led by teacher Jon Holt. This is the second Fastnet for the London inner city school and the crew were even younger than in 2017 – Kai Hockley (13), Jaden Owusu (14) and Christopher-Joel Fredrick (14) were the youngest sailors in this year’s race… unsurprisingly
This was a different race from the last two editions, with a reaching
start in a SE gradient, a ridge of high pressure between Start Point and the Lizard before a SW to W airstream crossing the Irish Sea. The fast course favoured bigger boats, especially canting-keelers. The French have always taken this race seriously, with the last
three Fastnets won by French teams and with increasing interest from the French professionals. As a result 21 Class40s, 20 Imoca 60s plus the four 100ft Ultim trimarans, Sodebo, Actual Leader, Macif and Gitana, gave the race huge profile in France. The Ultims are truly impressive speeding out of the Solent trailed
by a swarm of motorboats... most flat-out trying to keep up. It took just over a day for the foiling giants to cover the course, the first two arriving in Plymouth neck and neck with Gitana beating Macif by 58 seconds… all on the bias of the finish line. Co-skippers Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier set a new course record of 28h 2m and the closest line-honours finish in the race’s history. Early Monday it was the turn of the big monohulls to arrive in
Plymouth with Rambler 88 beating the 100ft Scallywag, finishing just outside the monohull course record set by the Volvo 70 Abu Dhabi in 2011. Rambler’s owner George David did, however, break the record time to the Fastnet Rock he set in Rambler 100 just before the keel fell off in 2011. It was rough at the Rock when they
60 SEAHORSE
A little heritage action It has been many years since I’ve done a ‘local’ regatta outside my annual participation in a few days at Cowes Week. Regattas in warmer climes are usually my venues of choice, so it was with some excitement that I entered the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta in July. My excitement was based around the fact that my brother and
I were to race our 120-year-old Seabird Half Rater, Scoter, for the first time outside our Welsh home club of Trearddur Bay Sailing Club where there is a fleet of 30 boats. Trearddur is a club that only operates for the month of August – it’s a holiday club – but is very popular and successful and this year celebrates its centenary. As the crow flies it is only 60 miles from Dun Laoghaire with ferry
links from Holyhead to Dublin making for an easy connection. Eight Seabirds and seven Myths made the crossing and 50-plus members of the centenary club enjoyed what was a new experience for the Seabird and Myth class which very rarely venture outside Anglesey. The Dun Laoghaire Regatta is based around three of the four
organising clubs, the National, the Royal St George and the Royal Irish yacht clubs, who each host a different group of the fleet. The Royal Irish, situated alongside the marina, hosted the bigger boats, the Royal St George the smaller keelboats including a fleet of 31 RS Elites racing for their national championships and the National Yacht Club the classic dinghies including our Myths and Seabirds. A four-day regatta, which felt more like a week because the organ-
isation packed in 10 races, was blessed with superb weather and enough wind to get in all the races. The social programme was equally varied and, with the ability to frequent all the clubs, there was always something new to experience and new sailors to meet. Cowes Week should take note as it could benefit from a similar
hosting arrangement… and shortened programme. Eddie Warden Owen, CEO *with apologies to David Hepworth
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PAUL WYETH
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