Fast and slow Club page
RORC
Special invitations are to be treasured as you get older and the invitation from Yves le Blevec to race on his Ultim trimaran Actual Leader in the annual British classic which is the Round the Island Race was something to be savoured. These 32m (105ft) machines achieve their power from the sheer
width of the platform at 21m and their very light weight (only 16 tonnes). Le Blevec started his professional career on the Mini 6.50 circuit and with longtime sponsor Actual by his side progressed to the Multi50 circuit, then in 2015 bought the original Nigel Irens- designed Sodebo to join the Ultim Class. Then in 2018 he bought Sodebo 2 – a much-developed hybrid of several previous big tris – after Thomas Coville completed the Route du Rhum. Yves then put his ‘new’ boat back in the shed for a further
comprehensive refit and change of branding. His purchase also came as welcome news to Coville’s own sponsor who understand- ably had no great desire to own two Ultims at the same time… The French skipper admits it has been a steep but enjoyable
learning curve getting used to his complex and more powerful new boat so time on the water is to be prized. His Round the Island Race started with the delivery from La Trinité to Cowes where I joined them just before the race start early on Saturday morning. After crossing the finish he dropped me off by RIB and continued without stopping back to his home port in France (several other French teams also headed home without stepping ashore). Our crew of eight for the race was made up of a few seasoned
professionals including the outstanding Spanish offshore sailor Alex Pella, with whom Le Blevec will race the forthcoming Brest Atlantiques race, plus some of his regular shore crew who were on an extended team-building exercise! It was never other than calm onboard, despite the fact that before
the start we felt like a floating island being attacked by 1,000 boats dashing about around us. I was hugely impressed with the way Le Blevec approached the downwind start accelerating to 28kt within seconds of the gun. Sadly that initial burst of speed didn’t last long as we quickly ran out of wind in the western Solent. Nevertheless, later on in the acceleration zone off St Catherine’s Actual Leader showed her pace, hitting 22kt upwind in 18kt of wind. These are impressive machines. This experience gave me huge confidence that the four Ultims,
Macif, Sodebo 3, Edmond de Rothschildand Actual, will comfortably manage the Solent at the start of the Rolex Fastnet Race. By the time you read this the leading Ultim will have arrived in Plymouth having taken a chunk of time off the Fastnet multihull record…
A good (inshore) test Fifty-seven yachts from six countries slugged it out in great conditions at the UK nationals for the Spinlock IRC Rating system… the event being won by a boat from outside the Solent and at their first attempt. Stuart Sawyer and his team hail from Falmouth and spend most of their time racing around the West Country. Their new J/122 Black
Dog won the 2018 Dartmouth Royal Regatta and this encouraged them to try the competition in the Solent. An 11th and two firsts on day 1 gave them confidence and they rounded off the series with a win on the final day to take their class by an impressive 15pt. It has always been RORC’s preference to honour one yacht with
the title ‘National Champion’ despite a spread of different classes. To do this our race team massage the size of the fleets to be as equal in size as possible and use the complex Cox Sprague scoring system which factors in extra points for size of fleet and closeness of racing. This year, however, IRC 2, in which Sawyer was racing, was much larger than the others with 22 boats, 16 of which were ‘Performance 40s’, non-planing 39-40 footers that have grouped together to create a Solent circuit and champion of their own. This is becoming a formidable division and it is fitting that this year it delivered the overall champion. Second in IRC 2 was Michael Blair’s King 40 Cobra and third Adam Gosling’s refined JPK 1180 Yes! Our championship fleet was diverse with two TP52s at the top
and a Quarter Tonner at the lower end, plus six Fast40s who sped around on their own. In a small IRC 1 class Tony Langley’s TP52 Gladiator and David Collins’ Talawere closely matched and finished first and second but did not have it all their own way with the Ker 43 Baraka and the Ker 46 Tonnerre both winning races. In the absence of usual pacesetter Rán 7 the Fast40 fleet was
dominated by Peter Morton’s Carkeek 40 Mk3 Girls on Film, winning seven races to discard a second. Tony Dickin’s Jubilee, same design as Morty’s, was second and Ed Fishwick’s GP42 Redshift, which has already won two RORC offshore races this year, third. With Black Dogdominating IRC 2 David Franks’ new J/112E Leon
took IRC 3. IRC 3 also ‘hosted’ the fledgling HP30 class – fast sportsboat-style 30-footers including a carbon Farr 280, a much modified ex-Mumm 30 and three Fareast 28Rs. The HP30s have come together to create their own circuit, much like the Fast40s and Performance 40s, this year’s prize going to Glyn Locke’s Farr 280 Toucan. IRC 4 saw another success for J/Boats with Chris Preston’s J/109 Jubilee coming out on top ahead of the lowest- rated boat, Catrina Southworth’s Quarter Tonner Protis.
(For Poms) some crumbs of comfort Since my last report on the Cervantes Trophy five more races have been held in the RORC Season Points Championships and I am pleased to report that (for once!) British teams occupy the top four places with Trevor Middleton’s Sunfast 3600 Black Sheep in the lead (OK, a French boat). In second overall is the mixed two-handed team of Rob Craigie and Deb Fish on another Sunfast 3600 Bellino. However, with five more races to go including the Rolex Fastnet Race with its 1.5-coefficient, the overall results could change very quickly and French teams are quite good at winning the Fastnet. Meanwhile, as I write I am reviewing a 200-plus entry in this year’s
Cowes-St Malo Race. Destination offshore racing is very popular. Eddie Warden-Owen, CEO
q
Above: Another potential IRC two-handed winner went afloat recently in the shape of the new RM1180 from Fora-Marine, designed by Marc Lombard. Slightly ‘cruisier’ than the all-conquering (so far) JPK 1180, expect to see a tweaked version of this good-looking new yacht top an IRC fleet near you in the not too distant future. While the new Figaro 3 begins to nibble at the edges of IRC fleets in Europe Frenchman Laurent Givry is campaigning this example (right) two-handed in the USA with former Oman Sail skipper Sidney Gavignet
62 SEAHORSE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110
