while yachting for the royalty and the ruling classes was inshore in the metre classes. In an attempt to ‘get things back to normal’, in 1920 King George V had Britannia refitted for the umpteenth time and reignited the UK Royal Regattas. This was a huge programme, spanning the four corners of his kingdom, from the Royal Regatta in Cowes to the Clyde Fortnight. Royal attendance at these events were followed with the same verve as when the Queen in recent years has attended Royal Ascot or the Epsom Derby. Just as King Juan Carlos 1’s participation bolstered Spanish sailing from the 1980s on, so King George V’s initiative revitalised British sailing, bringing pre-WW1 racers like the 23m White Heather, the Fife gaff cutter Moonbeam and the giant Herreshoff schooner Westward out of retirement and causing new boats to be built. Meanwhile in another corner, the
cruising fraternity’s opinion was most loudly voiced by Claud Worth, president of The Little Ship Club and vice-commodore of the Royal Cruising Club, but, most importantly, author of the seminal book Yacht Cruising (1910). His opinion was that while cruising offshore in small boats was one thing, racing them was quite another. ‘In bad weather would they be able to judge when to run before it or even heave to?’ he reasoned. Conversely in the US Herb Stone, editor-in-chief of Yachting magazine in the early 1920s, was breathing life back into the Bermuda Race, arguing that racing offshore does develop sailing and navigation skills and encourages seamanship. In the UK specialist offshore races
were some way from being created, unlike the US where there were craft like the Alden-designed Malabar IV, winner of the 1923 Bermuda Race and the Herreshoff 40ft Memory, the first yacht in the race fitted with, appropriately, a Bermudian rig, which won both line honours and on corrected time in 1924. In comparison, back in the UK
the first Fastnet Race attracted a motley collection. The rules created by the organising committee of three (Martyr plus Martin and Malden Heckstall-Smith, editor of Yachting Monthly) permitted the entry of any “fully decked” yacht of any rig with a waterline length of 30-50ft. They had to be in cruising trim and a carry a lifeboat. Even then there was a restriction on professionals sailing on board, limited to those that could be “normally accommodated in the fo’c’sle,” though these professionals were less Olympic sailing medallists and more salty commercial seamen and fishermen. Of the 16 entered only seven
(preceded by the Channel Race and the Royal Yacht Squadron’s Britannia Cup and New York Challenge Cup during CowesWeek). For the next four decades the Fastnet Race would become better known as part of what at the time was international grand prix yachting’s premier event, which peaked in the late 1970s when 19 three-boat teams regularly competed. Sadly the decline in Admiral’s Cup
Top: the 50th Rolex Fastnet Race will start on Saturday 22 July, before rather than after Cowes Week. Berths should be more widely available in Cowes prior to the start. With Covid-19 restrictions now eased, it will also be easier to come ashore in Cherbourg to rest and recuperate, sample the cuisine and enjoy the hospitality after finishing the race. Above: the first Fastnet winner Jolie Brise also won in 1929 and 1930, and competed again in 2013
started; all British save one Spaniard Ingo Simon albeit on a Bristol Channel pilot cutter. At the time pilot cutters were perhaps themost appropriate offshore raceboats in the UK as back to themid-19th
century
they had become well-developed for speed and seakeeping ability as their crews raced out into theWestern Approaches to be first to intercept ships thatmight wish to employ their services. But by the 1920s such competition had ceased just as their sailing pilot boats had been replaced by steam-powered alternatives. American dominance would last
for some time in the race’s early history: notably the back-to-back wins of Rod and Olin Stephens on Dorade in 1931-33, then similar consecutive victories of Richard Nye’s Carina in 1957-57 and Dick Carter's Rabbit in 1965 and Red Rooster four years later. While next year’s race will the 50th
edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race, it is almost by luck that it nearly coincides with its 100th
birthday (due to be
celebrated in 2025 alongside the RORC’s centenary). The first editions of the race were held annually until 1931 when it adopted its present biennial arrangement, alternating with the Newport-Bermuda Race. The race did not take place over WorldWar II but restarted in 1947, a decade before it became the decider for the first Admiral’s Cup between UK and USA teams
participation as well as Fastnet Race fleet size (by then up to a staggering 303 yachts) coincided with the 1979 Fastnet disaster, which resulted in 19 deaths. Attempts to revive a flagging Admiral’s Cup saw the Fastnet Race dropped fromit in 1999, before the event ended fully in 2002, but this enabled Rolex to step in as sponsor of the Fastnet Race from2001 to this day. It was not until 2011 that the
Rolex Fastnet Race passed its previous record participation which has continued to grow rapidly since, reaching a record 388 in 2019. The RORC confidently expects it to exceed 400 for its special 50th edition in 2023. None of the other classic 600-mile offshore races come anywhere close to such numbers, which is at least in part thanks to the RORC’s early embrace of French professional classes such as the Ultimes, Imoca and Class40s which in 2021 added more than 50 boats to the main IRC fleet. Meanwhile the race record to Plymouth has been whittled down with the Ultime trimaran Edmond de Rothschild reducing it to a mere 28 hours two minutes and 26 seconds. The race’s finish has now
outgrown Plymouth and moved to Cherbourg and with this Fastnet has perhaps come full circle: from the first race having been won by a French boat in British hands, so the 2021 winner of the Fastnet Challenge Cup was another French boat in British hands, Tom Kneen’s JPK 11.80 Sunrise.
www.rolexfastnetrace.com
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