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Richard Palmer celebrates winning the 2022 Round Britain Race overall, racing his JPK 1010 Jangada two-handed with Rupert Holmes. The success of the latest two-handers in winning races overall in IRC is in part down to the intense focus on shorthanded IRC competitiveness that went into the best modern designs, including several of the JPK range and more recently Jeanneau’s widely successful Verdier/Andrieu designed Sun Fast 3300. The plethora of evenly matched two-handers is also driving up sailing standards in exactly the same way as you find in the TP52s, the former Maxi72s and the best one-design classes
Fairytale ending
I write this article while our country is in mourning. The Royal Ocean Racing Club has been privileged to have Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II as our patron for almost 70 years. We join the nation and others in mourning her death and offer our deepest sympathies to His Majesty The King and the whole Royal Family. In 1975 HM The Queen and Prince Philip visited our London club-
house at 20 St James’s Place for the RORC’s 50th anniversary. As the club awaits its centenary in 2025 we look forward to welcoming our new patron to the clubhouse to celebrate this historic landmark in our history. As the nights close in we still have one more 600-mile classic:
the Rolex Middle Sea Race. This is also the first event of our 2023 Season Points Championship! It is where this year’s championship winner, Jangada, started their campaign winning the double-handed division and finishing 10th overall. What a great way to start your programme. However, the winning didn’t stop there and they left the best to last, with an outstanding performance on the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race, this time winning overall in the hands of Richard Palmer and Rupert Holmes. Second overall under IRC, just seven minutes back after 15 days at sea, was Rob Craigie and Deb Fish’s Bellino. Both of these yachts are raced double-handed. This year’s Round Britain Race delivered an unusually – even for
this 1,805-mile course – changeable and complex weather scenario to test the 30 teams entered. While gale force winds and big seas were experienced by just about every boat, this edition was notable for a preponderance of light-airs racing. Jangada’s win was decided by the thinnest of margins – in
percentage terms they won by just 0.03 per cent, which over such a long and tricky course truly shows the benefit of the years of `continuous improvement in the IRC system. ‘This was totally full-on from start to finish,’ said Jangada owner Richard Palmer. ‘Mentally it was totally exhausting, but great fun with
72 SEAHORSE
really close racing throughout. This really is one of the great courses because it offers absolutely everything, with plenty of headlands and tidal gates, and all with weather systems that are constantly changing. A long course that just throws everything at you.’ Pip Hare’s Imoca Medallia (ex-Banque Populaire VIII) took line
honours on day 11. While high pressure meant that the elapsed time was way outside the race record Pip was still upbeat: ‘It is not often I go into an IRC race primarily targeting line honours, but that really was the only goal for us so we are pretty happy.’ In a classy gesture four days later Pip headed back out to sea by RIB to welcome in the two-handed warriors on their much smaller yachts. The largest boat in the race, Marie Tabarly’s historic 73ft ketch
Pen Duick VI, was the winner of IRC One. Pen Duick VIwas originally built for father Eric Tabarly’s 1973 Whitbread Race campaign and 50 years on Marie Tabarly continues to campaign her, next on the schedule being the RORC Transatlantic Race and Caribbean 600. ‘Usually this is a race with rough conditions, but this was a light-air edition and not suited to a 49-year-old, 34-tonne boat,’ said Marie when back in Cowes, ‘so winning our class was not in the plan, a pleasant surprise… especially finishing on my birthday!’ This year’s Season Points Championship came to an end with
the finish of the 75-mile Cherbourg Race in September, a light southerly, oscillating between east and west lending a strategic edge. In a bit of a fairytale outcome the race was won this year by Mike Moxley’s 35ft Malice, racing two-handed with Tom Bridge. Mike’s been racing with the RORC for decades, but this was his
first overall race win, sailing his 25-year-old Rob Humphreys-designed HOD 35. What is more, to win in a 76-strong fleet, with entries from Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Poland and the United States and including a huge number of modern two-handed boats, was an exceptional performance. Jeremy Wilton, CEO
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JAMES TOMLINSON
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