RORC
Club page
When you have talent to spare… Admiral’s Cup 1993 and onboard the defending French Team’s One Tonner Corum Diamant the man hoisting the chute is Jean-Yves Bernot, the brilliant meteorologist behind numerous Jules Verne and other major oceanic records. Also aboard are fellow world-class router Marcel Van Triest with Olympian and America’s Cup coach Marc Bouet on the helm. Talent to spare
Let the games begin
In the northern hemisphere we are now well into that transition period coming out of our winter races, with the RORC Transatlantic Race done and dusted and the 16th edition of the Caribbean 600 having just finished. Now we are heading towards our domestic races with our UK season kicking off with the Easter Challenge at Cowes, run as usual in conjunction with North Sails. There is great coaching on offer, detailed debrief sessions following each day’s racing and up to eight good races scheduled over the weekend. There will also be plenty more going on at our very well-received, totally overhauled Cowes clubhouse. As I’m sure you’re aware this is the club’s centenary, when we
celebrate the birth of the RORC with the first running of the Fastnet Race in 1925. As the club has evolved and grown over the past 100 years, so has the significance of the Fastnet within the international sailing calendar, to its current enviable status as the biggest offshore race in the world. Meanwhile, our international Season’s Points Champion ship is also acknowledged as the largest offshore racing series in the world. Not bad for a yacht club headquartered in the heart of London 60-odd miles from the nearest sea. With the growth of our racing calendar also comes a welcome steady
growth in membership, while the club’s status as the world’s premier offshore racing organisation continues – however, this is something that is never taken for granted. To support our membership in this our centenary year we are holding
a number of celebratory dinners around the world, the first being held this month at the New York Yacht Club. Then in April we move on to Ireland, with the Royal Irish Yacht Club in Cork being our hosts, while May sees us visiting the Royal Mass Yacht Club in Rotterdam as we combine our centenary dinner with an evening celebrating the Netherland’s involvement and success in the Admiral’s Cup. This brings us into July where we’ll be staging a centenary party at
the Cowes clubhouse on the evening of Saturday 19 July, which is the first day of competition for the 2025 Admiral’s Cup.
After the excitement of the Admiral’s Cup and the Fastnet Race,
in September we recognise the significance of Plymouth in RORC history with a club dinner on the eve of the city’s Seafest festival on 12 September. As part of festivities Jolie Brisewill be visiting Plymouth, 100 years after her first visit to the city as winner of the inaugural Fastnet Race, then known as the Ocean Race. After Plymouth we will then head to the Norddeutscher Regatta
Verein (NRV) in Hamburg. October we have a double-header, starting at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, where we host our dinner prior to their major IRC regatta, the China Coast Cup. Then soon afterwards we will be rebranding our annual RORC lunch at the Rolex Middle Sea Race in Malta as our centenary celebration, before in November it is back home and our annual dinner and prizegiving. But there is more… First, a joint UNCL/RORC dinner in Paris on
Friday 10 December at the Yacht Club de France, and then our final centenary dinner of the year which will be on the other side of the world at the CYCA to coincide with the 2025 Sydney Hobart Race. If you wish to book places for any of these events please visit the
RORC website and click on the Centenary tab. Please do come and join us to celebrate such an important milestone in ‘our’ club’s history. Back out on the water we will be celebrating our 100th anniversary
with a special event in Cowes on Saturday 19 July, for which we are putting out a call for classic yachts with a historical association with the RORC in the first 50 years of the club, so up to 1975. This event will comprise a sail-by and salute of the RORC, then a short race, followed by a welcome of participating crews to the evening’s RORC centenary party at the Cowes clubhouse. Finally, as part of our centenary, we have commissioned a new book
covering the last 25 years of the club’s history, to follow on from Ian Dear’s book which celebrated the club’s 75th anniversary in 2000. We are looking to publish this prior to the Rolex Fastnet Race. Jeremy Wilton, CEO
SEAHORSE 45 q
ALAMY
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
