Folkboats round the island
If you want to win the historic Round the Island Race, you need the right boat. History relates that the overall winner will generally come from IRC Division 3D or IRC Division 0. If you have a spare £200,000, you might buy a used TP52 and race in Division 0, but less than a tenth of that will get you a Folkboat to race in Division 3D with at least as good a chance of success.
After 80 years in existence, the Nordic Folkboat stands as the most successful design in the history of the Round the Island Race (RTI). As Nordic Folkboats across the Solent and around the world gear up for the 2022 Sessan Cup and UK Nationals, both at the Royal Lymington YC in September, all eyes will be on Folkboat performance at this year’s RTI on 25 June.
The first Round The Island Race, organised by the Island Sailing Club, was run on 11 July 1931. This inaugural race had 25 entries and the winner was one of the smallest boats in the fleet; a 22ft Cornish fishing boat named Merry Conceit. This result clearly set a precedent for smaller boats to take prevail in the race.
By 1939, the RTI fleet had grown to 80. When racing resumed in 1946, the Folkboat had risen from the ashes of war, ready to take on the world in the… relatively… peaceful pursuit of yacht racing.
In 1948, the first British Folkboat emerged victorious in the RTI. Katrina was a clinker-hulled Nordic Folkboat built at Woodnut’s in Bembridge in 1947, with a dierent rig that technically made her a British Folkboat. She still sails in Weymouth under an IRC handicap and is as competitive today as she was over 70 years ago.
The first carvel-hulled British Folkboats were built in the 1950s. Cyra, owned by the Lloyds yacht surveyor Jim Saunders, who went on to become the first UK class chairman, won the Gold Roman Bowl (the prize for overall winner of the RTI) in 1958 and again in 1963. Fenya,a Nordic, won in 1962.
Ted Donald’s British Folkboat Celia Mary (FB39), built by him post-war on a ration book in the Hamble, won the
Gold Roman bowl in 1994, skippered by his son Malcolm Donald and again in 1999 skippered by his grandson Ed
Donald. The Donald family have won the Gold Roman Bowl four times in two di erent Folkboats, compared to the oft-quoted record holder ex-PM Ted Heath, credited with four wins in three di erent Morning Clouds. In fact, Ted Heath did not sail in the first two. The most frequent winner is the Rogers family’s Contessa 26 Rosina of Beaulieu which has won three times (2002, 2003 and 2006). The Contessa 26 is a development of the Folkboat.
Periwinkle became the first pure Nordic Folkboat to take the Gold Roman Bowl in 1991 when Peter Bainbridge took first place in a fleet of 1,300 boats on Channel Handicap System.
Eight years after that, the RTI adopted the IRC (International Racing Certificate) handicapping system. Folkboats can also enter in their own class but are not eligible for the overall prizes. To enter the RTI under IRC, it is necessary to conform to Category 4 safety requirements. This involves the fitting of stanchions and lifelines, which puts o many Nordic owners who are loath to drill holes in their decks. Most Nordics therefore enter in the Folkboat Class, racing as a one-design rather than under IRC. Under the IRC handicap Div 3D, the Nordic Folkboat has been an outstanding competitor in the RTI. In the past 16 years, Nordic Folkboats have won the RTI outright on four occasions. They have been second seven times. The Contessa 26 comes a close second and the International Folkboat has also performed well. Both designs are derived from the original Nordic Folkboat.
The most outstanding Nordic Folkboat under IRC has undoubtedly been GBR 707 Madelaine, sailed by Ed Donald. Remarkably, Madelaine has won the RTI twice in the last 16 years (2007, 2014) and finished second on five occasions. Madelaine has been in the top five finishers in 10 of the past 16 years. Unfortunately, in 2016 she lost her mast o St Catherine’s point, while under spinnaker, and in 2020 there was no RTI due to covid.
Within the Folkboat Class, the outstanding boat is GBR718 Crackerjack, followed closely by GBR652 Stralende.