FASTNET RELOADED
THE ROLEX FASTNET RACE HAS LONG DEMANDED REAL RESPECT, BUT A CHANGE OF COURSE MADE THE 2021 EDITION A WHOLE NEW CHALLENGE, HELEN FRETTER REPORTS
It takes 600 miles to make a true offshore, or so tradition dictates. The Royal Ocean Racing club was formed in 1925 following the first ever Fastnet race, with the objective: ‘to provide annually one ocean race not less than 600 miles in length’. All of the ‘blue riband’ races – the classic Rolex Sydney Hobart and Rolex Middle Sea Race, the Newport-bermuda, the newer RORC Caribbean 600, and until this year, the biennial Rolex Fastnet Race – were contested over a course of around 600-630 miles.
When the classic offshores were conceived, those races took around a week to complete: Jolie Brise won the inaugural Fastnet Race in 1925 in 6d 14h. As yachts have got larger, and faster, the bulk of the fleet now finishes in three to four days. But 600 miles is still a distance that is sufficiently daunting for amateur crews, demands a proper watch system, and a day off to recover. Only the pro-level crew of the real ocean greyhounds – the Ultims, IMOCAS and supermaxis – consider it a short sprint.
When it was announced two years ago that the 2021 and 2023 editions of the Rolex Fastnet Race were to finish in Cherbourg, France, instead of Plymouth, in southwestern England, there was, understandably, controversy. Much of the focus was on the destination: the split from tradition, the opportunities for the fleet to gather in one place, the financial deals behind it. But for crews, the real impact of the move to Cherbourg is how it has altered the Fastnet race course itself: that classic 600-miler is now just shy of 700 miles.
Those extra 90 miles have added a full day or night to most boats’ times. What’s more, those 90 miles are over navigationally challenging waters – the fierce tidal races encountered on approaching the Channel Islands from the west – which in many fleets left the result in question until the final few hours. The Rolex Fastnet Race has in many respects just got tougher and trickier than ever.
Nowhere was this more evident than at the start. White-capped waves, a building swell, and gusty breezes saw the fleet of the 49th Rolex Fastnet Race off from Cowes on Sunday, 8 August.
As is customary, when entries opened in January all spaces sold out in minutes, like tickets to Glastonbury festival or a Wimbledon final, with hundreds of hopeful crews joining a waiting list. At one point the pre-entry list exceeded 450 boats, but a combination of pandemic travel restrictions, Brexit concerns, and a severe forecast for the opening 24 hours reduced numbers to a still remarkable 337 - confirming the Fastnet’s position as the world’s biggest offshore (the 50th anniversary Sydneyhobart once topped it). This year also marked the 20th year the event and organisers RORC partnered with Rolex.
A BOAT-BREAKING START
That forecast manifested itself in 25 knot southwesterlies, gusting into the mid 30s, and wind against tide creating a sea state that race meteorologist Chris Tibbs warned could become severe in areas of tidal overfalls. Race officers prudently opted to re-order the classes, sending the multihulls off first, followed by the IMOCA 60s and Class 40s together, then IRC Zero, to allow the less manoeuvrable maxi yachts through the large waves and shifting shingle of Hurst Narrows first.
Nevertheless, the combination of a huge fleet tacking out into strong headwinds and boatspeed-deadening chop did lead to some collisions. Yannick Bestaven’s winning Vendée Globe IMOCA, Maitre Coq IV, had to retire following a crash with another vessel that caused damage to the IMOCA 60 bow. There were a handful of dismastings, a few (thankfully non-serious) crew injuries, and several boats reporting substantial sail and rigging damage. A J/120 also had to be assisted by the RNLI after reporting that they had hit something in the water, and were taking on water. They later discovered severe cracking around the top of the keel.
Charlene Howard, a highly experienced ocean sailor who was racing her Sun Odyssey 45.2 AJ Wanderlust reported: “Honestly, the start line was carnage with heavy winds and over 350 boats wanting to be in the exact same spot of water. There are collisions, boats are calling for medical assistance to meet them on Trinity Landing. A number of ‘Pan Pans’ came in involving boats that are known to me personally.”
Howard says she remarked to her co-skipper: “These are good boats having issues.”
By Monday afternoon over 70 boats had retired. Meanwhile for those in the fastest yachts, exiting the Solent was an exercise in damage limitation. Sam
Davies, who was racing her IMOCA 60 Initiatives Couer with Nico Lunven, said: “This Fastnet race is going to be remembered for a long time for the start, which
‘Short-tacking out of the Solent in 30 knots was pretty epic’
was absolutely incredible – very, very nerve-wracking for us especially on the 60s because we’re sailing doublehanded. Our boats are really not designed to short tack out of the Solent in any conditions and having to do that in 30 knots, gusting 35 was pretty epic.”
Tactically, things got interesting once the big boats cleared the Solent as, surprisingly, many of the front runners did not track a usual course along the English coast. Instead, they eschewed playing the tidal gates of Portland and the Lizard in favour of getting onto the lefthand side of the fleet, looking for flatter water and a fast reach to the Rock. Many went beyond the Casquets Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS), and while some of the Ultimes tacked close to Alderney, the leading IMOCAS dove even further south.
Sam Davies explained: “Nico [Lunven, co-skipper] had done a lot of work on the weather routing with lots of different models and pretty much all of our routing went that way, because we might get flat water in the Alderney Race, sheltered by the Channel Islands and be first into the west-going current off the north French coast.
“And luckily we got it right! It was lucky left, big time because we headed straight out from the Needles on a long starboard all the way down past Jersey. And we tacked pretty much on the north Brittany coast and actually, incredibly, tacked on the layline to the Runnel Stone, about 150 miles [from it as] there was a left shift.
“But it was a big call to make because you had to make that pretty much right from the start because of the TSS in the middle and the islands.”
DAVID AND GOLIATH
Most exaggerated was the line taken by Charlie Dalin and Paul Meihat on the IMOCA Apivia, who sailed to within six miles of Bréhat, just off Brittany. Their conviction that the south would pay off was rewarded handsomely – not only did they pick up favourable tide at Alderney, but also aligned themselves to the right side of a wind shift and more positive tide off Bréhat.
“There was a very small window to get the combination exactly right. Our timing was perfect,” Dalin explained.
When they tacked north, they reconverged with the fleet within shouting distance of the line honours challenger – and the largest yacht ever to take part in the Rolex Fastnet Race – the 140ft Clubswan 125 Skorpios.
Going into the race, all eyes had been on the very newly launched Skorpios thanks to her sheer scale (see page 72), and the expectation was it would easily take monohull line honours. The only likely opposition looked to come from the existing monohull race record holder, Rambler 88. But this year it was the 60ft Apivia which gave Skorpios its closest competition on the beat up to the
Rock, despite being nearly half the waterline length.
Then, astonishingly, after rounding the Rock, Rambler 88 sailed an incorrect course around the Fastnet TSS and was later officially scored a ‘NSC’, only serving to prove – as Charlene Howard had noted from the outset – that even good boats can have their issues.
Line honours went to the 100ft trimaran Maxi Edmond de Rothschild in the multihulls, skippered by Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier, in 1d 9h. Skorpios secured its first past the post victory in the monohulls at 2d 8h. These will be the benchmark times for the new Fastnet course, though they certainly have potential to be broken - while the foiling Maxi Edmond de Rothschild trimaran was able to light the afterburners on the return leg from the Rock, topping 40 knots on a fast reach back towards the Scillies, the long fetch towards Ireland ended any chance of a sub-24-hour race record. That remains on the to-do list for the record-chasing multihulls.
Despite the bruising start to the race, there were hints of breeze shut-downs on the return leg – a ridge of high pressure around the Scillies catching the leading smaller boats and taking them out of contention for the IRC corrected win. The first boat to arrive in Plymouth in with a shout at the overall win was the HH42 Ino XXX, belonging to RORC Commodore James Neville, in IRC 1.
But it was the winning IRC 2 yacht, Thomas
‘Winning overall is a once in a lifetime dream come true moment’
Kneen’s JPK 1180 Sunrise which would prove unbeatable. Plymouth-based Kneen (there is a certain irony there) is a relative newcomer to offshore racing but ran a wellplanned campaign with the Fastnet as the focus.
The crew is made up of talented friends, rather than paid-for professionals, though Kneen invested in communications, which gave good weather information for the Celtic Sea, and optimised sails for anticipated Fastnet conditions. Their race was characterised by smart, confident navigation, and taking opportunities when they arose, which built to a 115-mile lead over the rest of Class 2 by the finish.
DREAM COME TRUE
“The reality is that we came with the aim of a class win, I think winning overall is a once in a lifetime dream come true moment,” a shocked Kneen said in Cherbourg.
After a grey and misty Fastnet Rock rounding, the Sunrise crew made their biggest gains after the Scillies. “We knew that there was a ridge coming behind us with no [wind] behind it for a while,” explained navigator Tom Cheney. “And we knew that we had to give everything that we had to stay in front of it.
“I didn’t think we would do it. We’d run a load of routing that said we wouldn’t be in front of it unless we were well over 100 percent of our targets.”
They were also able to work the strong tides off Alderney to their advantage, at one point making 13 knots over the ground whilst doing around 7 knots of boat speed. By the final morning, with a class and potential overall win on the cards, all crew were called up on deck from first light to push the boat as hard as possible. They finished with a two hour advantage over Ino XXX.
The overall race win may have been claimed, but behind Sunrise there was battle after battle. The doublehanded fleet produced one of the closest finishes of the race – and some of the most exhausted crews.
Two-man crews were particularly prevalent in IRC 3. First across the line was British team of Henry Bomby and double Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson on the Sunfast 3300 Swell, but class and overall doublehanded win went to Fastnet star Alexis Loison, sailing with 470 sailor Guillaume Pirouelle on the JPK 10.30 Léon.
This was one of the fleets where the tricky Casquets
TSS had a significant impact on results, with Léon and Swell sailing to the south side. However, this left another JPK 1080, Aileau, free to sail a more direct path closer to the the rhumbline, taking the lead on the water in the final stages. In the early hours of Friday morning, Swell crept past Aileau, but Léon gybed closer to Cap de la Hague. That allowed Léon to reduce the deficit on Swell sufficiently to beat them by 36 minutes on corrected time at the line.
“That was a crazy finish for us,” said Loison. “Hours before the finish we were about to lose the race, Swell took a really good line with better speed than us.
“I think all of the Fastnet double-handed crews have worked a lot to produce a better performance. We have seen a lot of well prepared boats,” he added. This year is Alexis Loison’s fifth double-handed win in the Fastnet.
So will the Figaro sailors, like Loison and Bomby, who are most used to negotiating the Raz Blanchard, hold an advantage for this new-look Fastnet? Frank Cammas observed that many of the leading French boats had
opted to sail along the French shoreline. Certainly competitors for 2023 might well consider spending some time looking at Adrena routing software and the Arome (Meteo France) weather model – although as Loison pointed out, “I do this exercise a lot of times, but I still don’t always take the right way!
But ultimately the first ‘French’ Fastnet did not, infact, turn into a triumph for the tricolor - French boats won multihull line honours and some class victories, but the top 10 overall was British, German and Swedish. The Rolex Fastnet Race remains as international and unpredictable as ever. But now the biggest yacht race in the world has an extra twist in its tale.