Centenary Rolex Fastnet Race: Coundown to blast off
by James Boyd / RORC 25 Jul 14:06 PDT
26 July 2025
Sodebo Ultim 3 rounds the Fastnet Rock in 2019 - Rolex Fastnet Race © Rolex / Kurt Arrigo
For the 444 yachts entered in the Royal Ocean Racing Club's centennial Rolex Fastnet Race all eyes remain on the weather going into the last hours before the start tomorrow (Saturday 26 July). This looks set to be light to moderate for the start and mostly on the wind to the Fastnet Rock, but veering to the northwest en route to Land's End.
As ever the fleet has a series of sequential starts in the central Solent off a line extending out from the Royal Yacht Squadron. Starts will begin at 1120 with the multihulls (comprising the four giant Ultim trimarans, the nine Ocean Fifty trimarans and the rest of the MOCRA fleet), followed at 10 minute intervals by the IMOCA; Class 40; IRC SZ/Z; Admiral's Cup 1 and 2; IRC 1; IRC 2; IRC 3 concluding at 1320 with IRC 4.
After yesterday's opening of the race village in Cherbourg and a presentation to the public of 20 of the French teams taking part in the centennial Rolex Fastnet Race, so a stream of yachts will be heading off on the 75 mile overnight delivery from the French finish port to the Solent, to await tomorrow's starts.
Meanwhile in Cowes, it has been a layday for the Admiral's Cup in preparation for the deciding event of their series where Karl Kwok's Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club team is eight points ahead of Peter Harrison's duo representing the Yacht Club de Monaco, in turn 15 ahead of Giovanni Lombardi Stronati's third placed Djangos from the YC Costa Smeralda.
Crews from the UK and elsewhere have been descending on Cowes. Leading French sailor Thomas Coville has been corporate sailing out of Gosport with his Sodebo Ultim 3, while keeping an eye on the Admiral's Cup - an event in which he raced in 1993. "Walking down Cowes High Street brings back a lot of memories! It's a place that you never forget. There is no place like this in France - it's unreal."
Over the winter Coville made an unsuccessful attempt on the Jules Verne Trophy (round the world non-stop) and this will be his sixth Rolex Fastnet Race with a team of A-list crew including Solitaire du Figaro winner Nicolas Troussel. Boat prep over the winter included "the foils, main rudder, sails and the aerodynamics at the back of the boat..."
Ultims ideally need at least 10 knots of wind to fly properly but Coville warns: "There's a lot of light air at the start, but I hope we are going to have some flying sessions around the Fastnet Rock. Basically it's upwind to the rock in...put it this way, we have taken off all the reefs!" In the light conditions he says they go well but so does the ultra-light weight SVR Lazartigue.
He is particularly proud that his son Eliott will be racing on board Ludovic Gérard's JPK 1050 Solenn for Pure Ocean. "For the first time we're both racing the Fastnet - it's a huge moment for me."
Also part of the French advance party today was France's 2015 winner Géry Trentesaux with the crew of his regulars such as François Lamiot, Arnaud Aubry and Antoine Carpentier. "The Fastnet is always special for me," says Trentesaux. "It will be my 18th. I remember the first in 1977 and the second with the Admiral's Cup back in 1979."
While there is likely to be a record entry tomorrow, Trentesaux says he is not focussed on the overall IRC results, but specifically on IRC One. At present his Sydney GTS 43 Long Courrier is comfortably leading IRC One in the RORC's annual Season's Points Championship while lying second overall to RORC Commodore Deb Fish and Rob Craigie's Bellino. "We will sail with whatever the forecast is. I would prefer more wind but at least we have some wind..." he concludes.
Over in Southampton Seng Huang Lee's SHK Scallywag is one of three monohull line honours contenders. She comes in hot from line honours victories in last autumn's Rolex Middle Sea Race and Loro Piana Giraglia. "This will be very different, because it's twice the length and twice the number of boats," says SHK Scallywag's Australian skipper David Witt, who sailed his first Fastnet Race in the late 1990s on board the Maxi One Design Jacob's Creek. "And Black Jack and Leopard 3 will be very competitive. Last time we raced Black Jack, there were only a couple of minutes in it, and I expect that to be the same."
In addition to Mark Bradford, they have also upgraded their crew with Will Oxley navigating plus Ocean Race sailors Luke Parkinson and Rob Greenhalgh. Of the forecast Witt says "we're seeing a couple of different things: pretty much VMG to the rock and VMG back, which will make it super close: Black Jack is slightly better VMG downhill and we're slightly better VMG uphill..." And Leopard 3 in her lightened state, will be in the running too. "I wouldn't be surprised if they lead at the rock."
With Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club currently leading the Admiral's Cup, Witt is contemplating Hong Kong possibly securing the double if Karl Kwok's team can secure that next week while they claim Rolex Fastnet Race line honours or even the Fastnet Challenge Cup for IRC overall. "It could be a big regatta for Hong Kong."
This afternoon at the RORC's Cowes Clubhouse, a press conference was held followed by the weather and skipper's briefing. Among those speaking were Adrian Stead, tactician on Max Klink's 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race winner Caro, currently part of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron's Admiral's Cup team. "It is absolutely fantastic," he said of the revitalised Admiral's Cup. "That we have 15 teams all vying for it is amazing to see. Everyone is putting so much effort into winning that and the Fastnet result counts for 3x the weighting. We have underperformed so far and we are looking to put that right in the Fastnet Race."
From Australia was Linda Goddard, skippering her Swan 53 Bedouin with a family crew including her grown-up children. "We have done quite a few races in the Med but we are getting into deep water getting out of there. But that is part of it when you're racing offshore race against incredibly competitive boats: You're tired, you could be seasick, you don't know how it will be physically. So it is all about resilience to get through the race. Everyone learns a lot."
While the majority of the speakers were looking forward to little better than freeze-dried food, on board Goddard's cruiser-racer fresh lasagna is on the menu.
Also from Australia is David Griffith's Whisper, a JV 60 that was built locally originally as Sir Peter Ogden's Jethou. "Our focus is to get around safely - it is a very complex race and we will be getting tide and wind, so there are many decision points in the race." Among Whisper's crew are crew boss Billy Merrington and expert trimmer Paul Westlake.
Tristan le Brun was representing one of the other 100ft monohull line honours contenders, Remon Vos' Black Jack 100. He was looking forward to the lighter forecast: "With our boat we are at max power in eight knots of wind - after that we have to depower the boat. So Black Jack is very strong in light air. It is also quite strong downwind VMG for the second half of the race.
Appropriately the press conference was attended by Richard Matthews who, aged 76, will be competing in his 25th Rolex Fastnet Race. "I am looking forward to it with the same enthusiasm as the very first race," said Matthews, who is again campaigning his Carkeek CF 520 Oystercatcher XXXV. "Today the boats are very different - this is a big dinghy and has to be sailed like that, but it is at least competitive with the other 50 footers. The boat is fast off the wind in a breeze so if we are lined up with the TP52s we should be a little faster...but that remains to be seen."
Of Matthews' past Rolex Fastnet Races he recalls: "The best one was sailing my ¾ Tonner SJ35 when we went around the rock and were told 'Oystercatcher X your position is first in class and first in fleet'. That felt pretty good although we got robbed at the end because we had to kedge a mile from the finish line but we ended up with a class win. The worst was the 1979 Fastnet when we lost a lot of friends. We always have a one minute silence on our boat before the start remembering those people."
The live broadcast begins at 1100 BST, ahead of the first start at 1120 BST:
Race Tracker: www.rolexfastnetrace.com/en/tracking.