Admirals Cup: Day 5 - The long beat to The Rock begins
by Richard Gladwell in Cowes 26 Jul 13:49 PDT
The 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race gets underway - Cowes - July 26, 2025 © Richard Gladwell - Sail-World.com/nz
The final triple scoring race in the 2025 Admirals' Cup got underway on time starting in front of The Castle in Cowes.
The 30 boat fleet representing 15 teams and 12 countries encountered conditions much as forecast - 12-15kt westerly wind with an easterly current which increased in flow strength as the early stages of the race progressed. It became quite significant at Hurst Castle and The Needles at the entrance to the Solent, as the wind picked up and the tidal strength increased.
Conditions were a complete contrast to the last two editions of the Rolex Fastnet, when the fleet battled fresh headwinds on the outward leg.
After 9hrs of racing the battle was on between the two top teams Monaco and Hong Kong. However at 2100hrs Monaco would appear to hold the advantage with their AC1 and AC2 boats leading/close to the front of their divisions, on the basis of distance to sail to the finish. The two Hong Kong entries were second in each of their divisions on the same basis.
Overall the Rolex Fastnet fleet is making good time, the Ultims (100ft foiling trimarans) were all well clear of Lands End, by 2200hrs. The division and the race is led by SVR Lazartigue, by a good margin in both distance and speed. All four Ultims have had to sail close to the Scilly Isles, before tacking to sail up the side of an exclusion zone, before tacking again to head for the Fast net Rock.
After sailing for 12 hours, the monohulls were led by the Hong Kong owned SHK Scallywag, with the IMOCA Charal and a second supermaxi Black Jack 100 vying for second place.Scally wag was about to cross Lyme Bay, and was well inshore of Charal.
Tracking: Track the fleet via Yellow Brick Tracker to use the YB Tracker which you can download as an App on your phone or mobile device. To use the Tracker deselect the yachts you do not wish to view. The default view is for the whole fleet to be shown.
Live results here
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