Pace, classics and shorthanded talent line up for RORC Cowes Dinard St Malo Race 2026
by Louay Habib / RORC 25 Jun 05:26 PDT
20-21 June 2026
Cowes Dinard St Malo Race - IRC Three start © Paul Wyeth / RORC
The RORC Cowes Dinard St Malo Race returns on Friday 3 July for one of the great historic races in the Royal Ocean Racing Club calendar.
Starting from the Royal Yacht Squadron Line in Cowes, the race sends the fleet west out of the Solent, across the English Channel and towards the Brittany coast for a finish at the celebrated walled city of St Malo.
Spectators can watch the start from Cowes Parade and the Cowes foreshore, with the fleet preparing off the Royal Yacht Squadron Line before heading west through the Solent after midday. The first start will be at 1400 BST. All boats will be equipped with satellite tracking, with a detailed player free to view on computers and smart devices. yb.tl/stmalo2026
The race carries deep offshore racing heritage. Dating back to 1906, the St Malo Race is one of the oldest races in the RORC calendar. The overall winner under IRC receives the King Edward VII Challenge Cup, originally donated by His Majesty King Edward VII. More than a century later, the trophy remains one of the most historic prizes in British and French offshore racing.
The Cowes Dinard St Malo Race is also part of the 2026 RORC Cowes Offshore Series, a seven race programme of offshore classics starting from Cowes, with the best five results to count. The race is a key summer fixture in the RORC Season's Points Championship, the world's largest offshore racing series, and provides another important opportunity for crews to build their season against a competitive and varied fleet.
The entry list so far shows strong depth across the fleet, bringing together teams from all over Europe with sailors from all over the world.
The largest entry is Johnny Vincent's Volvo 70 Pace. Formerly racing as Tschüss 2, the Volvo 70 has a formidable record in this race. In 2023, she set a new monohull race record, won line honours and claimed overall victory under IRC to lift the King Edward VII Cup. Now racing as Pace, she will be a strong contender for line honours if conditions allow the powerful 70 footer to stretch her legs across the Channel.
James Neville's Ino Veritas will be racing, fresh from winning the Range Rover Sardinia Cup alongside Per Roman's Garm. This will be the first RORC race for the past RORC Commodore's new charge, the Botin 52 is destined for the Admiral's Cup next year.
The double handed contest has the added attraction of being the first race of the 2026 Double Handed National Championship. The IRC Two Handed fleet includes 16 entries. Abracadabra², Bellino, Diablo, Fidelio, Il Corvo, Karma, Kestrel, Malice, Méfie Te, Propaganda 3, Rockit, Ronin, Tigris, Warrior, With Alacrity and Zanzibar. With little time for rest on a 150 mile course, the shorthanded teams will need to balance speed, navigation, sail handling and sleep management from the start line to the final approach to St Malo. The second and deciding race for the 2026 IRC Double Handed National Championship will be the RORC Cherbourg Race on 04 September.
In IRC One, the fleet includes Manuel Da Rocha's Endless Summer, Nick and Jacquetta Edmonds' J/45 Stickleback, François Charles' J/133 Sun Hill IV, Maarten Jan Reijnders' Agile 42 Karma, and Julien Bentz's Ker 40+ Whim.
IRC Two and IRC Three are packed with proven offshore designs, including JPK 1030s, JPK 1080s, Sun Fast 3300s, Sun Fast 3600s, J/109s and other well sailed production racers. Among the fully crewed boats to watch are RORC Vice Commodore Derek Shakespeare's J/122 Bulldog, Noël Racine's JPK 1030 Foggy Dew and Rob Cotterill's J/109 Mojo Risin.
The 2026 fleet also has a strong classic yacht entry. Pen Duick III brings one of the most evocative names in French offshore racing back to a race rich in Anglo French history. Designed for Eric Tabarly and launched in the 1960s, Pen Duick III carries deep offshore heritage and will be one of the most recognisable boats in the fleet. Two Standfast 37s designed by Dick Carter in 1967 will be racing, Yves Lambert's Persephone and Pierre Favennec's Esprit de Rueil. Andrew Tseng's Nicholson 55 Quailo 3 and Jonathan Rolls' classic Swan 38 Xara add further depth to the classic entry. Xara has a particularly strong record in the race. She was the overall winner in 2021, second overall in 2022, and winner of IRC Four in 2023.
The RORC Griffin Pathway will also be represented by RORC Griffin, the Club's Sun Fast 3600 sailed by Nikki Curwen. The programme continues to provide young sailors with a route into serious offshore racing, and the Cowes Dinard St Malo Race gives the team another demanding but achievable step in the 2026 RORC season.
Multihull interest adds another dimension to the race, with DMS Vinyl, Slinky Malinki and Shockwave listed among the current entries. Their pace across the Channel will make them exciting boats to follow on the tracker, particularly if the breeze opens up opportunities for fast reaching conditions.
For the larger yachts, the early battle will focus on clean air and speed out of the Solent before the fleet stretches into the Channel. For the smaller boats, the race can remain open deep into the course, especially if tide and wind changes compress the fleet near the Channel Islands or on the final approach to St Malo. The best IRC corrected time performance may come from any part of the fleet, which is one of the enduring attractions of the IRC rule.
Race crews, family and friends are welcome at the RORC Cowes Clubhouse before the start, on Thursday 02 July with the Cowes Dinard St Malo pre-race supper forming part of the Club's Cowes Offshore Series social programme. Booking is strongly recommended. sailracehq.com/buy-tickets
The RORC Cowes Dinard St Malo Race is one of the defining summer races of the RORC season. For many teams, the Cowes Dinard St Malo Race is not just a passage across the Channel, but a true classic with more than a century of history behind it.
Follow online for near real time results via SailRaceHQ and on RORC social media using #RORCRacing.
For more information about the Royal Ocean Racing Club: www.rorc.org