Rolex Fastnet Race Preview

(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- The world's largest, most diverse fleet of offshore racing yachts will set sail from the Solent on Sunday, August 16th in the Royal Ocean Racing Club's biennial Rolex Fastnet Race. 2015 marks the 90th anniversary of the Royal Ocean Racing Club and with it a record-sized fleet with as many as 350 boats is expected to take part.

As ever, the 603nm course takes the fleet west along the south coast of England, across the Celtic Sea to the Fastnet Rock off the tip of southwest Ireland, south around Bishop Rock and the Scilly Isles and back east to the finish in Plymouth. Conditions on the race course can range from benign and summery to vicious and stormy and the event is well remembered for the horrific conditions in 1979 that claimed the lives of 15 competitors. Fortunately vast improvements in weather forecasting, safety and communications equipment as well as yacht design over the intervening years mean that a repeat of this disaster today is unlikely.

The Rolex Fastnet Race is also one of the most popular events in sailing: the original limit of 300 boats racing for the overall handicap prize under IRC was increased to 340 in 2013 due to the increased demand. This is more than twice as many places as the next most popular of other 600 mile races held elsewhere the world and still, when registration opened in January, all 340 places were filled within just 24 minutes! In addition to this group is the 'non-IRC' fleet, including many top grand prix race boat classes such as the IMOCA 60s, that compete in the Vendee Globe singlehanded non-stop round the world race, and the Class 40s.

As always, one of the attractive elements of the Rolex Fastnet Race is its diversity. At one end of the spectrum are the high profile professional sailing teams who congregate on the Solent from the four corners of the globe, many fielding the world's biggest, fastest, most state of the art racing yachts. At the other end are the Corinthian entries, where individual crew will be embarking on what for them will be their own personal Everest - the culmination of a season's training that will have included at least 300 miles of offshore racing (the mandatory requirement to qualify for Rolex Fastnet Race entry).

Eddie Warden Owen, Chief Executive of the Royal Ocean Racing Club explains the uniqueness of the Rolex Fastnet Race; "The Rolex Fastnet Race is a world classic and probably the largest, most famous of its type. This year the demand has been huge with places selling out in 24 minutes and a waiting list of over 80 boats. The challenge for many is completing what can be a very tough adventure.  And, for other experienced offshore racers is that they can compete with the top professionally raced yachts and have a realistic chance of winning. In 2013 the race was won by a very experienced father and son team sailing two handed which shows that anyone has a chance of winning the most prestigious race in the world calendar."

There is a veritable armada of J/Teams participating in this year’s race; 48 J’s in total of the 320 boat fleet- 15% overall and by far the largest brand represented in the race.

Six J/105s are sailing, some double-handed, others fully-crewed, include Nick Martin’s DIABLO-J (top J team in the RORC Offshore Season series in both IRC 3 Class and IRC Two-handed class), Tom Hayhoe & Natalie Jobling’s MOSTLY HARMLESS, the Dutch women’s double-handed team of Yvonne Beusker & Edith Voskamp on PANTHER, and Kees Mijs on ARETHUSA from the Netherlands.  The “sleeper” in the J/105s could easily be JESTER, sailed by Kelvin Rawlings and Stuart Childerley, the latter being one of the UK’s most capable one-design and offshore champions in the past few decades.

At twenty-two boats, the J/109s may be the largest one-design offshore keelboat class ever assembled for the Rolex Fastnet Race.  Anything can happen in the tight and competitive fleet as has been demonstrated in past RORC Offshore series as well as Fastnet Races.  Amongst those leaders could be Paul Griffiths’ JAGERBOMB, Alain Bornet’s JAI LAI, Richard Palmer’s JANGADA TOO, Kevin Armstrong’s JAZZY JELLYFISH, Phil Nelson’s JOLENE II, Chris Palmer’s J-T’AIME (the current #2 J team in the RORC Offshore season points standings in IRC 3 class), David McGough’s JUST SO, Peter Dunlop & Vicky Cox’s MOJITO and the two British military teams- the Royal Air Force’s RED ARROW and the Marine’s Royal Armoured Corps’ WHITE KNIGHT 7.

While only four J/111s are racing, the astonishing fact is that each boat has either won major one-design J/111 events or simply killed it an a major offshore event over the past two years.  Alex Nicaise’s ALPHALINK/ XTREME YACHTING has done well in regional offshore events in France; Peter Gustafsson’s BLUR has won just about everything offshore and double-handed in Scandinavia; the British Army’s BRITISH SOLDIER took 2nd in the extremely tough (often brutal) conditions (gales, etc) in last year’s RORC Round Britain & Ireland Race (truly the world’s longest “round island race”); and perhaps the most decorated J/111 of all- John van der Starre & Robin Verhoef’s XCENTRIC RIPPER (the Netherlands Offshore Double-handed Champions in 2015 and 2x Fastnet Race veterans).

A classic boat boat in the quiver of offshore J’s is the J/120.  Four of them are sailing this year’s Fastnet; the two British teams are Andy Hunt’s ASSARAIN III and Elin Haf Davies’ NUNATAK (currently holding 2nd place in the RORC IRC 2 class in the Offshore Season series); the French team is Jean Jacques Godet’s RHAPSODIE V (the top finishing J team in the 2013 Fastnet edition and winner of their class); and the Dutch team is Chris Schram’s MAVERICK.

An assault on the overall honors could easily be led by the top J/122s that are assembling for the start on Sunday.  Again, like their J/111 counterparts, many have won or placed in multiple offshore double and fully-crewed events in the past two years and all have Fastnet Race experience.  Amongst the J/122s racing, look for these teams to factor into the top IRC overall results; David Richards’ JOLLY JELLYFISH, Chris Revelman & Pascal Bakker’s JUNIQUE RAYMARINE SAILING TEAM (a double-handed entry) from the Netherlands, Alain Catherineau’s LORELEI from France, Clive Mile’s new J/122E JANGLE, and Scott Miller’s RESOLUTE (top American double-handed Bermuda 1-2 champion).

While the other boats may have them in numbers, the three J/133s are no shrinking violets.  Watch out for Angus Bates’ ASSARAIN IV, Dave Ballantyne’s JINGS or Gilles Fournier’s PINTIA from France to be right at the front of the fleet given a fair mix of weather conditions.

Finally, two classic J/35s are in the mix, Mike Wunderlich’s CHOSI 6 from Germany and RAGAZZA from Belgium (with the trio of Gabriel/ DeBie/ Machair).  They will be sharing class honors, one hopes, with Helen Hofmann’s J/97 JASLAN.  For more Rolex Fastnet Race sailing information


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