Great J/Team Performance @ Rolex Fastnet Race!

J/133 Wins IRC 2, J/122E 2nd in Doublehanded, J/122E Wins IRC 2B, J/109 Wins IRC 3B!
(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- There is no question that well-sailed, all-around J/designs, even those over ten years old, can win major events like the RORC’s ROLEX Fastnet Race.  In a tour’de’force, the French J/133 PINTIA, the Dutch J/122E AJETO! and the Irish J/109 JEDI quite handily won their respective IRC divisions in this years incredibly challenging 605nm race.

The Royal Ocean Racing’s biennial flagship event this year attracted another record-sized fleet of 362 boats, six more than 2015. It continues to be the world’s largest offshore yacht race, and also the most popular – when registration opened, the IRC fleet’s maximum limit of 340 boats was reached in just 4 minutes and 24 seconds!

As ever, the course took the giant fleet west down the English Channel, either side of the prohibited ‘traffic separation scheme’ zone between Land’s End and the Scilly Isles, across the Celtic Sea to the Fastnet Rock, four miles off southwest Ireland, back south leaving Bishop Rock and the Scilly Isles to port and then, on past the Lizard, to the finish off Plymouth– in total 605nm..

Equally impressive as the size of the Rolex Fastnet Race fleet was its diversity, ranging from many of the world’s top offshore racing teams, either privately owned or sponsored, down to smaller amateur family and friends entries and to sailing schools featuring individuals for many of whom the Rolex Fastnet Race would rank as their “Mount Everest” (the world’s tallest mountain at 29,000+ feet) of their offshore racing careers.

The traditional Sunday staggered start on the Solent, taking place the day after Cowes Week, was spectacular.  The giant fleet setting off by class, starting with the multihulls at 1100 and finishing 1hr 40 minutes later with the biggest monohulls. They were accompanied west down the Solent by the substantial spectator fleet before squeezing through the bottleneck at Hurst Castle Narrows and out into the English Channel headed west to the first turning point at Land’s End.

This year’s race was a “classic” weather-wise.  The race started off with a prolonged beat all the way to the Fastnet Rock, followed by a run back to Bishop Rock and a reach to the finish. Conditions for the frontrunners were moderate, albeit somewhat awkward with a front lying across the southern UK, creating a small pause in the wind before filling in from the northwest.

The medium-small sized boats got their money’s worth with a hard beat into winds approaching 30 knots en route to the Fastnet Rock. These same conditions made for a blistering sleigh ride back from the Rock for the larger boats.  J/Boats excelled in the all-around conditions.

In IRC Two Class, Gilles Fournier and Corinne Migraine’s J/133 PINTIA won the first prize following their arrival at the finish line at 0533 hours. Incredibly, they placed 4th overall in IRC for 340+ boats!!  They were, by far, the highest finishing standard production boat in the entire race!

“We had some good results already in IRC Two this year,” said Fournier. “But, the Rolex Fastnet Race is the peak of the season. We have had an internal battle with our friends on Lisa, including Commodore of the RORC Michael Boyd, since the beginning of the season.”

Due to the tidal state at the time, PINTIA went to the west of the all-important traffic separation scheme off the Scilly Isles. Fournier said he enjoyed rounding the Fastnet Rock, even though it was at night.

“You are pleased when you round that because it is an amazing place. You wouldn’t want to spend your holidays there, but it is a legendary place and we are now part of the legend!”

RORC Commodore Michael Boyd acknowledged that PINTIA had stolen a march on them at Portland Bill.  “We failed to get to there in time. PINTIA went in and we probably should have followed her and they just managed to get through the gap. We went outside and lost quite a few miles, but we gained them back at Lyme Bay when an awful lot of boats went inside and we were surprised to see some of our competitors at anchor there. We were further offshore, in the wind. That kept us up with the IRC One boats.”

The boats in IRC 2 Class saw 25 knots on the nose, some of the strongest conditions crossing the Celtic Sea to the Fastnet Rock, requiring the crew to live on the rail. Boyd described the Fastnet Rock, off his native Ireland, as “extraordinary, absolutely magical.”

The IRC Two Handed prize was just missed by “the Flying Dutchmen” on the J/122e AJETO!- sailed by Dutch Two-Handed Champions, Robin Verhoef and John van der Starre. The Netherlands boat had been leading the IRC Two-Handed class until Night & Day finally overhauled them yesterday, leaving them second.  They also placed 4th overall in the entire IRC 2 division and were the winners of IRC 2B Division!

The Dutch duo, racing their new J/122E, which they have optimized for two-handed racing, had an up and down race.

"We sailed well, but we had some bad luck with a wind hole at the Lizard,” said Verhoef. “We were not close enough to the shore and not far enough from the shore to get away from there. There was a big wind hole and we had to anchor twice for about 30 minutes letting out 120m of line!”

This episode dropped them to 13th by the time they reached Land’s End, however they recovered this lost ground by going up the favorable east side of the Land’s End traffic separation scheme and then sailing into the favorable right hand shift in the Celtic Sea.

“The Irish Sea was like lake sailing– wind shift-tack, wind shift-tack,” said van der Starre. “Then at the TSS we were up with the leaders in the group again.” They rounded the Fastnet Rock shortly before dawn, under the full moon. After the prolonged upwind conditions, there was tangible relief as they turned downwind. “That was one big smile. Then at the Scillies we saw for the first time we were leading our class again.”

However, soon after they got stuck in another wind hole forcing them to back down, virtually perpendicular to the course, and then sail south in order to extricate themselves. It was this huge problem that allowed Night & Day to move ahead of them in the IRC Two Handed class! How frustrating for one of Europe’s top two-handed duos!  A win firmly in their grasp, not once, but twice, only to lose it again!  It seems they had a similar fate two Fastnet Races ago on their J/111, sitting stranded in no wind within 200 meters of the finish line, in no wind, anchored against the current flowing out of Plymouth Harbour, talking to the finish line officials- for 7+ hours!!  Yet, they did not go crazy, and still got second despite the fact they were winning by a country furlong on their approach to the final few meters at the Plymouth pier!

The J/122 JUNIQUE RAYMARINE SAILING TEAM sailed by yet another top Dutch crew- Chris Revelman & Pascal Bakker- took 8th in IRC Two-handed Division and 7th in IRC 2 Division overall and 4th in IRC 2B Division!  They were followed by Nick Martin’s ever-present J/105 DIABLO-J in 11th and Wim van Slooten’s J/109 FIRESTORM in 12th.

In the IRC 2A Class, the J/122 LORELEI from France, skippered by Marie & Alain Chatherineau, took 4th place.  Meanwhile, just 45 minutes corrected behind them in 5th place was their J/122 sistership- Andy Theobald’s R&W. Yet another J/122E took 9th place- Chris Daniel’s JUNO.

Then, in IRC 3B class J/crews were 9 of the top 12 teams! First was the Irish J/109 JEDI skippered by Kenneth Rumball.  Third was yet another J/109, Peter Dunlop & Vicky Cox’s MOJITO, and 5th place was Nick Martin’s J/105 DIABLO-J!   YB Tracking video  For more Rolex Fastnet Race sailing informationAdd to Flipboard Magazine.


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