French veteran wins unique Rolex Fastnet Race
Published on September 16, 2015 by admin · No Comments
Daniel Foster
A record-sized fleet of 356 boats set off on 16 August to compete in this year’s Rolex Fastnet Race – the 46th instalment of the event. The biennial race, and its organisers, the Royal Ocean Racing Club, are both celebrating their 90th birthdays this year.
The Rolex Fastnet Race is deemed to be one of the toughest offshore yachting races as the winds in August tend to be strong to gale-force westerlies. But this doesn’t put people off, as the popularity of the Race is such that 300 boats signed up within just 24 minutes of the entry list opening in January this year.
The Race follows a mammoth 603 nautical mile course starting at the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes on the Isle of Wight. The yachts then follow the southern coastline of England westward down the English Channel, before rounding Land’s End. After crossing the Celtic Sea, the Race loops the Fastnet Rock off the southwest coast of Ireland before returning, via the Isles of Scilly, to cross the finishing line at Plymouth.
Route
The first Fastnet was raced 90 years ago in 1925 with only seven boats competing. Of the seven starters, two boats retired and one made such slow progress that there was no one awake to record her time when she crossed the finish line. Jolie Brise (now one of the most famous pilot cutters in the world) won that inaugural race in 6 days, 14hrs and 45mins. Jolie Brise was built in 1913 and has won the Fastnet three times, the only boat to have done so in its 90 year history.
The stiff westerlies that tend to accompany the race are certainly nothing to scoff at. In 2007, the weather was so bad that no less than 207 out of the 271 boats competing retired – that’s over 76% of the field. This year, by contrast, the weather forecast was for light winds, and a high pressure over the Celtic Sea saw the wind drop altogether for most of the first two days leaving a lot of the fleet becalmed between the Lizard and the Scilly Isles.
Daniel Foster
The overall winner of the 2015 Rolex Fastnet Race was veteran Géry Trentesaux sailing in 35ft Courrier Du Leon with his exceptional six-person crew. The win was made all the more remarkable as at the beginning of the race she crossed the starting line too early and had to make her way back on a fast ebbing tide, losing 40 minutes before she’d even set off.
This is Trentesaux’s 13th time racing in the Fastnet, following his first attempt in 1977. He said of his victory, “When I was young, the Fastnet was the biggest, most unique race in the world so racing it at 18 was fabulous. Things have changed a lot over 40 years but this will be a very great memory, one of the very best of my sailing career. It is incredible to win this mythic race.”
Trentesaux’s compatriots also did well this year with France claiming seven of the top ten spots under IRC this year.
Multihull line honours was claimed by the favourite – 131ft Swiss trimaran Spindrift 2. The monohull race was a photo finish with the 100ft Maxi Comanche from the United States pipping fellow American yacht Rambler at the post by a mere four minutes.
Kurt Arrigo
Comanche’s skipper, Ken Read, said, “It was honestly one of the most bizarre races I’ve ever been in in my life – starts and stops and people being left behind for dead and then all of a sudden they are sailing around you. It was phenomenal.”
The 47th edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race will be held in August 2017, with the entry list opening in January. Don’t forget to make a note in your diaries if you want to enter as it’s sure to be a sell out.
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