We received the following presser from Cowes after the kick-off of the Rolex Fastnet Race...It's an exciting, historic, competitive international race, but basically we really liked the pictures (courtesy of Rolex.com).
Following months of meticulous preparation for crews and organizers
alike, a record-breaking edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race is underway
and in some style. The largest fleet in the race’s 92-year history,
comprising 368 yachts from 29 countries, were treated to kind
conditions, blue skies and a consistent, building westerly breeze as
they were divided across seven start sequences in front of the Royal
Yacht Squadron’s clubhouse in Cowes.
The 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race
fleet is truly diverse, a quality clearly evident to all of those
watching on the shore in Cowes or the thousands following the live start
of the race on the internet. First away were the nine multihulls with
the MOD70 Concise 10 immediately asserting her status as
favourite to arrive first in Plymouth. Speaking before the race skipper
Ned Collier Wakefield was comfortable with this prediction, less so of
setting a new race record. “The forecast has got a little slower. It’s
not looking like record breaking conditions. We are expecting a 48-hour
race.” The current multihull line honours record stands at 32 hours, 48
minutes.
Following the departure of the
multihulls, the subsequent starts provided a showcase for a range of
boats from cutting-edge to historic, professionally-sailed to
family-crewed, the IMOCA 60s, Class 40s, through to the bulk of the
fleet embodied by yachts in the 30-50-ft range including a large number
sailing double-handed.
The final start was reserved
for the largest and fastest monohulls. In this class, the range of
designs and size of yachts is remarkable. At 115-ft Nikata, a
high-performance cruising yacht, has become the largest monohull to ever
compete in the race. Her nearest rival in size, Ludde Ingvall’s 100-ft CQS, was built with the more single-minded objective of racing fast. “CQS consists
of a lot of different and radical ideas at the same time,” explains
Ingvall. “It’s a very interesting boat and we are still learning a lot.”
Ingvall was the last skipper to claim line honours and overall victory
in the same year. That 1995 success is one he self-deprecatingly puts
down to ‘getting lucky with the weather’. George David’s Rambler 88 is
an offshore racing yacht par excellence and has the added experience of
finishing the last edition of the race. The final starting group also
comprised the seven competing Volvo 65s.
The general consensus among
weather forecasters points to a ‘big boat race’, with good breeze on the
upwind leg to the Fastnet rock before a cold front sets in heralding
lighter conditions which may thwart the ambitions of the chasing fleet
in their quest to claim the Fastnet Challenge Trophy and Rolex timepiece
awarded to the overall race winner on IRC handicap.
Shortly after the race start the fleet converged in the Solent to
offer one of sailing’s most iconic vistas. Safely negotiating the first
congested few nautical miles of the course is a challenge in itself. The
605-nm race is a constant and genuine test of seamanship, resources,
tactics and navigation. “The course is fantastic,” explains Pascal
Loison, race winner in 2013 on Night and Day. “There are several
headlands, and at each headland you have a new challenge. This is unique
to the Fastnet course. Other offshore races are more direct, less
complicated.”
The Rolex Fastnet Race,
organized by the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC), is considered the
world’s largest and most diverse offshore race. It is one of three
600-nm offshore races partnered by Rolex. The others are October’s
increasingly popular 608-nm Rolex Middle Sea Race and the legendary
628-nm Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race held annually at the end of the
year.
To follow the Rolex Fastnet Race please visit
www.rolexfastnetrace.com