#fastnet – A record-sized fleet, at present standing at 372 boats (up from 335 in 2013), is entered in this 90th anniversary Fastnet Race. On Sunday this will be split between seven starts, setting off west down the Solent from the Royal Yacht Squadron line in Cowes. First away at 1200 BST will be the 'non-IRC' classes - the Multihulls, led by the world's fastest offshore racing yacht, Dona Bertarelli and Yann Guichard's 40m trimaran, Spindrift 2. They will be followed 10 minutes later by the Vendée Globe heroes in the IMOCA Ocean Masters class, plus the Class40s and Figaros. After these comes the huge IRC fleet, culminating in the largest monohulls, such as Jim Clark and Kristy Hinze Clark's 100ft Comanche and George David's Rambler 88, among the last starters at 1340 BST.
Already boats and sailors are gathering from the four corners of the globe ready for the RORC's biennial 'classic' 600 mile offshore race. Among the yachts, three - Comanche, Maximilian Klink's Botin Partners 65, Caro, and Richard and Cathy Dobbs' Swan 68, Titiana - have made the trip from Australia where at the end of December they competed in the Fastnet's antipodean equivalent, the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
Similarly many of the world's top sailors have been descending on the Solent from across the globe including skipper of Rambler 88, four time America's Cup winner Brad Butterworth and his AC main sheet trimmer Warwick Fleury, who is racing on Comanche. Also taking part are a proliferation of Volvo Ocean Race legends such as Kiwi multiple winners Brad Jackson and Tony Mutter, who are sailing on Rambler and Comanche respectively.