An exceptional example of an extraordinary boat paired up with a hugely talented crew has been the combination of Apivia with doublehanders Charlie Dalin and Paul Meilhat competing in this 49th Rolex Fastnet Race. They arrived in Cherbourg early this morning scoring a resounding win in the 13-strong IMOCA fleet. This came as some small vindication after Dalin suffered victory slipping through his fingers in this year’s Vendée Globe after he was first home only to lose the top prize when Yannick Bestaven and Maître CoQ were awarded a time compensation.

Dalin, an anglophile having studied at Southampton University, enjoyed the Rolex Fastnet Race start, seeing old friends as his IMOCA milled around the Solent before the start. Once the gun had gone on Sunday, the foil-born Apivia leapt into action, and compared to her other 60ft IMOCA rivals looked like an 80 footer. Part of this was down to development work since the solo round the world race: “We have new foils and some new sails. You have to keep these boats evolving to stay at the top of your game,” Dalin explained. Passing the Needles, sailing upwind so fast they were flying, Apivia had already pulled out a two mile lead in the IMOCA class.

While the Ultimes led the charge south across the Channel, Apivia led the IMOCAs but went even further towards France before tacking. This was because, uniquely, they managed to link up a series of benefits - positive tide at the Alderney Race, then a wind shift and then more positive tide off Brehat. “There was a very small window to get the combination exactly right. Our timing was perfect,” said Dalin. Their tack north was timed so that not only did they lay the west side of the TSS at Land’s End, but could stay on course to lay the Fastnet Rock.

Apivia - first IMOCA to finish the Rolex Fastnet Race Photo: Paul Wyeth

Apivia after rounding the Fastnet Rock © Kurt Arrigo/Rolex

Amazingly, at the TSS Apivia converged with the ClubSwan 125 Skorpios, a boat more than twice her length. The two boats then match raced across the Celtic Sea to the Fastnet Rock, Apivia doing an impressive job to keep up. “That was good,” said Dalin. “It was a shame because if the wind had been maybe 15° left and 2-3 knots more we would have overtaken them for sure. At 60° TWA we were faster.” Such are the performance gains of the new generation foilers.

However, this was not to last. After rounding the Fastnet Rock 49 minutes astern of Skorpios and cracking sheets, the big boat sped away. The remainder of the race for Apivia was a complex case of playing tides and staying in the best breeze. This involved initially hugging the Cornish coast before ducking south of the Casquets TSS.

The trickiness of the situation in the Channel, from Bishop Rock on, was best demonstrated by the boats astern. When second placed IMOCA Jérémie Beyou and Christopher Pratt on Charal passed Bishop Rock at 1340 BST yesterday they held a 125 mile advantage over 10th placed HUGO BOSS. By 0500 this morning huge compression in the fleet had occurred and HUGO BOSS had closed to 28 miles of them. As a result, a busy morning is expected in Cherbourg with the bulk of the IMOCAs, the multihull leader under the MOCRA rule, Adrian Keller’s Irens 84 performance cruising catamaran Allegra, and some of the IRC Zero frontrunners all due.

Racing in IRC Zero -Richard Matthews’ new speedster Oystercatcher XXXV © Rick Tomlinson

Consolidating their position as leader both on the water and under corrected time in IRC One, RORC Commodore James Neville and his HH42 INO XXX © Paul Wyeth/pwpictures.com

Generally this morning, the Celtic Sea resembles the M25 with the bulk of the IRC fleet either approaching or exiting the Fastnet Rock.

Overnight suffering in the same compression in the Channel, the compatriots, the VO70 I Love Poland and VO65 Sailing Poland, lost their grip on IRC Zero. In their place this morning is David Collins’ Botin 52 Tala ahead of Jens Kellinghusen's Ker 56 Varuna and Richard Matthews’ new speedster, the CF520 Oystercatcher XXXV also featuring. This morning the bulk of IRC Zero is past Bishop Rock and back into the Channel where the leaders are mid-Channel passing Start Point, and currently laying the Cherbourg finish where they are due later this afternoon.

In IRC One, RORC Commodore James Neville and his HH42 INO XXX have consolidated their position as leader both on the water and under corrected time. But surprisingly moving into second place overnight has been the classic 73ft van de Stadt design Stormvogel. Her Italian owner has entered his classic ketch this year to mark the 60th anniversary of Stormvogel’s Fastnet Race line honours title. Currently the only IRC One boat to round Bishop Rock, INO XXX is now south of the Land's End TSS making 14 knots as Stormvogel is approaching the TSS due west of the Scilly Isles making 10.

As with INO XXX, so in IRC Two Tom Kneen’s JPK 11.80 Sunrise, sailed by a RORC youth crew, is building up a solid advantage on corrected time over Dutchwoman Astrid de Vin’s sistership Il Corvo. However, the other 11.80s, Eric Fries’ Fastwave 6 and Richard Fromentin’s Leclerc Hennebont / Cocody and Ross Applebey’s Lightwave 48 Scarlet Oyster are still nipping at their heels. Sunrise still had 70 miles to go to reach Bishop Rock, but most impressive was that only six boats in IRC One remain ahead of her.

Raging-bee² is battling with three others for the lead in IRC Three after rounding the Fastnet Rock Photo: Rick Tomlinson

The first quarter of IRC Three is now around the Fastnet Rock. The four-way fight on the water continues between the Sun Fast 3600 Fujitsu British Soldier, Louis-Marie Dussere’s JPK 1080 Raging-bee², Philippe Girardin’s J/120 Hey Jude and class favourites and defending champions, Alexis Loison and Guillaume Pirouelle’s JPK 1030 Léon. Raging-bee² led around the Fastnet Rock shortly after 0100 this morning.

Under corrected time, Léon holds a small lead but Raging-bee² is gunning hard as are the high profile British two-handed duo Volvo Ocean Race sailor Henry Bomby and double Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson on the Sun Fast 3300 Swell, who are now also threatening Léon for the first time in the IRC Two-Handed class.

Runaway leader on the water in IRC Four is David le Goff's JPK 10.10 Raphael, flying the flag for France in place of regular winner Noel Racine. Significantly Raphael is also leading under IRC Four corrected time, having rounded the Fastnet Rock at 0400 this morning. The Pinteaux family’s JPK 10.10 Gioia is in the mix as is Vincent and Jacques Rigalleau’s Sun Fast 3200 Enedis and Harry J. Heijst’s S&S 41 Winsome as they head out for their return journey back across the Celtic Sea.

The door is set to close on the next Fastnet Rock roundings as a NNE-SSW orientated front moves across the fleet causing the wind to back into the northwest and lighten behind the front, creating slow spinnaker conditions for those returning from the Rock. It does however mean a faster leg for those already in the Channel who are boosted by 25 knots of reaching conditions.

Day 4 0900:  As Afloat reported last night, Dmitry Rybolovlev's ClubSwan 125 Skorpios took line honours in the Rolex Fastnet Race yesterday (Tuesday) evening, after crossing the finish line in Cherbourg at 2015 BST.

Their total elapsed time for completing the new 695 nautical mile course from Cowes to Cherbourg was 2 days, 8 hours, 35 minutes, and 5 seconds.

The new Skorpios came through a brutal first 12 hours of the race in good shape, a significant credit to her builder Killian Bushe of Cork, who was at the heart of creating this 140ft behemoth in a 44-month work programme.

As the breeze softened, Skorpios extended away from her chief rivals for line honours, including previous winner George David's Rambler 88 and the strong IMOCA 60 fleet, whose boats admittedly are less than half Skorpios' overall length.

With a slackening southwest to west wind in the final approaches to the finish, long-standing places were changed as the very fully crewed Rambler 88 managed to get past the Imoca 60 Apivia (Charlie Dalin & Paul Meilhat) for the second-in-monohull line honours slot, with Rambler crossing at 03:25 this morning (Wednesday) while Apivia was across at 04:16.

Dmitry Rybolovlev’s ClubSwan 125 Skorpios, skippered by Fernando Echavarri Photo: Paul Wyeth

All three leading monohulls have already left Cherbourg for their base ports as the most straightforward way to comply with COVID-19 regulations. This means that as the bulk of the racers reach the finish towards the end of the week, the fleet gathered will not be fully representative of those who took on the Fastnet challenge, but in the circumstances, it has been a remarkable achievement that 335 compliant boats were able to start from the Solent on Sunday.

Today the main focus of interest will be on how the light south-westerly winds in the English Channel towards Cherbourg and the finish are affecting the rankings, with the fleet in the Fastnet Rock area – after sailing for a day in a firm sou'wester – now having to contend with a frontal system which is swinging the wind into the northwest for a while before tomorrow (Thursday) sees it backing again to stronger winds from the southwest.

The HH42 InoXXX (James Grevillle) is now IRC Overall Leader in the Fastnet Race after a major re-shuffling of the leaderboard during the night. Photo RORC/Paul Wyeth

Meanwhile, this morning's new circumstances have panned out very neatly for British skipper James Greville's HH42 Ino XXX, which has punched above her weight throughout the race without featuring unduly on any podiums to which she might have entitled. Yet now, due south of Land's End, she's making eastward at a brisk 13.7 knots and has leapt into both the IRC1 and the IRC Overall leads.

Second in IRC 1 and close south of the Isles of Scilly is the Swedish Elliott 44 Matador, 22 miles astern of Ino XXX, while Andrew Hall of Pwllheli SC with the Lombard 46 Pata Negra – IRC1 leader at the Fastnet – is now fifth in IRC1.

Nieulargo (RCYC) racing off Cork Harbour. She rounded the Fastnet Rock in the small hours of this morning at almost exactly the time predicted while she was still way back south of Land's End. Photo: Robert Bateman

Irish interest in the small dark hours of this morning was focusing on Cork's own Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo getting round the Fastnet, and she did so at 03:27, comfortably within the time estimate area given by Nin O'Leary off Land's End yesterday (Tuesday).

They got to the Rock three hours ahead of the veering which will consolidate their position on boats astern, but offwind sailing is not Nieulargo's greatest strength against more modern and much lighter boats. She was doing best – and very well at that – when it was rugged work direct to windward, but nevertheless, she still holds eighth position in class, where the leader persists in being Alexis Loison in Leon.

In IRC 4, Irish Offshore Sailing of Dun Laoghaire's Sunfast 37 Desert Star is in the final miles to rounding the Fastnet, and it was 0645 as the weather front began to go through in her area to bring headwinds for a mercifully brief period. She has been going well, and has moved up two places to 11th in Class.

There may not be many Figaro 3 boats racing, but Kenneth Rumball of Dun Laoghaire and Pamela Lee of Greystones have a lead of better than an hour over the next one, and are more than a third of the way down the long leg to the Isles of Scilly after rounding the Fastnet at 01:00.

Kenneth Rumball and Pamela Lee on the Figaro 3 RL Sailing rounded the Fastnet at one o'clock this (Wednesday) morning

The light airs in the midst of the English Channel have churned the placings big time. Yesterday evening we left the fleet with the two Polish former Volvo 70s, I Love Poland and Sailing Poland, lying first and second on IRC overall, a remarkable national showing. But now they're back in 6th and 12th, with 25 and 35 miles respectively still to sail to the finish. And there's an even longer way to go before the final placings can get posted in this most complex of races.

Live tracker below

Irish boatbuilder Killian Bushe from Cork Harbour has been thanked by the Nautor Swan CEO for his role in the debut success of the massive ClubSwan 125 Skorpios that took monohull line honours in the
49th edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race last night.

The ClubSwan 125, Nautor’s Swan flagship of the ClubSwan line, the high-performance range of the Finnish yard, débuted remarkable success at the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s premier event, the Fastnet Race.

Bushe built the boat in a 44-month quality project as Afloat's WM Nixon references here.

Launched last July at the BTC Yard in Pietarsaari, she has achieved the result hoped when she hit the water.

Designed by Juan K, with the interior design by Adriana Monk, for the construction of the yacht the yard employed the most brilliant minds in the sailing industry for a high technology monohull, built and conceived to be faster than the wind.

The most advanced technology has been put at sailing service for this “beast” which is testing her at one of the most awaited events of the year, the Rolex Fastnet Fastnet.

Lining up against 337 yachts, on August 8th 2021, Skorpios crossed the start line at the Royal Yacht Squadron to begin her voyage to the Fastnet Rock, an amazing show which revealed her beauty and magnificence.

After sailing through the English Channel and across the Celtic Sea, on Monday Skorpios became the first monohull to round southwest Ireland’s most famous rock. Skorpios rounded just astern of the final Ultime trimaran, the Jacek Siwek-skippered elongated ORMA 60, Ultim’emotion 2, but of more concern was a boat less than half her length nipping at her heels.

Irish boatbuilder Killian Bushe from Cork Harbour

After rounding the rock, the breeze dropped off and Skorpios extended the lead on her rival for the line honours victory, George David’s Rambler 88, previous line honours winner, along with the rest of the IMOCA fleet.

Speaking with the Royal Ocean Racing Club following their win in Cherbourg, Skipper Fernando Echavarri was relieved to have come through the Rolex Fastnet Race with the boat intact. “The boat is very strong, we backed off on speed coming out of the Solent, but so was everyone else. We had an idea of what the boat might be able to do, but we didn’t know for sure, so we learned a lot on this race.”

After rounding the rock, the breeze dropped off and Skorpios extended the lead on her rival for the line honours victory

Giovanni Pomati, CEO of Nautor, shared his thoughts following the result of Skorpios: “In this special moment in the history of Nautor I can’t avoid sending my thoughts and a great thanks to the international team that contributed to the building of this racing boat! I’d love to thank once again all the team behind: Enrico Chieffi, Juan K, Adriana Monk, Bob Wylie, Killian Bushe, Richard Ghillies, Roger Sandberg, the team at Nautor yard in Finland, the team at Nautor Swan Global Service that is now taking over the assistance to the boat, the Skorpios crew and shore team led by Fernando Echevannri and Pepe Ribes that’s contributing to the boat set up in great teamwork with Nautor. A huge congratulations and thanks to all of you for changing the pages of the sailing history.”

Dmitry Rybolovlev’s ClubSwan 125 Skorpios took line honours in the Rolex Fastnet Race this evening, after crossing the finish line in Cherbourg at 2015 BST. Their total elapsed time for completing the 695 nautical mile course from Cowes to Cherbourg was 2 days, 8 hours, 35 minutes and 5 seconds.

Competing in her first offshore race, the recently launched Skorpios came through a brutal first 12 hours of the race in good shape. As the breeze softened, Skorpios extended away from her chief rivals for line honours including previous winner George David’s Rambler 88 and the strong IMOCA fleet.

Having only started sailing in the last few years, this was owner Dmitry Rybolovlev’s first offshore race which he experienced with his daughter Anna Rybolovleva, also her first-time offshore racing. “We’re very pleased with the boat, the team was great. We want to thank the whole team for such great efforts. We were trying to stay conservative, especially in the high wind at the start, but we’re excited to see what the boat can do in future races. Rounding the Fastnet Rock was kind of magical, it felt like a really special moment.”

Skipper Fernando Echavarri was relieved to have come through the Rolex Fastnet Race with the boat intact. “The boat is very strong, we backed off on speed coming out of the Solent, but so was everyone else,” said the Spanish professional. “We had an idea of what the boat might be able to do, but we didn’t know for sure, so we learned a lot on this race.

Dmitry Rybolovlev’s ClubSwan 125 Skorpios, skippered by Fernando Echavarri Photo: Paul Wyeth

“The owner is super happy, he’s a good sailor but new to offshore sailing and he enjoyed the experience a lot. I think there is a very good chance we will be back for the Rolex Fastnet Race.”

Ironic after Sunday’s brutal start, less than 48 hours in and across the Rolex Fastnet Race fleet competitors have been struggling in light winds, especially around the Traffic Separation Scheme between Land’s End and the Scilly Isles and, for those right at the front of the fleet, off Cherbourg.

Since last night’s arrival of Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, to a tumultuous reception from the assembled crowds in Cherbourg’s Port Chantereyne, this morning two more Ultimes maxi-trimarans have finished with Yves le Blevec’s Actual arriving in an elapsed time of 1d 18h 41m 22s, followed by Thomas Coville’s Sodebo Ultim 3 in 1d 20h 16m 36s.

“We messed up the finish, but not only the finish,” Coville admitted. “We had quite a safe start and actually it was quite tough to have so many tacks on such a big trimaran. The boat is going very well - we were happy with her. We have improved a lot, especially upwind in tough conditions. After the Casquets we were seven miles behind Maxi Edmond de Rothschild but we made a lot of navigation and tactics mistakes during the race. It was quite difficult to be honest with a lot of changes and a lot of different conditions, but very exciting.”

Coville added that on three occasions during the race their maxi-trimaran with its towering rig had run out of wind. “For me, the world’s two most fantastic races are the Rolex Sydney Hobart and the Rolex Fastnet Race. These races are just amazing. We should participate every two years in each of them!”

The next boats due into Cherbourg later today are the final Ultime, Ultim emotion 2, due south of Land's End at 0830 BST this morning with 150 miles to go to Cherbourg. She was just ahead of the leading monohull, the mighty ClubSwan 125 Skorpios. Overnight Skorpios has finally managed to shake off the lead IMOCA, Apivia, sailed doublehanded by Charlie Dalin and Paul Meilhat which early this morning was due south of the Scilly Isles.

Yves le Blevec and the team on Ultime Actual celebrate after arriving at the finish line in an elapsed time of 1d 18h 41m 22s © Team Actual

At present nine IMOCAs have rounded the Fastnet Rock with Sam Davies on Initiatives Coeur lying fifth behind 11th Hour Racing and ahead of her partner Romain Attanasio on Fortinet - Best Western. Initiatives Coeur rounded the Fastnet Rock at 0500 BST this morning, but only after a struggle. “It was pretty tricky to get around because at night there is more coastal effect that knocks the wind away, so it was tricky tacking up to get around the Rock.

“The conditions at night were amazing. It was so nice to be in flat water. There was an amazing sunset. It did rain on us as is tradition before you go around the Fastnet Rock.”

Halfway to Bishop Rock this morning, Initiatives Coeur was in 10-14 knots of unstable wind under their Code 0 headsail. However, Davies warned that the boats behind were set to come in with new breeze: “I think the whole fleet will compress because behind us they have more wind and more header and ahead of us they are still spinnakering and gybing downwind.” The good news is that means a more straightforward run, in pressure, from the Scilly Isles to the finish off Cherbourg, where Initiatives Coeur’s ETA is 1000-1100 BST tomorrow.

Formation flying on a painful-looking starboard tack in the mid-Celtic Sea, were the leading Class 40s. Out in front, by a nose, remains defending champion Luke Berry on Lamotte - Module Création, followed by Pierre Casenave-Péré on Legallais and Italian Andrea Fornaro on Tales2 to their south. All the frontrunners were making 6.5-7.5 knots.

Currently, IRC Zero boats are dominating the overall IRC leaderboard, the winner of which will ultimately claim the coveted Fastnet Challenge Cup this year. While the ClubSwan 125 Skorpios is plainly the run-away leader on the water, it remains the Polish VO70 I Love Poland and the VO65 Sailing Poland which are prevailing under IRC corrected time. I Love Poland rounded the Fastnet Rock at around 02:30 BST this morning followed by Sailing Poland just under two hours later. Both are now making 10-12 knots directly towards Bishop Rock. Top British boat in IRC Zero, David Collins’ Botin 52 Tala this morning was approaching the Fastnet TSS, holding fifth place in class.

The two frontrunners have broken away in IRC One with less than 50 miles to go to the Fastnet Rock this morning, both making 6.5-7.5 knots. Overnight Swede Jonas Grander’s Elliot 44CR Matador has nosed ahead, but RORC Commodore James Neville’s HH42 Ino XXX holds a better position tactically to weather and will have less costly manoeuvres to make sailing along the top of the TSS approaching the Rock later today. Both are also doing well under IRC corrected time as is Rob Bottomley's Mat 12 Sailplane, Andrew Hall's Lombard 46 Pata Negra, while alongside her the venerable Stormvogel, celebrating 50 years of her line honours victory, has also had a good night.

Tala at the Fastnet Rock

The IRC Two leaders on the water are now into the top third of the IRC One fleet. The lead duo, both JPK 10.80s Tom Kneen’s Sunrise and the Dutchwoman Astrid de Vin’s Il Corvo, headed up the east side of the Land’s End TSS yesterday, as the rest of the pack went west of it. They have since tacked to cover with the result that Sunrise has made a net gain of 18 miles on sistership Richard Fromentin’s Leclerc Hennebont / Cocody. Under IRC this trio is also looking good under corrected time, with Ronald Prins’ J/122e Sailmon JR on the ascent overnight.

IRC Three leaders are approaching a quarter of the way across the Celtic Sea to the Fastnet Rock. See live tracker below

Half way up the IRC Two fleet on the water, the IRC Three leaders are approaching a quarter of the way across the Celtic Sea to the Fastnet Rock. Here it is much tighter at the front with four boats fighting it out on the water. Sun Fast 3600 Fujitsu British Soldier is a nose ahead of Louis-Marie Dussere’s JPK 1080’ Raging-bee² and Philippe Girardin’s J/120 Hey Jude and Alexis Loison and Guillaume Pirouelle’s defending champions, JPK 1030 Léon. Loison/Pirouelle continue to hold a slender lead in the class, but hold a much stronger lead in the IRC Two Handed class, where Figaro sailor Loison proudly holds the record for the most number of victories.

Just 12 miles astern of the IRC Three leader, also heading out into a relatively clement Celtic Sea, are the IRC Four frontrunners. They are slightly more spread out with David le Goff's JPK 10.10 Raphael leading on the water from Harry J. Heijst’s S&S 41 Winsome, which is having a spectacular race. Both are looking strong under IRC corrected time as are Tim Goodhew and Kelvin Matthews on their Sun Fast 3200 Cora and Francois Charles’ Dehler 33 Cruising Sun Hill 3.

Day 3 0900: The Rolex Fastnet Race 2021 has been continuing its theme of conditions seeming to favour the largest or the fastest boats. This may not mean that every biggie is doing well – far from it – but as of 8:30 this (Tuesday) morning, on-water mono-hull leader, the ClubSwan 125 Skorpios, was eastward bound and already due south of Land's End, having rounded the Fastnet at almost exactly 18:00 hrs yesterday (Monday) evening, and now with just 155 miles to sail to the new finish at Cherbourg. Her closest challenger in straight mono-hull finishing terms, Charlie Dalin's brilliantly-sailed Imoca 60 Apivia – less than half Skorpios's overall length – was due south of the Isle of Scilly.

Around them are many much smaller boats, still gallantly plugging to windward with a long way to go out to the Fastnet, though a slow backing of the west wind may favour the mid-fleet craft later today.

The ClubSwan 125 Skorpios with the Fastnet Rock in her wake Photo: Carlo Borlneghi/Rolex

France's Charlie Dalin is having a brilliant year with his Imoca 60 Apivia. On January 27th he was first to finish in the Vendee Globe, and in the current Rolex Fastnet Race, his out-of-the-box tactic of plotting his early windward work to go south of the Channel Islands proved to be a win move and (below) at the Fastnet Rock Photo: Thomas Newman

At the Rock itself, however, winds are light, and as Apivia sweeps effortlessly past the Isles of Scilly, way back at The Rock her fellow Imoca 60 Hugo Boss is still struggling to get round, showing a frustrating speed of only 3.2 knots.

In the overall picture, some boats of special Irish interest continue to show well. ISORA skipper Andrew Hall of Pwllheli with the recently-bought Lombard 45 Pata Negra is maintaining the battle for the IRC 1 lead, and though at time of writing she is shown at fourth in class, she is well on her way our to the Rock, and has had her share and more of being in first place.

The interesting Lombard 45 Pata Negra – on several chartered occasions, she was a boat of success for Irish crews – is now owned by ISORA skipper Andrew Hall of Pwllheli SC, and is in contention for the IRC1 win

IRC 3 continues to see France's multi-talented Alexis Loison in the lead with the JPK 10.30 Leon, and at times he heads IRC2H as well. But Cork's Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo (Denis Murphy & Annamarie Fegan) continues in the top six and occasionally in the top three, and makes steady progress.

Meanwhile, Dun Laoghaire's Kenneth Rumball with Greystones' Pamela Lee in the Figaro 3 RL Sailing are pacing impressively with the Lison crew on Leone, and maintain their lead in the three-way duel of the Figaro 3 2H division.

The Sunfast 37 Desert Star (Irish Offshore Sailing, Dun Laoghaire) continues to do well in IRC 4 Photo: Afloat

In IRC 4, Dun Laoghaire's indefatigable Sunfast 37 Desert Star (Irish Offshore Sailing) took the slightly risky option of sailing east of the TSS directly off Land's End. But unlike others, they avoided light airs off that most westerly headland, and this morning they're indicated as staying solidly in 4th in IRC 4.

The veteran Polish Volvo 70 I Love Poland (Grzegorz Baranowski) continues to hold the IRC lead in both Class Zero and Overall, she's halfway to the Isles of Scilly from The Rock, and already – after Wizard's notable win in 2019 – the speculation is developing that the old classic Volvo 70s have found a new lease of life as steadily successful Rolex Fastnet Race contenders.

The Volvo 70 I Love Poland currently leads IRC overall. For several years she has been based at Cascais in Portugal in order to maximize training opportunities for Poland's growing offshore racing enthusiasm. Photo: James Tominson

The extraordinary 32m long Ultime Maxi Edmond de Rothschild showed a clean pair of heels to the rest of the fleet in the 49th Rolex Fastnet Race arriving this evening (Monday 9 August) at 20:24:54 BST, setting a new record for the race’s new longer 695-mile course to Cherbourg of 1 day 9 hours 15 minutes and 54 seconds.

As the huge blue and white trimaran arrived in Cherbourg’s Port Chantereyne, the marina was packed with cheering fans of the team and of its famous crew of six led by co-skippers Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier. Also on board were David Boileau, Erwan Israel, Morgan Lagraviere and Yann Riou.

“The boat is amazing – we have improved since last year, so we are very happy,” said Caudrelier. “The team has done a fantastic job over the last year to develop the boat and we can’t stop that because new boats are coming. We are very happy about this race and the result of it, and the way it has happened.”

After an exciting start Maxi Edmond de Rothschild exited the Solent and then led the Rolex Fastnet Race fleet south towards the Channel Islands. Here, significantly, they tacked further south than their main Ultime rivals.
“For us it was important to get south to get the shift,” continues Caudrelier. “It was obvious and we wanted to stay on the left of the fleet. Then we were worried about getting too close to the south of England approaching the Sevenstones [lightship], so we were very happy with what we did. We didn’t make too many mistakes.”

Maxi Edmond de Rothschild co-skippers Franck Cammas (left) and Charles Caudrelier. Photo: Paul Wyeth

Cammas added: “Charles and Erwan [Israel] did a good job with the routing and we had one good shift by going further south that enabled us to put more than 20 miles on Sodebo and Actual. What was strange was that the French boats went on the south of the Channel and the English boats stayed in the north! Perhaps they are using different routing software!”

With so much of their race upwind, Maxi Edmond de Rothschild hadn’t often hit super-high speeds. However, they had briefly reached 40-41 knots after passing Bishop Rock on their return journey.

With the wind dropping overnight and forecast to be sub-10 knots by tomorrow morning, it is likely that the next Ultimes, Sodebo Ultim 3 and Actual, are likely to lose further ground on Maxi Edmond de Rothschild.
Of their arrival into the Rolex Fastnet Race’s new finish port of Cherbourg, Franck Cammas commented: “It is good because there is a very good ambience - maybe a little more than when we finish in England! We are very happy to come back in two years.”

This edition was Cammas’ fourth Rolex Fastnet Race and he is a fan: “It is a very famous race because it has many boats. It is like the Sydney Hobart - it is not just the professionals, there are many amateur boats too. It is very good to have these all on the same line. It is also very nice to have big multihulls, big monohulls, all the new IMOCAs, etc all on the same start line.”

Fastnet Race Day 2 2000 - While offshore racers may learn to take things as they come, in the Fastnet Race it’s rather less than a barrel of laughs to slug to windward from Land’s End out to the Rock, and then find that off the coast of West Cork, the wind is backing and you’ll have it forward of the beam - maybe well forward of the beam - once again as you make your way back towards the Isle of Scilly. Yet this is one of the more likely meteorological scenarios facing the medium and smaller boats as they head into the second night, knowing that somewhere way up ahead, the biggies such as the 140ft Skorpios, the mighty Rambler 88, sundry superannuated Volvo 70s and an entire slew of Imoca 60s, have had themselves a relatively straightforward long-and-short beat out to The Rock, and are looking at the prospect of fair wind sailing back into the English Channel, where an entirely new and probably favourable weather prospect presents itself for the intriguing 2021-style finish leg from the Isles of Scilly to Cherbourg.

The bulk of the fleet are still between Start Point and Land’s End, plodding westward as best they can into unreliable headwinds, knowing that beyond Land's End the World’s Most Irritating Traffic Separation Scheme presents itself to provide the quandary of whether to throw away hard-gained weathering in order to gain freedom, or else continue slugging on until you can leave this enormous imaginary island to starboard. It may be imaginary, but it looms so large that some demented navigators have taken to visualising it as a vast Dutch polder, complete with cow-filled farms and windmills, comely rosy-cheeked maidens, laughing children and much honest rural toil…….

Yet while this is what it’s like for the ordinary sailors, the surrealistic reality is that in the western approaches to Cherbourg, the giant multi-hull Maxi Edmund de Rothschild is sweeping in towards the finish at 20 knots, and will probably have crossed the line by the time this is posted.

So with so many known unknowns and unknown unknowns, we can only throw ourselves back on the figures. The former Volvo 70 I Love Poland is closing in on the West Cork coast in impressive style, and leads all of IRC. This will cause dancing in the streets of Cascais in Portugal, where the old war horse is usually based so that Polish offshore wannabes can avail of decidedly rigorous training all year round, and it is certainly paying off. ILP also leads IRC Zero. Meanwhile, in the foothills of Snowdonia they can allow themselves a pirouette or two in Pwllheli, as Andrew Hall’s newly-acquired Lombard 45 Pata Negra - having had her fingers burnt by going too far into Lyme Bay yesterday - had sailed a blinder since to get herself back into the IRC1 lead, and is currently rounding the north end of the TSS island and making 7 knots in a local wind mutation to have herself on course for the Rock.

IRC3 is our next main area of interest, and here the hyper-talented Alexis Loison continues to lead with Leon just to the west of the Lizard, but Cork’s own Nieulargo is still very much on touch and is currently 5th in this largest class of all. However, in IRC 4 the Sunfast Desert Star from Dun Laoghaire had been finding the going tough against more modern boats, but after slipping in the class rankings the Irish Offshore Sailing crew have clawed themselves back up to fourth, which is some going for a now-mature boat which has been round the block more than a few times.

In the Figaro 3 two-handed division, it has resolved itself as a two boat race, and at the time of writing its the turn of RL Sailing (Kenneth Rumball & Pamela Lee) to lead, while in general fleet terms they’ve got themselves close ahead of Leon just west of the Lizard, which is impressive company to be keeping. But both boats still have to cope with the Land’s End TSS quandary, while away to the northwest, the brilliantly-sailed Imoca 60 Apivia (Charlie Dalin) has been the second mono-hull after Skorpios to get round The Rock, Rambler 88 will soon be doing the same very welcome turn, while away to the southeast somewhere towards Lundy, the Imoca 60 Hugo Boss is demonstrating yet again in the Fastnet Race that whatever philosophy motivates the HB design team, windward ability is not an important part of it.

Tracker below

Despite a blustery start and first night at sea in the 49th Rolex Fastnet Race, competitors have been making good progress west down the English Channel, with the bulk of the fleet at breakfast time this morning south of Start Point.

Since yesterday’s dramatic, brutal departure from the Solent for the 337 entries in 25+ knot southwesterly headwinds and violent wind against tide seas, overnight the wind has slowly eased. It is still gusting to the early 20s, especially around headlands, but is dropping the further west the competitors sail, with 15-20 knots off the Lizard and 13-15 off Land’s End.

While the majority of the Fastnet Race fleet is still toughing it out in the Channel, at 0800 BST this morning Maxi Edmond de Rothschild was the first Ultime to reach the Fastnet Rock. While not a record time – in 2019 she led around the Rock at 0633, less than two minutes ahead of Francois Gabart’s MACIF – her time of just 20 hours 50 minutes is almost three hours slower, but nonetheless highly impressive given that this time the boats have been upwind down the Channel and then fetching across the Celtic Sea. This time is also not as close with Thomas Coville’s second placed Sodebo Ultim Voile some 43 miles astern of her.

“We have just passed the Fastnet, leading the fleet,” reported Charlies Caudrelier, co-skipper of Maxi Edmond de Rothschild with Franck Cammas. “We're at least 40 miles ahead of the second which is good. We have sailed very well since the start of this race and are proud of what we have done. The boat is going fast and we have not made any navigation errors. Now we go back to the Scilly Isles. The last part, with gybes, will be complicated. We know that it is difficult to get to Cherbourg, especially when there is little wind. We remain focused on the speed of the boat and we will try to extend our lead. We will not be flying much on this leg to Cherbourg."

Sam Davies' IMOCA Initiatives Coeurs blasts her way out of the Solent © Rick Tomlinson

Most surprising have been the tactics of the Ultimes and some of the IMOCAs, which forged off south after leaving the Solent yesterday and going south of the Casquets Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS). While the Ultimes tacked close to Alderney, some of the IMOCA dived even further south. Initiatives Coeurs skipper Sam Davies explained their reasons for this: “Nico [Lunven, her co-skipper] had done a lot of work on the weather routing with lots of different models and pretty much all of our routing went that way, because we might get flat water in the Alderney Race, sheltered by the Channel Islands and be first into the west going current off the north French coast.”

Hearing her on board, as Initiatives Coeur was passing Land’s End this morning, was difficult as her co-skipper at the time was easing the mainsheet: “We exploded one mainsheet block - it is not an issue, it just makes it bit noisy to trim. Still it is a pleasure to be going at full speed after sailing such a long way around the world in safety mode [completing her lap of the planet after retiring from the Vendee Globe last winter].” This morning Davies was enjoying racing her two close friends Simon Fisher and former Team SCA crew Justine Mettraux, who were alongside her aboard 11th Hour Racing.

Leading the charge among the monohulls is of course Russian Dmitry Rybolovlev’s mighty ClubSwan 125 Skorpios. At 0700 this morning, the largest single-hulled vessel ever to enter the Rolex Fastnet Race was passing between Land’s End TSS and the Scilly Isles, having allowed American George David’s Rambler 88 to split up the east side of the TSS. Perhaps most surprising was that only three miles astern of her at the time was the lead IMOCA, Apivia, a boat less than half Skorpios’ length and being sailed by two talented Frenchmen – Charlie Dalin and Paul Meilhat – their advantage being that their boat has giant foils enabling it literally ‘to fly’.

Looking good overall under IRC - I Love Poland, the VO70 skippered by Grzegorz Baranowski © I Love Poland

The big boats were looking good overall under IRC corrected time this morning, especially I Love Poland, the VO70 skippered by Grzegorz Baranowski, which this morning was following the route up the east side of the Land’s End TSS astern of Rambler 88, which lies second overall under IRC. Since the start, IRC Zero has seen three retirements: RORC Vice Commodore Eric de Turckheim on the NMYD 54 Teasing Machine, the Gerd-Jan Poortman-skippered Ker 46 Van Uden and Lance Shepherd's VO70 Telefonica Black.

In IRC One, RORC Commodore James Neville's HH42 Ino XXX was vying for the lead on the water with Elliot 44 CR Matador of Swede Jonas Grander, both offshore en route to the Lizard. However, under IRC, Robert Bottomley's MAT12 Sailplane holds a slender advantage over Andrew Hall’s Lombard 46 Pata Negra. Others such as Richard Loftus’ Swan 65 Desperado (11th under IRC this morning) had shaved Start Point closer and were just tacking out from Plymouth.

Sadly there have been ten retirements from this class, including three favourites; Lann Ael 2, Didier Gaudoux's 2017 overall race winner; L'Ange De Milon, Jacques Pelletier's defending champion in this class and Philippe Frantz NMD 43 Albator. Also out is Cracklin Rosie of former RORC Commodore Steven Anderson.

The IRC Two leaders were this morning due south of Plymouth. The front of the fleet remains at three-way battle between international trio of JPK 10.80 sisterships, Englishman Tom Kneen's Sunrise and Richard Fromentin's Leclerc Hennebont/Cocody from France with Astrid de Vin's Il Corvo from the Netherlands further to their south. These three are also looking good under IRC along with perennial race winner Ross Applebey’s Lightwave 48 Scarlet Oyster

In IRC One, RORC Commodore James Neville's HH42 INO XXX was vying for the lead on the water Photo: Paul Wyeth/pwpictures.com

As expected in IRC Three, Alexis Loison and Guillaume Pirouelle aboard the defending class and IRC Two-Handed champion Léon have been leading under corrected time and, impressively, are right up with the front runners in IRC Two. On the water, Léon has Philippe Girardin's J/120 Hey Jude and the JPK 10.80 Raging Bee2 of Cherbourg hero Louis Marie Dussere nearby. However sneaking ahead of Léon and into the IRC Three lead this morning, coming in from the north in the otherwise French dominated class, is the Philip Caswell-skippered Sun Fast 3600 Fujitsu British Soldier. Léon is still well ahead on the IRC Two-Handed class leaderboard. Behind them, the majority in IRC Three have been taking a course tight in to Start Point.

In the void left by perennial IRC Four winner Noel Racine, France still dominates the leaderboard in this class with Francois Charles' Dehler 33 Cruising Sun Hill 3 ahead of Alain Guelennoc's X-332 Trading-advices.com and Ludovic Menahes and David le Goff's JPK 10.10 Raphael. However all were taking different tactics with Trading-advices.com hugging the Devonshire coast en route towards Plymouth with her rivals having tacked offshore. The top British boat is Chris Choules’ modern classic Sigma 38 With Alacrity the top British boat in sixth under IRC. The majority of IRC Four has yet to pass Start Point.

Fastnet Race Day 2 0830 - Irish Offshore Sailing’s school ship, the veteran Sunfast 37 Desert Star from Dun Laoghaire sailed by Ronan O’Siochru and Conor Totterdell, emerges this morning with the best current Irish class place in the Rolex Fastnet Race 2021 with fourth overall in IRC4 in a class of 70 boats. And after a rugged night slugging into mostly west-south-west winds with most of the fleet tacking along the northern side of the English Channel, France's Charlie Dalin in the highly-regarded Imoca 60 Apivia did some very successful thinking right outside the box - he led a small group of class companions and a handful of multi-hullos right across the Channel close west of the Cotentin Peninsula, and didn't go onto port tack until he was south of the Channel Islands, close towards the Brittany coast at St Malo.

It was a win move that gave him space to sail fast and free, and this morning when the leading mono-hull - the giant Swan 125 Skorpios - finally neared the Isles of Scilly after an arduous tacking regime along the English coast. Apivia was right there with her, though as there’s a slight veering of the win beyond Land’s End, the big boat is now lengthening away.

France's Charlie Dalin in the Imoca 60 Apivia Photo: Rick Tomlinson/Rolex

Skorpio’s other rival for the mono-hull line honours slot, George David’s Rambler 88, meanwhile went to the east of the TSS at Lands End, and is now clear of it and - for the time being - is able to lay the rock, though the veering winds may mean some tacking close to the Irish coast. Something experienced by the leading multihull Maxi Edmund de Rothschild, which rounded the Fastnet just before 08:00 hrs this morning.

Swan 125 Skorpios Photo: Carlo Borlenghi/Rolex

In the fleet generally, overnight overall IRC leader Pata Negra (Lombard 45, Andrew Hall, Pwllheli Sailing Club) seemed to go too far in towards Exmouth in West Bay in the night, and now she’s back in 5th in IRC1, and 15th overall, while Ireland’s Michael O’Donnell with the J/121 Darwoood is 7th in IRC1. In IR3 meanwhile, Alexis Loison in the JPK 10.80 Leon is putting in a trebly impressive performance - he’s currently off Plymouth, leading IRC 3, also leading IRC 2H (his crew is Guillaume Pioruelle), and he also lies 11th overall in a mainly big-boat race.

The leading multihull Maxi Edmund de Rothschild rounded the Fastnet just before 08:00 hrs this morning Photo: Schull Sailing

The Murphy family’s Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo (Royal Cork YC) has never slipped out of the top ten in the largest class of all - 73 boats in IRC 3 - and she currently lies 6th, but has been finding temporarily lighter conditions after putting Start Point astern. And in the depleted Figaro III two-hands class (just three boats still racing), Dun Laoghaire’s Kenneth Rumball crewed by Greystones' Pam Lee has regained the lead with RL sailing, putting in an impressive showing as she’s working to windward close off Plymouth in the same broad group as Leon and Darkwood.

See the live tracker below.