The Fastnet Rock is a globally recognised and properly appreciated symbol of Maritime Ireland. Yet it is much more than that, to such an extent that we in Ireland are mentally be-numbed by having as part of us this internationally acknowledged icon, the ultimate essence of a classic lighthouse rock, just three sea miles from the nearest part of the rest of Ireland at Cape Clear.

Despite that proximity, it has the remotely aloof aura - and often mysterious spookiness - of a truly oceanic rock, its sense of isolation being emphasis by the contrast of a winter storm breaking clean over rock and lighthouse, while barely five sea miles away in the Cape's North Harbour, boats will be berthed in comfortable security.

Part of the allure of the Fastnet Race is that it is possible for the Rock to experience weather like this…

……yet just five sea miles way at North Harbour Cape Clear, the gated basin is providing secure shelter

For many in the world's international offshore racing community, the Fastnet Rock is all they know of Ireland. And for those of us who live here and realise just how visually accessible the Rock is as part of the West Cork seascape, we strain to think of how it appears to others who know only of it, and nothing more.

STATUE OF LIBERTY IN DUBLIN BAY?

To aid our perception of its special instantly-recognizable nature, it's as though we all woke up one fine morning to find that a clone of London's Tower Bridge is suddenly on Belfast's River Lagan, the Statue of Liberty has appeared overnight in the Port of Dublin's Poolbeg Peninsula, the Eiffel Tower has manifested itself on Galway's Mutton Island, and an exact replica of Sydney Harbour Bridge has suddenly spanned the entrance to Cork Harbour.

When you add this oceanic rock super-stardom to the fact of the Rolex Fastnet Centenary Race getting under way westward from Cowes on Saturday July 26th 2025 with an extraordinary starting sequence of many classes, you begin to understand the emotional challenges involved for competitors, and that's before they're really racing. They eventually will reach Cherbourg in France after sailing 695 miles around the Rock and back, and with a fleet currently talked of as being capped at 450 boats, it will be so off scale as to defy full understanding.

The modern Fastnet Race courses, with only the Fastnet Rock a constant. The gold thread is the course from 1949 to 2019, while the additional red line is the re-routing to Cherbourg introduced in 2021, used again in 2023, and planned for the Centenary in 2025

IRELAND'S FASTNET ROCK IS ALL THAT REMAINS OF ORIGINAL COURSE

But we can simplify that challenge with the realisation that rounding our own Fastnet Rock is all that remains of the first race, tentatively sailed in 1925. That started with seven boats heading eastward out of the Solent from the Royal Victoria Yacht Club at Ryde, leaving the Isle of Wight to starboard before heading west and northwest, and subsequently heading from the Rock to the finish at Plymouth in Devon with the Royal Western Yacht Club.

Thus the Big Brick of West Cork is all that specifically remains of the original, even if the spirit had lived unquenchably on, as revealed in this Vid

FASTNET ROCK FOREVER

The hugeness of this Centenary is going to be such that there's bound to be a reaction. Expect "I'M NOT DOING THE CENTENARY FASTNET" T-shirts to appear just after Christmas. Equally, those of us who were lucky enough to do the Golden Jubilee Fastnet Race back in 1975 – and you'd be surprised how many we still are, even if some slackers have tumbled off their perch – are more grateful by the day, as it was a fun race,

There was lots of sunshine, and thanks to a crazy decision on Otto Glaser's McGruer 47 Tritsch Tratsch II of Howth not to sight the Bishop Rock and the Isles of Scilly on the return leg to Plymouth – for we reckoned there was calm around the islands – we came 9th in Class 1.

Golden days, golden boat, Golden Jubilee. Otto Glaser's McGruer 47 Tritsch-Tratsch II having a fine old time running from the Fastnet Rock to Plymouth in 1975, and picking up about 40 places in Class 1 with a strategic decision to stay well clear of a correctly anticipated local calm at the Isles of Scilly. Photo: W M Nixon

That may not seem like a very big deal, but there were 79 of the finest offshore racers in the world in Class 1, and 70 of them were astern of us. The partying was epic. And it was a good time to exit the Fastnet scene after three stagings, with the need for distance racing soon being assuaged at home with the established RORC Morecambe Bay Race, the introduction of the Round Ireland in 1980, and the Dun Laoghaire to Dingle arriving in 1993.

PLAGUE OF TRAFFIC SEPARATION

Meanwhile, the Fastnet Race course, in addition to being messed about by different finish ports, now has those accursed Traffic Separation Schemes. With their forbidden zones screwing up your options at the pivotal points of the course, you're regimented through a sort of canal sailing in places where, in times past, much of the tactical fun occurred.

Harry Donegan of Cork's 17-ton Charles E Nicholson-designed Gull starting the first Fastnet Race of 1925, in which she placed third overall. She was a very challenging boat to race offshore – the luff of her huge heavy-sparred jackyard topsail was longer than the luff of the mainsail itself

Nevertheless the Fastnet Race mystique remains, stronger than ever for the approach of its Centenary. And it celebrates a good show for Ireland. Harry Donagan's 17-ton all-gaff cutter Gull from Cork came third overall in the first race of 1925, and then after the economic downturns of the 1930s, Billy Mooney of Dublin Bay brought us back in with a class win in the 1947 race, and then post 1969 we were back with a flourish.

The Tim Goodbody-helmed Irish Independent leading at the Rock in the 1987 race, with the Fastnet manifesting a distinctly non-benevolent image

FASTNET STORM 1979

After great promise leading into the stormy 1979 Fastnet, it was Donal McClement of Cork with the UFO 34 Black Arrow, "pointing straight with our sharp bow at those huge waves", who emerged best with the class win. Then in 1981 Ken Rohan's Holland 40 Regardless won Class 1, with an even greater peak being reached in 1981 with Tim Goodbody (Royal Irish YC) being lead helm on the overall winning Dubois 40 Irish Independent in 1987, followed by the peak of peaks, Ger O'Rourke of Limerick and Kilrush spectacularly winning overall in 2007 with his hyper-successful Cookson 50 Chieftain, still arguably the greatest Irish sailing achievement of the 21st Century.

Ger O'Rourke bring his hyper-successful Cookson 50 Chieftain from Kilrush to the finish line at Plymouth in 2007 to win the Fastnet Race overall. Photo: Rolex

Yet even with all this leaderboard material to engross us, the most startling single aspect of the Rolex Fastnet Race Centenary 2025 is the number of former winning boats that are still sailing the sea. The winner of the maiden race of 1925 and other Fastnets too, the wonderful 1913-built Le Havre pilot cutter Jolie Brise, is looking better than ever. And so too is the Line Honour winner of 1926, the 70ft Fife cutter Hallowe'en.

The 1926 Fastnet Race line honours winner, the 70ft Fife-designed Hallowe'en, berthed at the Royal Irish YC in Dun Laoghaire. Photo: W M Nixon

Hallowe'en sailing smoothly in Dublin Bay. Although extremely beautiful, this Fife classic wouldn't win any awards for on-deck and cockpit ergonomics. Photo: W M Nixon

TALLY HO WINS

The 1927 winner in gales and near gales, the Albert Strange-designed gaff cutter Tally Ho, has been restored by Leo Sampson ,

The restoration of Tally-Ho above

When we get into the 1930s, it goes crazy, with the Olin-Stephens-designed, Rod Stephens-rigged Dorade and Stormy Weather, the winners of 1931, 1933 and 1935, in great order. But they did do the 90th Anniversary in 2015, as some of those involved bluntly admitted they mightn't be around in 2025.

The Charles E Nicholson-designed Bloodhound won on corrected time in 1939

"She was fast but wet" – aboard the 1939 winner Boodhound in the Irish Sea in 1966. Photo: W M Nixon

The 88ft Nordwind may have been raced to line honours in the 1939 Fastnet Race by the Kriegsmarine as an act of Nazi propaganda, but she still sails today as a fine example of the design work of Henry Gruber.

"Gone but not forgotten" – Captain John Illingworth's very advanced Myth of Malham, winner of the 1947 and 1949 Fastnet Races. She was the result of a fruitful collaboration between the adventurous owner and creative designer Laurent Giles. She was built in 1946-47 by Hugh McLean of Gourock in Scotland, and in order to overcome post-World War II yacht-building restrictions, she was officially registered as the re-build of an ancient International 8 Metre

BLOODHOUND "MUSEUMISED"

The 1939 winner Bloodhound is now "museumised" in Leith in Scotland with the former Royal Yacht Britannia, but the 1939 line honours winner, the 88ft Henry Gruber yawl Nordwind, is still very much with us. Unfortunately the super-yacht of the 1947 and 1949 Fastnets, John Illingworth's Laurent Giles-designed pioneer Myth of Malham, is long gone, but from 1951 onwards the surviving overall winning boats are in a clear majority, and a wonderful live sailing museum their presence would provide too., though I rather doubt the 1963 overall winner, the S&S-designed 43ft Clarion of Wight with her close links to Rory O'Hanlon of Dun Laoghaire, will be restored in time.

CLARION'S CRAZY FIRST SHAPE

The hull profile of the Sparkman & Stephens-designed 43ft Clarion of Wight as she was when she won the 1963 Fastnet Race overall. While race-winningly fast to windward, she was sometimes unmanageable running in a strong wind.

The sensibly re-configured hull of Clarion, as she was when bought by Rory O'Hanlon of Dun Laoghaire 1971, who won the Philip Whitehead Cup in that year's Fastnet Race. This photo is a recent one from France, where Clarion's derelict state has led to a movement for complete restoration of an ultimately very special boat

IMP’S ARRIVAL

Then came Skip Allen from San Francisco in 1977, with the Ron Holland-designed superboat Imp sweeping all before her, including that year’s Fastnet Race. Since then Imp has acquired a distinctly Irish flavour, and she’s in good order with the Radley family of Cobh, and hot to trot.

Hot to trot. The Radley family’s Imp from Cork (right) won the 1977 Fastnet overall for Skip Allen, and then won the Philip Whitehead Cup for Roy Dickson of Howth in the Fastnet 1987. The late Denis Doyle’s Moonduster (left, currently being restored) raced every Fastnet from 1981 to 2001. Photo: Robert Bateman

And that is only the boats. The memories of the people involved, every one of them larger than life, cascade down the years. Taken overall, it's simply over-powering, but the many Irish sailors who have done the Fastnet Race, and those who are determined to do this ultra-historic Centenary, can come through it all by creating their own memories.

They may change the start. The may change the finish. But after a hundred years, the Fastnet Rock is non-negotiable as the peak of the course