It's vast and getting vaster. This year's Centenary of the biennial RORC Rolex Fastnet Race hits the spot for such a large and varied constituency that mentally absorbing it all, with proper digestion of its full meaning, is maybe best done using the recommended technique for eating an elephant.

Yet it's difficult to stay with the approved pachyderm-consuming technique of one bite at a time. For even as you get the chops into it with the ivories, you'll be observing another nearby morsel that adds an extra flavour of meaning to something you've already sent gurgling down the digestive tract.

But if you can stick to the knitting, the new life for the Admiral's Cup and its climax in this Centenary Fastnet Race is still peak gossip.

While the famed America's Cup is "economy silver" from an 1848 production line, the Admirals Cup from 1957 is pure gold

ADMIRAL'S CUP

The re-introduction of the Admiral's Cup, first raced by national teams in 1957, is given extra heft this week with the news that there are now 13 two-boat teams entered by clubs, as the fresh-look format requires.

In other words, it's not the Admiral's Cup as we knew it, Jim. But the sheer prestige of the trophy lives on, despite the original competition trickling towards nothingness at the turn of the Century in the face of the sheer expense.

WHO IS GAME FOR THE CHALLENGE?

A few teams in the new incarnation may be put together on the basis of having club members who are game for the challenge, and have boats in one of the two required rating bands. And yes, this may result in some clubs sending forth teams with boats that might indeed be household names, but only in their own households.

Yet at the other end of the spectrum, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, keen to show there's much more to them than being shackled to the America's Cup, were super-fast out of the traps with the announcement that their Admiral's Cup team would be James Murray's Botin 42 Callisto and Max Klink's Botin 52 Caro.

Max Klink's Botin 52 Caro has already been named for the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron Admiral's Cup team Photo: Andrea Francolini

Callisto – a Botin 42 – is the "small boat" of the RNZYS team

Caro, forsooth. You seek her here, you seek her there, and she'll almost always be in the fleet in the pillar races, and usually at the front of it, though the recent Rolex Sydney Hobart came up with a pattern of conditions that made Sam Haynes' Volvo 70 Celestial unbeatable, putting Caro back at sixth.

CLEAR WIN

But in the 2023 Fastnet Race, with the formidable Adrian Stead of the great Poole Harbour racing clan calling the shots, Caro had a clear win despite losing her masthead windicator wand on the rough first night as she bucketed westward through the southern tip of the Portland Race.

With the Cherbourg finish lengthening the course to 695 miles, the loss of the magic wand meant Stead and his team had to race the most of 600 miles in traditional wind-sensory style. So not surprisingly, he was so dripping with exhaustion when he got to Cherbourg that he'd to sit down to answer questions, but the answers were those of a man who had led his crew to a truly great Fastnet Race win.

The tank is empty, but the adrenalin still flows. An exhausted Adrian Stead takes questions sitting down after winning the 2023 Fastnet Race overall.

Thus Caro will be the form boat on two counts – defending champion overall, and hot star for the Admiral's Cup - as the huge fleet starts westward through the Solent on Saturday July 26th 2025 in a starting sequence which is a show in itself, a remarkable feat of nautical choreography.

Clearing the air. Nautical choreography par excellence as the very mixed Fastnet fleet tacks towards the Needles at the west end of the Isle of Wight

The contrast of the crowded Solent with the turning point at a solitary rock, a rock which is definitely oceanic despite the coast of West Cork being within a few miles, could not be greater. But the Fastnet Rock's own mystique should never be under-estimated. The distinctive lighthouse as we know it now has only been in place since 1904, but rock and lighthouse are so much of each other that as a single icon they've come to symbolize the finest spirit of offshore racing.

IRELAND'S PIONEER

It was thanks to one very special Irish sailor, Harry Donegan of Cork, that Ireland was involved from the start, with his 17-tonner Gull and her distinctive jackyard topsail – known as the "skyscraper" to the crew – helping to bring her in at third overall in a fleet of seven.

Gull (right) getting the best of the 1925 Fastnet Race start, when the seven boats were sent eastward out of the Solent before heading round the south side of the Isle of Wight.

Harry Donegan with his youngest crew members James Kelly on Gull during the inaugural 1925 Fastnet Race. When a dinner was held in the Royal St George YC in Dun Laoghaire in March 1972 for everyone who had sailed the Fastnet Race in an Irish yacht, Captain James Kelly was the Guest of Honour as the sole surviving member of Gull's 1925 Fastnet crew

THE WONDERFUL JOLIE BRISE

The winner in 1925 – and again in later races - was the wonderful Le Havre pilot cutter Jolie Brise. This splendid ship is still very much with us, and so too are other early successes such as Hallowe'en from 1926, Tally Ho from 1927, Dorade from 1931 and 1933, Stormy Weather from 1935, and Nordwind from 1939.

Stormy Weather and Dorade both raced the 90th Anniversary Fastnet in 2015, but may yet be enticed out of warmer climates.

However, for most competitors, while racing the Centenary Fastnet is going to give the experience an extra zing, the fact is that most boats will be taking part because it is a very handy way of getting the total offshore racing experience in world class competition.

The magnificent Jolie Brise, winner of the first Fastnet Race, and still sailing the seas in style

CONVENIENTLY ACCESSIBLE

The first reason for its big-fleet popularity is its sheer convenience. For a race at the 600 nautical miles-plus classic qualifying grade, its start and finish are conveniently within easy reach of many of Europe's largest offshore racing fleet home bases.

Yet despite being at the heart of one of the world's most densely populated areas – and an affluent population at that – it quickly takes the fleet into genuinely oceanic sailing while providing competition at every level. You'll always find a race-within-a-race to be getting on with.

The course for the Centenary Fastnet Race. Ireland's Fastnet Rock is the only remaining key feature of the original race

And finally, though Gull might well have won in 1925 had it not been for some miscalculations, Ireland has had two clear cut wins with the Tim Goodbody-helmed Irish Independent in 1987, and Ger O'Rourke's all-conquering Cookson 50 Chieftain in 2007. There's something for everyone in the Fastnet Race past, present and future.

The Fastnet Race – everything from a crowded start to a solitary oceanic rock: