The least well-known of the French offshore classes competing in this year’s Rolex Fastnet Race is perhaps the Ocean Fifty. This trimaran class was given its own start in the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s premier event for the first time in 2023. In that breezy race five started and just three finished. But this year, for the RORC’s centenary Fastnet Race nine are entered, all racing doublehanded in anticipation for this autumn’s Transat Café L'OR (ex Transat Jacques Vabre).

Le Rire Medecin-Lamotte may be one of the oldest Ocean Fiftys but she can hold her own offshore Photo: Alexis Courcoux

Back is defending Fastnet Race champion from 2023, Luke Berry. Berry was born in Australia to British parents but has lived in France since he was 10 years old. His Ocean Fifty Le Rire Médecin-Lamotte won in 2023 by just 1 minute 26 seconds from Pierre Quiroga's Viabilis. “It was a very tight finish last time - it was a very good race,” Berry recalls. “This year it will be more intense because there are more boats.”

As a genre 50ft multihulls have been competing in shorthanded races since the 1980s. In the early 1990s they stepped up when three Nigel Irens trimarans, effectively mini-ORMA 60s, were launched. They would form the core of ‘Class 2’ in the major shorthanded offshore events. The teams consolidated in the early 2000s with the formation of the ‘Multi 50’ class with competitors adhering to a basic class rule. At this time a few examples competed in the Fastnet Race, such as Eric Bruneel's Trilogic and Roger Langevin's Branec IV in 2005.

The Multi50 class gained momentum with new launches in particular for the 2009 Transat Jacques Vabre from three different designers – the third Crêpes Whaou! was Franck-Yves Escoffier’s second boat from VPLP; the Guillaume Verdier-penned Actual for Yves le Blevec and Prince de Bretagne from Nigel Irens and Benoit Cabaret. With Lionel Lemonchois at the helm, Prince de Bretagne went on to win the 2010 Route du Rhum, while Actual claimed the 2011 Transat Jacques Vabre, both temporarily breaking Crêpes Whaou!’s dominance in the class.

The Ocean Fifty fleet has never been bigger with nine competing in the Fastnet Race and 10 in October's Transat Café L'OR Photo: Alexis Courcoux/Vincent Olivaud

In 2021, the Multi 50 class teamed up with a production company to create a new ‘made for TV’ circuit called the Pro Sailing Tour. This arrangement lasted for three years with seven boats regularly racing. It was replaced with the present Ocean Fifty Series, which comprises a mix of inshore grand prix and offshore events, including the Fastnet Race.

The Ocean Fifty is a box rule class, designed to limit escalating costs. Thus one design C-foils in the floats are mandatory, preventing the boats from flying, while sails must have a minimum lifespan. In terms of cost, Ocean Fiftys represent a reasonable step-up from Class 40s - a path several, such as Luke Berry, have taken.

Berry’s Le Rire Médecin-Lamotte, originally the 2009 vintage Actual, is today one of the oldest boats competing, however it holds considerable pedigree, having won the 2018 Route du Rhum with Armel Tripon and the 2021 Transat Jacques Vabre under Sébastien Rogues. In the Fastnet Race Berry is again racing with Antoine Joubert.

Luke Berry (right) and Antoine Joubert are back to defend their Rolex Fastnet Race title on Le Rire Medecin-Lamotte Photo: Pierre Bouras

Compared to the newer boats Berry says: “Downwind and offshore we can defend ourselves and when it is quite windy and reaching, then it is less about the boat. But in inshore conditions they are quite a bit faster.” While the new boats are only a little lighter, structurally they are stiffer says Berry. To give some idea of their performance, in the 2023 Fastnet Race the first two Ocean Fifty finishers arrived ahead of all the foiling IMOCAs.

Matthieu Perraut and Jean-Baptiste Gellée are campaigning Inter Invest, the 2024 Ocean Fifty champion Photo: Alexis Courcoux/Vincent Olivaud

While a brand new Ocean Fifty, Edenred, was launched just this week in France, it won’t be competing in the Fastnet Race, so the two newest boats are both from 2023. Sébastien Rogues’ former Primonial, winner of the 2024 Ocean Fifty Series, is now Inter Invest, with Rogues having joined forces with Matthieu Perraut’s team, although Perraut is racing in the Fastnet Race with Rogues’ regular crew Jean-Baptiste Gellée.

Tanguy le Turquais and Erwan Le Draoulec's Lazare is currently second in the Ocean Fifty Championship Photo: Alexis Courcoux/Vincent Olivaud

Tanguy le Turquais is back on the helm of Lazare (ex-Fabrice Cahierc's Realites) sailing with Erwan Le Draoulec, who stood in for him while he was focussing on his Vendée Globe campaign last winter. Lazare is an association that creates shared accommodation between the homeless and young professionals in France.

Designed by Romaric Neyhousser, Inter Invest is an updated version of Neyhousser’s 2020 vintage Solidaire en Peloton, which is being campaigned in the Fastnet Race by former Tornado, Mini and Figaro sailor Thibault Vauchel-Camus and Vendée Globe skipper and paralympic champion Damien Seguin (who was born without a left hand). They are supported by the French Multiple Sclerosis Foundation and use their trimaran to take sailing those afflicted with MS.

 Fastnet Race favourite is probably Koesio, the 2025 Ocean Fifty Series leader. Her skipper Erwan le Roux has enjoyed the most success in the class in recent years Photo: Alexis Courcoux/Vincent Olivaud

Similarly Lazare is a VPLP design and related to the 2020 vintage Koesio being sailed by Erwan le Roux and Audrey Ogereau, present leaders of the 2025 Ocean Fifty Series following two inshore events in Saint-Malo and Concarneau. Le Roux has been the most successful skipper in the class recently with three Transat Jacques Vabres and two Route du Rhum wins to his name, as well as winning the Pro Sailing Tour in 2023.

Two 2017 vintage VPLP designs competing are match racing champion and Tour de France sailor Baptiste Hulin’s Viabilis Oceans and WeWise, being campaigned by Pierre Quiroga and Davy Beaudart. Viabilis Oceans was skippered by Britain’s Sam Goodchild as Leyton on the Pro Sailing Tour in 2021-22.

Upwind by MerConcept continues to be backed by 11th Hour Racing to develop women's sailing Photo: Alexis Courcoux

Francois Gabart’s company MerConcept teamed up with 11th Hour Racing to help create and develop the US team’s Ocean Race-winning IMOCA. This arrangement with Wendy Schmidt’s team has since continued in the Ocean Fifty with their Upwind by MerConcept, a program to assist in the development of female sailors. While this was initially being skippered by Italian Francesca Clapcich, this year France’s Anne-Claire le Berre has taken the helm, racing with Elodie-Jane Mettraux of the famous Swiss sailing family (sister Justine is skippering an IMOCA). Le Berre is a former 470, Yngling and match racing Olympic sailor. She is also an engineer and naval architect who has previously worked for Finot-Conq. Another Neyhousser design, Upwind by MerConcept was launched as Arkema 1 in 2013.

Of the same vintage to Luke Berry’s trimaran is Mon Bonnet Rose, sailed by Laurent Bourges and Arnaud Vasseur, launched in 2009 as Prince de Bretagne. She is now campaigned to raise awareness of women's cancer.

Sébastien Rogues, Vice President of the Ocean Fifty class, who won the Class40 aboard GDF Suez in the 2013 Fastnet Race, comments: “The Fastnet Race is a very famous offshore race and for the Ocean Fifty class it is very very cool to have it in our schedule.”

The Ocean Fifty is a box rule designed to prevent escalating costs Photo: Alexis Courcoux/Vincent Olivaud