It is arguably the greatest on-water fleet organisation in world sailing. In a week’s time, the 450 or so boats in the 50th staging of the 695-mile Rolex Fastnet Race will be sent on their way from Cowes in a generally orderly fashion through the relatively confined waters of the Western Solent. Those of us with less than 20/20 vision and increasingly stiff necks will note with approval that it can only be done so very effectively from a shore-based starting line using well-lit fixed transits, rather than through a pattern of difficult Committee Boat starts.

Indeed, such is the importance of a smoothly-organised start for this Classic of Classics, that when some rebellious sailing minds wonder just what is the useful purpose – if any - of the ancient and privilege-laden Royal Yacht Squadron, with its castle HQ in the prime position on the west point of the Cowes waterfront, a suavely confident member will assure them that it’s primarily to cater for the biennial Fastnet start - everything else in the other 729 days of the two year period of the Fastnet Race cycle is secondary to that.

As clear as can be. The business end of the Fastnet Race Start Line at the RYS at Cowes. Photo: RORC

Sorted. The very diverse Fastnet fleet finds it own sense of order as it beats towards the Needles after clearing the West Solent through the Hurst Narrows Photo: Kurt Arrigo

Whatever your attitude, there’s no doubt there’s something magnetic, charismatic in fact, about the Fastnet Rock and this particular race around it. The big race only dates back to 1925, but we know that the amateur sailors of Cork were racing round it long before that, but usually with a finish point in West Cork, where an annual Schull Regatta preceded by a round Fastnet Rock from Cork Harbour dates from 1884.

The magnetic attraction of the Fastnet Rock with Deilginis making better than “hull speed” towards it. Back in June, the Howth 17s felt they hadn’t properly marked their 125th year until they’d rounded the Fastnet. Photo” Howth 17 Assoc

CORK HARBOUR SUCCESS IN GOLDEN JUBILEE RACE OF 1975

But with Ireland seen from elsewhere in 1925 though the foggy and biased prism of a recent War of Independence, the turbulence of Partition, and then a Civil War, any longterm Irish involvement with using the Fastnet Rock as a racing mark would have been largely overlooked, were it not for the fact that one of the seven competitors in the new race from the Solent round the Fastnet and back into Plymouth was Harry Donegan’s hefty gaff cutter Gull from Cork. She led at one stage, and was third at the finish, the winner being one of the innovative race’s moving spirits, George Martin, with his magnificent former Le Havre pilot cutter Jolie Brise.

The magnificent Jolie Brise, winner of the first Fastnet Race in 1925

Gull from Cork, setting acres of sail as usual. Photo courtesy RCYC

The longterm active sailing of Harry Donegan (1870-1940) – both racing and cruising – with his close involvement with the first Fastnet Race, and his implementing of many key concepts and structures in Irish sailing, reinforces the feeling that he may well have been, in his quiet way, the greatest Irish yachtsman ever.

The multi-talented Harry Donegan. Photo courtesy RCYC

Certainly, in remembering Gull’s key role in the inaugural Fastnet, there was a special Irish effort in 1975 when the Golden Jubilee came around, and Cork Harbour had indirect interest in the overall winner, the new souped-up but otherwise standard Nicholson 33 Golden Delicious raced by the Bagnall brothers. They admitted to links to Bagenalstown on Ireland’s River Barrow, but more directly, their boat was designed in the rapidly-expanding Ron Holland office in Crosshaven.

The “Cork Enclosure” in Millbay Dock, Plymouth, after the 1975 Fastnet with overall winner Golden Delicious berthed outside Archie O’Leary’s Holland 40 Irish Mist and Denis Doyle’s S&S 47 “The Blue Moonduster”. Photo: W M Nixon

BRYNOTH ONLY IRISH WINNER OF MAJOR TROPHY

Yet in a record fleet, only one directly Irish boat was winner of one of the 24 major trophies, and that was the oldest Irish boat present, Hugh Sherrard’s 1905-vintage former Clyde 30 Brynoth. She was and is an elegant and distinctly Fife design which had long since been converted to Bermudan rig and given basic sea-going accommodation. This was subsequently added to, such that in the 1950s and ’60s she was still something of a force to be reckoned with in open racing - whether club, regatta or offshore - under the ownership of Ross Courtney of Howth.

Brynoth at Howth in the early 1960s, chasing the former Olympic Medal winning 6 Metre Caprice. Photo:HYC

Under Ross Courtney’s ownership, Brynoth was multi-purpose – here, she is maximising numbers on board for the annual fund-raising Lifeboat Day at Howth. Photo:HYC

By the 1970s, after a period with Pierce Roche of Howth, she went into the ownership of the Hugh Sherrard (1931-2011) of Cork, and he was as keen as his predecessors to show that Brynoth was going better than ever, with that very special winning of the Iolaire Block for best performance by a boat of 1905 or earlier in the 1975 Fastnet Race becoming a truly magic moment.

Brynoth became a familiar sight on the Cork Coast. Photo: Robert Bateman

In time, Brynoth passed to Hugh Sherrard’s nephew Damien McGovern, who commissioned a new lease of life from Fife restoration specialist Duncan Walker. Duncan had been claiming that he’d retired after sixteen such projects, including the Royal Cork OD Jap. But the availability of a shed in Fairlie in Scotland near where Brynoth had been designed and built – rather than beside the Hamble where most of the Walker restoration work was done – swung the scales in favour of undertaking Project 17.

BRYNOTH RESTORATION IS 17TH FIFE PROJECT FOR DUNCAN WALKER

This was to be the restoration of Brynoth’s hull in its original and continuing shape, but with the up-grading of the much newer coachroof and retention of a Bermudan rig. As Damien McGovern put it after last month’s completion: “She’ll last for years in this restored form. If a future generation wants to go all the way and put her right back to gaff rig and minimal racing accommodation, then that’s their affair”.

Brynoth’s near-sister, the Fife-designed Clyde 30 Mikado, setting the original rig in 1905. Initially they were totally racing boats, but most were converted over time to become fast cruiser-racers

New and old combined – the restoration of Brynoth was a painstaking process. Photo: Damien McGovern

This patient combination of new and old-while-sound has retained the spirit of Brynoth. Photo: Damien McGovern

Restoration work in shed complete, with Fife dragon added to cove line. Photo: Damien McGovern

Brynoth restored has her first sail in June, revealing that her sail number follows directly on to the 107 of the Donegan family’s Gull. Photo: Malcolm McGettigan

Brynoth has only just been returned in restored form to Cork from Scotland, so there was never any question of her contemplating this year’s 50th Fastnet Race, but we can hope for a dramatic re-appearance in West Cork competition in August. Meanwhile, we can detect a certain confusion out there with all this talk of a 50th Fastnet Race staging in 2023 when it is coupled with talk of a Golden Jubilee back in 1975.

HOW WE HAVE SEPARATE GOLDEN JUBILEE AND FIFTIETH FASTNETS

It’s simple really. It took a while for the Fastnet Race to be accepted by the Sailing Establishment. It was annual when founded in 1925, but the course was initially eastward out of the Solent from the Royal Victoria Yacht Club at Ryde, then via the Fastnet Rock and back to Plymouth and the Royal Western Yacht Club.

It became biennial after 1931, and in 1935 the Royal Solent YC at Yarmouth was persuaded to host the preferred west-going start. But that was just the once. For 1937, 1939 and 1947 it returned to the east-going start from Ryde (though losing three races to the Hitler Unpleasantness) until, with the RORC’s John Illingworth a global force in world offshore racing, for 1949 the Royal Yacht Squadron were finally pulled into line to provide a west-going start, which soon was so established within the biennial format that everyone assumed that was the way it had always been

The Fastnet Race shown with its extenson to Cherbourg added to the “traditional” course. In reality, in its 98 years the race has now sailed four different courses

And so it went on until 2021, when the race could just be fitted into pandemic restrictions despite the fact that the RORC had found a generous new package offered by the Port of Cherbourg was more attractive than the limited facilities and support that Plymouth could provide for the finish. And so the course extended to 695 miles, and was well supported despite mixed feelings about this Cavalier disregard of popular sentiment.

Defending champion, The JPK 11.80 Sunrise with owner Tom Kneen, who - as a loyal Royal Western YC member - had opposed the lengthening of the course to Cherbourg instead of Plymouth. Yet it’s highly likely that Sunrise would not have won without the extra miles

The ultimate irony was that the overall winner was the very French-in-Concept JPK 11.80 Sunrise, but sailed by the very English Tom Kneen of the Royal Western YC in Plymouth, who had supported the RWYC complaints about the loss of the Fastnet finish. Yet had the race finished in Plymouth instead of sailing on the extra ninety miles to Cherbourg, it’s unlikely that Sunrise would have won.

As for making a bit of a celebration of the “50th Fastnet Race staging” aspect of this year’s use of the Cherbourg finish for just the second time, well, that’s a bit of a rapid setting-in-stone job. For as 2025 and the Centenary approaches, not only will there be those who will point out that surely the Royal Western YC in Plymouth should have look-in as it took the official responsibility for the first race in 1925, but for real authenticity it should start from the Royal Victoria YC in Ryde, heading initially east and going south of the Isle of Wight.

FOUR DIFFERENT LOW PRESSURE SYSTEMS

That’s all in another day’s work. Meanwhile with our weather currently dominated by four different low pressure areas dancing a messy quadrille around each other, with each one determined to put in a dramatic solo performance from time to time, the coming weather is anyone’s guess.

Back in the day when the Fastnet Race started in August after Cowes Week, Uffa Fox always said that it signalled that onset of the Southwest Monsoon. Officially, it has been moved back to July - well clear ahead of Cowes Week - in order to provide a bit of much-needed space for organisers and participants alike. Yet it could also be argued that July gives more daylight and better weather prospects. Or it would, except that the Southwest Monsoon also seems to fancy showing itself in July this time round as well.

The Volvo 70 Wizard on her way to wining the 2019 Fastnet. Now re-born as Tschuss and racing under the command of Johnny Mordaunt, she has already won the RORC Cowes Dinard St Malo Race

As for boat prospects, our own Johnny Mordaunt has put down a mighty marker by skippering Swiss owner and Royal Cork YC member Christian Zugel’s former Volvo 70 Tschuss to line honours, the overall win and a course record in the recent big-fleet Cowes to Dinard (St Malo) Race. As Wizard, Tschuss won the 2019 Fastnet on the “Old Course That’s Not As Old As They Thought”. But with a fleet well over twice the size of the 204 boats going to St Malo, and a much more complex course made even more so by a clutter of TSS (Traffic Separation Schemes), the Fastnet itself will be no cakewalk.

TRALEE BAY SC INVOLVEMENT

Nevertheless the Rock and its most famous race provide an ever-stronger siren call, and this year there’s the first entry from Tralee Bay Sailing Club in the form of Ken Cunnane and his family with their Swan 46 Mynx. They’ve come through the St Malo test, and have carved out the time despite the family’s involvement in the 49er circuit, which daughter Elle races with Erin MacIlwaine. Both of them are transferring aboard Mynx for the 50th Fastnet Race. Seems they’re sailing-mad on the Kerry Swan 46. We wish them the best of luck.

The Swan 46 Mynx (Ken Cunnane, Tralee Bay SC) will be racing the 2023 Fastnet with significant family input in the crew

At least 15 Irish or Irish-crewed entries have been confirmed for for the 2023 instalment of the Rolex Fastnet Race.

The 50th anniversary edition of the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s flagship event will set sail from Cowes to Cherbourg via Ireland’s Fastnet Rock from Saturday 22 July.

And the provisional entry list of 491 yachts from across the globe has assured another record-sized fleet for this year’s race.

Familiar names on the list of Irish entries include Royal Cork’s Nieulargo, the Dingle-based Swan 46 Mynx and Checkmate XX, the First 50 from Howth Yacht Club that’s a three-time veteran of the Fastnet run — and only last week became Sovereign’s Cup Coastal champion.

Sailed by a close group of friends who describe themselves as “a bunch of young-at-heart racers that have sailed together since our late teens”, Checkmate XX will this year plot an extended course for its first Cherbourg finish, adding to the challenge of the race.

Checkmate XX has been part of the ISORA series | Credit: Afloat.ie

“We aim to finish intact, having had a laugh, with the best result we can manage” says crew member David Cullen.

Meanwhile, Irish farmer and lifeboat volunteer Keith Miller is returning to the race with a new, more competitive yacht.

Miller was a popular figure in 2019 when he decided to do the Fastnet Race for the first time, having only started offshore sailing three years previously.

Roll on four years and this is now Miller’s third Fastnet, this time on a new yacht — a competitive Mills 36 that formerly raced as Quokka IV.

Prime Suspect was bought by a syndicate in Wexford in 2022, competing in the ISORA series and SSE Renewables Round Ireland Race that same year. Following a refit over the winter, the yacht is ready for the next challenge.

Prime Suspect at the start of the 2022 Round Ireland Race | Credit: Afloat.ie

“We aim to be competitive in our class,” says Miller. “This is our third time. My crew was so excited in 2021 racing Andante [a Yamaha 36] that we pooled together to buy Prime Suspect and up our game!”

The tillage farmer from Wexford will be joined by a builder, engineer and teacher as well as Rosslare Harbour RNLI’s resident mechanic on his crew.

The 50th Fastnet also features a blast from the past in the famous Ron Holland-designed IOR 40 Imp.

Built in Florida in 1976 for American owner David Allen, the following year Imp was top-scoring boat for the second-placed USA Admiral’s Cup team and won the Fastnet Race outright. She also completed the disastrous 1979 Fastnet Race taking the USA Admiral’s Cup team to another second placed finish.

Since then, perhaps because of her stripy 1970s green paintjob, she has passed through several significant Irish owners and is today considered something of an Irish national maritime treasure.

Since 1994, Imp has been owned by Cork-based George Radley who has continued Imp’s winning ways: coming first in the 1996 and 2000 Round Ireland Races and nearly winning again in 2002. Imp also won her class in the 1987 Fastnet Race, with Radley repeating this in 1997: “We were sixth overall out of 268 boats. I’m not saying she is going to do it again this time but she has always had a good run in the Fastnet.”

A freshly restored Imp on the water in June 2022 | Credit: Robert Bateman

Radley and a semi-shorthanded crew raced Imp in the IRC class of the 2006 ARC and then in the Pineapple Cup from Miami to Jamaica followed by two editions of Charleston Race Week before the boat shipped back to the UK for an intended refit that never happened.

Finally, Radley in 2017 got Imp back to Ireland on a lowloader and began the overdue refit, which was completed in 2022: “I just put new Harken deck gear and winches on her and I made the foretriangle a little smaller because she had 60sqm headsails — I can’t get anyone to pull those in anymore! You can’t even see where you are going!

“Around the cans she is a handful but in any offshore stuff, she is still able to go, believe it or not. Down to the Fastnet and back we held our time against a J/122,” Radley says. Part of the reason for entering the Rolex Fastnet Race is that Radley’s son and bowman, also called George, is enjoying it just as much as his dad. “He just lives for it. I am trying to bring him along.”

Other Irish entries include Dundalk skipper Susan Glenny in the First 40 Olympia’s Tigress, the mixed international crew of the Clipper Race yachts CV2 Ambitious, CV7 Curious and CV8 Tenacious, the latter skippered by Philip Quinn.

Irish entries in the Fastnet Race 2023 - entry data from RORC

The Flying Fifteen class have been offered a start in the annual Fastnet Race which opens the Calves Week sailing festival in West Cork on Tuesday 8 August.

It will mark a first for the 20-foot one-design keelboat class that is normally found sailing over inshore triangular courses than coastal races.

A course from Schull Harbour to the Fastnet Rock and back again is around 35km and in normal conditions is likely to take between three and four hours to complete. The Racing Rules of Sailing apply and the race’s organising authority is the Dun Laoghaire Flying Fifteen fleet.

The National Yacht Club says a Rapid Raider RIB will be attending the fleet during the race and the Dun Laoghaire Flying Fifteen fleet will award prizes to the first, second and third finishers.

In addition the fleet intends, conditions permitting, to run a second race on the following day, Wednesday 9 August. RRS applies and the organising authority is the DLFFF.

To enter the race, complete the form on the NYC website HERE.

The Ultim trimarans are set to become especially newsworthy over the next months with the first ever race for five of these extreme 32m long by 23m wide flying trimarans, around the world, non-stop, singlehanded, setting sail from Brest, France on 7 January next year.

Before then two of the main contenders will be leading the charge on the rather shorter 695 mile Rolex Fastnet Race, which sets sail from Cowes on 22 July. SVR-Lazartigue and Banque Populaire XI are skippered by two titans of offshore racing, Francois Gabart and Armel le Cleac’h respectively. Both are Vendée Globe winners (Gabart 2012, le Cleac’h 2016). Le Cleac’h is part of the exclusive club of triple winners of La Solitaire du Figaro (the unofficial world championship of solo offshore racing). He has been racing Ultims since 2013, this being his second boat. Similarly, Gabart joined the Ultim class in 2015 winning many events with his MACIF trimaran, culminating in his record for sailing singlehanded non-stop around the world of just 42d 16h 40m 35s, incredibly just under two days shy of the fully crewed record.

 Gabart has competed in the Fastnet Race twice before, winning on his IMOCA MACIF in 2013 and then, in 2019, leading into the Plymouth finish line aboard his Ultim trimaran, only to be pipped at the post by Groupe Edmond de Rothschild, finishing less than one minute astern. “That was a little disappointing,” Gabart admits.

François Gabart will be joined by co-skipper Tom Laperche on SVR-Lazartigue. Laperche will skipper their Ultim in January's solo non-stop round the world race Photo: Guillaume Gatefait

Third Fastnet for singlehanded round the world record holder François Gabart competing on Ultim SVR-Lazartigue Photo: Guillaume Gatefait

For Le Cleac’h this will be his fourth Fastnet Race having competed in it twice on his IMOCA and once before on his previous Banque Populaire Ultim. However, like Gabart, he is very familiar with the Fastnet Rock and Celtic Sea: “In the Figaro we have a lot of legs and races with the Fastnet as a mark, so I know the difficulties of this course.”

So what do the French offshore racing titans think of the Fastnet Race? Gabart: “It is part of sailing history. Even as a kid sailing Optimists, you hear about the Fastnet Race. Then you grow up and learn what it is and it becomes something that you want to do. In France it is not as well-known as the Route du Rhum or Vendée Globe, but people have heard about it, especially now it is a ‘little bit more French’ (ie it finishes in Cherbourg). And it is way older than the French races - it is a classic like the America’s Cup. It is also a story with some good and bad sides - I am thinking about 1979.”

Le Cleac’h: “The Fastnet Race is a real mythical race. I knew this race when I was young because my father followed it. Although he never sailed it, he explained it’s dramatic history, including 1979 and the storm. The start is incredible: all those boats on the line - it is the only place in the world where you can experience this. The race has such a long history, I am very happy to be here this year because it is the 50th edition. I am very proud of my team and my boat that we might be the first boat to finish.” 

Both skippers enjoy the fact that by racing in the Fastnet Race they are part of an event that involves all echelons of the yacht racing community, from amateurs through to the top professionals.

Armel le Cleac’h is well used to the media attention having won three Solitaire du Figaros and the Vendee Globe Photo: Vincent Curutchet/BPCE

Neither of these Ultims competed in the 2021 race, when Charles Caudrelier and Franck Cammas on Maxi Edmond de Rothschild established the record for the new course to Cherbourg of 1d 9h 14m 54s. Their Ultims are more than capable of bettering this - both are contemplating Jules Verne Trophy attempts where the next step is to sail non-stop around the world fully crewed, not in 80 days, but in under 40. Similarly, the 14-year-old outright record for the most miles covered in 24 hours (908.2 miles/average speed 37.84 knots), is also capable of being broken, given enough runway with suitable conditions and the will. If pressed, the latest Ultims could cover 1000 miles in a day (average speed 41.6 knots).

"The 2023 Fastnet Race will have the greatest line-up of French multihulls gathered outside of France"

The top speed on Banque Populaire XI for example to date is 47 knots, but it is not top speed but high average speeds that Le Cleac’h says is the objective. “40-42 knots for one or two hours is very good, or 35-37 knots for 24 hours. We know that it is possible with our boat if the conditions are good.” The performance of the Ultims has taken a massive leap in recent years, since new foil configurations have enabled them to fly. For Banque Populaire XI getting airborne requires 12-13 knots of wind/22-23 knots of boat speed. Ideal conditions are no more than 20 knots as above this the sea state becomes too rough to use the foils effectively. Upwind in 15-17 knots Banque Populaire XI flies and will be making 27-30 knots. “That is the big step forward compared to the last Ultims, and that difference is very important compared to the older generation Ultims.”

Erik Maris’ optimised MOD70 Zoulou Photo: Tim Wright

Another match race in the Multihull class will be between the two MOD70 trimarans. Although originally a one design class, these are now all out of class, many, for example, fitted with improved foils. Eric Defert’s Axciss Group (ex-Race For Water) will line up against one of the most optimised MOD70s - Frenchman Erik Maris’ Zoulou. Originally Jean-Pierre Dick's Paprec Recyclage, this MOD70 achieved most as Tony Lawson’s Team Concise when it won multihull line honours in the 2017 Fastnet Race, before becoming Peter Cunningham’s Powerplay, winning the 2020 RORC Caribbean 600. Present owner Erik Maris had a long history in keelboats before transitioning to multihulls, passing through many classes such as the Extreme 40, D35 and TF35, but spending almost a decade racing GC32 flying catamarans on the GC32 Racing Tour. 

Maris personally has ancient memories of the Fastnet Race from when he competed in the 1987 Admiral’s Cup as part of the Belgium/France B team. As he puts it: “It is simply the greatest offshore race in world, alongside the  Sydney Hobart.”

Erik Maris after completing the RORC Transatlantic Race Photo: Arthur Daniel 

While the Ultims are about to make headlines, more discretely on the ascent are the Ocean 50 trimarans. Formerly known as the Multi50, these are smaller versions of the ORMA 60s that originated in the 1980s and raced until 2007, when they were replaced by the MOD70s. Ocean 50s have competed in the previous Fastnet Races, but recently the class has been growing in France with a race programme including the class’ own Pro Sailing Tour series (now in its third season), plus the major French classics such as the Route du Rhum and Transat Jacques Vabre and, this year, the Fastnet Race.

An Ocean 50 has a 15-15.24m LOA by 15.24m max beam platform with a 23.7m air draft, 3.5m draft and a minimum displacement of 3.2 tonnes. The class has strict materials limitations so, for example, hulls must be constructed in glass but carbon fibre reinforcement is permitted. Six foils are permitted and this includes mandatory one design C-foils fitted in the floats.

On July’s start line will be an unprecedented eight boats, including the highly experienced Erwan Le Roux, winner of last year’s Route du Rhum and this year’s Pro Sailing Tour with his 2020 generation VPLP design Koesio. Newest boat will be Seb Rogues’ Primonial, designed by Romaric Neyhousser (part of Guillaume Verdier’s design team) and due for imminent launch. Rogues won the Class 40 in the Fastnet Race in 2013. 

Above and below: Erwan Le Roux's Ocean Fifty Koesio, winner of 2022 Route du Rhum and this year’s Pro Sailing Tour Photo: Vincent Olivaud - Pro Sailing Tour

 

Meanwhile, new to the class is Anglo-Frenchman Luke Berry, who for this season has graduated from the Class40 to the Ocean 50 with his 2009 vintage boat Le Rire Médecin - Lamotte. Berry won the Fastnet Race in the Class40 in 2019 but was pipped to the post in 2021, finishing third. 

After two cycles in the Class40 Berry says: “I could sense there was an opportunity to move up and some of my sponsors were looking for new adventures, so we managed to put all that together just after the Route du Rhum last year.” Berry’s campaign is backed by numerous smaller sponsors (20 in total and rising) but has one of the smallest budgets. Despite being older, his boat has had a strong track record recently, winning the 2018 Route du Rhum with Armel Tripon (racing in this year’s Fastnet Race aboard his 2013 vintage Neyhousser-designed Kombawa) and previously having been campaigned by Seb Rogues, who won the Transat Jacques Vabre aboard her in 2021. Berry says that the latest Ocean 50s have a similar performance to the last generation ORMA 60s from 15 years ago. 

Berry is just coming to terms with the transition from monohull to trimaran, but has with him experience in the form of talented multihull sailor Antoine Joubert.

Of the Fastnet Race he says: “I have done the real Fastnet three times, plus many Normandy Channel Races and many Mini Fastnets - I love it; it is a great race. It is never over until you are over the finish line, as we discovered last time when we were first all the way up to Alderney, only to be pipped at the post, which was frustrating.”

The 2023 Fastnet Race will have the greatest line-up of French multihulls gathered outside of France.

Luke Berry's Le Rire Médecin - Lamotte © Vincent Olivaud - Pro Sailing Tour

The 50th edition of the Fastnet Race starts from Cowes, Isle of Wight on Saturday 22nd July.

Two Galway twin brothers aim to become the first sailors with profound non-verbal autism to helm a yacht in the 2025 Fastnet Race.

Eoin and Conor Dodd, in their mid-twenties, are on a fundraising drive to raise funds for their entry in the yacht race.

As RTÉ reports today (Tuesday, June 6), the twins sail in Galway Bay and work at the research and innovation hub in the University of Galway on developing language software for children with autism.

"We've been building up to this for the last four years. We have a boat in the Galway Marina, which was gifted to us by a psychologist in Dublin” their father, Enda Dodd, told RTÉ News.

"They've been competing in what we call coastal races like WIORA (West Coast of Ireland Offshore Racing Association), which is coming up soon," he said.

Read more on RTÉ News here 

And on background to their work here

The 50th-anniversary edition of the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s flagship event, the Rolex Fastnet Race, will set sail in just under two months’ time on Saturday, 22nd July, from Cowes to Cherbourg-en-Cotentin in northern France via Ireland's Fastnet Rock.

The Fastnet Race is well known for having by far the biggest fleet size of the international classic 600-mile offshore races, with the fleet growing steadily with every edition up until 2019, when it hit the present record of 388 yachts. But this year, also celebrating its 50th edition, the entry has gone supernova, with 494 yachts currently registered, including around 3,000 crew from 32 nations.

As usual, the Fastnet Race fleet represents the complete pantheon of offshore racing, where amateur sailors line up, albeit briefly, against some of the world’s top teams. This includes the fastest offshore racing yachts, the giant flying Ultime trimarans; 29 IMOCAs, as used in the Vendée Globe and the present Ocean Race; to the world’s top privately owned racing machines, including this year Bryon Ehrhart’s 88ft Lucky and Peter Morton’s Maxi 72 Notorious. The bulk of the entries form the IRC fleet competing for the race’s historic top prize, the Fastnet Challenge Cup. At present, this alone stands at more than 400 entries, making it one of the biggest races ever held under IRC in the 23 years existence of the RORC/UNCL's rating rule.

Paddy and Keith Broughton's 73ft maxi yawl Kialoa II has competed in a number of great offshore classic races and her owners did not want to miss out on the 50th Rolex Fastnet Race celebrations Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

For this special edition entries are coming from across the globe, but none is making a greater effort line than Paddy Broughton and his crew on the famous 73ft maxi yawl Kialoa II. Originally raced by the great maxi yacht campaigner Jim Kilroy over 1963-74, Kialoa II was second home in the 1969 Fastnet Race. Since 2016 it has been owned by English brothers Paddy and Keith Broughton who have sought to recreate Kilroy’s globe-trotting race programme. This included competing in the 2017 Fastnet Race. Most recently, Kialoa II competed in the 2022 Sydney to Hobart Race and has since been delivered from Sydney, all the way across the Pacific, through the Panama Canal and the Caribbean, across the Atlantic to the UK on her own bottom (a Kilroy tradition). She is due to complete this four-month odyssey this weekend.

Another Australian for the race is 'Maluka of Kermandie' that arrived at the Royal Cork Yacht Club Marina, as Afloat reported here

Small boat, big race - Australian yacht Maluka of Kermandie at Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven, Cork Harbour is a repeat entrant in this August's Rolex Fastnet Race Photo: Bob Bateman

“The Fastnet Race is one of the great ocean races, along with our own Sydney Hobart,” says Paddy Broughton, now also of Australian nationality. “Tactically, because of the tides and course, it is probably the most difficult - a real challenge. Kialoa II has taken part in the race twice before. She also participated in the RSHYR 75th event and the 50th Transpac. We really wanted her to be part of RORC's 50th Fastnet Race celebrations and have sailed from Sydney to do so.” 

RORC Commodore James Neville’s Carkeek 45 Ino Noir has been built especially to take part in this year's Rolex Fastnet Race. The new build is coastal/offshore focused, yet with a strong inshore capability, with a total build time of 15,000 hours. She features the typical Carkeek heavily chamfered foredeck, reverse sheer bow, twin rudders, wheel steering and water ballast tank. Photo: Georgie Altham

Several entries have been bought especially or even built especially to take part in the race. Among the most high profile of these is RORC Commodore James Neville’s Carkeek 45 Ino Noir and the CF520 Rán 8 of 2009 and 2011 overall race winner Niklas Zennström, and the new Lann Ael 3, a Sam Manuard-Bernard Nivelt designed 35 footer for 2017 race winner Didier Gaudoux.

For several teams, the Fastnet Race is a rite of passage, a regular feature of their calendar, like Christmas or birthdays. Few can challenge the record of the Goubau family from Belgium and their Beneteau First 47.7 Moana, the present IRC European Champion. First participating in 1997 on their previous Moana, a Dufour 9000, they have started every Fastnet Race since 2001 on board their present yacht, finishing all except the last race and reaching the class podium in 2011 and 2013. Between the crew, they have more than 100 Fastnet Races.

So what makes the race so special? “It is in our blood, in our veins,” explains tactician Luc Geirnaert. “It is something you just HAVE to do. The start is always fascinating to see all the boats. It is a challenge - during the race, the preparation and there is always an ambition to finish on the podium. Going to the Isle of Wight is something we like to do every year. The race itself – there’s the Fastnet Rock rounding, the challenge. It is always different, unpredictable, it can be windy and light, etc. We have three watches so everyone has the opportunity to steer and there is an internal competition too.”

Led by owner François Goubau and his wife Michele Gelhausen, Moana is a family affair. Helmsman son Mathieu competed in his first race in 1997, aged 16, and they are regularly joined on board by his siblings Laurent and Alexis.

The Goubau family and crew racing on their Beneteau First 47.7 Moana have notched up more than 100 Fastnets between them Photo: Paul Wyeth

For many more, this Fastnet Race will be their first. Among them are American Paul Kanve and his Hinckley Sou'wester 51 Momentum, who has competed in several Newport-Bermuda races. He explains: “As an American yacht, it’s a dream race to be entered in." 

Similarly for Guernsey's Alastair Bisson racing the Sun Fast 3600 Killing Time, who states that the race is special because of the “history, and the respect it generates from sailors and non-sailors alike. Everyone understands that the competition is enormous, so to do well brings with it huge kudos from your peers.”

Meanwhile, for the Santander-based crew Xp38 Mylla, owner Javier Sanchez Lamelas explains the Fastnet Race is “simply one of the most - if not the most - iconic races in the planet.” 

Guernsey-based Alastair Bisson moved from dinghy to yacht racing 20 years ago and he has raced with the RORC since 2022 in his Sun Fast 3600. This will be the team's first time in the Fastnet Race.

Guernsey-based Alastair Bisson's Sunfast 3600, Killing time is a Fastnet debutante

The 50th edition of the Fastnet Race starts from Cowes, Isle of Wight, on Saturday, 22nd July. 

It turns out the big lift ship that transported a pair of inshore patrol vessels (IPV) boats to Cork Harbour last week was carrying more than just boats for the Irish Navy. An Australian entry into this August's Rolex Fastnet Race was also on board the Happy Dynamic.

Maluka of Kermandie, representing the Port Huon Yacht Club in southern Tasmania, has now been offloaded and is alongside at the Royal Cork Yacht Club pontoon.

Small boat, big race - Australian yacht Maluka of Kermandie at Royal Cork Yacht Club in Crosshaven, Cork Harbour is a repeat entrant in this August's Rolex Fastnet Race Photo: Bob Bateman

Maluka of Kermandie, the Australian entry into this August's Rolex Fastnet Race is offloaded from the Happy Dynamic at the Port of Cork Photo: via Facebook

"Enjoying coffee at Royal Cork Yacht Club and the mighty Maluka arrived. Secret preparation for Fastnet. Looking fabulous after the trip from Sydney," as stated by social media poster Lyndsay May.

Originally built 80 years ago of Huon pine, the gaff-rigged Maluka was lovingly rebuilt by Sean Langman, better known for his high-octane yachts AAPT and Loyal.

He sailed Maluka in the 2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart and was the first boat under 9.5m LOA to finish. In fact, she was the smallest boat to compete, placing eight overall; in the year of the ‘golden oldies’ when Love & War won, Bacardi was second and Impeccable fifth.

Maluka in the 2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

In 2011 and 2012, she had the distinction of being last on line (but finished 34th overall in 2011), the irony being Langman was listening when his former Loyal sailed to a line honours win in 2011.

While she carries a Sydney Amateur Sailing Club sail number, Maluka of Kermandie represents the Port Huon Yacht Club in southern Tasmania.

While the top prize in the Rolex Fastnet Race is the Fastnet Challenge Cup for the winner of IRC Overall, considerable kudos comes with finishing first on the water. This will be especially true for the monohull line honours winner of this year’s 50th-anniversary edition of the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s premier event, who will also receive the Erroll Bruce Cup and a Rolex timepiece.

The first edition of the Fastnet Race was held in 1925, at a time when yachts that ventured offshore in Europe were typically cruisers. At this point the fastest offshore sailing machines were still pilot cutters, which in the late 19th century would speed out into the Western Approaches to offer their pilotage services to UK-bound commercial vessels. Thus, it was no surprise that Jolie Brise, one of the last sailing pilot cutters launched (in Le Havre in 1913), should win the race’s first edition in the hands of Lt Cdr E. G. Martin, who would soon become the RORC’s first Commodore. She would be victorious again in both 1929 and 1930 (when the race was held annually) by RORC founder member and subsequent Commodore Bobby Somerset. On all three occasions Jolie Brise scored ‘the double’ ie line honours and the overall prize under corrected time.

Jolie Brise has won the race overall and line honours three times. She is also the only boat to have won the race's 'triple' Photo: Daniel Forster

The Fastnet Race ‘double’ has been achieved several times since. In 1957 American Dick Nye scored his second back-to-back overall win aboard Carina II with the added bonus, on that occasion, of being first home too. This was repeated by French legend Eric Tabarly in 1967 with Pen Duick III and then by Bob Bell’s maxi Condor in 1983. The most recent yacht to achieve this was Ludde Ingvall’s maxi Nicorette which picked up most of the race’s silverware in 1995, including IMS and CHS overall prizes and line honours. 

Not since Jolie Brise in the first race in 1925 has any yacht secured the ‘triple’ ie overall and line honours plus setting a new record. For example Nicorette’s time of 2d 21h 13m was well outside the race record of 2d 12h 41m set a decade previously by Marvin Green’s maxi Nirvana.

For this year’s historic 50th Fastnet Race the environment seems right for a yacht to achieve the ‘triple’. Firstly there needs to be a stand-out line honours winner. In recent years for example one of the race’s fastest boat, the Askew brother’s modified VO70 Wizard won overall in 2019 but line honours went for a second consecutive occasion to George David’s Rambler 88. Similarly in 2003, Charles Dunstone's maxi Nokia-Connecting People won the overall prize but was beaten on the water by Neville Crichton's longer maxi Alfa Romeo 1. Then conditions must favour the faster boats with the wind turning light later in the race.

Lucky (ex-Rambler 88) is well suited to tackling the brutal conditions Fastnet Race competitors can face Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

For 2023 there is a stand-out line honours monohull winner in Lucky, the former Rambler 88, now being campaigned by American Bryan Ehrhart. Her nearest competition, depending upon conditions, will be Peter Morton's Maxi 72 Notorious or the two VO70s Il Mostro and HYPR. 

For Ehrhart, this will be his fourth attempt to win the Fastnet Race, following his first aboard a TP52 in 2009 when he was 30th overall and his last in 2019, aboard a Maxi 72, finishing 15th overall. He admits that in the TP52 the race was a little premature for their campaign while in 2019 they had had to nurse the boat round the course in the brisk conditions. In 2015 his 63 footer achieved great success winning that year’s west to east transatlantic race, but her race around the rock came to an abrupt end on the Shingles. As Ehrhart recalls: “We managed to end up on what on the physical chart was called ‘the Trap’. You would think a sophisticated navigation system might have prevented us from going in there!”

So what is the attraction to Ehrhart of the Fastnet Race? “It is certainly one of the world’s classics and that is the reason I have been interested in it since I got into offshore sailing - to do the classics and do them well. I have done it three times and I have never done it well, which is why I am back for a fourth time.” Graduating up to his present canting keel 88 footer, offers Ehrhart a boat better optimised for racing offshore and competitive and seaworthy in a wider range of conditions. On board will be many of George David’s former crew, led by Brad Butterworth and packed with America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race legends. “They are fantastic sailors. The systems on this boat are complex - definitely an exponential change from the 72 - and it takes really intelligence people to make it do what it can do best. They are full of the knowledge of what it should do and the experience of what it can do.”

Skorpios and Rambler 88 were line honours favourites in the 2021 Fastnet Race Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

In terms of the remote possibility of becoming the first to score the triple since 1925: the record for the present course finishing in Cherbourg was set in 2021 by the ClubSwan 125 Skorpios with a time of 56 hours 33 minutes and 55 seconds. The record for the previous route finishing in Plymouth was set in 2011 by the VO70 Abu Dhabi but this course was 90 miles shorter. Comparing like with like, Skorpios completed the course at an average speed of 12.3 knots compared to Abu Dhabi’s 14.19. To better Abu Dhabi’s average speed for the original course, the monohull line honours winner would have to reach Cherbourg within 49 hours this year.

Over the years so­­me of the world's most significant racing yachts have claimed line honours in the Fastnet Race. For example in this historic 50th edition, Kialoa II is competing; the predecessor of Jim Kilroy’s Kialoa III which won line honours in 1975. But in terms of outstanding historic line honours winners few surpass the remarkable Stormvogel. Dutch plywood pioneer Cornelius Bruynzeel launched his, for the time, radical 74ft ketch in South Africa only on 3 May 1961. Her shakedown cruise was her delivery to the UK where she not just competed, but won line honours in that August’s Fastnet Race with one Francis Chichester navigating. Stormvogel returned to compete in the 2021 Fastnet Race, celebrating the 60th anniversary of her victory and the image of her hard pressed in the brutal conditions leaving the Solent were one of the top take-aways from that race. Stormvogel returns for this year’s special 50th edition.

Clearly the race is special for the boat, as Ermanno Traverso, the yacht’s custodian since 1982 observes: “The Fastnet was the first race that Stormvogel ever did and she won line honours. It was a complicated race. It was like my early days of sailing around the world in the 1980s, with just a sextant and barometer.” Having owned and raced Stormvogel for more than four decades during Traverso’s tenure, she has undergone several refits which is why she not only appears immaculate, but judging from how she survived the 2021 race, is also just as strong as when she was first launched.

Despite her age, Stormvogel survived the brutal conditions exiting the Solent in 2021 Photo: Kurt Arrigo

“I really liked the race two years ago and this year is its 50th edition,” continues Traverso. “Plus I have a UK team and we are coming across to Cowes. I have done a number of ocean races and I love that environment.”

Perhaps most surprising is just how well Stormvogel competes under IRC. For example, in the last Fastnet Race she finished an incredible 7th out of 271 in the full IRC fleet. On Sunday she won her class against several ‘modern classic’ maxis under IRC at Palmavela. “I think my competitors would be surprised!” refutes Traverso. “We are not surprised, because we have raced her a lot in the past - under IRC in Asia constantly against Swan 65s and 68s etc. We know that in certain conditions, we are competitive and we know how to sail this boat in light air. And in certain conditions, we can be very powerful.”

After four decades one can imagine Stormvogel holds few mysteries from her crew.

Stormvogel rounds the Fastnet Rock in the 2021 Fastnet Race Photo: Kurt Arrigo

The 50th edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race starts from Cowes, Isle of Wight on Saturday 22nd July. 

An extraordinary phenomenon of modern day yacht racing, especially considering their cost and complexity: 40 IMOCAs are due to compete in the next Vendée Globe in 2024. The majority of these 60 footers, many of them foil-born flying machines, will also be on the July start line of the Rolex Fastnet Race, now part of the IMOCA calendar and counting as qualifying miles for next year’s singlehanded non-stop round the world race. In this year’s historic 50th edition of the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s flagship event, the IMOCAs will race doublehanded (with an extra media crewman).

The IMOCA line-up in the Fastnet Race will be formidable. At present it includes eight brand new boats (for some the race will be their first ever) and 12 of the 33 competitors from the last Vendée Globe, including all the podium finishers. 

Following a start line collision that put him out of the 2021 Fastnet Race, Vendée Globe winner Yannick Bestaven returns with his new Maître CoQ V, a Verdier design built from 11th Hour Racing’s moulds. Since finishing third in the last Vendée Globe, Louis Burton has acquired the Manuard-designed former L’Occitane en Provence, the most scow-bowed of the last generation IMOCAs. This he has rechristened Bureau Vallée, as all his boats have been since he was youngest skipper in the 2012-13 Vendée Globe.

Charlie Dalin returns to the Rolex Fastnet Race after one of the most exceptional performances in the 2021 edition Photo: Kurt Arrigo

Second in the last Vendée Globe (first home, but relegated to second after Bestaven received time compensation) Charlie Dalin returns to the Fastnet Race after one of the most exceptional performances in 2021 when he not only demolished the IMOCA competition (in this evenly matched class, his Apivia finished six hours ahead) but at the Scilly Isles his 60 footer was on the transom of the ClubSwan 125 Skorpios. “After that the wind dropped and went right a bit, so we couldn’t foil any more - it was a regret, because if it hadn’t, we would have been able to pass them, I think. In foiling mode we were faster,” recalls Dalin.

This time Dalin is back with a new IMOCA, the Verdier-design MACIF, due for launch in June. “We have identified a few points of sail we wanted to improve, like downwind sailing in moderate-heavy seas and also to optimise the ergonomics of the boat using our experience of the last four years,” he explains.

For the new MACIF, the Fastnet Race will be its first race. Dalin is a big fan of the event in which he holds an impressive track record: aside from his 2021 victory, he won the Figaro doublehanded class in 2013, and came third in the IMOCA class in 2015. “It will be exciting to start with the Fastnet. I am looking forward to exiting the Solent on the new boat with hundreds of other boats around.”

 After finishing fifth in the IMOCA class in 2021 (above), Sam Davies will be taking part in her new Initiatives Coeur Photo: Paul Wyeth

Britain has some strong IMOCA entries. All eyes will be on class veteran Sam Davies and her new Initiatives Coeur. Launched last year, Davies’ first new build IMOCA is a Sam Manuard design, constructed from the moulds of L'Occitane en Provence (see above). As ever her worthy, clever campaign will be using social media likes to raise funds for Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque, a charity which undertakes heart operations for third world children.

Formally launched on Friday is the IMOCA class’ first two boat campaign, a winning approach previously used in the America’s Cup and Whitbread Round the World Race. This sees Thomas Ruyant hook up with Britain’s Sam Goodchild in their joint ‘For People and Planet’ campaign, backed by their respective sponsors Advens and Leyton. Both will be on the start line in July. Ruyant will skipper For People, a brand new IMOCA designed by Finot-Conq and Antoine Koch, while Goodchild inherits Ruyant’s former LinkedOut, a 2019 Persico-built Verdier design. While LinkedOut was sixth in the last Vendée Globe she otherwise has been hugely successful having won both the last Transat Jacques Vabre and last year’s Route du Rhum. 

For Goodchild, who comes from the Ocean Fifty class and most recently has been crewing on the Ocean Race leader Holcim – PRB, his IMOCA campaign has been a long time in the making since 2011 when he was the first Artemis Offshore Academy graduate to receive backing for a Figaro campaign. “We took our time! I always wanted to do it well. I am happy to do it later and better,” says Goodchild, who has since competed in most major offshore events and won the Pro Sailing Tour with Leyton in his first season as skipper in 2021.

Britain's Sam Goodchild will hook up with Thomas Ruyant in their joint two-boat ‘For People and Planet’ campaign, backed by their respective sponsors Advens and Leyton Photo: Pierre Bouras 

Goodchild has competed in the Fastnet Race many times, first on the Artemis IMOCA 60 in 2009 and subsequently in the Class40, then on the MOD70 Phaedo and the Ultime Sodebo, although he has yet to win it. “It is a great race, a great course. Going back to the Solent is always fun especially as I now spend too much time in France! We go further down the Channel coming back now, so we get more for our money this time. I always like the big races which mix pros and amateurs and everyone is on the same race course - it is good fun.” The Fastnet Race will be Goodchild’s first official IMOCA event in his new boat and he is looking forward to finishing in Cherbourg. “It is a great port with a lot of space and a lot of current, which you need to be careful with.”

Meanwhile, Pip Hare is upping the ante with her new-to-her IMOCA Medallia, formerly Armel le Cléac'h’s 2016-17 Vendée Globe winner (raced to third place by Louis Burton in the last race). Since finishing 12th in last year’s Route du Rhum, Medallia has been undergoing major surgery at Jason Carrington’s yard in Hythe, including a bow modification to raise the stem, but most significantly fitting new Verdier foils that are double the size of her old ones, thus requiring major structural modifications. They have good pedigree being identical to those currently winning the Ocean Race on Holcim–PRB. 

“It has been really nice to watch everyone go through the Southern Ocean and to hear how they got on with the big foils,” says Hare. “It has reassured me that we are making the right decision and keeping the boat relevant. With the new foils we will take off earlier (ie in less wind) and should be flying much higher as well.”

 Pip Hare's Medallia was formerly Armel le Cléac'h’s 2016-17 Vendée Globe winner Photo: Mark Lloyd

While this will only be Hare’s third Fastnet Race, her last in 2019 was memorable when the ancient IMOCA she was skippering found itself leading the entire monohull fleet on the first night. This time on a competitive boat, it will be a different experience, a much-needed opportunity to gauge performance against the opposition: “It is a bloody hard race. The course is short and geographically constrained, so everyone will constantly be up against everyone else. A race that takes in a classic start out of the Solent, all the tidal gates, the Celtic Sea, etc - is likely to serve you up anything at all. It is as serious as races get – an interesting length and really technical.”

Also to be watched will be James Harayda on Gentoo, the 2007 vintage former Hugo Boss. At 25, Harayda will be the youngest skipper in the IMOCA class but has already shown his potential coming home 14th out of 34 finishers in last year’s Route du Rhum.

 Yoann Richomme's Paprec Arkéa was launched in February Photo: Polaryse/Paprec Arkea

Other French ultra-heavyweight contestants racing in July include Jérémie Beyou with his new latest generation Manuard design Charal. Beyou won the race’s IMOCA class in 2019 and was second home in 2021 and aboard his new boat was third in last year’s Route du Rhum. Newly launched in February was the latest Paprec Arkéa for Yoann Richomme. Like Ruyant’s For People this is a new design by Finot-Conq and Antoine Koch. Between them Richomme and Beyou have five Solitaire du Figaro wins - Beyou in 2005/11/14, but Richomme more recently in 2016/19.

Maxime Sorel finished the last Vendée Globe in 10th place but launched his latest boat last year. His new V and B - Monbana- Mayenne is a Verdier design, built from Apivia’s moulds but with a new bow design and latest generation foils. Aboard her Sorel came home fifth in last year’s Route du Rhum. Also fielding a 2022 boat is Eric Bellion, first rookie in the 2016 Vendée Globe, who’s new Persico-built Commeunseulhomme powered by Altavia is from successful Mini designer David Raison.

While French teams as always make up the majority in the IMOCA class, international representation remains strong. Aside from the British competitors, Kojiro Shiraishi from Japan returns with DMG Mori Global One, a 2019 VPLP design aboard which he was 16th in the last Vendée Globe. Also on the start line will be Canadian Scott Shawyer aboard Canada Ocean Racing, the 2011 vintage Owen Clarke design (originally Acciona), while from Hungary is Szabolcs Weöres aboard Szabi Racing, originally Dee Caffari’s Aviva. Confusingly a Belgian, Denis van Weynbergh is racing one of the few Hungarian-built IMOCAs, originally Nandor Fa’s Spirit of Hungary, now called D’Ieteren Group. Flying the flag for Germany as well as France will be Isabelle Joschke on MACSF, the 2007 vintage VPLP-Verdier that was originally Safran.

Justine Mettraux, currently with 11th Hour Racing, is campaigning the 2018 VPLP design Teamwork, that was Jérémie Beyou’s previous Charal Photo: Jean-Marie Liot

There are currently two Fastnet Race competitors from Switzerland. Alan Roura became the Vendée Globe’s youngest competitor when he finished 12th in the 2016-17 race aged 23. Now on his third attempt, Roura is campaigning a competitive boat in Alex Thomson’s latest Hugo Boss. Meanwhile, Justine Mettraux, one of four female skippers, is becoming one of her nation’s most accomplished offshore racers having finished second in the Mini Transat and competed in three Volvo Ocean Races/Ocean Races, winning with Dongfeng Race Team and currently with 11th Hour Racing. She is campaigning the 2018 VPLP design Teamwork, that was Jérémie Beyou’s previous Charal.

Romain Attanasio has a new-to-him Fortinet-Best Western, originally Seb Josse's Edmond de Rothschild, which, in much-modified form, finished fifth in the last Vendée Globe as Boris Herrmann's Seaexplorer-Yacht Club de Monaco. Benjamin Ferre’s Monnoyeur Duo For A Job was originally François Gabart’s MACIF, which not only won the 2012-13 Vendée Globe but also the 2013 Fastnet Race, before being raced by Clarisse Crémer as Banque Populaire to 12th place and first woman home in the last Vendée Globe.

Meanwhile, three others are racing 2008-09 Vendée Globe vintage boats. Pro sailor Sébastien Marsset on Foussier-Mon Courtier Energie, won the Volvo Ocean Race with Groupama and was 11th in the last Vendée Globe. Freelance.com is skippered by Guirec Soudée, an adventurer who previously spent five years sailing round the world, was the youngest sailor to traverse the North West Passage and has rowed both west to east and east to west across the Atlantic. Groupe Setin’s Manuel Cousin is an ex-Class40 sailor who upgraded to the IMOCA class in 2017 and finished 23rd in the last Vendée Globe.

Such is the level of competition and calibre in the IMOCA fleet perhaps half of the fleet is capable of winning – it will be spectacular! 

The 50th edition of the Fastnet Race starts from Cowes, Isle of Wight on Saturday, 22nd July. 

Appropriately, given the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race will be the 50th edition of the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s premier event, a significant number of classic yachts are entered, competing for the Dorade Cup.

In 2021, Paul Moxon’s Amokura was the oldest boat in the race and returns again. The Fred Shepherd 50ft Bermudan yawl was built by A. H. Moody and Son Ltd, Swanwick in 1939, originally for Lord Mountbatten's Aide de Camp, Ernest Harston. For Amokura, the Fastnet has been a case of ‘third time lucky’: she competed in 1959 and in 2019, but only finished for the first time in 2021. Perhaps it was the change of course to Cherbourg which helped – Amokura was the first British yacht to visit Cherbourg following WW2. Amokura’s recent Fastnet Races have been all the more remarkable since Paul Moxon has raced his heavyweight classic doublehanded.

Paul Moxon’s 50ft Bermudan yawl Amokura Photo: Rick Tomlinson

This year’s oldest entry pre-dates the first Fastnet Race by 22 years and is even ten years older than the first race’s winner, Jolie Brise.

Among classic yachts, Moonbeam (ex-Moonbeam III/Moonbeam of Fife) is famous - a 1903 gaff yawl Fife, the third of four Moonbeams for British lawyer Charles Plumtree Johnson. In 1988 she was ‘saved’ in Cyprus and underwent a thorough refit in the UK, including a change to her present cutter rig. Since then, she has been a regular star of La Nioulargue/Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, where she has often raced against Moonbeam IV and Tuiga. 

Today she is part of a trio of Fifes based in Brest, also including Moonbeam IV and Mariquita. Their owners, Benoît Couturier and Richard Mille were keen to compete in the Fastnet Race and made their choice because “Moonbeam is a better sailing boat in stronger wind - it is easier to handle and more seaworthy. On the bigger ones we always need 20 people to sail them - which is a lot. It is easier with Moonbeam,” explains French offshore racing legend Jacques Caraës, who now runs the boats and will skipper Moonbeam. He knows the race well having ended his first in a liferaft in 1979, after his crew was forced to abandon their ¾ Tonner Alvena. Caraës, a Whitbread Round the World Race competitor and Jules Verne Trophy record holder, last competed in the race on Bernard Stamm’s IMOCA 60 Cheminées Poujoulat in the 2000s. 

Caraës acknowledges that typically they only race Moonbeam inshore and for the Fastnet Race her crew will be a mix of classic yacht stalwarts and Breton offshore racers. “I appreciate a lot that the RORC has said we can enter. I’m sure there won’t be many boats of this age.”

The oldest yacht in this year's Rolex Fastnet Race is the beautiful 1903 Fife gaff yawl Moonbeam Photo: Benoit Couturier

Certainly, a classic making one of the longest journeys to the Fastnet Race’s 22nd July start will be Maluka. Well known in the Sydney Hobart, this 9m long 1932 vintage gaff-rigged classic was restored in 2006 by Sean Langman, a Hobart race veteran and industry figure (he owns Noakes Group, which operates boat/shipyards in North Sydney and Port Huon, Tasmania). Ironically Langman, a keen 18ft skiff sailor, is better known for competing in the fastest maxis, so racing Maluka, usually the oldest and smallest boat in the race, was an unusual step. However, she is part of Hobart race folklore having been sailed by an amateur crew from Sydney to Port Huon nine years prior the first Hobart Race. Langman restored her in time to compete in the 2006 Sydney Hobart in order to celebrate the 70th anniversary of this voyage. In the 2022 race she was campaigned to a class win by Langman’s son Peter (while he raced his present maxi, the former STP65 Moneypenny).

Langman is shipping Maluka to compete in the Fastnet Race having holidayed in the UK last year and wanting to take on a fresh challenge. He explains: “Now at 90 years old, Maluka should fit in well with 100 years of the Fastnet. Maluka has been an integral part of my son Pete’s upbringing. He did his first Hobart race on her at age 18 as skipper. Maluka racing offshore is for our team a connection with the purity of the sport. Our quest is to start and finish and mostly enjoy the sailing and each other’s company. The crew consists of myself, Pete Langman, Josh Alexander, Peter Inchbold and Gordon Maguire.” That would be the Sydney-based Irishman and Whitbread Round the World Race legend Gordon Maguire.

Maluka - certain to be one of the oldest and smallest yachts in this year's Rolex Fastnet Race. Sean Langman's 9m 1932 vintage gaff-rigged classic is being shipping to the UK from Australia Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

Post-WW2 ‘modern classics’ are also well represented. One of the most successful yachts of the 1960s, and perhaps the first modern day maxi, returns for a second consecutive time: the 22.6m ketch Stormvogel was launched in 1961 for Dutch plywood tycoon Cornelius Bruynzeel. His ties to the Fastnet Race are strong having won the 1937 race outright aboard his S&S yawl Zeearend. The 1961 Fastnet was Stormvogel’s first ever race, and she claimed line honours before heading off a successful globe-trotting program that took in the Newport-Bermuda, Gotland Runt, Transpac, Sydney Hobart, China Sea Race, Middle Sea, among others. Proving to be still highly competitive 60 years on, in the 2021 Fastnet Race she finished seventh overall of 181 finishers in IRC Overall.

The 1961 22.6m ketch Stormvogel returns for her second Rolex Fastnet Race Photo: Kurt Arrigo

Two of Stormvogel’s original competitors from the 1960s are competing this year. It will be the first time Germania VI (of a similar size and vintage to Stormvogel, only built in welded aluminium to a Sparkman & Stephens design) will compete in the Fastnet Race. Originally built for the Krupp family, she has spent most of the last 50 years being used for training young sailors and has competed in many of the world’s top offshore races, including Newport-Bermuda, Buenos Aires-Rio and several transatlantics. The program was rejuvenated in 2016 and is now led by a trio of skippers, including Jens Seiderer and Katrin Hilbert, both of whom have previously competed in RORC major offshore events such as the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race, Fastnet Race and Caribbean 600 aboard Norddeutsche Vermögen Hamburg and Haspa Hamburg.

“The Fastnet Race is the perfect benchmark to show that we and Germania VI have developed and that we can also meet current standards and not just have to live off the glory of earlier times,” explains Seiderer, who will compete with a crew including five more experienced sailors and five trainees aged 16-30.

Largely original, Germania VI has been upgraded to make her more usable: “Four years ago we replaced the 8m long aluminium spinnaker pole, which needed three people to lift it, to a much lighter carbon one,” says Seiderer.

Young trainee sailors will be competing on board the 1963 aluminium classic Germania VI Photo: Lasse Eklof 

A close relation of Germania VI and frequent rival of Stormvogel is another aluminium S&S design, the 73ft Kialoa II, originally launched as a sloop (but now a yawl) and campaigned heavily throughout the 1960s by American Jim Kilroy. Compared to Stormvogel, Kialoa II’s program was more US-based, but the two competed notably in the 1967 Transpac when Stormvogel won line honours.

After Kilroy moved on to his first IOR maxi, Kialoa II changed hands and was eventually acquired by present owners Paddy and Keith Broughton. Both are highly experienced yachtsman having campaigned the Swan 51 Grandee since the mid-1990s in races from the Fastnet Race to the Sydney Hobart and Kenwood Cup. In 2016 they graduated up to Kialoa II with the aim of following a similar program to Kilroy’s at his height: entering both the  Fastnet Race and Sydney Hobart in 2017 and sailing between the two. For this year’s Fastnet Race they are delivering Kialoa II from Sydney on her own bottom, a voyage due to have gone via Cape Horn until some forestay issues forced them to divert to Tahiti. At the time of writing, Kialoa II was en route to Panama.

Furthest travelled? Paddy and Keith Broughton's Kialoa II is being sailed all the way from Sydney, Australia to compete in the Fastnet Race in July Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

A more modest yacht of this vintage is Pierre Legoupil’s Cherbourg-based Le Loup Rouge, which although French owned is a British design, a 1962 11m Maïca from the board of former RORC Commodore John Illingworth and Angus Primrose. Lowest rated in the 2021 Fastnet Race, Le Loup Rouge was last to arrive in her homeport, winning the Galley Slaves Trophy. She remains in excellent condition and although kept in her original ‘spirit’ has been discretely upgraded with aluminium boom and spinnaker pole, a modern engine and fittings and Dacron sails.

This year will see strong competition for the Sparkman & Stephens Trophy, appropriate given that the famous design house’s reputation was forged upon the success of Dorade, back-to-back overall winner in both 1931 and 1933. In addition to the famous maxis mentioned, are a plethora of S&S designs, especially from Nautor – the Swan 36, 43, 441, 48, 55 and 65. Winner of the Trophy in 2021, and returning for 2023, is stalwart competitor Harry J. Heijst and his S&S 41 Winsome, along with another Fastnet Race regular Ben Morris’ Brixham-based Swan 55 Lulotte, the 2019 winner who will be competing in his tenth Fastnet. 

Pierre Legoupil’s Cherbourg-based 1962 Maïca Le Loup Rouge Photo: PierrickContin.fr

In addition, there is the welcome return of Sunstone, the 1965 S&S 39 aboard which Tom and Vicky Jackson hoovered up most available RORC silverware in the late 1980s/early 90s, before being taken on a massive 200,000 mile round the world cruise until 2015. . Sunstone’s new custodian is Will Taylor-Jones. Richard Loftus’ Swan 65 ketch Desperado of Cowes has possibly raced more Fastnets than any other yacht and returns. Usually with a crew including several Whitbread Round the World Race legends, Desperado is renowned for its black tie dinners at the Fastnet Rock, but is always raced hard - in 1989 (when the race was scored under three different rating systems) she won overall under CHS.

Making the trip once again across from the USA is the S&S 49 Hiro Maru campaigned by Hiroshi Nakajima. A former Transpac and SORC class winner under her original name Scaramouche, Hiro Maru with her present owner won her class in the 2019 west to east Transatlantic Race before going on to compete in that year’s Fastnet Race, returning again 2021.

For Finland’s Tapio Lehtinen, the race will be a warm-up before he takes his Swan 55 Galiana round the world in September’s Ocean Globe Race. This will also be the case for the Mauric 60 Neptune, which competed in the second Whitbread Round the World Race in 1977-78 under France’s Bernard de Guy but is now skippered by Tan Raffray. Neptune started the 1977 Fastnet Race, but never finished.

Also returning is the Nicholson 55 Quailo III, originally built for RORC Commodore Don Parr, that finished second overall in the 1971 Fastnet Race before going on to represent the UK in the 1973 Admiral’s Cup and in that year’s Sydney Hobart.

S&S 49 Hiro Maru campaigned by Hiroshi Nakajima Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

The 50th edition of the Fastnet Race starts from Cowes, Isle of Wight on Saturday, 22nd July.