After a couple of years of remote communication through pandemic times, Saturday’s Irish Cruiser Racer Association AGM & Conference in the National YC had such an already-packed agenda - and in an inevitably socialising setup too - that getting the best value from having multiple majors winner Tom Kneen of Plymouth as star speaker seemed like a challenge too far.

Yet the affable Fastnet Race overall winner and RORC multiple champion was well up to optimising the time available. We asked a senior sailing administrator, who is also a successful offshore campaigner of more than three decades experience in trophy-winning to international level, to note his impressions. As he says himself, while he’d every intention of producing a simple list of bullet points, Tom’s performance was a swift-running story in itself, so bullet points disappeared in face of a smooth-flowing narrative. Our seasoned observer, who prefers to remain anonymous, takes up the tale:

Tom Kneen on the helm, with Sunrise closing in towards the win of a lifetime at the finish of the Rolex Fastnet Race 2021

“Tom is quite a guy, and exudes a sparkle and smiling personality that I've not seen so completely anywhere before – he has charisma in spades. Not only a skilled skipper in every sense of the word, but a superb yet down-to-earth orator too, and he'll no doubt be in demand for after-dinner speaking once the word gets out.

I got the sense that he is a racing sailor only because he loves every second of it - this despite the occasional and normal discomfort of offshore sailing. He's 37 years old, lives in Plymouth, runs a green energy company called Ethical Power which is based in Exeter, and is a long time member of the Royal Western Yacht Club at his home port, having ignited his flame for the sport in Mirror dinghies.

And the fact that the Royal Western YC “lost” the Rolex Fastnet Race finish for the first time in 2021, with the fleet concluding the new-look race in Cherbourg, made it doubly sweet that a RWYC member should win it with such style.

174TH IN FIRST FASTNET RACE……..

With life focused on building his energy business which he founded in his twenties, his period of having the resources and the time to give some concentration to offshore racing has been relatively brief. He told us of his pre-race preparations for his first (2015) Fastnet Race in his Elan 360 (also called Sunrise), and how before starting the continuing campaign, he Googled 'Fastnet Rock' to discover where it was……he finished 174th.

He explained that in his ambition to improve, he had mixed experience when taking pro sailors on board, and concluded that it was better to sail with his mates - have fun, but race hard and be competitive. He bought a JPK10.80 and raced in the 2017 Fastnet, finishing in 11th place in Class 3 (two places behind Dun Laoghaire's Kenny Rumball in the J109 'Jedi').

Friends together and winning – the Sunrise crew are declared the Fastnet Race’s favourites to win as they cross the line – and they did win too. Having conserved their energy for the extra miles in the final stages of the new longer course, they swept through the fleet’s times to victory in the concluding legs to the finish.

Everything seemed to 'click' in 2019 when he first started to figure significantly in the RORC results frame. and he mentioned that adding Kiwi sailor Dave Sweet to the team for the Rolex Middle Sea Race was a pivotal decision. Being Tom, he managed to enthuse the experienced pro to join the crew without paying him (at least initially), and explained how he fitted perfectly into the team without corrupting the friendship and 'fun' bond that Tom had obviously sought and skillfully crafted in his “crew of friends” up to that point.

Tom's plan and schedule centres around competing in the 'Grand Prix' offshore events – he’s clearly wanting to get his hands on a Rolex at every opportunity….. His team's experience and talent is honed during the busy RORC calendar and it was during one of the short offshore races in 2020 that they realised their limits when they lost the rig on their newest 'Sunrise', a JPK 11.80.

TEAMWORK OF STRATEGY AND RESERVING ENERGY

He explained that this was also a crucial discovery and taught the team a lesson in pacing and reserving for the long-haul. They don't hike the boat offshore. Non-active crew are instead sent below to rest and reserve energy - a tactic that he explained as being a powerful tool. They also use two navigators for the same reason, although it would strike me as being a risky strategy in a team that is anything other that completely trusting of each others’ talents while knowing their limitations. 

This was revealing and might be the secret ingredient in Sunrise's success - it is a proper team of exceptional mutual trust and understanding. This teamwork and strategy of reserving energy was to be the winning of the 2021 Fastnet Race, along with some skilled interpretation of the satcom weather data which kept them in the fresher conditions on the return leg and eventually finishing 140 miles ahead of many of their principal competitors.

Tom's humility in respect of his stratospheric rise to the top of Corinthian racing is another remarkable trait. He is quick to assert that the results follow his philosophy of 'having fun with your mates' but pushing as hard as they can. He seems motivated by a 'David and Goliath' attitude, and this was never more evident than after the finish of the 2021 Rolex Middle Sea Race, when victory was snatched from Sunrise by the supermaxi 'Comanche' after a less-than-glorious moment from the International Jury.

STEELY DETERMINATION CLOAKED BY ENGAGING GRIN 

While Tom was appreciative of the generous and consoling Mitch Booth (Comanche skipper), the decision to deny Sunrise the win clearly torments the cheerful Kneen, who told us that it's still a very raw subject with him. It was interesting to hear that from him, and gave me a glimpse of the steely determination and ambition that is cloaked by the cheerful grin that never seems to leave his face. He told us that he expects that most sailors will say that “the ultimate pleasure is small boats beating big boats” and that Sunrise is “comfortable as an underdog”. So perhaps that's unfinished business for him, but it's unlikely that his JPK11.80 team will be portrayed as 'underdogs' in future events, even against Goliathan opposition.

“Just a crew of friends out for a fun race……” The formidable Sunrise Team is now proven as one of the best in the world

In fact, Tom Kneen with Sunrise and his shipmates – a regular mix of male and female - are now the team to beat, regardless of boat size. They’re world league, yet solidly locally-based. And what goes round comes round. During a chat over the mid-conference lunch in the National Yacht Club along with incoming ICRA Commodore Dave Cullen and fellow Half Tonner Class member Jonny Swan, Tom revealed that he had raced Ron Holland's classic Half Tonner 'Silver Shamrock' (World Champion 1976 at Trieste with Harold Cudmore) in her restored form, sailing double-handed with fellow West Country man Stuart Greenfield as part of his own steep offshore racing learning curve.

Silver Shamrock is now Howth-based, and owned as the family pet boat by Conor Fogerty, who is currently training in the Bay of Biscay with his Figaro 3 Raw. So it goes on. We could have comfortably shot the breeze on offshore topics and gossip all afternoon with Tom Kneen. But the conference business had to resume, while a plane was waiting for Tom at Weston to fly him back to Plymouth. He took his departure, leaving ICRA members with the glowing impression that with the right personality, attitude and skills set, all offshore racing goals are possible.”