With less than a month before the start of the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race, IRC Three boasts the largest class competing with 88 teams entered from at least 10 different countries. IRC Three has a cornucopia of boat designs, mainly raced by amateur crews. However, amongst these Corinthian sailors is a rich vein of world class professionals, especially racing in the Two-Handed discipline. In recent editions, IRC Three has produced two overall winners of the race - Pascal and Alexis Loison racing Two-Handed with Night and Day (2013) and Gery Trentesaux’s fully-crewed Courrier Du Leon (2015).

Two-Handed Warriors

The vast majority of the 2021 Fastnet Race’s IRC Two-Handed teams will be racing in IRC Three. The double-handed discipline has become hugely popular, almost doubling in the number of entries over the last decade. The 49th edition is set to eclipse the 64 entries in the 2019 race.

2013 was a golden edition for the father and son duo, Pascal and Alexis Loison, racing JPK 1010 Night and Day to overall victory. Alexis Loison’s success continued in 2019 with JPK 1030 Léon. Racing with the boat’s builder Jean Pierre Kelbert, Léon was the winner of IRC Three and IRC Two-Handed. Léon was leading the Two-Handed Class by 17 minutes at the Fastnet Rock but won the class by nearly five hours by the finish. “After the Rock we had strong reaching conditions with big seas,” recalls Alexis Loison. “With the A5 spinnaker up we were surfing at 19 knots and by the time we reached the Scilly Isles we were with IRC One!”

For the 2021 edition, Alexis will race Léon with a rising star. Guillaume Pirouelle excelled in the 470 Class, won the Tour de France à la voile, and was selected to skipper Region Normandie in the Figaro Class. Should the pair taste success in this year’s race, the two Normans will undoubtedly receive a hero’s welcome in Alexis’ home port of Cherbourg.

“We don’t think about the finish; all of our effort is put into preparing Léon for the race,” continued Alex. “The competition in the Two-Handed Class is very strong from the British Sun Fast teams and like Léon, they will be very fast in strong reaching conditions.”

Past winner, Alexis Loison will race Léon with Guillaume Pirouelle in IRC Three Photo: Carlo Borlenghi/Rolex

British Two-Handed teams competing for glory in IRC Three include the leading team for the class in the 2021 RORC Season’s Points Championship. Rob Craigie’s Sun Fast 3600 Bellino, racing with Deb Fish. Bellino’s best Fastnet Race to date was 2017 with a third in both classes. Between them, Rob and Deb have competed in 18 races.

“We're as always excited by the pinnacle race of the season,” commented Deb Fish. “It's a fascinating course with lots of challenges for the navigator and we have already started analysing the tides and strategies for passing Alderney for the new course. We would love to do better than our 2017 result, but that will be a tall order with the influx of boats and talent into the class.”

A new Two-Handed pairing this year and proven race winners are James Harayda and Dee Caffari racing Sun Fast 3300 Gentoo. Dee has vast offshore experience, including the Volvo Ocean Race, six Round the World races, the Vendée Globe, and was the first woman to sail solo, non-stop around the world in both directions. James competed in 2019 on Gallivanter and is looking forward to the new course and tactical decisions that come with it. “I love the race for the adventure, excitement and challenge and am looking forward to the new finish destination of Cherbourg,” said Harayda.

Henry Bomby and Shirley Robertson will be racing Sun Fast 3300 Swell in the Rolex Fastnet Race. Henry was second in the Two-Handed Class in 2019, racing Fastrak XI with Hannah Diamond. Four times Figaro sailor Henry Bomby also competed in the last Volvo Ocean Race and this will be his fifth Rolex Fastnet Race. Shirley Robertson was the first British woman to claim consecutive gold medals in the Olympics. This will be Shirley’s third race, but she is under no illusion that it will be a very different experience, racing doublehanded in the Fastnet Race for the first time.

2015 Two-Handed winners Kelvin Rawlings and Stuart Childerley will be racing Kelvin’s Sun Fast 3300 Aries. Kelvin is an amateur sailor with decades of big boat racing success. Stuart is a two-time Etchells World Champion and double-Olympian. Stuart will be racing after returning from the Tokyo Games where he is Race Officer for the Finn Class. The Aries crew has a combined age of 126 years. Earlier in the 2021 season, Aries put in a winning performance beating both Bellino and Gentoo. "It’s all down to Stuart Childerley, I am only the labourer on the bow!" joked Rawlings. "Our aim is to win by sailing as best and as hard as we can. I enjoy every second of it.”

Veteran racer Alex Bennett will be racing Two-Handed with fellow pro-sailor, Conrad Humphreys in his 1984 Swan 46 Ginny B. The British teams accolades run off the page with Bennett excelling in the Mini Transat and Class40 arena, whilst Humphreys’ success includes winning skipper in the BT Global Challenge and completing the Vendée Globe.

“The challenge is always bigger when you go shorthanded and it offers the greatest challenge over this kind of course,” says Bennett, who is in awe of the IRC Two-Handed fleet. “It is huge - like the Mini Transat fleet in terms of numbers.” Bennett first sailed the Fastnet Race in 1995, when, aged 19, he led the Fastnet Youth Challenge to second place in class aboard a Sigma 36.”

Rob Craigie and Deb Fish will compete Two-Handed on Sun Fast 3600 Bellino Photo: James Tomlinson  

James Harayda and Dee Caffari racing Sun Fast 3300 Gentoo © James Tomlinson

Team Bomby/Robertson: Henry Bomby and Shirley Robertson on Sun Fast 3300 Swell in the Rolex Fastnet Race Photo: Paul Wyeth

 2015 Two-Handed winners Kelvin Rawlings and Stuart Childerley will be racing Kelvin’s Sun Fast 3300 Aries Photo: Paul Wyeth

Fully Crewed Internationals

Over half of the teams racing in IRC Three for the Rolex Fastnet Race will be competing with a full crew. With team rotation and all hands on deck for manoeuvres, these teams can push their boats harder for longer than their doublehanded adversaries. Whilst the Two-Handed favourites come from France and Great Britain, there is a rich diversity of nationalities racing fully crewed with British and French teams joined by crews from Belgium, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Russia and the United States.

This will be the fourth Rolex Fastnet Race in a row for the Black Sheep crew. Trevor Middleton bought the Sun Fast 3600 from new to win the 2019 RORC Season’s Championship overall. “Always nice to round the Rock and I’m looking forward to seeing what the different route is like,” commented Middleton. The Rolex Fastnet Race is always a ‘must do race’ on the calendar. We like the bigger races, Rolex Fastnet, RORC Caribbean 600, Rolex Middle Sea etc. The most difficult part is getting to the start line with everything ready and prepared, but the race is simply a classic which will be hard to miss when the time comes to stop racing. I will be competing with a crew of friends who have sailed together for a while, skippered by Jake Carter.”

One of the fancied French teams, racing fully crewed in IRC Three, will be Louis-Marie Dussere’s JPK 1080 Raging-Bee², which will be racing to their home port of Cherbourg. Racing Raging-Bee² raced Two-Handed in the 2019 edition and was third in class. The fully crewed Raging-Bee² was in fine form for the recent Cowes-Dinard-St Malo Race, winning IRC Three. “It is wonderful to race again in Cowes and see all our English friends on the starting line,” commented Dussere. “We know that we are very good upwind against the top competition, so, we hope there will be a lot of upwind components to the race.”

The fourth Rolex Fastnet Race for 2019 RORC Season’s Points Championship winners - Trevor Middleton's Sun Fast 3600 Black Sheep Photo: Paul Wyeth 

Racing fully crewed in IRC Three back to their home port of Cherbourg will be Louis-Marie Dussere’s JPK 1080 Raging-Bee² Photo: Paul Wyeth

Denis Murphy and Royal Cork Yacht Club Rear Admiral, Annamarie Fegan will be racing Irish Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo for the Fastnet Race. The tactician will be one of Ireland’s top sailors, Nicholas O’Leary, who has competed in three races, including doublehanded with Alex Thomson on IMOCA60 HUGO BOSS. The Nieulargo crew includes 21-year-old Harry Durcan, a champion Optimist, Laser and 29er sailor, and Killian Collins who represented Ireland in the 2004 Olympic Games.

“All of the crew are from Cork, including Denis’ two daughters Mia and Molly who are the principal drivers, and bow woman extraordinaire, Cliodhna Connolly,” commented Nicholas. “We had a good result winning the Dun Laoghaire Dingle Race overall this year, to add to a win in the Dun Laoghaire to Cork race in 2020. Nieulargo will be proudly representing the Royal Cork Yacht Club and as always, it will be a special moment in the race when we round the Fastnet Rock.”

Fifteen J/109 teams have entered the Fastnet Race for the J/109 Trophy, 12 will be racing in IRC Three. One of the fancied performers in the J/109s will be Mike Yates’ JAGO, racing Two-Handed with Eivind Bøymo-Malm. This will be Mike Yates’ first Fastnet Race after 30 years of racing, which includes winning the Commodores’ Cup (way back when), Etchells, Ultras, Skiffs, Mumm30, Ton-class racing, as well as various transatlantics. Yates is also aiming for a top 10 in the Two-Handed class.

Six classic design yachts have entered the Fastnet Race in IRC Three, including Robert Nichols’ Swan 48 Snow Wolf, Ben Morris’ Swan 55 yawl Lulotte and Swan 48 Dantes sailed by Michael Orgzey. Hiroshi Nakajima’s American S&S 49 Hiro Maru is a one-off aluminium yacht designed in 1969 for the original owner Chuck Kirsch. In 2019, Hiro, with his all-amateur Corinthian crew, sailed to victory in the Transatlantic Race, taking first in class for the 3,200nm race.

Denis Murphy and Royal Cork YC Rear Admiral, Annamarie Fegan will be racing Irish Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo, with tactician Nicholas O’Leary Photo: Afloat.ie

One of the fancied performers in the J/109s will be Mike Yates’ JAGO, racing Two-Handed with Eivind Bøymo-Malm Photo: Rick Tomlinson

Hiroshi Nakajima’s American S&S 49 Hiro Maru is a one-off aluminium yacht designed in 1969 Photo: Rick Tomlinson

The myriad of boat designs and crews racing in IRC Three mirrors the character of theFastnet Race. From its inception in 1925, the race has proven highly influential in the growth of offshore racing and remains closely linked to advances in yacht design and sailing technique. As always, the winner of the class will be the team that sails a near perfect race. The weather then decides if the class winner will win the Fastnet Race overall, but with recent winners of the race coming from IRC Three, this class will be one to watch.

Among many hot boats in IRC Two will be the JPK 1180, big brother to the JPK 10.10 Night and Day and 10.80 Courrier Du Leon, which won the Rolex Fastnet Races in 2013 and 2015 respectively. This year five of those potent IRC performers are entered in the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s premier event: Eric Fries' Fastwave 6 and Richard Fromentin's Cocody from France, Astrid de Vin's Il Corvo from the Netherlands and from the UK, Ed Bell's Dawn Treader and Thomas Kneen's Sunrise.

Veteran of the Volvo Ocean Race, Dave Swete is sailing master on board Sunrise this season. The Hamble-based Kiwi professional is looking forward to sailing with her young crew, who earlier this season finished third from 112 finishers in the RORC’s Myth of Malham Race, covering the first part of the Rolex Fastnet Race race course down to the Eddystone Lighthouse. Owner Tom Kneen is only 36 and many of his crew are part of the RORC’s long term initiative to develop racing for Under 35s, run by the club’s Griffin Committee. Swete sees great value in the programme: “In the UK I think there is a link that is missing between people who come out of university or school or out of dinghies and into keelboats.

“On Sunrise we have a youth crew who are all amateurs, apart from me, and up and coming sailors who might make a career out of it. We have three girls on board – in fact, I don’t know a Performance 40 that doesn’t have a girl on board. It is quite an inclusive class like that.” (Swete is also Class Manager for the Performance 40 class, which straddles IRC One and Two in the Rolex Fastnet Race.

Eric Fries and his crew on Fastwave 6 are seen as quiet favourites for winning IRC Two, a dark horse to watch out for in this fiercely contested class. Under her former guise of Adam Gosling’s Yes!, Dawn Treader was a proven performer and Ed Bell continues to campaign her very seriously.

Tom Kneen's JPK 1180 Sunrise - helping to foster offshore sailing opportunities for under 35s Photo: Rick Tomlinson

Just as serious, but always with a smile on their faces, are the crew of Richard Fromentin’s Cocody. Crewman Nicolas Dupard comments: “Our main goal is to win on corrected time in our class. At least we are aiming for a top three! In the end, the most important thing for us is to have done the most to achieve our goal, even if we've not won the race.

“We are all good friends, and we are pretty sure that if we’ve done our best, we will have a lot of fun on this fantastic race. As a private joke, we call ourselves “Cocody’s Rangers” - and a Ranger never gives up! Do not hesitate to inform our competitors! Also, we noticed that Rolex Fastnet Race ‘RFR’ could be the ‘Richard Fromentin Race’! Maybe it will bring us luck for this year.”

Bringing a huge amount of experience from competing in the previous six Rolex Fastnet Races is Nicolas Loday and Jean Claude Nicoleau’s Grand Soleil 43 Codiam. Their track record includes IRC One victories in 2009 and 2011 and overall finishes of tenth and seventh in 2017 and 2011 respectively.

The J Boat family will be out in force for the Rolex Fastnet Race and are well represented in IRC Two. Stuart Lawrence and his crew on the J/120 Scream 2 have been making a noise in JOG races this season. If the wind direction sets up the course for a reach to the Rock and back, Lawrence & Co. will have a scream on corrected time.

Of the J/111s lining up in this division, pick of the bunch is probably SL Energies skippered by Laurent Charmy, who finished third overall under IRC in last season’s Drheam Cup.

Corinne Migraine co-owns the successful J/133 Pintia with her father Gilles Fournier. This family team are very long-term supporters of RORC races and fare very well in them too - this year’s second place overall in the Myth of Malham being a perfect example. Fournier is proud of his family line-up on board. “I sail with my daughter Corinne, my grandson Victor Migraine and my two nephews - Yan and Thomas Fournier. We are all from the Société des Régates du Havre, the best sailing school in France.”

Seventh Rolex Fastnet Race for Nicolas Loday and Jean Claude Nicoleau - Grand Soleil 43 Codiam Photo: Rolex/Kurt Arrigo

J/111 SL Energies skippered by Laurent Charmy Photo: Paul Wyeth

Another French family with a long and strong association with the Rolex Fastnet Race are the Catherineaus. Back in that fateful year of 1979, Alain Catherineau risked his life coming to the rescue of seven sailors on board the RORC’s youth training yacht Griffin, skippered by Stuart Quarrie. For his efforts, he was voted the YJA Yachtsman of the Year for 1979. Despite that bruising experience, he continues to come back to the race and with great competitive spirit. Skippered by his daughter Marie, and with his other daughter Anne-Sophie on board, the J/122 Lorelei has won the RORC’s La Trinité Race and will be a serious contender in IRC Two.

Sistership to Lorelei, British skipper Andy Theobald’s J/122 R&W is another serious player in this class. Theobald loves to bring in employees from his R&W civil engineering business to share the pleasures and challenges of offshore racing with him. Another to watch will be Christopher Daniel’s J/122e Juno, the 2019 Champion in the Performance 40 class.

Several ‘modern classic’ yachts from the 1960s and 1970s are competing in the race. Among them is the Nicholson 55, Eager, owned by yacht broker Chris Cecil-Wright and skippered by RORC Committee member Richard Powell. Eager was the first Nicholson 55 to be launched when she was known as the Lloyd’s of London Yacht Club’s Lutine until she was sold in 1999. The yacht has since undergone a massive rebuild and modernisation, including the fitting of a much-enlarged sail plan based around a carbon spar, a new rudder, deck, deck layout and superstructure, and complete interior, layout and systems. Expect Eager to be well sailed and very competitive in IRC 2, as several stars of the INEOS Team UK America’s Cup crew are expected to step on board for the ride.

Richard Powell's Nicholson 55 Eager - one of several ‘modern classic’ yachts from the 1960s and 1970s competing in the Rolex Fastnet Race Photo: Paul Wyeth

A few latter-day America’s Cup veterans, such as Paul Standbridge will also be on Desperado of Cowes, the Swan 65 ketch owned since 1986 by Richard Loftus. For this year’s race Loftus’ crew has an average age of 65 to compete with him in his tenth Rolex Fastnet Race. Over the years Loftus has enjoyed success with Desperado, notably in 1989 when his heavyweight ketch and upwind weapon won CHS overall. Desperado also enjoyed the breezy 2007 race, when they found themselves well in the lead at the Fastnet Rock under corrected time, only to be overhauled downwind on the way back. Nonetheless, the Swan 65 still finished 7th overall under IRC. 

Even older than Desperado, but almost identical under IRC rating, is Refanut. This 63ft Sparkman & Stephens design was built in Stockholm in 1955, originally for Swedish banker and industrialist Jacob Wallenberg. She is now being campaigned by his grandson Fredrik Wallenburg who can’t wait to get going on his second assault on the Rolex Fastnet Race. “Our first was in 2015. Now, as then, it is still a bucket list race for most of the crew.” Refanut has been raced extensively since her launch in 2015, mostly in the Baltic (the Gotland Runt race being the annual tradition), but she’s also had some success in the Mediterranean, as well as in Newport, Rhode Island.

“The crew is a mixture of my friends (around 50) and my younger brothers group (30 or so). I’d love to call it brains and brawn, but the biggest brawn is in my group and there is no telling where the brains are!” Fredrik and his brother Peder are passionate about continuing to race Refanut. Other notables on the crew are the former Commodore of the Royal Swedish Yacht Club, Staffan Salén, and the owner/helmsman of Team Inga from Sweden, Richard Göransson.”

A family affair on the 1955 Sparkman & Stephens Refanut - Fredrik Wallenberg is campaigning the boat built for his Grandfather

One of the biggest ‘races within a race’ will be between the 18 First 40s competing, most falling within the minimum 1.070 IRC TCC limit for the Performance 40 class. Many are making the trip to Cowes from different corners of Europe. Gianrocco Catalano and his Italian crew on Mon Ile Tevere Remo enjoy good results in the Mediterranean including an overall IRC victory in the 151 Miglia-Trofeo Cetilar race. Håkan Grönvall, from the Royal Swedish Yacht Club (KSSS) is bringing his First 40 C-Me the 1,200 nautical miles from Stockholm to compete.

Alexander Vodovatov, the head of Russian offshore racing club, SeaVentus, is chartering the First 40, Zada, having previously chartered a Farr 50 for the 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race, followed by a J/122 in 2019. “For my club this will be the fifth time in the Rolex Fastnet Race,” said Vodovatov. “We respect this race. We know its history and traditions, and we never miss an opportunity to compete in this legendary race.”

Finally, another strong IRC Two contender will be serial RORC entrant Ross Applebey’s Scarlet Oyster, whose family has been campaigning their Oyster Lightwave 48 continuously for 30 years. During this time they have racked up numerous race wins and class victories in notably the Rolex Fastnet Race and RORC Caribbean 600. In 2019, Scarlet Oyster won overall both the gnarly De Guingand Bowl and the Cowes-Dinard-St Malo. This year, at the time of writing, Applebey’s red flyer is sitting third in IRC Two in the RORC’s 2021 Seasons Point Championship behind Sunrise and Dawn Treader.

Ross Applebey’s Oyster Lightwave 48 Scarlet Oyster has racked up numerous race wins and class victories notably in the Rolex Fastnet Race and RORC Caribbean 600 Photo: ELWJ Photos

IRC One will be one of the toughest battlegrounds within the Rolex Fastnet Race, and the French will be a hard act to beat. Among the leading contenders are Jacques Pelletier’s Milon 41 L'Ange De Milon which won IRC One in the 2019 edition. Runner-up to Pelletier in 2019 was outright race winner in 2017, Didier Gaudoux’s JND39, Lann Ael 2. Gaudoux is returning with the same boat and much of the same victorious crew, who will be part family and part offshore experts such as Figaro veteran Fred Duthil.

There have been few indicators of offshore form over the past 18 months but Lann Ael 2 did win the IRC division in the 2020 edition of the Drheam Cup, ahead of Eric Fries' JPK 11.80 Fastwave 6 and Laurent Charmy's J/111 SL Energies Groupe Fastwave, both of whom will be competing in the Rolex Fastnet Race in IRC Two.

Philippe Frantz always puts a good campaign together with his NMD 43 Albator. Launched in 2017, Albator was immediately fast out of the shed, with class wins in the RORC Caribbean 600 and the Rolex Middle Sea Race, where she also finished third overall. This will be Frantz’s second attempt at the Rolex Fastnet Race, with a crew from a variety of high-level offshore backgrounds.

From the same designers as Albator, Phosphorus II is a one-off Archambault 13. Formerly Teasing Machine when successfully campaigned by Eric de Turckheim, Mark Emerson bought the boat in 2017 and has continued to prove the A13’s pedigree. In 2019 the crew campaigned on the RORC offshore circuit extensively, scoring two class wins, one overall win, plus multiple other podiums and were second overall for the season in IRC One and fourth in IRC overall.

Overall winner in the 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race - Didier Gaudoux’s JND39 Lann Ael 2 © Paul Wyeth/pwpictures.com

Second attempt at the Rolex Fastnet Race for Philippe Frantz's team on his NMD 43 Albator © Tim Wright

There’s a strong British contingent from the FAST 40+ class that spend a lot of time short-course racing in the Solent, but some of which are capable of gearing up for going offshore. Names to watch include Dutchman Bastiaan Voogd’s Hitchhiker, although the boat has been out of the water for a year. With her water ballast and lighter bulb set-up Ed Fishwick’s Redshift could excel in light winds, whereas in stronger conditions the advantage will move towards RORC Commodore James Neville’s Ino XXX who has recent form in winning the 2021 Cowes Dinard St Malo race. Twin rudders and high-clew reaching sails make this HH42 well suited to fast and furious offshore conditions.

The slightly lower rated Performance 40 fleet (read more about them here) will provide a fascinating ‘race within a race’, with more than 50 boats spanning two classes, IRC One and IRC Two, dependent on their IRC rating. As a concept the Performance 40 has only been around for three years but it has quickly captured the imagination of many sailors. Christopher Daniel, owner of the J/122E Juno, which won the Performance 40’s second season in 2019, says the creation of the category was successful from the outset. While most of their racing is done inshore on windward-leewards, Daniel points out: “Most Performance 40s are perfectly capable of going offshore. This theory that your boat is either an inshore or an offshore racer is wrong.” And so we have 50-odd boats setting out to prove Daniel’s point.

Creating the Performance 40 category has given many boats a renewed lease of life. Robert Bottomley has transferred the name Sailplane from his First 40 in favour of a MAT 12. Others to watch in this field include David Cummins’s potent Ker 39 Rumbleflurg, formerly RORC Admiral Mike Greville’s Erivale. While the Performance 40s’ bread-and-butter racing might be windward-leeward contests in the Solent, if regular southwesterlies kick in for the out and back trip to the Fastnet Rock, they could do very well under IRC.

INO XXX at the Fastnet Rock © Rolex/Kurt Arrigo

Dutchman Bastiaan Voogd’s FAST 40+ Hitchhiker

Performance 40 - David Cummins’s Ker 39 Rumbleflurg © Paul Wyeth/pwpictures.com

Christopher Daniel's J/122E Juno, winner of the Performance 40’s second season in 2019 © Rick Tomlinson

Rock Lobster is a J/121 owned by Nick Angel. Crewman Jonathan Boyd describes himself as ‘the other old guy’ on the crew. “Our immediate goal is to beat the other J/121 in the fleet. Darkwood has been having a great season and is really competitive, so if we beat those guys we'd be pretty chuffed and we would probably have finished in a respectable place. Most of our crew are young and small - Nick and I are the only ones with any 'weight' - so we're hoping the wind doesn't blow too hard! The youngest is Willow, 21 years old, a student at Exeter University and weighs about 8 stone. She is a great sailor - a member of Exeter Uni's team - and doesn't let her lack of weight get in the way of any of the physical jobs on the boat.”

Being based out of Ipswich, the Rock Lobster crew don’t really know where they will fit in with the rest of the fleet having trained mostly on their own. “We're based on the East coast and there haven't been many races up here this season for us to practise. The North Sea race was cancelled and the East Coast Race will be the only significant test before we head south to the Solent. We have been concentrating on training days, relearning the manoeuvres that we unlearned last season when almost nothing happened.”

Boyd anticipates a good welcome in Cherbourg at the end of this new course being run for the first time. “We’re really looking forward to it. We thought the finish in Plymouth was underwhelming. I'm confident that the city of Cherbourg is going to make more of an effort and I am expecting a greater sense of celebration at the finish.”

Darkwood will certainly be one to watch for a division win. Owner Michael O’Donnell, along with Steve Lawrence, have done a lot of optimisation to the boat, moving the ballast, and have an overlapping, triple-head rig for some serious downwind horsepower which helped them win the RORC Channel Race in 2019. A 4th place in this year’s Myth of Malham also bodes well for this immaculately prepared crew.

Stockholm, about 1200 miles of sailing away from Cowes, is a long way to come for a 600-mile race. But Swedish entry, an Elliot 44 CR called Matador, is well used to big journeys for milestone races. Twice winner of ‘Offshore Sailor of the Year’ in Sweden, Matador’s crew have competed in several editions of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, Rolex Middle Sea Race, RORC Caribbean 600 and two Rolex Fastnet Races.

Rock Lobster is a J/121 owned by Nick Angel and sailed with a young crew © Paul Wyeth/pwpictures.com

Michael O’Donnell's optimised J/121 Darkwood took 4th place overall in the recent Myth of Malham race Photo: Paul Wyeth

For Demian Smith, owner of XP44 Simples, the racing is just one component of the overall experience. “We are primarily a group of friends and family who have all met through various sailing events and clubs. With a broad range of experience and a desire to push ourselves to always do better, we prioritise safety, happiness and speed in that order.” There’s a strong youth focus in the crew with a number of teenagers on board, the youngest of whom is 15-year-old Freddie Denton, son of Mark Denton who skippered BP Explorer in the 2001/2 BT Global Challenge. Smith is excited about returning to the Rolex Fastnet Race. “It's the world's largest and best offshore race where amateurs can compete with professionals and we can race against some of the best performance yachts in the world.”

Another crew with a strong emphasis on family are the Goubau clan from Belgium aboard their First 47.7 Moana. François Goubau races with his wife and three sons and they have formed into a highly competitive unit. Incredibly this will be the Belgian boat's 10th Rolex Fastnet Race and one of the three sons, Mathieu, will be steering the boat as he has been since the age of 16. Now aged 38, this will be Mathieu’s 11th Rolex Fastnet Race. Since 2005 they have stood on the class podium three times and there’s every possibility they’ll do so again in 2021.

Slightly higher up the size range is Pata Negra, a modern-looking IRC 46 designed by Marc Lombard and built by CSC Composites in 2016. The boat was overall winner of the 2018 Sevenstar Round Britain & Ireland Race, first in class in last year’s RORC Caribbean 600, and second in class in the 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race, and could be a force to be reckoned with in a range of conditions.

The famous 1961 van de Stadt-designed 73ft ketch Stormvogel is on a mission just to get to England, with the boat needing to get from Bodrum in Turkey through the Mediterranean and up the Atlantic. But it’s a historic year for Stormvogel, this being the 60th anniversary since she took line honours in the 1961 race when Francis Chichester was navigator for her original owner Kees Bruynzeel. Recently the boat has been through an extensive refit in Bodrum and according to Stormvogel’s manager and Rolex Fastnet Race skipper Graeme Henry, “Stormvogel is back to a new level of performance while maintaining the original 1961 concept and 1960s’ style.”

A strong youth focus on Demian Smith's XP44 Simples - competing with family and friends as crew © Paul Wyeth/pwpictures.com

Winner of the 2018 Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race - IRC 46 Pata Negra Photo: James Tomlinson

A maxi from the subsequent decade but even more famous in this year’s line-up is Pen Duick VI. The 73ft aluminium maxi competed in the first Whitbread Round the World Race in 1973-74 and then lapped the globe again alongside the second; an unofficial entry due to the spent uranium installed in her keel. Perhaps most amazing was that in between her legendary French skipper, Eric Tabarly, took this same boat in the 1976 Observer Singlehanded Transatlantic Race…and won it.

Another big boat in this division is Tall Ships Youth Trust, one of three Challenger 72s in the race, skippered by Sue Geary. On board is the youngest sailor in the Rolex Fastnet Race, 12-year-old Zoë d'Ornano who, as well as learning the ropes of offshore racing, will also be working hard to raise awareness of the vital work of the Trust and fundraising to give some of the UK’s most disadvantaged young people a life-changing experience at sea. Zoë’s arrival in Cherbourg will also be special because she holds dual French and British nationality.

While the Figaros have their own class this year, two of these 35ft long Beneteau-built foil-equipped speed machines are racing in the IRC fleet in Irishman Conor Fogerty’s Raw and Ross Farrow’s Stormwave 2.0.
According to Didier Gaudoux, the Rolex Fastnet Race’s overall winner in 2017, there is much to look forward to with the finish in Cherbourg. “It will be a new challenge tactically between the Scilly Islands and Cherbourg with the tide. A lot of people will be coming to visit, and the harbour is very close to downtown so it will be a special welcome.”

Zoë d'Ornano - The youngest crew member in the race is raising funds for the Tall Ships Youth Trust is sailing on Challenger 2 © Lay Koon

Pen Duick VI - The 73ft aluminium maxi competed in the first Whitbread Round the World Race in 1973-74 and is being sailed by Marie Tabarly © Pen Duick VI

IRC Zero represents the glamour end of the keelboat fleet in the Rolex Fastnet Race. It’s likely that we’ll see line honours go to one of the maxis in the class, perhaps George David’s 88ft defending line honour champion Rambler 88 (USA), if she can keep the freshly launched ClubSwan 125 Skorpios (MON) at bay.

Traditionally IRC Zero produces the most overall winners. Over the last 10 editions, half have been won by IRC Zero competitors, including Niklas Zennstrom's two-time winner Ran 2, while David and Peter Askew's VO70 Wizard won overall IRC honours and the Fastnet Challenge Cup in 2019.

Aside from the fully professional teams competing aboard the ‘no excuse to lose’ maxis, there is a growing charter market in the Volvo Ocean 65 and Volvo Open 70 boats. These canting-keeled flying machines were thought to be cutting-edge technology less than a decade ago, and initially were considered too powerful and not sufficiently reliable for the keen amateur crew looking to charter a fast ride to the Rock. However, attitudes have shifted as keen sailors have learned the ropes of racing high-powered race boats in a safe and seaworthy manner, and a number of pay-to-play crews are lining up for the adventure of their lives aboard them.

While there are enormous kudos in being first across the finish line in real-time, every racing sailor knows that the real battle is on corrected time under IRC. As winner of another prestigious RORC offshore race, the Myth of Malham - covering the first part of the course to the Eddystone Light and therefore a strong indicator of form for the Rolex Fastnet Race - things appear to be in Tala’s (GBR) favour, although owner David Collins says that on that occasion his Botin-designed 52-footer enjoyed a large dose of good fortune. “We sailed well, but making the last tide gate in a dying breeze is what gave us the result in the Myth of Malham. It is certainly no indicator for the Rolex Fastnet Race. Our aim for the race is, as ever, to sail error-free and keep the boat moving fast.”

Part of the key to Tala’s success is the consistency of personnel. “It’s a fairly settled crew now,” says Collins, whose navigator is the experienced Campbell Field. “Three will be Volvo Ocean Race veterans. We have a couple of strong trimmers and some talented amateurs.” Two families make up five of the crew.

David Collins Botin-designed 52-footer Tala was third overall in IRC and top British finisher in the 2019 Rolex Fastnet Race © Paul Wyeth

RORC Vice Commodore Eric de Turckheim’s Teasing Machine, seen here finishing the RORC Transatlantic Race in Grenada © Arthur Daniel/RORC

Other boats to watch in this size bracket include the ever-competitive Teasing Machine (FRA). Designed by Bernard Nivelt and Alexis Muratet and built by King Marine in Spain, Eric de Turckheim’s Teasing Machine is a powerful 54-footer with soft chines and a cockpit that has been fully optimised for crewed offshore competition.

At the core of the Teasing Machine, campaign is project manager Laurent Pages, a Volvo Ocean Race winner in 2011/12. Above the water, the 54-footer bears strong similarities with a VO70 or VO65, with a similar deck layout and twin companionways with the pit in between. But Teasing Machine is designed to compete under IRC. The major area of optimisation is her heavy fin keel and a number of concessions to comfort onboard, including hot water, an oven, and two fridges.

From the battle-proven to the barely-touched-the-water example of Sir Richard Matthews’ new Oystercatcher XXXV (GBR), a Carkeek-designed custom 52-footer. While this may be the boat’s first foray into the Rolex Fastnet Race, for Sir Richard it is his 24th assault on the Rock: “For us, it’s the pinnacle of our racing and at 72 years old, it is a challenge and an experience to enjoy during the race and afterwards.”

24th Fastnet Race for Richard Matthews competing in his new Oystercatcher XXXV (GBR), a Carkeek-designed 52-footer © Paul Wyeth/Round the Island Race

Nicolas Groleau's Mach 45 Bretagne Telecom finished second in IRC Zero and overall in the 2019 Rolex Fastnet Race © Pierre Bouras

If offshore racing is a game that rewards experience and sea miles, the group of sailors on Bretagne Telecom from La Trinité-Sur-Mer will again be ones to watch for the overall prize. Second overall on IRC in 2019, boat builder and owner of this canting-keel Mach 45 Nicolas Groleau has campaigned Bretagne Telecom (FRA) in the past six editions of the race. She has twice won her class and stood on the podium on all but one occasion, so an overall race victory is surely only a matter of time and persistence for Groleau and his committed band of Breton hotshots.

What will 25-year-old architecture student Katrina Westphal be able to achieve as skipper of the carbon fibre Grand Prix racer, the Carkeek 47 Störtebeker (GER)? Boris Herrmann’s runaway success in the Vendée Globe turned the IMOCA 60 sailor into a household name in Germany, and the ‘Boris effect’ is generating a resurgence in offshore interest across the country. Not that Westphal is a newcomer to the Rolex Fastnet, as this will be her third time in the race and second time as a skipper. Thanks to the crew training initiative of her yacht club, the Hamburger Verein Seefahrt, this ambitious sailor and her equally youthful crew hold the reins of a high-performance race yacht that could really make waves in the overall standings.

Promoting youth participation - the Youth Rotterdam Offshore Sailing Team on the Ker 46 Van Uden 

Another entry with a strong focus on promoting youth participation is the Dutch Ker 46 Van Uden (NED), with Volvo Ocean Race veteran Gerd Jan Poortman looking to turn his crew of 18 to 25-year-olds into world-class offshore sailors. “Our team, the Youth Rotterdam Offshore Sailing Team, has been training every week and done a fair bit of overnight offshore training but like my kids in the Optimist, we are getting a little tired of training and we want to race! We’ve been preparing for the Rolex Fastnet Race for two years and if the weather is right for us, we will go for the win.

“We are a small boat in IRC Zero - so often it’s a big boat race or a small boat race. When it is a small boat race we are up to the challenge; we have trained hard, have good equipment and talented sailors. Our crew has very little racing experience, but we think we have done more training than the average team over the last two years so we hope that makes the difference.”

The De Graaf family are one of the most faithful Rolex Fastnet Race teams and return this year in their Ker 43, Baraka GP (NED). Olivier De Graaf comments: “Since the start of Baraka Sailing Team 17 years ago, I have sailed with my father and with my two brothers as well as with friends we know from the world of sailing. This will be our sixth Fastnet together as a team and our second time with this boat. Finishing in Cherbourg is adding a new complexity to the course, which will make the final run into the finish even more important, especially after three days of racing already.”

COVID restrictions have prevented their multinational team from meeting up for training out of the Hamble in the Solent, so they have been meeting up for online boat handling sessions via Microsoft Teams. Olivier admits he has yet to see whether these dry manoeuvres will prove effective in the salt-water reality of the Rolex Fastnet Race.

Sixth Rolex Fastnet Race together as a team for the De Graaf family who return this year in their Ker 43, Baraka GP (NED) © Paul Wyeth

Seven VO70s and four VO65s are entered in IRC Zero, including The Polish National Foundation's - I Love Poland © Robert Hajduk

A major clash of the titans will take place between two of the world’s fastest maxi-monohulls at August’s Rolex Fastnet Race. While the most sought-after victory is, of course, the overall win under IRC, for the monohull that is first home into Cherbourg there is also plenty at stake. The kudos and personal satisfaction that come with winning on the water are as significant as the more tangible rewards: the Erroll Bruce Cup and, since the Swiss watchmaker partnered the race some twenty years ago, a Rolex chronometer.

Part of this kudos is that alongside the race’s overall winner, the monohull line honours winner is also remembered in the history books. These date back to the first Ocean Race (as it was originally called) in 1925, won by the Le Havre pilot cutter Jolie Brise campaigned by the future first Commodore of the Ocean Racing Club (as it was known until 1931), Commander EG Martin.

Since then some of the world’s largest and most magnificent racing yachts have claimed line honours.

Isaac Bell's Camper & Nicholson 63 footer Bloodhound was first home in both 1937 and in 1953 (before being bought by Prince Philip). The 1960s to the end of the 1980s was the era of the mighty IOR maxis such as Edmond de Rothschild's Gitana IV (1965), Ted Turner's American Eagle (1971), Marvin Green's Nirvana (1985) while, spectacularly, Bob Bell's Condor won line honours in three consecutive races over 1979-1983.This period appropriately was rounded off by the late Sir Peter Blake’s ketch Steinlager 2 (1989) arriving home first immediately prior to her exceptional Whitbread Round the World Race victory.

Celebrating the 60th anniversary of her line honours victory - the Italian owned 1961 van de Stadt-designed 73ft ketch Stormvogel

Ian Walker-skippered VO70 Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing which romped round the course in record time in 2011 © Daniel Forster/ROLEX

One of the most famous line honours winners will be back on the start line this year in the 74ft Stormvogel. She will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of when her original Dutch owner, Cornelius Bruynzeel claimed Fastnet Race line honours in 1961. (Read more about her here).

This century it has been the turn of the 100ft maxis such as Neville Crichton's Alfa Romeo 1 (2001), Mike Slade's ICAP Leopard 3 (2007 and 2009), plus the very latest iteration - the VPLP 100 Comanche. Exceptions have been the Ian Walker-skippered VO70 Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing which romped round the course in record time in 2011 and defending champion, George David's Juan K-designed Rambler 88, the line honours winner in 2017 and 2019.

Will Rambler 88 score the elusive double (line and overall corrected time honours) or achieve her third line honours on the new 695 nm course in this August's Rolex Fastnet Race? © ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi

George David's Rambler 88 rounds the legendary Fastnet Rock © ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi

Rambler 88 is currently on a ship bound for the UK and returns to the Rolex Fastnet Race attempting to make it a hat-trick. In fact, her American owner George David would ideally make it another kind of triple – overall line and handicap honours plus a race record, something which he achieved in the 2007 Rolex Middle Sea Race. To date he has only achieved one of these in the Rolex Fastnet Race. “We have never won - the closest being second in IRC overall in the 2007 race,” says David.“We have had shots at records, twice. In 2011 we were leading the fleet at the Rock and well ahead of Abu Dhabi who set the record that year – until Rambler’s keel fractured and the boat capsized just after rounding the Rock. Then in 2019, we broke our own record for first to the Rock by 88 minutes but the breeze on the return veered after Land’s End and we ended essentially downwind to Plymouth.”

In a terrifying episode, Rambler 100’s capsize in the 2011 race saw David, his future wife Wendy Touton and three others in the water drifting away from their upturned hull as dusk was settling. Fortunately, all 21 crew were picked up safe and sound by the Irish Coastguard and local boats.

Rambler 88’s crew in 2021 will be the same as in previous years, led by Brad Butterworth and with a legion of other America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race legends.

“It’s a tough race even in a line honours boat,” David continues.“I admire the hundreds of weekend sailors in 35-45ft boats who come out for this race every second year. And some take a week to finish.”

David’s ambition to at least score his third line honours title has a major threat this year with a brand new supermaxi, some 37ft longer than Rambler 88, entered.

Skorpios resembles a VO70 until you notice how tiny her crew appear © Eva-Stina Kjellman  

ClubSwan 125 - The record breaker changing the rules of the sailing world

Dmitry Rybolovlev’s Skorpios is the first example of a ClubSwan 125, designed by Juan Kouyoumdjian and built by Nautor’s Swan in Finland. Recently launched, Skorpios at 42.6m long including her bowsprit, will overtake Nilaya as the biggest monohull ever to enter the Rolex Fastnet Race, since the 100ft maximum length limit was eased by the Royal Ocean Racing Club in 2017.

While very long, Skorpios is in other ways not overly extreme. With a beam of 8.75m for example she doesn’t have the huge beam to length ratio of Comanche. Skorpios’ skipper, Fernando Echavarri, the Spanish Olympic Tornado gold medallist and former Volvo Ocean Race skipper, describes her as being closer in this respect to the notably slender Reichel-Pugh designed Alfa Romeo.

Other than her size, most extreme about the ClubSwan 125 is her appendage package. While the number of her foils is the same as Rambler 88 or a VO70 with twin rudders, a canting keel (albeit with a draft of 7.6m) and two foils, the latter foils are C-shaped, conceptually similar to those of the ClubSwan 36. These foils do not make the ClubSwan 125 a flying machine - their role is to prevent leeway, maintain righting moment and to reduce displacement. The foils don’t provide as much lift, but are less draggy than the foils fitting to the latest generation IMOCAs, says Echavarri. Also helping her righting moment and fore and aft trim are her aft and mid ballast tanks capable of loading on seven and eight tonnes of water respectively.

All the sail controls on board Skorpios are push-button © Eva-Stina Kjellman

Whether Skorpios is the fastest monohull ever launched, as her vital statistics suggest she may be (such as her displacement of 58.8 tonnes of which 23.2 are in the fin and bulb, and downwind sail area of 1961 sqm), remains to be seen.“That is a hard one because we are facing things we have never faced before, like understanding how the wind works at very high altitudes [due to the extreme mast height]. This is something that is making us try and understand the potential of the boat.” Performance-wise, the yacht should regularly exceed 30 knots and upwind is as fast as the wind up to 14 knots. “The numbers are pretty promising.”

Inevitably on a boat of this size, all sail controls are push-button. “The power you need to move everything is huge,” says Echavarri. And yet, Skorpios will still require a crew of 23-24 to move big gear like sails around.

Perhaps most exceptional is that Nautor’s Swan in Finland, plus Echavarri and his team and all the suppliers were able to get this extraordinary boat created despite daily problems and delays thrown up thanks to the global pandemic. “There were issues every day but there were no excuses – we were going to make it happen. It was like an America's Cup or the Volvo spirit,” states Echavarri.

Skorpios is due to arrive in the UK for training from mid-July. The Rolex Fastnet Race will be her first competitive outing.

Whether she or Rambler 88 score the elusive double (line and overall corrected time honours) or triple remain to be seen. The last boat to achieve the former was Ludde Ingvall’s Nicorette in 1995.

In August a record fleet of 450 boats is expected to be on the start line of the world’s largest offshore yacht race, the Rolex Fastnet Race. Among the crews of this traditionally male-dominated sport, just over 10% will be women, according to present crew registration. While still a minority, this is nonetheless a strong sign of how female participation has grown in the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s premier event, since 1926 when Mrs T Aitken Dick became the race’s first female competitor aboard her 38ft 14 ton cutter Altair.

In fact, in the intervening years female skippers have won the race (Catherine Chabaud aboard her IMOCA Whirlpool in 1999) and twice arrived first home (Dona Bertarelli, co-skipper of Spindrift2 in 2013 and 2015).

Competing in this year’s Rolex Fastnet Race are many of the world’s most accomplished female sailors, from Dee Caffari, the most capped female round the world sailor of all time and double Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson - both of whom are competing doublehanded. Many of the world’s top offshore sailors are in the IMOCA class, such as Initiatives Coeur’s Sam Davies, who has competed in three Vendée Globes and skippered the all-women’s Team SCA entry in the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race; Swiss former Mini, Figaro and Volvo Ocean Race sailor Justine Mettraux racing with Simon Fisher on 11th Hour Racing or Franco-German former Mini and Vendée Globe skipper Isabelle Joschke, in charge of MACSF.

Corinne Migraine and Father Gilles Fournier collect prizes from RORC's Michael Boyd for Pintia's IRC Two victory in the 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race Photo: ELWJ Photos/RORC

As a teenager, Corinne Migraine remembers being allowed to race inshore, but being excluded from offshores – even on her father’s boat! Today this position has changed: Migraine co-owns the J/133 Pintia with her father, Gilles Fournier which they raced together to IRC Two victory in the 2017 Rolex Fastnet Race and this year won their class in the RORC’s Myth of Malham Race. Currently Migraine is a VP of the French sailing federation, the FFV, and Vice-Chair of World Sailing’s Oceanic and Offshore Committee, while another woman, Anne Bagneaux-Savatier was recently elected President of the RORC’s sister club in France, the Union Nationale pour la Course au Large (UNCL).

While she is in the fortunate position of having her own boat, Migraine believes the situation for women is improving. “My feeling is that in any boat now it is not a problem to have women on board, which it was in the past.” Personally she very much enjoys recruiting young crew from her local yacht club in Le Havre and having women racing on board Pintia. For the Rolex Fastnet Race in addition to her two sons Victor and Ulysse, two more of their seven crew will be female, including Le Havre-based Figaro sailor Sophie Faguet and London-based Dutchwoman Yoyo Schepers whose adventures have included walking to both the North and the South Poles.

“It is the first time we have had so many girls on board, but it is really good,” continues Migraine. “It makes quite a lot of difference to the atmosphere on board. It helps a lot to make the crew more efficient - maybe the boys try to make the best of themselves, while we are there. Sophie will be the most competent person on board because she is a pro-sailor who hasn’t stopped sailing during the pandemic. It doesn’t make much difference on board, being a girl or not.”

Corinne Migraine co-owns the successful J/133 Pintia with her father Gilles Fournier Photo: Paul Wyeth

One of the keenest campaigners for women’s sailing in the UK has been Susan Glenny whose five previous Rolex Fastnet Races have included two with an all-female crew. However, back with her First 40 Olympia's Tigress, Glenny is sailing with a mixed crew this year.

Interestingly, in this year’s Rolex Fastnet Race there are at present no all-female crews entered. Is this a forward or a backward step? “I think to move forward mixed gender racing is the way,” says Glenny – at present delivering Olympia's Tigress back to the UK from Marseille. “There is a place for all-women’s racing, and I have done both, but I feel that women progress better when they sail with a mixed crew, because it is real life. I will race with all-women crew again but my primary focus is now on getting crews to race competitively together.”

Olympia's Tigress is one of many ‘pay to play’ racing boats entered in the Rolex Fastnet Race. Typically 60% of her crew are paying guests with experience ranging from accomplished race boat owners from overseas, down to those with newly acquired RYA Competent Crew certificate. The other 40% are young up-and-coming sailors, for example from the British Keelboat Academy. Glenny’s Rolex Fastnet Race crew will include three other women, although she reckons the 10 to 1, male to female ratio more generally, is accurate. “Of the ladies who start and come into offshore sailing – a lot do come through us, but equally we like the guys to come too. There are a number of very progressive men in the industry today but there are still a number of ‘unprogressed’ – it will change, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

Five previous Rolex Fastnet Races for Susan Glenny - a keen campaigner for women’s sailing in the UK. Competing again - this time with a mixed crew - on her First 40 Olympia's Tigress Photo: Carlo Borlenghi/ROLEX

Perhaps most encouraging is the younger generation, for whom the gender issue is becoming less of an issue. This is thanks perhaps to the advent of mixed crews in the Olympics and The Ocean Race and incentives by many yacht clubs, including the RORC, to encourage more owners to take youth and female crew.

One of the most impressive crew training initiatives is that of the Hamburger Verein Seefahrt in Germany whose club owns three race boats. For 25-year-old architecture student Katrina Westphal, this will be her third Rolex Fastnet Race and her second as skipper. “Our club is super special, because there are not that many clubs which support offshore sailing for normal sailors and young people. We have three clubs boats and, if you are a ‘skipper’, you can sail these boats as if they were your own. So I made the application in November to find my crew and they are all members of the club.”

25-year-old architecture student Katrina Westphal

Significantly the HVS’s trio are not ‘average white boats’ but full-on racers. In 2019 Westphal skippered the HVS’s JV52 Haspa Hamburg. This year she is taking a further step up: Latest addition to her club’s fleet is a fully tricked-up carbon fibre grand prix racer, the Carkeek 47 Störtebeker (previously Stefan Jentzsch’s Black Pearl). Outside of the IMOCA, Störtebeker this will be the largest grand prix race boat to be skippered by a woman in this year’s race.

To date, due to the pandemic, the Störtebeker crew have only managed to get in one race aboard their new weapon and it could be that the Rolex Fastnet Race will be their first major competition. Of Störtebeker Westphal says: “Compared to the other boats everything is so easy, doing manoeuvres, etc and everything is light. That makes it super fun. The other boats are more like performance cruisers and they have a real galley and a table. On this boat we have nothing - it is just black on the inside with bunks you pull down and a Jet Boil. Everything is special and perfect for racing – although maybe a bit more for inshore racing than offshore, but it has all the specifications for offshore.” Westphal is expecting a wet ride with plenty of holes in the deck through which lines are funnelled aft and the deck is flat, so waves can roll straight back to the cockpit.

Typically on the club boats around one third of the crew are women, but on their Andrews 56 Broader View Hamburg, around half are in this year’s race. On Störtebeker the crew includes two other women, 23-year-old Josefin Brand and Cosima Cramer, who aged 19 is fresh out of school. Save one, all are young, aged 18-27, the elder coming with formidable experience for their years. In addition to her Rolex Fastnet Races, Westphal has raced with the HVS from the Azores to Hamburg and in the 2017 RORC Transatlantic Race, plus lots of domestic events in the Baltic. For her 27-year-old navigator, this will be his seventh Rolex Fastnet Race.

Hamburger Verein Seefahrt's carbon fibre grand prix racer, the Carkeek 47 Störtebeker will be skippered by 25-year-old architecture student Katrina Westphal Photo: Leassig/HVS

Cecilia Wollmann, 23, is an example of how sailing is perhaps becoming more ‘gender invisible’ for the younger generation. Just concluding her economics degree at the University of Southampton, she represented her native Bermuda in the Laser Radial at Rio 2016 and was attempting a mixed Nacra 17 foiling catamaran campaign for Tokyo this year with her younger brother, until they were unable to qualify. “It was difficult,” she admits. “We were doing school at the same, so we were not able to do all of the events.”

Cecilia Wollmann

Her father Paul, who typically races the family J/70 in Bermuda, had intended on participating in the Marion-Bermuda Race until it was cancelled, so the Rolex Fastnet Race was a fine alternative. For this they have chartered via LV Yachting the comfortable but speedy French 50ft TS5 catamaran, Addictive Sailing, on which experienced Class40 sailor Brieuc Maisonneuve will be skipper. This is the larger version of Christian Guyader’s TS42 Guyader Gastronomie which won the MOCRA multihull class in 2019.

“My dad [who is ‘into cats’ at the moment] really wanted to do an offshore event with the family,” continues Cecilia. “So we were looking at different offshore races and then, with COVID, this seemed like the best - It is such a big event and so well known. My sister went to school in Southampton as well so we have ties in the area.” So on board will be her father plus elder sister Ellie and younger brother Mike.

Despite her strong dinghy sailing credentials, this will be not only Cecilia’s first Rolex Fastnet Race but also her first offshore race generally. “That will be exciting. I am a bit worried about sailing in the dark. We have a captain on board, since none of us are that offshore experienced, especially the kids on board and we are doing a bunch of training beforehand on board out of Hamble. I am excited.”

Cecilia Wollmann, 23 - seen here racing a Nacra 17 - is an example of how sailing is perhaps becoming more ‘gender invisible’ for the younger generation

Download the Latest 2021 Fastnet Race Entry List below

The next edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race will start on Sunday 8th August and for the first time in its history, the race will finish in Cherbourg, France.

In the current health context, the organisers are taking all the necessary steps to welcome the competitors in the best conditions. The French Government this week have restricted travel between the UK and France, imposing a 7-day isolation period on travellers from the UK. Although there has been no mention of how long these restrictions may be imposed, the RORC remain hopeful that the August 8th start date is unaffected. During this period of change, the race management team are considering all scenarios and how it could affect the running of the race.

“We don't know how long these restrictions will last, but we remain hopeful that they will have little impact on the race and how we are able to welcome the fleet in Cherbourg. As with most of the pandemic, things are changing daily and we are working with our partners in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin and government authorities to create the safest race we can; on and off the water. The team will continue to monitor the situation and advise on issues and alternative arrangements, if necessary," commented Race Director, Chris Stone.

Jean-Louis Valentin, president of the Arrival Fastnet Cherbourg association said: "We will continue to adapt in order to accommodate the finish of the Rolex Fastnet Race, as we have done since the beginning of the pandemic. We had already anticipated the reception of boats before the start of the race in Cherbourg, notably for the French, before reaching the start line in Cowes. As far as the finish is concerned, we will be able to respond to several scenarios, in conjunction with the race management, while hoping for a rapid evolution.”

Competitors sailing to the UK for any RORC races, including the Rolex Fastnet Race, can now do so without the need for quarantine and paying for tests on arrival in the UK, as per the UK Border Force recent advice and on the assumption that no crew touch land in the UK. “This is great news for our European sailors and should provide plenty of reassurance for the Rolex Fastnet Race competitors in their preparations. We have also decentralised our race offices, offering competitors the opportunity to finalise their registrations in either the traditional Cowes office, the Hamble office on the mainland, or for the first time, a race office in Cherbourg from August 4th. It’s a great initiative for our European competitors who can benefit from free berthing in Cherbourg throughout that period, and carry out all the registration procedures before taking the start on the 8th of August – all without having to stop over in the UK,” notes Race Director, Chris Stone.

RORC has also updated the fleet with its other races in the lead up to the Rolex Fastnet Race. The Morgan Cup Race was originally heading to Guernsey on Friday 11th June, with a finish in St Peters Port, however with the uncertainty around entry in the Channel Islands, the RORC Committee, in consultation with local authorities, have moved the finish to Dartmouth, UK. With the support of The Royal Dart Yacht Club and harbour officials in Dartmouth, the RORC are expecting a big turnout for the race.

Cherbourg-en-Cotentin will host the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race fleet Photo: JM enault ville de Cherbourg en Cotentin

The Cowes Dinard St Malo Race on Friday 9th July has also seen some subtle changes to accommodate fleets on both sides of the Channel. With the uncertainty around entry into France, the RORC Race team are currently formulating a plan to run a continuation race. After the finish mark for the traditional finish line outside St Malo, crew will be able to continue on for a race back to the UK. It is anticipated that many crews will take up this option and continuing to prepare and notch up valuable qualification mileage.”

With 450+ yachts entered in this year’s 49th edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race, the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s biennial flagship event has consolidated its position as the biggest offshore yacht race in the world.

The 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race sets sail from the Solent on 8th August, back to its original position of the Sunday following Cowes Week, but with a new finish port. As usual, the course takes the boats down the south coast of England, between the Scilly Isles and Land’s End and across the Celtic Sea to the Fastnet Rock off southwest Ireland. The fleet then returns rounding Bishop Rock, to the west of the Scilly Isles. From here the course is new for 2021 with the finish port having moved from Plymouth, its traditional destination since the race’s first edition in 1925, to Cherbourg in northern France. This change increases the length of the race from 608 to 695 miles. Tactically it will place fresh demands on crews with a final hurdle of tackling the fast-moving currents of the Alderney Race before reaching the finish.

The change of destination for the Rolex Fastnet Race has been made by the RORC as Cherbourg’s Port Chantereyne is better able to accommodate the race’s enormous fleet. Bringing the world’s largest offshore race to France is also highly appropriate given France being the world’s leading nation for this genre of racing. It is home to events like the Vendée Globe, Route du Rhum, Solitaire du Figaro and Mini Transat, and French skippers having won the last two Volvo Ocean Races. French success has also extended to the Rolex Fastnet Race where in 2019 French yachts won nine of the 10 classes. Although the race was won overall by the American VO70 Wizard, overall IRC honours went to French yachts in the three editions before.

“Cherbourg is the perfect venue for the finish of the race,” comments Race Director, Chris Stone. “It has amazing facilities for competitors, berthing that allows us to grow and expand the event, plus the city is right on the doorstep of the race village. Of course, coupled with that is the enormous love for offshore sailing in France. That popularity brings interest and visitors to the city and the race village - it’s going to be amazing.”

Cherbourg’s Port Chantereyne will host the Rolex Fastnet Race fleet © JM enault ville de Cherbourg en Cotentin  

Most extraordinary about this year’s Rolex Fastnet Race is its huge fleet. Over the last two decades this has almost doubled in size, but the leap between the 2019 and 2021 has been the biggest ever, up to the present tally of 453 from 388 two years ago. And this is despite uncertainty brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

None of the world’s ‘classic 600 mile’ offshore races come close to this level of participation. The bulk is the IRC fleet competing for individual class prizes as well as the overall winner’s trophy, the Fastnet Challenge Cup. Over the last 20 years this has been won by yachts from all corner of the fleets, from the largest such as Charles Dunstone’s maxi NOKIA-Connecting People in 2003, to the very smallest and slowest, Jean-Yves Chateau’s 30-year-old Nicholson 33 Iromiguy in 2005, although over this period it has oddly never been won by a competitor in IRC Two. In 2013 the race had its first, and to date only, overall winner sailing doublehanded in Pascal Loison and his Figaro sailor son Alexis aboard the JPK 10.10 Night and Day.

Perhaps due to the Loisons success, along with the prospect of the sport going Olympic, doublehanded participation in the event has soared with 92 entered, up from 64 in 2019. The majority of these are competing alongside fully crewed teams within IRC Three and Four, classes in which today doublehanders dominate. Doublehanders are also classified in their own IRC Two-Handed class which this year includes several aspirant Olympians and notables such as Britons, Shirley Robertson, already a two-time Olympic champion and Dee Caffari, the world’s most capped female round the world sailor. Two-time Etchells world champion and Olympian, Stuart Childerley won the Two-Handed division in 2017 with Kelvin Rawlings, and Alexis Loison is back to defend his title in the class, sailing once again with Jean-Pierre Kelbert on the JPK 10.30 Léon, the latest model from Kelbert’s company.

The 2013 race saw the first overall winner sailing doublehanded - Pascal Loison and son Alexis aboard their JPK 10.10 Night and Day © ROLEX/Kurt Arrigo

The fleet passes The Needles, one of several landmarks of the 695nm course © ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi

Spectacular array of yachts at the start of the Fastnet Race Photo: Carlo Borlenghi

Most spectacular is the sheer array of yachts competing. Within the IRC fleet this includes some of the largest and fastest maxi yachts, such as George David’s Rambler 88, the defending monohull line honours champion, which this year is due to enjoy stiff competition from the brand new, foil-assisted Swan 125 Skorpios. They will be trailed around the course by several VO70, 65 and 60 former Volvo Ocean Race entrants.

The hottest competition is typically within the five principal IRC classes, the winner of each receiving a trophy such as the Hong Kong Cup for IRC Zero, the West Mersea YC Trophy for IRC One and other longstanding historical silver cups. The larger classes, IRC One to Four are further subdivided.

Beyond this there are numerous ‘races within races’ between classes of boats such as the FAST40+ between RORC Commodore James Neville’s HH42 Ino XXX, Ed Fishwick's Redshift and Bastiaan Voogd's Hitchhiker, all racing at the top end of IRC One. Then there are the Performance 40s which straddle IRC One and Two between former RORC Admiral Andrew McIrvine’s Ker 39 La Réponse and Eric van Campenhout's Corby 41.5 Independent Bear at the top, to the likes of Susan Glenny's First 40 Olympia's Tigress at the lower end.

There is especially stiff competition between the one design classes. The largest of these are the 17 x J/109s and the 13 x First 40s. Then there are several more modern French models, notably the JPKs and Jeanneau Sun Fasts, which are popular due to their contemporary designs which have proved competitive under IRC. At present there are 11 x JPK 10.10 and nine 10.80s, 12 x Sun Fast 3200s, 14 x 3300s and 10 x Sun Fast 3600, the latter covering a wide rating range from Nick Martin's Diablo with an IRC TCC of 1.030, to Stephen Berrzćs quicker Marco Polo at 1.052. Today these surpass in number old equivalents such as the Sigma 38 (five competing) or the three Contessa 32s racing for the Spangle Trophy.

George David’s Maxi Rambler 88 is the defending monohull line honours champion © ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi  

Several of the fastest offshore racing yachts in the world - the 30m long flying Ultime trimarans will compete.© ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi

Past champions within the IRC fleet include Didier Gaudoux's JND 39 Lann Ael 2 (2017 overall winner) © ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi  

Within the IRC fleet many past champions are returning – all of them French. These include Didier Gaudoux's JND 39 Lann Ael 2 (2017 overall winner), Nicolas Loday and Jean Claude Nicoleau’s Grand Soleil 43 Codiam (IRC One 2009 and 2011), Nicolas Groleau’s Mach 45 Bretagne Telecom (IRC Canting Keel 2013 and 2015, second overall in 2019), Jacques Pelletier's Milon 41 L'Ange de Milon (IRC One in 2019), Gilles Fournier and Corinne Migraine’s J/133 Pintia (IRC Two in 2017). As mentioned, Alex Loison is returning, while the 2015 winner Gery Trentesaux is racing in the Class40 aboard Antoine Carpentier’s Courrier Redman.

Compared to the world’s other ‘classic 600 mile’ offshore races, the Rolex Fastnet Race stands out in accommodating the impressive French grand prix classes, thanks to the races close proximity to Brittany where many are based. These include the fastest offshore racing yachts in the world, the 30m long flying Ultime trimarans. Among them famous names such as Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, skippered by Volvo Ocean Race winners Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier and Yves le Blevec's Actual Ultim 3 (formerly Francois Gabart's MACIF, currently holder of the singlehanded non-stop around the world record).

Well represented are the 60ft IMOCAs, which are famous for competing in the Vendée Globe. Among those entered are this year’s ‘two’ Vendee Globe winners: Charlie Dalin’s Apivia, which was first home to Les Sables d’Olonne, ultimately beaten when Yannick Bestaven on Maître CoQ was awarded time compensation from earlier in the race. It will be interesting to see the two boats of 11th Hour Racing, including a newly launched example for Charlie Enright who skippered Wizard, the overall winner of the 2019 Rolex Fastnet Race. Britain’s Alex Thomson is back with a newly refitted Hugo Boss.

Of the classes not rated under IRC, the most impressive is the Class40 which has 41 entered, up from 19 in 2019. Among those entered are Olivier Magre's Palanad 3, winner of last year's RORC Transatlantic Race and Valentin Gautier's Voodoo, winner of the 2020 Normandy Channel Race, as well as Luke Berry's Lamotte -Module Creation, Class40 winner from the last Rolex Fastnet Race. Of the grand Prix classes this is also the most international with entries from afar afield as Japan (Hiroshi Kitada's Kiho). The competition will be hot.

When it comes to offshore races there is no greater show on earth than the Rolex Fastnet Race.

British sailing team Alex Thomson Racing will begin their 2021 competitive season with the Fastnet Race on August 8th.

Three months out from the start of the prestigious race, the team this week returned their IMOCA 60 yacht, HUGO BOSS, to the water, with training set to commence in the coming days.

As regular Afloat readers will know, Thomson, a pre-race favourite in the Vendee Globe, quit the round the world race last November due to rudder damage.

"The boat has had a full inspection, NDT and service, and two new rudders installed" said Skipper Thomson. "Restrictions here in the UK due to the pandemic have meant that we've worked at a steady pace to keep our team safe. Now, with the work complete and restrictions set to ease, we're looking forward to getting back out there to train again".

The 695 nautical mile Fastnet Race will begin on Sunday 8th August from Cowes, UK with a record 450+ boats - across multiple classes - set to compete. The fleet will sail via the Fastnet Rock off southwest Ireland and will finish, for the first time in the race's 96-year history, in Cherbourg, France.

Sailing onboard HUGO BOSS, Thomson - joined for the double-handed race by a co-skipper yet to be decided by his team - will aim to better his previous second-place finish in the race: "This will be my 11th Fastnet, I believe, so we've got a lot of experience in this race. I'm really looking forward to sailing the new course and finishing in Cherbourg. I think it adds a new tactical dimension to the race".

While the Vendée Globe grabbed headlines over the winter with a record fleet of 31 boats, France boasts a yet more extraordinary fleet of boats – the Ultimes. Developed over the last 30 years by teams attempting to break the non-stop round the world record, the Jules Verne Trophy, these giant 32m long by 23m wide flying multihulls are the fastest offshore racing yachts by far. In August several will be competing in the Rolex Fastnet Race. If adequately brisk conditions materialise, these craft are more than capable of finishing in less than a day, despite the new course to Cherbourg being longer at 695 nautical miles.

In 2019 as most competitors had still to reach Land’s End, a heavyweight bout was playing out in the final moments of the Ultime race between two titans – solo non-stop round the world record holder (and Vendée Globe winner) Francois Gabart, sailing with Jimmy Spithill on board MACIF and Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, co-skippered by Volvo Ocean Race winners Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier. MACIF led past the Lizard with her rival in hot pursuit, but by leaving their final gybe a little longer, Cammas and Caudrelier were able to sail a hotter angle into the finish and pipped their rival to the post, to win by a mere 58 seconds.

Both these boats will return to compete in the Rolex Fastnet Race’s Open Multihull class, only MACIF has been acquired by Team Actual, which finished fourth two years ago on their previous Ultime trimaran. At the end of April, the trimaran emerged from Team Actual shed in its new livery. From their base in La Trinité-sur-Mer, skipper Yves Le Blevec and his team are currently still getting acquainted with their new beast. Comparing her performance with that of his previous Ultime, Le Blevec observes: “In light air it is similar and in big wind and big waves it is not much different, but in medium conditions, the boat is between 10-15% faster.”

The 32m long 23m wide Actual Ultim 3 took part as MACIF in the last Rolex Fastnet Race and skipper Yves Le Blevec with Team Actual are currently getting acquainted with their new beast Photo: Ronan Gladu

While foilers usually prefer flat water, Le Blevec maintains that it is in fact in wavy conditions where they are seeing their performance gain. “With the old boat we had big difficulties to go fast against the waves because the boat falls into the troughs. On the new boat with the foils, it stays up out of the water and doesn’t fall off into the waves, so they go faster.”

Le Blevec, who won the 2015 Rolex Fastnet Race’s IRC Canting Keel class with Nicolas Groleau’s Bretagne Telecom, says that for the Ultimes the change of course to Cherbourg won’t impact them greatly but he appreciates the improved logistics that the Cotentin port will offer. “Before it was very difficult for competitors to cross the line and then be told they couldn’t go into the harbour. In Cherbourg it will be simpler.” Le Blevec has fond memories of the city having spent several months there in the late 1990s building the maxi-catamaran Team Adventure.

As to the Rolex Fastnet Race, Le Blevec is a big fan. “It is like a monument - a very iconic race. Every sailor knows the Fastnet Race. It is a measurement for everyone in sailing. The start of the race is always a very special moment because there are a lot of different types of boats. We are the fastest but we can play with the Contessa 32s and there are all categories. It is very important for everybody.”

Actual Ultim 3's skipper Yves Le Blevec has already tasted victory in the 2015 Rolex Fastnet Race when he was on board Nicolas Groleau’s Bretagne Telecom, winner of the IRC Canting Keel class Photo: Ronan Gladu

Yves Le Blevec and team on board Actual Ultim 3 will be one of the fastest boats in the 49th edition of the race Photo: Ronan Gladu  

Meanwhile, Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier, who respectively skippered yachts to victory in the 2011-12 and 2017-18 editions of Volvo Ocean Race, return once again as co-skippers of Maxi Edmond de Rothschild to defend their title. Their strength is a highly experienced team and the amount of time they have spent developing and learning the intricacies of their Ultime.

“The focus is on the foils and the rudders, but also on the windage,” says Caudrelier. “The improvements we have made in the last two years have been huge. We need big appendages in order to fly early [typically in 14 knots of wind/28 knots boat speed], but then when you fly fast at 40-45 you have problems with cavitation – it’s complicated but we have spent hours and hours working on that and I think the result will be quite good.” In only a little more wind and Maxi Edmond de Rothschild is capable of cranking out 30-40 knot average speeds, the slower end of which would allow her to be comfortably berthed in Cherbourg within 24 hours of starting the Rolex Fastnet Race.

The biggest threat aside from Le Blevec’s Actual Leader, are the two new Ultimes launching this year. Freshly out of the shed, Armel le Cleac’h’s brand new Banque Populaire XI Ultime is currently entered in the Rolex Fastnet Race, but will only participate if it fits in their work-up schedule. Meanwhile, incredibly, considering these craft can cost upward of 10 million Euros, a second Ultime is due for launch in the next weeks for Francois Gabart. Gabart is currently looking to secure a sponsor for his new campaign but he is one of the most gifted of French sailors, already with a formidable CV for his 38 years.

To counter the threat of the new Ultimes, Maxi Edmond de Rothschild has a complete new foil package (ie three rudders with elevators, a centreboard fitted with a T foil and two lifting foils in the floats) being fitted for this season.

As to the new course, Caudrelier takes it in his stride. Even the strong currents of the Alderney Race represent only a small fraction of an Ultime’s speed, while he points out that downwind in light conditions having counter current can increase apparent wind speed and resultant boat speed to overcome the current. Caudrelier is looking forward to the reception in Cherbourg: “Each time I have been there it was a nice finish. The people will be very happy to have an event like the Fastnet. Some people may not happy with the change of finish to Cherbourg, but I think after the first edition they will change their mind. If the bars are open it is a nice place to finish and, for sure, the food is better!”

Team Gitana on Maxi Edmond de Rothschild saw an end of their Jules Verne Trophy record attempt earlier this year following damage to their rudder but are back to defend their multihull title in this August's Rolex Fastnet Race Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut

Charles Caudrelier (right) - Skipper of Maxi Edmond de Rothschild will be sharing the helm with Franck Cammas (left) Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut 

Going by the name Gitana 17 and launched in 2017, Maxi Edmond de Rothschild holds the outright multihull record for the Rolex Fastnet Race having completed the course in 2019 in 1 day 4hrs 2mins 26 secs Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut 

Elsewhere in the Open Multihull class, the sole British skipper entered is Sam Goodchild, who has this season taken charge of the Multi50 trimaran Leyton. However, Leyton's participation in the Rolex Fastnet Race again depends upon the Multi50 calendar. The fifth entry is the 24m long Ultim'emotion 2, the ex-Prince de Bretagne which former skipper and Route du Rhum winner Lionel Lemonchois created by elongating the former Sodebo ORMA 60 trimaran.

Racing under their own handicap in the MOCRA class are a few other racing multihulls. At present this class is likely to be led on the water by American Jason Carroll’s MOD70 trimaran Argo. Whether Argo will be joined by any other MOD70s remains to be seen. “I’m very excited to be participating in my first Rolex Fastnet Race,” says Carroll, a two time Melges 32 World Champion who currently also campaigns a flying one design catamaran on the GC32 Racing Tour. “It’s an iconic race and the team and I are looking forward to taking it on. Our aspirations are to sail well against similar speed boats and hope for the right conditions for us to score well under MOCRA handicap. Obviously, the elapsed time and new record must be left to the Ultime tris, but sailing the course to the maximum of our potential will certainly be a satisfying result.”

First time in the Rolex Fastnet Race for Jason Carroll's MOD70 trimaran Argo, seen here competing in the 600nm RORC Caribbean 600 Photo: Arthur Daniel/RORC

Latest Provisional Entry List is here