Following winds are giving smaller boats and amateur crews an advantage over the big multihulls and monohulls that have already finished the Rolex Fastnet Race
From flat calms, untroubled blue skies and dolphins to torrential rain and strong winds: welcome to the Rolex Fastnet Race 2015, a race that, despite the big boats and star sailors, looks likely to produce a winner from among the smaller yachts and amateur crews.
As a front and south-westerly winds of 25-30 knots scours the race course today, those yachts that have rounded the Fastnet Rock and are on their way to the finish in Plymouth will benefit from faster reaching conditions. So long as they are quick enough to hang on to these stronger following winds they could be in with a chance of a win. After this band of weather passes over the wind will become lighter.
This would give these boats a great advantage over the big multihulls and monohulls such as Comanche, Rambler 88 and Leopard which completed the entire race in predominantly light winds and even periods of total calm.
“This race has been slow, slow, quick,” explains Eddie Warden Owen, CEO of organisers the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC). “It has been painfully slow. The big boats such as Comanche and Rambler have been 100 miles ahead of the IMOCA 60s so that’s an indication.
“This race is always weather dependent. There are a few boats here with a history, such as Teasing Machine [Eric de Turkheim, FRA] and Géry Trenteseaux [Courrier Du Leon, FRA] and the wind will really affect them. If they can get in before the wind goes through and dies, then I think one of the small or medium boats will take the trophy.”
With a fleet of 356 yachts, the Rolex Fastnet Race has set a new record this year for entries. Places were snapped up within hours of the online entry being opened up (though RORC members were given priority of five days to register). The growth area, says Warden Owen, has been among the bigger boats and pro sailors – there are 12 big multihull including three MOD70s.
“IRC classes are just over 200 boats, and that has stayed the same,” says Warden Owen.
But those IRC classes are themselves an indication of the enduring popularity of this race, which is rightly viewed as one of sailing’s crowning achievements. There are, for example, 22 J/109s, 13 Sigma 38s and 14 Beneteau 40s in the race, the kind of solid (and relatively affordable) offshore racers that the RORC has always sought to encourage.
Alongside the race for silverware decided by ratings and shaped decisively by fluctuating weather conditions, these classes are enjoying a taxing contest amongst each other, a race within a race that is all the more demanding for having the same equipment and similar conditions.
It is, says Warden Owen “easier for the big boats to get into a rhythm.”
“I was talking to George David [owner of Rambler 88] after the finish and he said it found the race quite easy. The smaller boats face a different challenge and that will be tough. They will have suffered most with wind and tide, and with competition around.”
But despite the initial calms, there have been only nine retirements this year.
“Most people have this as a challenge. It’s not necessarily a race to win, for many the focus is on getting to the rock. People don’t take this lightly and they are determined to finish,” says Warden Owen.
The photo above is of First 40 Southern Child about to round the Rock. A crewman was evacuated earlier this week after suffering burns. Read about it here
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