Suzanne and Alan share this latest Isle of Wight sailing news. Ed
As already reported Cowes will see two historic yacht races this year. The Royal Ocean Racing Club’s Rolex Fastnet Race has once again lured sailors from around the world to compete in this historic race. 2019 will be the 48th edition of the race.
After the entry for the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s flagship event was opened at 1200 UTC on 7th January, the 340 available places for boats in the IRC fleet were all taken in just four minutes and 37 seconds. This was just 13 seconds outside the record time recorded in 2017.
Saunders front of the queue
The first entry to sign up on the RORC’s Sailgate online entry system for the biennial 605 mile race from Cowes to Plymouth via the Fastnet Rock off southwest Ireland, was regular competitor Derek Saunders with his Farr 60 Venomous.
He narrowly beat the German Hamburgischer Verein Seefahrt club’s Judel Vrolijk 52 Haspa Hamburg and Tom Kneen’s JPK 11.80 Sunrise who were next fastest to complete entry.
25 countries taking part
After the first frenetic four minutes and 37 seconds when the maximum entry limit was reached, subsequent requests were filtered through to the reserve list. Ultimately after the deluge subsided 440 boats had entered in total.
Yachts from 25 countries are now due to take part this year, the bulk from the UK, from where 201 boats were registered, followed by the dominant French (winners of the last three editions of the Rolex Fastnet Race) with 81 and the Netherlands with 33.
Transatlantic Race 2019
Entries from further afield have been received from Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Turkey, Hong Kong and Korea among others whilst entries also include a strong contingent of 16 boats from the USA. Many of these making the passage across to the UK in the Transatlantic Race 2019.
This transatlantic race leaves Newport, RI on 25 June bound for Cowes via the Lizard and is organised by the RORC in conjunction with the New York Yacht Club, Royal Yacht Squadron and Storm Trysail Club
Change of dates
Strong entry for the Fastnet shows that the change of date has made little impression on the desire to do the Rolex Fastnet Race even though the start date was moved to Saturday, 3 August and for the first time it will be setting off before Lendy Cowes Week rather than on the traditional Sunday immediately after it.
Image: © Suzanne Whitewood
