Many thanks to Alan and Suzanne Whitewood for this report from the recent Rolex Fastnet Race. In their own words. Ed
On Sunday 14 August, 314 boats, the largest ever fleet, set sail from Cowes to battle it out in the Rolex Fastnet Race. This large fleet was due to a new initiative from race organisers, the Royal Ocean Racing Club, who invited ‘professional’ offshore classes.
Diverse selection
These were able to compete under their own class rules, over and above the IRC fleet that was capped at a maximum of 300 entries. This resulted in the most diverse selection of yachts ever assembled in a single offshore yacht race.
Therefore in the same race some of the world’s fastest multihulls such as the 140-foot long trimaran,Maxi Banque Populaire were lining up with Contessa 32s and pilot cutters.
Three Volvo Open 70s together
A coup for the event was the participation of three Volvo Open 70s, the only occasion these boats would race together prior to this Autumn’s start of the fully crewed round the world race.
The ‘pro’ classes also attracted two Multi One Design 70 foot trimarans, and six IMOCA 60s, best known for competing in the singlehanded non-stop round the world race, the Vendee Globe.
Leading the charge in the IRC fleet were the two 100 foot maxis Rambler 100 and ICAP Leopard, followed by the Farr 80 Beau Geste and Mini Maxis such as the 2009 Rolex Fastnet Race winner, Niklas Zennstrom’s, Ran.
First dramas
Off the Royal Yacht Squadron line, the fleet starts began with the multihulls and culminated with the canting keel monohulls and VO70s. With winds gusting to 30 knots at one end of the Solent at Hurst Narrows, there were the first dramas of the race with the Class 40, Eutourist Serv-System and the trimaran, Strontium Dog (GBR) dismasting, plus two collisions.
As expected Banque Populaire, Gitana 11 and the two MOD70s trimarans set off at lightning speed down the Solent. While Gitana 11, skippered by Vendee Globe and Volvo Ocean Race skipper Seb Josse was constantly nipping at her heels, the world’s fastest offshore boat, Maxi Banque Populaire, skippered by French offshore legend Loick Peyron, proved the pace-setter.
Loick is no stranger to Cowes having taken part in the JPMAM Round the Island race and the Extreme 40 racing series. Also on board Banque Populaire was Brian Thompson from the Isle of Wight.
Banque Populaire gets new outright record
After being on the wind all the way to the Fastnet Rock, Banque Populaire was soon on her way back to the finish in Plymouth and crossed the line on Monday evening in a time of just 1 day, 8 hours, and 48 minutes, thus establishing a new outright record for the Rolex Fastnet Race, some 7 hours and 39 minutes quicker than the best previous time set by a multihull.
Unfortunately as this was happening, drama was unfolding close to the Fastnet Rock. Rambler 100 rounded the Rock at 17:25 BST and turned south into 25-30 knot headwinds and a sizeable short sharp sea. Shortly after this, the fin of her canting keel snapped just below the hull exit causing her to capsize almost instantaneously.
Rambler 100 capsized
Three crew were lucky and climbed straight on to the upturned hull as she capsized, the rest ended up in the water, including four who had been down below at the time. With a massive struggle in the difficult conditions, the majority of her 21 crew, managed to clamber up on top of the upturned hull, while five, including skipper George David, alarmingly drifted away from the boat.
Fortunately, the five tied themselves together, and they were recovered after having spent 2.5 hours in the water. Incredibly, everyone was rescued through the combined heroic efforts of the Valentia MRCC, the Baltimore Lifeboat, and the dive vessel, Wave Chieftain. The shaken crew was taken to Baltimore while David’s partner Wendy Touton was airlifted to hospital, suffering from hypothermia, but later released.
After the Rambler 100 incident it was Mike Slade’s ICAP Leopard in the lead of the monohull fleet, but after rounding the Fastnet Rock, the 100 foot maxi was rapidly overhauled on the leg back to the Isles of Scilly by the three VO70s.
Abu Dhabi breaks monohull record
After a spectacular race where each of the three boats, Abu Dhabi, Groupama 4 and Team Sanya held the lead at some point, at the post the Farr-designed Abu Dhabi, skippered by double Olympic silver medallist Ian Walker was just 4 minutes 42 seconds ahead of Groupama 4. In the process, Abu Dhabi also broke ICAP Leopard’s monohull record for the Rolex Fastnet Race with an elapsed time for the course of 1 day, 18 hours, 39 minutes. Prior to the race the Abu Dhabi team had been in Cowes to promote Abu Dhabi as a stop- over port for the Volvo Ocean Race.Team Manager for Abu Dhabi is Jamie Boag, (Mr. Shirley Robertson) while Jules Salter from Gurnard is the navigator.
Following them in mid-Tuesday morning, was a similarly tight finish between the IMOCA 60s with 2004-5 Vendee Globe winner Vincent Riou completing the course in 1 day, 23 hours, and 21 minutes, ahead of double Barcelona World Race winner Jean-Pierre Dick on Virbac Paprec 2 and double Velux 5 Oceans winner Bernard Stamm aboard his new Cheminees Poujoulat.
Rán: Overall prize
After ICAP Leopard, the next IRC arrival was Niklas Zennström’s Rán at 12:53:44 BST on Tuesday, in an elapsed time of 2 days 3 minutes and 44 seconds and with this time she took the overall prize in the Rolex Fastnet for a second consecutive time, the first time a boat had won consecutive races since Carina II in the 1950s.
On Wednesday many yachts were becalmed, particularly around the Isles of Scilly and along the south coast of Cornwall. Light winds continued into Thursday as the bulk of the fleet approached Plymouth and on Thursday night an armada of 105 boats crossed the finish line.
Records tumbled
Other boats continued racing over the next few days until all the fleet were safely home.
Records tumbled in the 2011 Rolex Fastnet Race, this year’s event living up to its reputation as the most gruelling and tactically challenging of the classic offshore races and as usual the 608 mile long course took the boats from the start line off Cowes, towards the Fastnet Rock off southwest Ireland, back around the outside of the Isles of Scilly to the finish line in Plymouth.
