Rolex Fastnet Race – ROLEX FASTNET RACE: Downwind enjoyable begins for IRC Three and Four

Cherbourg-en-Contentin, France twenty ninth July 2025 17:00:  After greater than two and a half days of largely upwind crusing, the leaders in IRC Three rounded the Fastnet Rock within the early hours of this morning, adopted by the primary IRC Four boats a few hours later. The bulk of the rivals in these fleets at the moment are having fun with a downwind journey again throughout the Celtic Sea, which began in round 14-15 knots of breeze for the leaders however might rise to 20-25 knots.

IRC Three

Part of the enduring enchantment of the Rolex Fastnet Race – and a eager matter of dialog amongst groups after the end – is undoubtedly that there are few uniform experiences of the race, even throughout the similar class.

Andrew Tseng’s Quailo III  © Paul Wyeth/PW Pictures/RORC

“We had an amazing leg to the Fastnet Rock, with a lot of tactical and strategic choices that made great racing,” says RORC Rear Commodore Andrew Tseng, whose Nicholson 55 Quailo lll rounded the Rock round 0530 BST this morning. “It’s been a joy, with almost champagne sailing at times, but also very intense. We were at the Rock just at daybreak as the light was just coming up so we could actually see it.” 

He says that sight was amongst numerous “fantastic experiences” thus far, which additionally embody “an amazing star scene a couple of nights ago, when we had a completely clear sky,” and spectacular bioluminescence surrounding dolphins, “so it looked as though we were being torpedoed as they came towards us.”

Sebastien Saulnier and 19-year-old Ambre Duchemin rounded three-and-a-half hours afterward the Sun Fast 3300 Moshimoshi in 56th place in each IRC Three and IRC Two Handed, permitting for IRC time correction.

“We’ve been having a very good time but it was uncomfortable last night,” says Saulnier.  “There was more wind than the GRIB files predicted – 25 knots at times – and a very, very short sea with the boat slamming a lot.”

While that is the primary Rolex Fastnet Race for each sailors, Saulnier has a wealth of expertise and took a formidable fourth place within the 4,000 mile Transquadra race earlier this 12 months. It underscores simply what number of challenges have to be overcome to get anyplace close to to the entrance of a Rolex Fastnet Race class.

Kuba Symanski, racing two handed with long-term co-skipper Maciek Lato on the First 40.7 Polished Manx 2, studies having skilled much less wind than anticipated, excluding numerous squalls, certainly one of which produced a gust over 30 knots at 0100 this morning. He is competing in his seventh Rolex Fastnet Race and routinely notches up 12,000 miles a 12 months crusing Polished Manx.

At 0530 BST this morning, they have been crusing upwind in 21 knots with a double reefed mainsail and J3 jib. “We’re enjoying it immensely,” he says. “We love this race and long sails of 600 and 700 miles double-handed. We’re also in very good company – there are 10 Polish boats and five 40.7s, most of which are nearby.”

Having sailed 4 occasions round Britain, “two of them upwind almost all the way,” Gavin Howe on the Sun Fast 3600 Tigress is not any stranger to circumstances different folks discover uncomfortable. Nevertheless, as one of many few remaining Sun Fast 3600s with a traditional symmetric spinnaker, he was trying ahead to the lengthy downwind legs and with the ability to claw locations again from among the uneven rigged boats. 

At noon the IRC Three chief, Philippe Girardin’s J/120 Hey Jude was roughly 65 miles west-northwest of the Isles of Scilly having already lined 60 per cent of the gap from the Rock to the archipelago. Hey Jude was adopted intently by the British Army’s Sun Fast 3600 Fujitsu British Soldier, and Denis and Annamarie Murphy’s Irish Grand Soleil 40 Nieulargo. 

Sam White and Sam North on the JPK 10.80 Mzungu! have been the main two-handed boat within the class, in fourth place, adopted by RORC Commodore Deb Fish and Rob Craigie in Bellino, one other Sun Fast 3600.

IRC Four

The windshift predicted yesterday could have proved elusive for IRC Three rivals as they tacked up in direction of the Rock. However, that was definitely not universally the case for all IRC Four boats.

All smiles from Richard and Sophie Palmer on Jangada © Jangada

“We definitely got the left shift,” says Richard Palmer who’s racing two-handed together with his daughter Sophie on the JPK 1010 Jangada. “We called the lay line from about 100 miles away and were only one mile off the corner of the Fastnet TSS when we reached it,” he provides.

He says the leg to the Rock was sailed in “dream conditions – a really classic Fastnet Race windward leg, with nothing too severe – a consistent 20 to 22 knots with a maximum of 24 at the top end. We popped one reef in the mainsail and stayed with the J3 so had very little work in terms of sail transitions and just twisted the sails off to depower.”

Richard and Emma Breese are additionally a double-handed father and daughter group: “We’ve managed to get into our sleep patterns fairly well and had the strongest winds we’ve seen overnight, with up to 24 or 25 knots,” says Richard.  “There was plenty of water over the decks” of their low-freeboard J/105 Mojo. Emma, who’s competing within the race for the primary time, provides: “It’s been tough at times, but I’m enjoying it, especially seeing the Rock and all the dolphins.”

Rob Cotteril’s J/109 Mojo Risin © Paul Wyeth/PW Pictures/RORC

Rob Cotteril’s J/109 Mojo Risin is racing with a group of seven folks, with three on every watch and Cotteril floating as skipper, navigator and prepare dinner. “It’s working really well and it means we’ve all got somewhere comfortable to sleep,” Claire Dresser reported from on board as they approached the Rock. 

As with different boats to the east of the rhumb line, final evening they reported extra squalls than these additional west, with some giving gusts of 30 knots, which resulted in a number of sail altering.

Yesterday the leaderboard for this class turned inside out because the leaders headed west to take finest benefit of the forecast wind shift that might come later. However, because the fleet progressively neared the Fastnet Rock, the leaderboard reverted to type.

Ludovic Menahes’ JPK 1010 Raphael rounded the Rock with a formidable 45 minute lead (after IRC time correction) on sistership Garuda lV, sailed by Ondrej Vachel and Pavel Roubal. At 1400 BST right this moment these boats have been 75 miles west-northwest of the Isles of Scilly, whereas the 94-strong fleet now extends alongside a whopping 170 miles of the race observe.

Mark Brown’s Jetpack © Paul Wyeth/PW Pictures/RORC

The first eight IRC Four boats are all French, leaving Jetpack a JPK 1010 skippered by Mark Brown, with a largely younger crew from Generation JOG, and Radboud Crul’s Dutch Dehler 36 Rosetta, as the one none-French rivals within the prime 10.

IRC Two Handed

As with IRC Four, the highest of the double handed leaderboard is presently dominated by French entries, with solely minor adjustments up to now 24 hours. Jean-Pierre Kelbert and Alexis Loison’s JPK 1050 Léon stays within the lead, forward of Didier Gaudoux’s MN35 Lann Ael 3, with Ludovic Gerard and Eliott Coville on sister ship Solenn for Pure Ocean third.

Mzungo! and Bellino, in sixth and seventh locations respectively, are the one non-French boats within the prime 10. However, circumstances within the race thus far have favoured the quicker, larger rated boats that dominate the upper echelons of the general IRC scoreboard. And, all the highest 5 double handers are larger rated boats racing in IRC Class 2, with Leon presently sixth total in your complete IRC fleet.

Meticulous preparation is a crucial pre-requisite for fulfillment in lengthy distance offshore races. However, you additionally want a level of luck in your facet. Nick Martin and Jim Driver on the Sun Fast 3600 Diablo are one of the crucial skilled two-handed groups on this version of the race. And Diablo’s A2 spinnaker was nearly new at first, having solely been used as soon as. Yet the sail blew aside 5 minutes after hoisting it at first of the return leg this morning.

This shouldn’t have been an issue as they elected to take one other A2 as a spare spinnaker however inside 10 minutes that ripped to an extent it couldn’t be repaired on board. “Our third choice of kite was an A3,” says Martin. “It’s a bit extra sturdy however not pretty much as good downwind. We’ve had that up for the previous couple of hours and we’re dealing with it properly, utilizing the pilot to steer whereas we trim. “It’s very hands-on, nevertheless it has made us much less aggressive, so it’s not the best scenario we needed, the place we might be passing different boats with a gorgeous A2 set – that concept is gone.

Chris Choules and crew on IRC Four’s With Alacrity get pleasure from race circumstances © With Alactrity

---