‘It was pitch black, we we’re doing twenty knots, barely on the edge of control, Apollo was launched; smashing through the surf and we were heading back to Plymouth. We were all tired especially after the long beat to the Fastnet Rock but nobody let up, not even for a moment. We were going home back to Plymouth and we were going to do it in style.” Said a proud Nigel Passmore, owner of TP 52 Apollo, dockside at Sutton Harbour.

With 43 boats now in, the party at Sutton Harbour has started in earnest. Last night the bar and restaurants were full of jubilant crews with tales of their Rolex Fastnet Race.

The stars of the show last night were Tanguy de Lamotte and his crew on Initiatives Saveurs – Novedia, who were delighted to be the first Class 40 home just before 4 am this morning. The French crew of three had beaten some top opposition, including Giovanni Soldini, the Italian skipper of the Class 40 yacht Telecom Italia and German, Boris Hermann's Class 40, Beluga Racing. Soldini and Hermann had an intense battle for second place; the two were virtually in sight of each other for the entire 608 mile course and at the end they crossed the line only nine minutes apart.

This morning, the tally of arrivals on the Rolex Fastnet Race is up to 43 after a busy night with the leading boats in the Class 40 and Zero fleets arriving.

Making possibly the best entrance last night was Robert Lutener and Martin Elwood’s IRC-optimised TP52, Cutting Edge. She crossed the finish line off Plymouth breakwater at 2100, at the same time as the British Fireworks Championship lit up Plymouth Sound.

“We had 20 knots reaching into Plymouth, just about made it past the breakwater to be greeted by 10,000 people. We got cheered coming in. We felt like proper rock stars,” recounted crewman James Grant, for whom this was his first Rolex Fastnet Race and first race longer than about 10 hours.

A steady influx of boats has continued to stream into Sutton Harbour in Plymouth's historic Barbican quarter today, the first finishers in the 2009 Rolex Fastnet Race. At the end of the afternoon, 17 boats have arrived including eight IMOCA 60s led by Sebastien Josse's BT IMOCA 60s, and including Volvo Ocean Race winner Mike Sanderson's Team Pindar, home in seventh place and fourth in the IMOCA 60 class.

"We have amazingly tight racing between quite different boats if you saw them lined up on the dock," commented Sanderson upon his arrival. "Seb Josse and Vincent Riou [former Vendee Globe winner, sailing on Akena Verandas] are incredibly experienced singlehanded sailors. I knew as soon as they were with us at Fastnet Rock that we were going to struggle."

According to Sanderson he lost distance on the leaders en route back to Bishop Rock from the Fastnet when he didn't direct Team Pindar far enough north. "North of the rhumb line was pretty advantageous. You saw Safran gain a lot there and Aviva lost a lot on the outside of us. So I need to learn my lessons and believe in the routing."

Most of the big boys have finished the Rolex Fastnet Race and the Barbican is an impressive sight; Liara, Luna Rossa, Rosebud, Beau Geste, RÁN, the list is endless, the hardware unbelievable. This morning, picturesque Sutton Harbour in Plymouth hosted its first dockside presentation with Mike Slade and his ICAP Leopard crew claiming line honours for the 2009 Rolex Fastnet Race. Slade paid tribute to his competition; "You guys had us looking over our shoulder from start to finish." Niklas Zennstrom's JV 72, RÁN, looks a likely winner of the handicap prize overall, as Plymouth based, Nigel Passmore's TP 52, Apollo, missed out by over three hours, this afternoon. But there are 300 boats in this race and most of them are still battling away.

In the Two-Handed class Mike Moxley's HOD 35, Malice has been in top spot for the short handers, the entire race. Currently 221 miles from the finish and achieving a higher average speed than the competition. Still very much in touch though are Simon Brady's Figaro, Sonic Boom II and Nicolas de La Fourniere's X 34, Exile Mirabaud.

The Class 40s are having a real battle, Tanguy delamotte's Initiatives Saveurs - Novedia Group holds the lead by seven miles from Giovanni Soldini's Telecom Italia and Boris Hermann's Beluga Racing. This class could produce a real nail biting finish. The leaders are at Bishop Rock, on the last leg to the finish.

Property developer Mike Slade’s ICAP Leopard secured a second consecutive line honours victory in the Rolex Fastnet Race in the early hours of this morning. With the mixed conditions the 100ft super-maxi was considerably behind the course record she set two years ago. Arriving at the Plymouth breakwater finish line at 00:09:36 GMT, her elapsed time on this occasion was 2 days 11 hours 9 minutes and 36 seconds, compared to 1 day 20 hours 18 minutes and 53 seconds in 2007.

“It was a great race,” commented Slade. “It is always nice to have a race where there are no breakages or damage. We didn’t get into any difficult situations. We just wanted to get around fast and competently. All in all we are delighted to be here, second time running, back to back victories in this great race. A huge thanks to the RORC, our sponsors ICAP and Rolex for yet again taking an interest in yachting.”

First home in the IMOCA 60 Class  is Seb Josse, BT, finishing at 05:00:15 Wednesday 12th Aug 2009.

Niklas Zennstrom's RÁN finished at 05:01:33 Wednesday 12th Aug 2009. RÁN are currently leading on handicap, overall in IRC.

Mike Slade, owner of ICAP Leopard, line honours, receives a Rolex Yacht-Master Timepiece & Erival Trophy from Lionel Schurch (Rolex) with Eddie Warden Owen (RORC Chief Executive)

The ‘when will they arrive?’ lottery has begun this afternoon in sunny Sutton Harbour, the new arrival point for the Rolex Fastnet Race in Plymouth.

While a line honours victory for Mike Slade’s 100ft super-maxi ICAP Leopard might seem obvious, the brand new Hong Kong 80-footer Beau Geste of Karl Kwok is closing on them. At 03:00 GMT this morning they were 35 miles behind and by 14:00GMT were only 24 miles astern. Over the course of the late morning and early afternoon the smaller boat was occasionally sailing three knots faster down the course.