For the first time in more than 50 years, the Rolex Fastnet Race has a back-to-back handicap winner. Following on from her victory under IRC in 2009, this afternoon the Royal Ocean Race Club has confirmed that Niklas Zennström's Rán (GBR) is once again the overall winner of the Rolex Fastnet Race and the prestigious Fastnet Challenge Cup.

Past double winners of the race include Jolie Brise (1929 and 1930), yacht designer Olin Stephens' Dorade (1931 and 1933), John Ilingworth's Myth of Malham (1947 and 1949) and most recently Richard Nye's Carina II (1955 and 1957). It should be noted that Carina II is not the same boat as the one of this same name being campaigned in this year's Rolex Fastnet Race by American Rives Potts.

The Judel-Vrolijk designed 72ft Rán finished in Plymouth on Tuesday at 12:53:44 and even then she was looking like a strong contender for the overall prize, but this afternoon her win was officially confirmed by the Royal Ocean Racing Club.

Under IRC, Rán's time corrected out so that she beat ICAP Leopard (GBR) by 4 hours, 38 minutes and 18 seconds, and Mike Slade's 100 foot supermaxi in turn a massive 10 hours, 40 minutes ahead of third placed Vanquish (USA), the Oakcliff All American Offshore Team's STP65.

"It's fantastic. It's still hard to believe almost. Everyone on the team is very, very happy and very pleased," said Zennström of his second consecutive Rolex Fastnet Race victory, adding that defending their title was one of his sailing team's primary objectives for the year. "You may say 'we're going to race to win', and that is really what we were going for, but also these races have so many different variables that you cannot really take into account. Its great when it works out."

Navigator Steve Hayles agreed: "We like the Fastnet Race and it has treated us well again on Rán. It was a bit of everything and felt like a pretty tough race at times. It was great."

After an extremely quiet 24 hours, from last night boats have been streaming into Plymouth, with over 50 boats finishing between midnight and noon. There have been some tight finishes in this Rolex Fastnet Race between the Volvo Open 70s and the IMOCA Open 60, but the closest by far occurred in the early hours this morning in the Class 40, where the top five boats arrived within six-and-a-half minutes of one another.

Having led for the majority of the race, there was a deserved win for Tanguy de Lamotte aboard his Rogers-designed Initiatives - Alex Olivier (FRA), which arrived two and a half minutes ahead of the new Kiwi 40 Peraspera (ITA), in turn just 30 seconds in front of Red (GER), skippered by Mathias Mueller von Blumencron, former Editor in Chief of Der Spiegel magazine.

Having led for most of the race, Initiatives - Alex Olivier was overtaken by Peraspera at the last headland coming into Plymouth and it was only because their last tack into the finish took them further south of the Plymouth breakwater, that they won. "We could go on one tack to the finish line and that is where we pulled away and overtook them again," recounted de Lamotte. "It was a literally a few hundred metres before the finish line. So it could have gone any way, anyone could have won it."

A crew of 14 sailors, nine of whom have lost at least one of their limbs whilst serving in the Armed Forces, successfully completed the Rolex Fastnet Race early this morning. The jubilant crew are currently lying 30^th in their class (IRC 1) and the race is one of BLESMA's showpiece rehabilitation events of the year. BLESMA (British Limbless Ex-Service Men's Association) was formed in 1922.

Sailing on Spirit of Juno, Ondeck's Farr 65 for the first time was double amputee, Alan Roberts: "I wanted to give myself a challenge, especially since the accident and losing both my legs. I like to set myself goals and I've achieved that today! The whole race was brilliant from start to finish. I'd never sailed before and both training for it and actually taking part was brilliant, really good. There was so much banter on board, typical military banter, jokes being cracked even when it was raining, soaking wet and cold. The jokes were flying round all day and night and it kept morale up so everyone stayed in good spirits. Now I've been introduced to sailing, I would definitely like to do more. Hopefully with BLESMA and then look at the bigger picture, maybe get myself on a Day Skipper course and then work my way up to watch leader."

"We're really pleased to have won our challenge between the Forces boats - the other boats are still out at sea and may be for some time. In a way, it's sad that the race has finished as we've bonded really well, but even if this part of our voyage is over, I'm sure there will be more opportunities to meet up," continued Roberts.

By 9 am on Thursday morning, 70 yachts had completed the Rolex Fastnet Race. A steady stream of yachts came in during the night, 52 in just 12 hours.

The first ever Lithuanian yacht to compete in the Rolex Fastnet Race, Ambersail, finished just after 6.30 pm. The yacht has been on a three-year odyssey to celebrate a thousand years of their country's history. After completing a circumnavigation in 2009, Ambersail competed in the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland before sailing the boat across the Atlantic to take part in the RORC Caribbean 600. The Volvo 60 then raced back to Britain in the Transatlantic Race in order to take part in the Rolex Fastnet Race. Ambersail skipper, Simonas Steponavicius has competed in all of the above.

"The Rolex Fastnet Race is one of the races that any offshore sailor just has to do," enthused Simonas. "I don't think any Lithuanian has ever competed in this great race, now there are 15 of us and we know that our friends back at home want to compete in the future. We have always dreamed of doing the race and now I know why, it has been running for so long. It is a fantastic race, very tactical and complex. It has something of everything; working the tide, understanding the effects of land on the wind, ocean racing and some fantastic conditions.

After a brisk first 48 hours, pace in the Rolex Fastnet Race has slowed up.

Since yesterday afternoon there have been just been five finishers: the last two IMOCA 60s completed the course with Alex Thomson's Hugo Boss reaching the line at 22:10:01 BST yesterday, while DCNS 1000 arrived at 00:22:22, skippered by round the world sailor Marc Thiercelin who was racing on board with Luc Alphand, the 1997 World Cup winning skier, who in 2006 also came first in the Paris-Dakar rally.

Between the IMOCA 60s, the Oakcliff All American Offshore Team entry on the STP65 Vanquish crossed the finish line at 00:19:35, while Lloyd Thornburg's orange-hulled Gunboat 66 catamaran Phaedo pulled into Plymouth's Sutton Harbour after arriving at 03:03:24.

Phaedo's captain Paul Hand, from Tasmania, commented: "The most exciting part was the hull flying out off the Needles and the more anxious moments were during the beam reach up to the Rock in 35 knots of breeze, with 20 knots of boat speed and one hull in the air. No one was sleeping that much then..."

Hired guns, navigator Ian Moore and tactician Andy Beadsworth, were crucial in Phaedo reaching Plymouth so quickly, getting the most benefit from the tide and smallest wind shifts. Nonetheless, just short of the finish line their progress was slowed as they had to wait for the tide to turn.

The Phaedo team also played a vital role in the rescue of the Rambler 100 crew, as off southwest Ireland it was their media boat which picked up the five crew, including skipper George David, after they had been in the water for 2.5 hours, having drifted away from their capsized supermaxi.

The only arrival since dawn this morning has been Franck Noel's TP52 Near Miss from Switzerland which crossed the line at 10:46:05 BST. Skipper, French match racer and offshore sailor, Benoit Briand was pleased to have finished. "Last night we were stuck off the Lizard with tide and no wind. We spent four hours in a circle of one mile!"

Racing offshore Two-handed is not for the faint-hearted. It requires all-round seamanship, determination, stamina and above all, courage. 28 yachts started the Rolex Fastnet Race in the Two-Handed division and they endured a tough beat up to the famous rock. Despite having two crew, most of the time sailors are alone on deck whilst their teammate sleeps. Two hours on and two hours off are common watch systems. Autopilots are permitted but hand steering is far more conducive to better performance, the vast majority of the yachts are modified production yachts and do not have sophisticated equipment. During the 2011 RORC Season's Points Championship, 49 yachts have raced with the Club in the Two-Handed division.

For the Rolex Fastnet Race, J-Xcentric leads the Two-Handed Class on the water and after time correction. At the rock, John Van der Starre and Robin Verhoef's J/111, J-Xcentric was just nineteen minutes ahead on corrected time from Nicholas de la Fourniere's X-34, Exile/Mirabaud, the defending Rolex Fastnet champion for the Two-Handed Class. Peter Olden's A 35, Solan Goose of Hamble was just four minutes behind Exile/Mirabaud after time correction. Mike Jaques J/120, Nunatak and Paddy Cronin's HOD 35, Psipsina were also going well and very much in the hunt.

Following the arrival of the 100 foot supermaxi ICAP Leopard (GBR) this morning, so the first of the Mini Maxis arrived in Plymouth this afternoon in the form of 2009 Rolex Fastnet Race winner, Rán (GBR).

The Judel Vrolijk 72 campaigned by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström crossed the line off Plymouth at 12:53:44 BST, in an elapsed time of 2 days 3 minutes, and 44 seconds.

"It was a good race in that we had good boat speed all the time," commented Zennström. "The worst thing with offshore races is that you sail into an area with no wind and you sit there, but we didn't have that this time. In the places where we thought it would be very light, like the transition around Land's End, we had good pace. But it was tough. Halfway to the Rock, and all the way back there was no visibility, lots of wind and rain - everything was very wet. But if you go fast, that makes up for it. It was great racing and we were doing 20-22 knots of boat speed all the time in big waves. We pushed it pretty hard."

Rán benefitted from the retirements yesterday of 80-foot Beau Geste (HKG) and 68-foot Alegre (GBR). According to Gavin Brady, Beau Geste was forced to pull out when some cracking developed in her deck and with conditions set to build around the Fastnet Rock and the onset of night, they chose to err on the side of prudence, the boat this afternoon was back in Gosport. "We were really surprised, because we were doing 15-16 knots of boat speed side-by-side with the VO70s, and everything was business as usual," said the former America's Cup helmsman. "If it had been a moderate forecast, we might have tried to fix it. It was disappointing, a tough decision to make, because we were in a good position at that point of the race."

On Sunday 14th August, Twenty Class 40s set off from the Royal Yacht Squadron Line to compete in the Rolex Fastnet Race. The biggest fleet assembled since the Route de Rhum in 2010. There was drama right at the start as Eutourist-Serv-System was dismasted in big breeze and lumpy seas. The battle was intense, right from the gun, the highly skilled fleet knew that they were in a race against the tide. Those that could make Portland Bill first would escape the grip of the foul current, those that didn't would fall away from the lead.

Francesco Piva's Farr designed Peraspera was first out of The Solent, followed by Initiatives-Alex Olivier designed by Simon Rogers and skippered by 2009 champion Tanguy de Lamotte. In hot pursuit were Michel Kleinjans' Roaring Forty 2, another new Farr design and Guillaume Verdier designed BSL, co-skippered by Ross and Campbell Field from New Zealand.

Roaring Forty 2 broke away from the pack, heading offshore and the move paid off. By Portland Bill, they had opened up a 2-mile lead but the chasing pack was nipping at their heels. As they approached The Lizard, the fresh wind they had enjoyed since the start, began to fade and Initiatives-Alex Olivier stayed offshore hoping to get the new breeze first. This allowed Peraspera and BSL to squeeze past them. As the new breeze filled in Initiatives-Alex Olivier was into it before the rest and moved back up to second.

Shortly after rounding the Fastnet Rock the keel on George David's super maxi Rambler100 snapped off and the boat quickly capsized. The Rolex Fastnet Race monohull record falls.