Rambler Opens The Throttle, with Icap Leopard Alongside

The fresh breeze continues to power the Rolex Fastnet Race fleet towards the Fastnet Rock. While the current wind direction across most of the Celtic Sea and including the Fastnet Rock is southwesterly with a wind strength of Force 6/7.

Race leaders ICAP Leopard and Rambler continue to drag race together towards the Fastnet Rock at 15 knots.  On board the US entry, Rambler, skipper Ken Read recapped the race so far, "The predicted first front came with a southerly shift and very squally, rainy and windy conditions for us between Start Point and Land's End....full on and of course it has to be at night!  We can report virtually no breakage even after some 40 knot squalls all tight reaching.  Sometimes a bad combo as boats this fast tend to be hard to slow down and have a tendency to launch off a wave with bone chilling crashes when you land."

Read continued, "eight headsail changes and about ten reefs/unreefs, late morning came past Land's End and a completely unpredicted lull. Went from a blast reacher with a single reef, to drifting and slatting in a matter of minutes, and as the sun rose we realized we were in a park up with Leopard, and several of the 60's all around us."

Clearly, enjoying the current conditions, Read described the passage across the Celtic Sea, so far, "about 0700 the southerly re-filled and we have had a very pleasant few hours blasting across the Celtic Sea with our code 0 up and averaging speeds in the high teens.  But this won't last long.... we will have the #4 or storm jib up again with a reef or three in order to get to the Fastnet Rock in once piece and try to keep close tabs on Leopard. All in all, an awesome race so far."

From the Fastnet Rock, RORC race officers are reporting poor visibility in thick fog. They are expecting the front-runners around 6pm BST. The foreast at the Rock is for the southwesterly to remain until late this evening, and then after midnight the breeze is expected to drop and by Wednesday morning to have shifted to the northwest and settled at in around Force 6/7 (22 - 38 knots).

As of the latest OC Tracker position update at 1500 BST, leading on corrected time are Rambler (USA) in IRC Super Zero; Courrier Du Coeur (FRA) in IRC Zero; TFS Philosophie IV (GBR) in IRC 1; Bongani (GBR) in IRC 2; Sunsail 56 (GBR) in IRC 3, and PRB (FRA) in the Open 60 class.