Skipper Mike Sanderson reflects on Team Sanya's performance in the Rolex Fastnet Race, the team representing China were racing against two of the favourites for the forthcoming round the world race. Groupama 4 and Abu Dhabi are brand new versions of the powerful canting-keel flyers but Team Sanya is a 2007 design, which has only been back in the water for about a week.

Mike Sanderson won the 2005-06 Volvo Ocean Race as skipper and is returning to offshore racing after a five-year absence. Team Sanya were the third Volvo 70 to finish the Rolex Fastnet Race but their elapsed time of 43 hrs 38 min 29 sec was faster than ICAP Leopard's previous record set in 2007.

"At the end of the day I love it. I think the only reason not to come back is if your ego won't let you, enthused Mike Sanderson. "The opportunity arose for me to lead Team Sanya in the Volvo Ocean Race and I just love these boats.

We have a great bunch of guys and at the end of the day, we want a challenge and this is definitely one, especially as we need to do a better job than anyone else. We have to play with the cards we have been dealt and we have little time, it is going to be challenging and that is what makes it fun.

While the multihull record fell last night to Maxi Banque Populaire (FRA), so earlier this morning the monohull record for the Rolex Fastnet Race was also demolished. Surprisingly the new record went not to Mike Slade's 100 foot supermaxi ICAP Leopard (GBR), which had established the record of 1 day, 20 hours, and 18 minutes in 2007, but the smaller Volvo Open 70 Abu Dhabi (UAE), skippered by double Olympic silver medallist, Ian Walker.

The black-hulled VO70 arrived at an overcast and drizzly Plymouth finish line at 07:49:00 BST this morning, just under 5 minutes ahead of Franck Cammas' VO70 Groupama 4 (FRA). In doing so she broke ICAP Leopard's 2007 record by 1 hour 39 minutes.

Despite this, for ICAP Leopard, line honours winner in the last two Rolex Fastnet Races, the race was still good as she had led her faster rival, George David's supermaxi Rambler 100, for more than 24 hours.

"It was a very good race," commented owner Mike Slade. "The weather at the beginning and the end, and the surge around the top were very, very exciting and we were all doing big numbers. I thoroughly enjoyed coming out of the Solent - we led Rambler there and led her most of the way up to the Rock. Rambler is a quicker boat in terms of righting moment and weight. So that was a great thrill."

In the fog, Slade says that they knew there was an issue with Rambler but not the full extent of what had happened (of her keel loss and subsequent capsize). When they passed the location of the incident, between the Fastnet Rock and the Pantaenius offset mark, there had been thick fog.

The three Volvo Open 70s subsequently sped past ICAP Leopard in the 20-30 knot winds heading across to Bishop Rock.

At midnight, Monday 15 August, Eddie Warden Owen, Chief Executive of the Royal Ocean Racing Club received a call from Mick Harvey, Project Manager of George David's Rambler 100 (USA). Harvey spoke about the harrowing incident when the 100' Maxi Rambler 100 capsized in the Celtic Sea during the Rolex Fastnet Race.

The incident happened just after Rambler 100 rounded the Fastnet Rock at 17:25 BST. At the time, Rambler 100 were leading the monohull fleet and vying for monohull line honours in the Rolex Fastnet Race which started on Sunday 14^th.

Mick Harvey's account of the incident was charged with emotion. The tough Australian, who now lives in Newport, Rhode Island (USA), is a seasoned veteran, but he was understandably shaken by the incident:

"Soon after rounding the Fastnet Rock, the wind went southwest, right on the nose. We were beating into big seas, launching Rambler off the top of full size waves. I was down below with navigator, Peter Isler when we heard the sickening sound of the keel breaking off. It was instantaneous; there was no time to react. The boat turned turtle, just like a dinghy capsizing. Peter Isler issued a Mayday and we got out of there as quickly as we could."

The EPIRB had been activated and a number of crew climbed over the guardrails and onto the hull as the boat capsized and helped those swimming to safety. The Atlantic swell made it difficult for the crew to get out of the water however, working together, 16 of the crew managed to scale the upturned hull.

Five of the crew were swept away by the waves out of reach of the stricken Maxi and these included Skipper, George David and partner Wendy Touton who were in the water for two and a half hours. This group linked arms, forming a circle. Valencia Coastguard diverted a local fishing boat, Wave Chieftain to assist, which winched the crew on board. Earlier a helicopter had been scrambled from Shannon Airport helicopter, Wendy Touton was airlifted for medical attention due to the effects of hypothermia and the four remaining crew were taken to Baltimore Harbour where they were re-united with the 16 crew rescued by the Baltimore Lifeboat.

"It was a scary moment. One that I will never forget," admitted Mick Harvey. "I can't begin to tell you how relieved I am that all of the crew are safe. The town of Baltimore has given us a wonderful welcome. I can not thank our rescuers and the people of this lovely village enough. Wendy is in Kerry Hospital and doing fine, I am just so relieved that everybody is okay."

Taking part in his ninth Rolex Fastnet Race, the cameraman on board Maxi Banque Populaire was Digby Fox. He was buzzing as he stepped ashore. The Somerset based TV director/cameraman has had a love affair with the race around the famous lighthouse for many years. In 2003, Digby was on board Charles Dunstone's 76' Maxi Nokia Enigma, winning the Rolex Fastnet Race overall. For that, he won a Rolex watch, courtesy of Charles, which he wears to this day as a badge of honour (plus it winds up his colleagues no end).

This year, Digby - or Diggers to everyone who works with him - was on board the 140' Maxi Trimaran Banque Populaire, which completed the 608-mile course in an astonishing time of 32 hrs 48 mins 46sec. Think of that - the Rolex Fastnet Race in a day and half.

Digby actually still holds the Crystal Trophy record for multihulls under 50' in the Rolex Fastnet Race, coincidentally with Banque Populaire crewman Brian Thompson. That was as a sailor, but now it's as a cameraman that he gets these gigs.

Smashing the course record plus the outright race record in a monster-multihull was a world apart from Diggers' trip in 2009. That was aboard Morwenna, the classic 45' Bristol Pilot Cutter with larch hull on English oak frames - a timeless reproduction of an age gone by.

Maxi Banque Populaire set a new outright multihull race record for the Rolex Fastnet Race.

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Maxi Banque Populaire, the French 140 foot trimaran skippered by Loick Peyron, set a new outright multihull race record for the Rolex Fastnet Race when she reached Plymouth this evening at 19:48:46, for an elapsed time of 1 day, 8 hours, 48 minutes (32 hrs, 48 mins), and an average speed around the course of 18.5 knots.

In the process, skipper Loick Peyron broke the race record of 1 day, 16 hours, 27 minutes he previously set in 1999 aboard his 60 foot trimaran Fujcolor in 1999.

Banque Populaire holds the world record for the most number of miles covered by a sailing boat in one day - 908.2 miles, roughly one and a half times the length of the Rolex Fastnet Race.

Statement by the Royal Ocean Racing Club, issued 2053 BST Monday, 15th August 2011

The yacht Rambler 100 has capsized between the Fastnet Rock and the Pantaenius Buoy. The Irish Coastguard services are coordinating the rescue. The Baltimore RNLI lifeboat is on the scene. Two Sikorsky helicopters have been scrambled and an Irish Naval vessel is en route to the scene of the accident

All 21 crew have been rescued.

A further statement will be released when more information becomes known.

Ian Loffhagen
Racing Manager

Records are expected to fall in a major way over the next 24 hours in the Rolex Fastnet Race with the world's fastest offshore boat, Loick Peyron's 140 foot trimaran Maxi Banque Populaire (FRA), due to break not only the outright race record (set by Peyron in 1999) but also the record for the course, set in 2002 by Steve Fossett's 125ft maxi-catamaran, PlayStation (USA). Meanwhile tomorrow morning there is the possibility of George David's Rambler 100 (USA) breaking Mike Slade's outright monohull record for the Rolex Fastnet Race of 1 day 20 hours and 18 minutes, set in 2007.

To break the outright multihull race record of 1 day 16 hours 27 minutes set by Loick Peyron's ORMA 60 trimaran, Fujicolor (FRA) in 1999, Banque Populaire would have to finish before 0327 BST tomorrow morning. However the crew have their hopes set on even breaking the outright course record of 1 day 11 hours and 17 seconds set by Steve Fossett's 125ft catamaran PlayStation in 2002. This would require them to arrive in Plymouth by 22:17 BST this evening. This afternoon Loick Peyron believed their ETA at the finish line in Plymouth would be between 1930-2000 BST.

Last night both boats, along with the two MOD70 trimarans Veolia Environnement (FRA) and Race for Water (SUI), overstood the Scilly Isles, in order to lay the Fastnet Rock in one tack and take advantage of a small left hand wind shift while crossing the Celtic Sea between the southwest end of England and the south coast of Ireland. The reason Gitana 11 (FRA) is so close is that after leaving the Scillies to starboard she tacked north for the Rock earlier than her larger rival, sailing a substantially shorter course as a result.

At the time the two on the water leaders rounded the Fastnet Rock this morning, the wind had dropped to 10 knots from the west-southwest and the sea state had abated.

Meanwhile in the heavyweight bout between the 100 foot super-maxi monohulls, the crew on Mike Slade's ICAP Leopard (GBR) are doing a fine job fending off the attack of George David's faster Rambler100 (USA). The two boats passed between the Scilly Isles and Land's End at 0630 BST this morning, but there were a large group of powerful boats shadowing them close behind.

Chris Bull's Cookson 50, Jazz is competing in the Rolex Fastnet Race in the Canting Keel Class, along with Adrian Lee's Cookson 50, Lee Overlay Partners, they are the smallest in a class of giants, literally half the size of Rambler 100 and ICAP Leopard. Jazz and Lee Overlay Partners are locked in an intense battle. Just after dawn, following the first night at sea, Jazz was just ahead but slight differences between the two yachts, means that Lee Overlay Partners is just ahead after time correction.

Despite the Australian sail number on Jazz, Chris Bull comes from England but has lived and worked in Australia for many years and spends as much time as he can sailing around the Australia, a country close to his heart.

"I have spent so much time in Australia that I consider it my second home and I have always sailed with Australians, even before I went to work there," explained Bull.

The Cookson 50 is an Australian boat, which I bought in Sydney and there are as many Australian crew as there are British. Our bowman is Stuart Pollard who comes from Sydney and races on the RC44, Farr 40 circuit. Andy Hudson is also from Sydney and an exceptionally talented all-rounder. He was part of the winning crew at this year's Rolex Farr 40 World Championship in Australia. Tim Davis is from Geelong, Victoria and has been sailing with me for years, an excellent trimmer who is also in charge of the sail programme on Jazz and he is a huge asset. Jake Newman is also from Geelong, a big strong guy, who is a very talented heavy weather helmsman. Jake is exceptional at getting a boat to fly downwind in a blow, either at the wheel or pumping the main to surf down waves. Australia is blessed with some really tough talented offshore sailors, it is just in their blood."